Craigslist Phone

[McSkullough]

Alright, so I just got back from buying a Sprint LG Optimus G for my mom for her birthday. It's in great condition, but there's one problem. It is still synced to the seller account. And to make problems worse, now I can't get a hold of him. Sprint has said there's nothing they can do until he replaces the phone with a different one, and he said he's already put his number on his iPhone. Am I stuck with this phone, or is there another option? Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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[McSkullough]

Also, yes I realize I should've have checked it out in more depth, but it's my first time buying something off of Craigslist, so shame on me.

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[B. Diddy]

What do you mean by "still synced to the seller account"? Do you mean it's on his Google account? Just do a Factory Data Reset under Settings/Backup & reset. This is a hard reset, and will wipe all of the previous user data from the phone; when it restarts, you should be prompted to enter a new Google account for the phone to be synced to.

You could also go to Settings/Accounts-Google, select the previous owner's Google account, then hit the menu button and select Remove account. You should be prompted afterwards to enter a new account to sync with.

If you mean that the phone number is still on the previous owner's Sprint account, then that person should really be motivated to deactivate the phone from his account--otherwise, your mother could make and receive calls for free, since he'd still be paying for them.

Incidentally, here's a link to the manual:
http://csmgdl.lgmobile.com/swdata/W...DL-1208-00170_LS970_Sprint_UG_V1.0_121106.pdf

 

[McSkullough]

I tried the reset, and no luck.

There's no Google account synced to the phone.

I don't think it's on his account. When I try to make a call, it says "Your account could not be validated." The people at Sprint told me it was still on his account, but couldn't go in depth on if it was because he skipped out on a bill or what. All I know is I can't get my number transferred over to it because of whatever reason.

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[Mellimel22]

I'm lost if he said he put the number on a different phone then it should be no issues. Otherwise check wit the person who sold you the phone.

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[McSkullough]

I'm lost if he said he put the number on a different phone then it should be no issues. Otherwise check wit the person who sold you the phone.

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That's what I'm trying to do but he's not returning any of my calls/texts/emails.

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[Fairclough]

Rock up to his house, if you met there for the exchange. Shame is not gsm, is there a way you can use a done phone for the CDMA? I presume its CDMA?

 

[B. Diddy]

What number at Sprint were you calling, or were you talking to a rep at a store? No offense to any store reps who might be reading this, but it seems that the info you get from the store is often not very accurate compared to talking to support on the phone.

Try calling 1-888-211-4727, which is the number in the manual they suggest calling if you're having difficulty with activation.

 

[B. Diddy]

From what I was reading about this issue, I think the key problem may be that the seller didn't pay his bill. This probably led Sprint to suspend the account, and I'm not sure what sort of hoops you may have to jump through to transfer the phone to your account in this situation, if it's even possible. Hopefully this wasn't some underhanded way for the seller to skip out on paying his cellphone bill, and then get some extra money for a useless phone. Let us know what the Sprint people tell you.

 

[McSkullough]

Rock up to his house, if you met there for the exchange. Shame is not gsm, is there a way you can use a done phone for the CDMA? I presume its CDMA?

Yeah, CDMA. We actually met at his work, Best Buy. So if I can't get a hold of him, I'm going up there tomorrow.

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[McSkullough]

What number at Sprint were you calling, or were you talking to a rep at a store? No offense to any store reps who might be reading this, but it seems that the info you get from the store is often not very accurate compared to talking to support on the phone.

Try calling 1-888-211-4727, which is the number in the manual they suggest calling if you're having difficulty with activation.

That's the number I called. They said it wasn't stolen, but still tied to his account. They couldn't go into any more detail since I'm not on the account. I have to get a hold of him to take it off, even though he switched the number to a different phone. If not, I'm stuck with it.

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[B. Diddy]

As long as you can still find this guy and talk to him, it should work out fine. Good luck!

 

[coreyacole]

If your account with Sprint is not in good standing, they put a freeze on any phone that was attached to the account at the time.

Sounds like what he did was port his number out from Sprint. This resulted in an early termination fee. He then sold the phone to you. I did almost the exact same thing except I paid the fee and then sold the phone to offset the fee. Had my account almost negative for a couple of days while I found a buyer. Hopefully that was this guy's plan and he just hasn't paid the fee yet. Once/If he does, the phone will be good to use again.

Try not to cause a ruckus, but the last thing that he as an employee wants to do is have a confrontation at work. Seen a lot of folks walked out like that. Hopefully he'll do the right thing.

Good Luck.

 

[bp3dots]

From what I was reading about this issue, I think the key problem may be that the seller didn't pay his bill. This probably led Sprint to suspend the account, and I'm not sure what sort of hoops you may have to jump through to transfer the phone to your account in this situation, if it's even possible. Hopefully this wasn't some underhanded way for the seller to skip out on paying his cellphone bill, and then get some extra money for a useless phone. Let us know what the Sprint people tell you.

Probably true, and there's no way around it.

Moral of the story, always call the carrier to be sure the phone is clean and clear to use before handing the cash over.

 

[McSkullough]

Got a hold of him today. He said that Sprint told him it may take 24-48 hours for the phone to be completely off his account. I called Sprint and they verified this. So right now, I'm playing the waiting game. The best thing is that he is responding to my texts. I'll just keep checking the ESN with Sprint periodically today and tomorrow.

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[McSkullough]

On a side note, he said the phone is rooted. Would a factory reset mess that up? I've never rooted a phone successfully, so I just want to check and make sure.

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[Fairclough]

Glad to hear everything is OK! A factory reset won't undo a root. Leaving a root on won't do any harm but its able to be undone not sure how with your mobile.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[McSkullough]

Glad to hear everything is OK! A factory reset won't undo a root. Leaving a root on won't do any harm but its able to be undone not sure how with your mobile.

Posted via Android Central App

Oh, I don't want to undo it. I just don't know what to do with it. I tried rooting once, and failed miserably. I don't know where to begin with flashing ROM's and whatnot.

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[Jennifer Stough]

Oh, I don't want to undo it. I just don't know what to do with it. I tried rooting once, and failed miserably. I don't know where to begin with flashing ROM's and whatnot.

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Your best bet will be to go to the bootloader and see if it is locked or unlocked, or s-off. You can do that by doing a series of button presses while the phone is powered down, something along the line of power and volume down. After you get to the bootloader, check and see if it has a recovery. From there, flashing roms is the easy part.

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[Jennifer Stough]

The bootloader screen will look like this. If it says unlocked and s-off up top, navigate until you read where it says fastboot, and press power. It should take you to the hboot menu where you can navigate down to recovery to see if it already has a custom recovery.

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