Fraudulent phone?

[Galaxyguy]

I've been fighting with Sprint about my "old" phone, a Galaxy S4T that I replaced with a Note 4 on Oct 17th. About a week later, I tried to activate the S4T on my wife's line (same account), since she has the regular S4. Since then, I've either called or gone to a Sprint store about 4 times. They originally told me that it was listed as "Lost/Stolen," later I was told it's listed as "fraudulent." When I called 2 weeks ago, the lady basically told me there was nothing I could do, however, she said she emailed their "ESN department" and I should expect a call within 72 hours. Well, as we all know, that didn't happen.

So tonight I called and got a much more cooperative agent. He said the ESN department never responded to that original email and he sent another. He said he would call me back on Sunday (his next working day) to let me know what they say.

I bought the phone brand new in March (from Ebay) and used it until Oct 17th. The only thing I can think of is Best Buy screwed something up. I traded in a different smartphone to take advantage of the $200 trade-in offer so I'm thinking they did something they shouldn't have when deactivating it.

The rep tonight mentioned something about a 911 report or something to that effect. He said it was listed on that S4T on Oct 17th, which is when it was deactivated. He had never seen that before though. The weird thing is nobody can tell me when or by whom the "fraudulent" alert was put on that phone.

Has anyone else ever had this headache before? This seems ridiculous just to get a phone that I own activated on my account.

[darickster09]

Somewhat had this headache when my GS4 was thrown out a car window...  And I reported it as lost/stolen.  They had huge issues with activating a new phone on that line because the agent with Sprint/Target didnt put in the right information in the system when they tried activating the new Note 3 on the account.  But it got resolved, perhaps someone got a hold of your ESN?  Otherwise I dont know what to tell ya.

[Galaxyguy]

Somewhat had this headache when my GS4 was thrown out a car window... And I reported it as lost/stolen. They had huge issues with activating a new phone on that line because the agent with Sprint/Target didnt put in the right information in the system when they tried activating the new Note 3 on the account. But it got resolved, perhaps someone got a hold of your ESN? Otherwise I dont know what to tell ya.

I've never had good luck with any rep ever calling me back on either Sprint or Verizon. I hope the last guy I talked to does call though. He seemed to really want to help, unlike the woman I talked to a couple weeks ago.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[Destroyallcubes]

I've never had good luck with any rep ever calling me back on either Sprint or Verizon. I hope the last guy I talked to does call though. He seemed to really want to help, unlike the woman I talked to a couple weeks ago.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

I had a replacement s4 through advanced exchange, and it wouldnt activate.  Ended up the hem sending me a new one. If you show them it was previously on your account the ey maybe aable to send a new one

[snowmobiler487]

I've never had good luck with any rep ever calling me back on either Sprint or Verizon. I hope the last guy I talked to does call though. He seemed to really want to help, unlike the woman I talked to a couple weeks ago.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

 

I have had a rep that actually called me back before.  I am on an employee account though so that may make a difference.  I was very impressed with the effort he put in to help me out.

[CAREND]

I actually have this issue now with an LTEVO that i was trying to give to my mom.  They said it is no longer in the system so they can't reactivate it.  They tried to say i flashed the phone or something and i told them this phone has been sitting on my shelf since i last used it.

 

Sounds like someone flashed my esn on their non-sprint phone.

[Galaxyguy]

Thanks for all the responses. I just hope I can finally fix this problem. 

[Galaxyguy]

Surprisingly, the rep called me back today just as he said he would. The problem has been fixed and I was able to activate the phone on my wife's line. I just wish I knew why it happened in the first place. 

[thewezgrays]

I actually have this issue now with an LTEVO that i was trying to give to my mom.  They said it is no longer in the system so they can't reactivate it.  They tried to say i flashed the phone or something and i told them this phone has been sitting on my shelf since i last used it.

 

Sounds like someone flashed my esn on their non-sprint phone.

I was just told the exact thing (with the exact accusation) today trying to activate an old Epic that was on the shelf like yours... Bet there is a problem with their database! Not happy atm...

[Galaxyguy]

I was just told the exact thing (with the exact accusation) today trying to activate an old Epic that was on the shelf like yours... Bet there is a problem with their database! Not happy atm...

Just be persistent. It took a couple weeks before I finally got it fixed. Make sure they send that email to their "ESN team." I'm pretty sure that's the term they used.

 

Sent from my Note 4.

[thewezgrays]

it was an old Epic... my friend got upset and they agreed to sell her an iPhone 4S for $80 with no activation... so we should be good... I will definitely be holding onto that phone though...

 

Funny thing is.. she is STILL not activated... they supposedly sent her a pre-paid phone!!! they are saying they CAN activate that one, in an hour's time... at this time she is STILL not up and going -- and her T-Mobile number has been ported into Sprint for three days now and she is in the dark -- no way to contact her... Sprint is all sorts of messed up right now (all this plus being told I had to use Mozilla Firefox because ordering didn't work on IE or Chrome really opened my eyes)...

[travismheim]

 

 

Sprint is all sorts of messed up right now (all this plus being told I had to use Mozilla Firefox because ordering didn't work on IE or Chrome really opened my eyes)...

I have used chrome for the last year or so, and IE before that and never had any problems ordering anything.

[thewezgrays]

Well they sent another prepaid phone to my friend.... She is porting back to t-mobile in the morning... Very sad. The way her and I were treated the last 8 days, it will be a very long time before I make another referral to Sprint.

 

EDIT:  It is official... she has to take the time to mail back two Sprint Prepaid I-Phone 4S phones -- they will not credit her credit card the $80 they charged it, so they will supposedly have to put a $80 credit on my account -- which I will have to get to my friend.. My Samsung Epic is supposedly "no good" in their system anymore -- she will have to get that back to me (although it is likely useless)... I am now unable to add friends to my framily account.. who knows how messed up my phone bill will be for this month.

 

She was able to port right back to T-Mobile this morning in less than an hour, with no problems. This is not a rant, or intended to be one.. this is the summary of a huge chain of horrible events the last 8 days trying to bring a friend on-board to Sprint and the failure it became...

 

EDIT2:  Since I wrote this, they have worked with me in regards to this mess (they reached out to me) -- and they made a generous offer to her to try to drag her back from the dark side -- but, understandably, she is not looking back and is sticking with T-Mobile...

[thewezgrays]

I have used chrome for the last year or so, and IE before that and never had any problems ordering anything.

Well, I was not able to... And chat "recommended" Firefox, which did work.