Replacement phone wrong variant

[GoBucks811]

Just got my replacement phone in yesterday because my original device had the speaker grill issue. Started setting up the new phone this morning. Popped my AT&T sim from the old one into the new one and got a sim error and a locked network message. I rebooted the phone into the bootloader to find that its a Sprint variant and not the unlocked one I originally ordered from essential.com. The new phone shipped from Asurion in non retail packaging and included just the phone. I had read that some people were lucky enough to get a new full retail package and only have to send back the old phone. I'm not sure if this is a referb unit or not but I would be disappointed if the plan was to replace my 2 week old phone with a refurbished unit because of a known manufacturing defect.

 

[Jaymil]

Same thing happened to me. Got my replacement yesterday. Verizon sim won't work. Even went to the Verizon store and they couldn't get the new one to work. Waiting to hear back from essential still.

 

[GoBucks811]

Essential support just replied to me saying some phones may have left the factory with incorrect firmware on them. They are going to overnight me a replacement phone - new not a referb. She didn't answer my question directly if these units they sent out are refurbished or not.