Help/Advice Unrooted GS3 activation issue on Sprint - Clean ESN and all #'s match

[kaivorb]

Here's my issue:
I recently moved from Sprint to Verizon (long story), and I am selling my old Sprint GS3. I had rooted it at one time using the method listed on here that is the easy, efficient way. I don't remember the link off the top of my head...it's been several months. Before selling the phone though, I followed the directions on unrooting it. Everything went smooth. No issues at all. Listed the phone on ebay and sold it.

Upon receiving my phone, though, the buyer wasn't able to activate it on the sprint network. Neither by phone or in the store. He was told "the numbers don't match, we can't activate it. the number on the back and the number inside the phone aren't the same". Sounded weird, but I accepted it and gave a refund. Once I got the phone back, I checked it and the numbers are the same. I took it to the Sprint store and had them check it. Same thing. I asked the guy if he had any ideas, and he said it looked good as far as he could tell but he couldn't do more without actually trying to activate it. Since I don't have a sprint account anymore I couldn't go to the next step. I asked him if had ever seen this before, and he said yes. On occasion with rooted phones. Yikes! I thought.

I had also had my original phone replaced after a charging issue, and I thought that might be the issue.

I'm stuck. Any idea on this one? Phone doesn't appear rooted, and I checked the Device Status and it says "official".

I have rooted and unrooted and sold phones in the past with no issue. Why this time? Any ideas on what step to take next?

Thanks so much for help/advice.

K--

 

[GSDer]

I would suggest reloading the stock firmware. If you use Kies it'll prompt you for the model number and IMEI (both found under the battery) and will take care of downloading the correct firmware. (If you have 4.3 or greater be sure to get Kies v3.)

Or you could use Odin and download the firmware yourself.

In either case you should then get a prepaid activation kit and pay for one month just to make sure it works - then there'll be no doubt about whether the ESN is good. Heck, if you could pay for the activation using a gift card you could sell the phone pre-activated - then the recipient would have a free month of service.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk