How does one even get a bad esn? - Epic 4G Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So I saw a lot of posts on my old forum about people getting bad esns and having to buy another phone. But what I never understood is HOW they got a bad esn. So if somebody could be nice and explain to me how somebody gets a bad esn I would greatly appreciate it!
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The phone is either stolen and reported as such or the person discontinued paying their bill.
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Yep. All of that fun jazz.
And a bad ESN doesn't make the phone useless. Just not usable on Sprint anymore. Boost, Virgin, Cricket, etc. S'all good.

Also lost phones are usually locked out as well to prevent insurance claims to just get a second phone.

darkierawr said:
Yep. All of that fun jazz.
And a bad ESN doesn't make the phone useless. Just not usable on Sprint anymore. Boost, Virgin, Cricket, etc. S'all good.
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Boost is Sprint are the same, so I would be careful with a bad esn.
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Related

Can anyone confirm that the galaxy nexus works on sprint?

I'm sure most of us have seen the rumors floating around over the past few days of how a sprint rep said that the galaxy nexus can definitely be flashed for sprint.
Has anyone been successful with this yet? Or is there a sprint employee here that can confirm this?
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I have read that article too.
It appears that it might be true. I know in the past this was never allowed. It is odd that after all this time they would allow it now. You would have thought they would have allowed the Verizon Iphone. I would personally confirm this myself before purchasing a Nexus though. Also, even if they do activate it I would assume your insurance would not work on a device they do not carry.
Give it a few days. I am sure someone will try it. We will no for sure soon. Personally, I think the rep got the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus confused.
It could probably be made to work for 3G only...which doesn't concern me at all since you have a better chance of finding me sober on a Friday night than you do of finding a 4G signal around here.
Now, as for activation there is a 99.9% chance that you cannot just call them up to take care of it. I doubt you could even have your buddy that works at Sprint take care of it. There is kinda this database...
...now, how could it be done? Likely in the same manner that things are "flashed" to Boost and Cricket and MetroPCS.
What does that entail? That's up to you to find out, but, I'll recommend you don't go about trying to find out on XDA. It is a legal grey area. As such it is not something XDA will allow. It's worth neither XDA's time nor money to debate it's legality.
daneurysm said:
It could probably be made to work for 3G only...which doesn't concern me at all since you have a better chance of finding me sober on a Friday night than you do of finding a 4G signal around here.
Now, as for activation there is a 99.9% chance that you cannot just call them up to take care of it. I doubt you could even have your buddy that works at Sprint take care of it. There is kinda this database...
...now, how could it be done? Likely in the same manner that things are "flashed" to Boost and Cricket and MetroPCS.
What does that entail? That's up to you to find out, but, I'll recommend you don't go about trying to find out on XDA. It is a legal grey area. As such it is not something XDA will allow. It's worth neither XDA's time nor money to debate it's legality.
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I thought flashing was only illegal if you messed with the ESN?
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Gomenkiyo said:
I thought flashing was only illegal if you messed with the ESN?
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I am going to politely decline discussing the matter.
Gomenkiyo said:
I thought flashing was only illegal if you messed with the ESN?
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That's what you have to do to get the phone on sprint. Unless you get a Rep to add the esn.
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aimbdd said:
That's what you have to do to get the phone on sprint. Unless you get a Rep to add the esn.
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Also a VZW prl as well and some other minor tinkering in software.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G
aimbdd said:
That's what you have to do to get the phone on sprint. Unless you get a Rep to add the esn.
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You wont have to do that if the following is true. I think this is what the OP was thinking about:
LordLugard said:
Also a VZW prl as well and some other minor tinkering in software.
http://phandroid.com/2011/12/20/spr...e-given-the-green-light-for-activation-rumor/
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Sent from my Epic Galaxy S2
Ok, so like many of us here, I was also curious, so i chatted up one of their CSR's on the webchat. Here is our conversation.
http://gyazo.com/8c474fc6bf3e0346cd442e9e203136f1
For even further clarification I called my local sprint store, and They also said what the CSR I spoke with said, If sprint does not sell the phone, it cannot be activated on the network, and to exhaust the final line of questioning, I am presently on the line with Sprints Customer Care (corporate call center, not local store), for the final nail in the coffin. I will post back once I get off of the line with them.
