Well I just learned a tough lesson in the world of eCommerce. As the title suggests, do not buy cell-phones from eBay. Here's the story: I've used eBay pretty extensively for quite some time now. Since my current cell-phone display screen doesn't work anymore, I decided to buy a new one. I was looking at the Samsung i500 PDA phone. Since it is an older generation phone, I figure I can find a good deal on eBay. I made a bid and I won. I have been looking forward to receiving the phone until I finally received the package today. So the package came and I immediately decided to charged the battery. Well, the charger wasn't compatible with the phone. I was pretty upset, so I filed a negative feedback. The seller then sent me a negative feedback saying that I was behaving un-ethically by sending him a bad feedback. So we started conversing through emails, and he agreed to reimburse me 14.95 for the charger. After having that agreement, I withdrew my negative feedback. Well, then came lunch time, I finally had 30-45 minutes to myself so I can call Sprint and activate the phone. I had to go through this cumbersome automated answering system interface until I finally got in touch with one of their representatives. I gave her the 11-digit serial number to have the phone activated. She then informed me that the phone still belongs to an existing account, and the account had an outstanding balance of over $1000. She then told me that I cannot activate my phone until the previous owner closes his/her account. I was furious. I just spent about $200 for something that I can't use. I guess I'm still furious now, otherwise I wouldn't subject you guys with this ranting. I contacted the seller again and told him of the situation and that I am expecting a full refund. I am still awaiting his word. I then did a little research and found out about PayPal Protection Plan. Thankfully, I will be able to submit a claim with PayPal and I should be able to get compensated for this exchange. Hopefully, they will even close out the seller's PayPal and eBay account if the seller refuses to pay me back. Anyway, the lessons learned are: - When purchasing a used phone, make sure to have the serial number and have the service provider verify that the service exchange can be made. - High seller rating means absolutely nothing. - Avoid eBay unless it is totally necessary.
Does this phone use sim cards? If its a sim card....all you would have to do is purchase a new one w/new account. I would recommend going to one of those mom and pop shops to activate phones rather than directly with the manufactuer. Does this phone have to be activated by Sprint? Try a different carrier.
I can understand your being upset that the charger wasn't compatible but it could have been an honest mistake. Anyway, it might have been better to first try to contact him to resolve it rather than write an immediate negative feedback. From what you wrote, unless he was being real difficult, if he was willing to try hard to make amends had you informed him, I can sorta see why he was upset that you wrote negative feedback first before even contacting him about it.
I've bought plenty of phones from eBay with no problem. You just have to make sure you research what your buying from a compatibility standpoint. Also, obviously check the seller out (contact other previous buyers, ect)
That's why you just bid on phones that are already "unlocked"... just slide in your SIM Card and be on your way. I've bought a couple phones on eBay just fine, it all comes down to your seller.
I definitely acted rashly when I left that comment, and I apologized to him for that. That's why I withdrew my feedback before he paid me back. Hopefully, he will follow through and give me a full refund since I cannot use the phone (there's no sim card). Otherwise, I will have to file a PayPal Protection Claim and submit a complaint to eBay because the seller was possibly selling a hot item.
That is a fact, Sprint, Nextel, and Verizon are the only companies that do not use SIM cards, while Tmobile/Cingular do because they are on the GSM network (more global network). Through Sprint/Nextel/Verizon, you will have to activate through a serial number.
If he advertised it as "unlocked" then its his fault, if not you should have been more careful and done more research. I just bought my last cell on ebay, very good phone, very cheap, its cingular I just popped in my sim card and I was off and running, great phone i'm very happy and got a great deal on ebay.
Your real problem is that you are with Sprint, so run away and never look back! Sprint always gives the impression that they are generations behind T-Mobile and other companies in the way they do business. No SIM cards? That's 'backwards'. Anyways, I have been involved in MANY, MANY transactions on eBay in the past 4 years I have been a member (buying mainly, but also selling sometimes just for fun ) and I have rarely had problems. The key to buying online is to ALWAYS use your credit card to make payments, always use Paypal for eBay purchases, and do a bit of research and use a bit of common sense while you're at it. I bought my last three phones (all brand-new) for my T-Mobile account and have never had problems. I prefer it that way, you just have to be smart about it.
On the back of the phone, underneath the battery will be a slot to slide it in. Just match the gold part on the back of the sim card with the gold on the phone and push it in.
It's unlikely that the CDMA companies (Verizon, Sprint, Nextel) will ever be able to switch to the GSM sim card system. I wouldn't be suprised if they moved towards their own exclusive version at some point, but even that would be a ways off. The whole electronic serial number (ESN) system they use is incredibly backwards, but it is a good anti-theft device for customers. With sim cards, a thief can just swap the stolen card out, which they can't do with ESN's. Also, I'd like to pile on and say avoid Sprint if possible. They design their billing model for people with worse/non-existant credit. As a result, they're a lot more difficult to deal with than Verizon, which has one of, if not the strictest credit checks in the cellular business.
Just the cool ones ;-) Actually, they haven't moved to sim cards just so they can make sure their phones aren't used on other networks, boosts their profits because you can't cell to all the other carriers once you've gotten a new phone.