Edit: Just got off the line with the corporate CSR, and they confirmed what the other 2 said.
So that is 3 out of 3 Sprint Reps, Local CSR, Phone CSR, Chat CSR, all saying no the Galaxy Nexus cannot be activated on Sprint's Network.
Which doesn't go to say that you could do so via "questionable" methods. But you can't just call them and say Here is my MEID DEC activate mah phone naow.
I answered this yesterday. I am betting the tech that goofed got the two nexus phones mixed up.
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As a person who works in the training dept of a sprint Call center I can tell you for a fact that there is no way we can activate a Verizon ESN in our system. They just dont exist in our database. Any means of activating that phone on our systems is not thru any legitamate means.
avengere said:
As a person who works in the training dept of a sprint Call center I can tell you for a fact that there is no way we can activate a Verizon ESN in our system. They just dont exist in our database. Any means of activating that phone on our systems is not thru any legitamate means.
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this. i work in a prefferred retailer. the only way is to get the esn in the system, it will just show as invalid if not, we've tried this. so how to get it into the system? technically, the previous poster was correct, it wouldnt be legitmate; since verizon has the rights to the esn's that were created by the manufacturers FOR verizon specifically. so, i am sorry, but no Galaxy Nexus on sprint...
stretchwookie said:
this. i work in a prefferred retailer. the only way is to get the esn in the system, it will just show as invalid if not, we've tried this. so how to get it into the system? technically, the previous poster was correct, it wouldnt be legitmate; since verizon has the rights to the esn's that were created by the manufacturers FOR verizon specifically. so, i am sorry, but no Galaxy Nexus on sprint...
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You realize admitting to me you work in a sprint store makes you my enemy. You'd be surprised how many times a day a customer calls in and goes the sprint store promised me that you'd do "x" when in fact we cant. And next thing I know im on an escalation, telling the customer if a store promised you something to go back to the store getting yelled at by an idiot who has no concept of right or wrong who then asks to speak to my manager.
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As employees of Sprint, either directly or indirectly, it is inappropriate and unprofessional on any level to have this conversation on an external forum.
Full Disclosure: I am a Sprint employee. Any opinions are my own and in no way endorsed by Sprint.
EDIT: Quoted post removed so I removed the quote. Hoping the other commenter will as well.
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If you have not heard this enough already, it will not activate on Sprint because the ESN is not registered to the Sprint network. There is no legitimate way to make that happen either.
Besides, the GSII is a better phone right?
Full Disclosure: I am a Sprint employee. Any opinions are my own and in no way endorsed by Sprint.
hijewpositive said:
I'm sure most of us have seen the rumors floating around over the past few days of how a sprint rep said that the galaxy nexus can definitely be flashed for sprint.
Has anyone been successful with this yet? Or is there a sprint employee here that can confirm this?
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evantribley said:
As employees of Sprint, either directly or indirectly, it is inappropriate and unprofessional on any level to have this conversation on an external forum.
Full Disclosure: I am a Sprint employee. Any opinions are my own and in no way endorsed by Sprint.
EDIT: Quoted post removed so I removed the quote. Hoping the other commenter will as well.
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thank you, i appreciate this
avengere said:
You realize admitting to me you work in a sprint store makes you my enemy. You'd be surprised how many times a day a customer calls in and goes the sprint store promised me that you'd do "x" when in fact we cant. And next thing I know im on an escalation, telling the customer if a store promised you something to go back to the store getting yelled at by an idiot who has no concept of right or wrong who then asks to speak to my manager.
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I also work in a preferred retailer. Im a tech. And i cant tell you how many dam customers i get say cc said i can come in and get a new phone. Theres more to do than that. We actually have interaction. From what ive seen and talked to my friends about you read off a script and only mess with your own device. so when you actually so called "get your hands dirty" and you know what half of the idiot customers lie. you know that i catch half of them lieing to me daily. "did your phone get wet?" no ."why is there rice in it then? Get real.
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Would be awesome but don't think it is possible !
SGS2 is a better phone anyway. Forget the nexus. ICS is the real thing to be excited about.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2

Bad ESN vs Good ESN

I wanted to see if somebody could explain to me the difference between the two. I was looking for a new phone on ebay and some stated Bad ESN. I think I know what the ESN is (hex or dec serial) but I don't know what's the difference between the two.
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How I understand is that the bad ESN are the ones marked by the provider as unable to be put on service. That can happen for various reasons such as being stolen, overdue accounts, and the like.
Good esn's are phones that may be put back on service with the original provider.
These records are all stored with the provider and there is no way to change them without corrected the original reason for them being marked as bad.
If for example you were looking at two phones, a bad esn epic and a good esn epic. If you wanted to put it on Sprint you would have to get the good esn epic, however if you were just interested in flashing to cricket or metro, then the bad esn epic would be just fine.
Bad esns, are phones as stated above - stolen or lost phones.
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LORDFIRE00 said:
Bad esns, are phones as stated above - stolen or lost phones.
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Also people who terminate contract and do not pay their bill. The ESN will be locked out until the bill is paid.
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Yes, that too!
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If you happen to be looking at an item on ebay and it doesn't say if it is a good or bad ESN, don't be afraid to ask the seller for the ESN and call Sprint to verify! It takes about 2 minutes, and is well worth not wasting your money on a phone that wont make calls!
Thanks all for the help
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Is the E4GT unlockable for Verizon?

Would much rather keep my E4GT than get a Galaxy Nexus. Can I use it on VZ?
No you can not. Verizon does not allow sprint phones on their network.
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killakarl said:
No you can not. Verizon does not allow sprint phones on their network.
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Thanks. Google wasn't doing much for me this morning.
Hold on,old epic could be flashed to verizon I dont see why you cant flash epic touch.
They are both cdma phones and will work on verizon minus 4g.
lviv73 said:
Hold on,old epic could be flashed to verizon I dont see why you cant flash epic touch.
They are both cdma phones and will work on verizon minus 4g.
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There are "other" methods you can use, but non of which are legal.
Maybe you can.....google it.....
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If you have friends in high places they can get esn added but doesn't happen often..... Otherwise it's illegal options with changing esn from one phone to another ..... In my opinion it's not worth it sell e4gt buy another phone so much easier
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Epix4G said:
If you have friends in high places they can get esn added but doesn't happen often..... Otherwise it's illegal options with changing esn from one phone to another ..... In my opinion it's not worth it sell e4gt buy another phone so much easier
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Changing ESN is illegal?
What about cloning esn from a donor phone to flash epic to virgin mobile,boost and cricket.
You trying to.say that those methods in them threads are not legal?
lviv73 said:
Changing ESN is illegal?
What about cloning esn from a donor phone to flash epic to virgin mobile,boost and cricket.
You trying to.say that those methods in them threads are not legal?
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Technically yea they are not legal if you are doing It and paying for service not so bad but yea they frown upon it because it can be done to steal service
Cricket does not involve changing Esn ....boost and virgin and others do because you can't use phones that they don't sell and are usually low range Android....you can't call up virgin and have them activate a topic touch but you can go to cricket and they will flash it
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Bad esn

Quick question im trying to buy a few phones to donate around have a couple already but im getting mixed responses from people so here it is if a phone had a bad esn can it be used on diffrent carriers or is a no go all the way around?
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evo3d6 said:
Quick question im trying to buy a few phones to donate around have a couple already but im getting mixed responses from people so here it is if a phone had a bad esn can it be used on diffrent carriers or is a no go all the way around?
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Yes, it can be used on other networks. Mine is on Verizon Wireless. It's not the easiest process.
I flash phones all the time was just wanting to know if there would be any additional steps id have to take?
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evo3d6 said:
I flash phones all the time was just wanting to know if there would be any additional steps id have to take?
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Oh, I couldn't tell you. I've only done it once. I had issues with 3g but went away once I flashed to GB rom.
Question is there anyway to get rid of the Sprint stuff so it won't keep complaining to update on stockish roms?
No there shouldn't be any diffrent steps as long as you have the donor phone you should be good.
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I got a D710 with bad esn, and use it on cricket. Stock roms suck, I rarely find an mms fix that works on most, and can't get voice mail notifications. AOSP is better, I get voicemail out the box, but nothing seemed to work on MMS. I'm not a pro, but have flashed my share of devices. Using a doaner phone means esn change, that is an iffy subject. Change it to use on another carrier? Why, when you could do the same thing and keep it on Sprint? Not legal either way. Bad esn means failed to pay the bill or was claimed lost/stolen. Either way, changing the esn to use it is considered fraud. The phone belongs to the carrier. No one would hunt you done for it, but you should know about it. Soon all the black listed cdma devices will be in one database, and just flashing a device won't be a way to use it. "Cleaning up" an esn or part it out will be all the devices with bad esns will be good for.
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Ya I have bought bad ESN phones just to flash them to cricket which is relatively heard other providers can be a lot harder but never tried. And cricket will pretty much allow anything on there network.
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May want to check also with the parties you're donating to. Many of them may not need to activate it - in which case ESN doesn't really matter. Bad ESNs can be flashed to other carriers, but Sprint may take some talks to get that working - and assuming they're nice enough to do it.
Well there's flashing and esn changing. Flashing is not touching the esn and taking it to another Sprint MNVO and just activating it either legitimately (some are byod) or just changing some settings on your end and then activating it on said mnvo carrier. Then there's changing the esn. If there are carriers that only allow their devices, then youd have to go this route which is a bit complicated and not for the average user. This involves obtaining a donor phone (one that the carrier sells) and taking the esn and a bunch of other settings from that phone and plugging it into the phone you want to use. Ive done this successfully with an epic touch 4g on Platinumtel and Virgin Mobile. It's been working perfectly for the last 9 months. It is completely legal. Where it becomes illegal and fraudulent is if you clone someone elses phone and do not pay the bill (read this for more info although it's still a gray area http://www.hackerscatalog.com/Services/TECH_Notes/one.html) So yes, you can do a lot with a phone with a bad esn if you know what you're doing or pay someone who does. Keep in mind it would be easier to take a sprint phone to virgin mobile or verizon phone to page plus, etc. A lot of the settings will stay the same and cdma carriers use different frequencies for data and you might end up with 1x for data. If you need a how to guide, I could post a link. Let me know.

Quick question about flshing. Plzz help.

OK so my wife had her s2 with sprint but the bill is too high. OK so I had flashed evos to metro before but I was able to find someone to add the ESN to metro inventory. But now the only thing I can find is people selling ESN on eBay but that means I would have to change the ESN on the phone .. Is this even legal. Is there no more ppl that add ESN to metropcs. And if its legal has anybody done it before.?????
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Although its a gray area. It's legal. But its illegal under certain conditions. Also xda doesn't allow it to be discussed because it is in the gray area. Google. Thats your best bet. Sorry
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If you go to a metro dealer they will add your phone to there system only issue is thats only talk and text getting data working isnt that difficult its been posted a few times in the treads best bet is find a store that is not a corporate store there usually cheaper we have one at the flea market that puts them on for 30 dollars plus first month. Theres also a program you can buy that will add you aswell but its 150.00 then theres doing it yourself and just calling them to activate.
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