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I bought an almost new S3 LTE SGH-T999L for my son off CL. It checked OK on swappa and it worked for a week, then unable to connect to network. Swappa now says blacklisted. DOH!
It sucks to have a $350 paper weight! I tried to contact the seller with no luck.
Couple questions...
Any way to fix it?
Can this model be downgraded to 4.1.1 to use free unlock method and even then will it possibly work on anther carrier is the US. I know it will work outside the US if unlocked.
I contacted T-Mobile and they said nothing I can do, only the original owner can have the blacklist lifted.
Any help or advice much appreciated!
Also let this be a lesson to all...just because it works when you buy it, don't mean it wont go belly-up in a week. :crying:
Sorry I didn't answer your PM before. Wasn't ignoring you. Unfortunately your options are extremely limited.
You will have to pay for an unlock code online (see the last couple pages of the unlock thread), and then sell overseas. Just please be honest about it to whoever you sell it to in case they plan on bringing it to the states.
Personally, I'd also file a police report. May not come to anything, but if the guy gets arrested for anything else, or enough people file a report against him for similar stuff, you may then have some recourse against him. But he has twice committed fraud, or theft by deception (or something like that). First against T-Mobile, then against you.
Once unlocked, it might work on other carriers here, but not for long. I'm told all US carriers will be sharing the same blacklist by year's end. I've also heard it may also be shared with Canadian carriers as well.
Sorry to hear that happened to you. You're definitely not alone! This happens all the time, unfortunately.
Never buy used unless you make the transaction in person at a T-Mobile store where the seller can prove they have paid for the device in full and are allowed to sell it. Also, have a note made on both accounts (preferably by a manager) that the sale is made so they can't report it stolen a few weeks later.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
I hear you, but it never goes down like that. I've bought and sold 30 or 40 smartphones. First time I've ever got burnt. I make small profit along, but this one is a stinger. I've had people want to meet me at Verizon, ATT and T-Mobile and every time I met them there all the store employees would say is if the sim card works it's ok.
Of course you could ask for a receipt...but what if it's a reseller like myself? I've had one receipt the whole time. Most of the time you can spot a fraud and steer clear. I check esn on swappa and/or Verizon site. I guess it's just a risky thing and I've been very lucky so far.
I did get a guy on ebay to unlock the phone for $10 last night. It works with a Lycamobile sim(T-Mobile reseller) and also works with a new LTE ATT Straight Talk sim...recieves LTE even. Maybe not for long...but it works fine now and it's been blacklisted about a month.
Guy on ebay unlocks clean phones for $5 & blacklisted for $10, he does remote into your pc to do it, but it only takes 2-3 minutes. He gave me the code, but it was never needed.
I'm a PagePlus dealer and I do alot of carrier flashing, not to beat blacklist, but to get more use from older 3G devices. Anytime I sell a phone I always give a 2 days return policy if they change their mind.
The seller of the phone should be able to get some sort of confirmation off of his own account showing he is not currently making payments on it. If the employees are only saying to see if the SIM works, they are just being lazy or ignorant! With the owners permission they can look it up, or call support from the phone and have him ask them to verify on speaker so you can hear. I'm just trying to say there's other ways to get the info before buying.
I'd say that if you've bought that many you are pretty lucky. But for the blacklisted one that worked on other carriers...expect it not to on AT&T very soon and all other US carriers around the end of the year. Right now T-Mobile and AT&T share their lists, but don't use the same one, so it'll often take a few weeks to catch up. As I understand it, once the national list is in place, all carriers will be using the same one so it'll be more instant.
I have spoken to a few people who bought their phone used and all seemed good, but then nearly 2 months later it got blacklisted! Some people are apparently selling it, but then waiting a month or two to report it stolen!
I just hope that if one of your customers gets blacklisted a few weeks after buying from you, you will be willing to at least exchange it.
But before you try and sell this one, please consider that it's practically a given that it's not gonna work for very long.
Also, (and I'm not sure of the ramifications here) keep in mind that you are knowingly in possession of stolen property. That by itself is probably not a big deal for you, legally speaking, since it happens to so many people and hardly no one knows what they are buying when this happens to them. But if you sell it, you will be knowingly selling stolen goods. If one of your customers gets blacklisted, you could be the one held liable.
Don't take it wrong, I'm just trying to help!
And I'm just curious, what do you mean by "carrier flashing"?
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 4
I understand where you're coming from and I will not sell this phone except to one particular customer who takes them outside the country. My son is using it now on LycaMobile which is a UK based reseller using T-Molile towers. We will see how long it lasts...strange circumstance there since the provider is not from the US, will they also adhere to universal blacklist? I dunno...time will tell. At $30 per month they are cheapest unlimited I know of(Only 50MB 4G data, then 2G/3G).
I run a legitimate part time business and have rarely had phones returned, but always made the customer happy. Happy customers come back and most of my profit is selling refills and flashing/rooting/unlocking...not the actual phone sales.
Carrier flashing: Mainly I've flashed older Metro phones to work on PagePlus and GS3's from Sprint or Verizon must be flashed for pageplus because they don't yet allow 4G phones. I never do any ESN changes. I'm an old techie and I go way back to Nextel mods in mid 90's. lol
BTW I installed CM 10.1.2 RC2 right from the phone yesterday after originally flashing the CM10 linked in Doc's T999L thread. It flashed perfect right through CM update utility automatically and seems to run perfectly.
Hi
I wanted to share a recent story with all of you, what happened with my experience. 4 months ago, I purchased an S3 from someone off of CL. I am extremely careful with purchasing mobiles from there, due to the possibility of getting screwed out of hard earned money that only benefits the person screwing you. Before I purchased the mobile, I did an IMEI validation through T-Mobile's web service, along with a couple more IMEI checks. T-Mobile's web service advised that the phone was not reported lost or stolen and that it was ready for activation. The other web services reported the same result, so based on what is supposed to be a reliable source of information, especially from the carrier itself, I bought the mobile.
GoSmart wouldn't add the phone to my plan because they said the phone had been blacklisted as lost and/or stolen. I told GSm that was impossible since the carrier who issues the device reported the phone clean. This started what turned out to be a 3 month battle between myself and T-Mobile. I phone them up, and after a bit of "we're checking, hang on" or "give me just a few minutes more as I am having to access another system", they informed me that indeed the phone had a lost/stolen insurance claim on it and that the IMEI was blocked. I escalated to a supervisor, only to be told the same information. I explained to them that had their web service been working at the time I used it, I would not have made the purchase. And for the next month, once per week, I continued discussing with customer service, along with checking their IMEI site showing that the phone was still reported clean. They advised me that Asurion claims and blocks do not show on the IMEI site, and I told her that the customer is in the dark about that, and there is no disclaimer on the site alerting anyone of this fact. I also wanted to verify #1 that I was not losing my mind, and #2 to make sure I was on solid enough ground to insist to be escalated to someone in TMo's IT department. I wanted someone to first explain to me why their web service was not accurate, and 2nd to make sure that someone who could make that change to their system got the ball rolling on fixing their web service so that some other unfortunate soul would have to go through what I'd been through so far.
Enter Alisha, systems analyst from TMo IT. Out of anyone who I have ever talked with in any customer service arena, she was by far the best, sympathetic, and understanding person I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. Ever. I told her I was a system analyst, I know what they go through when it comes to issues like this and that it needed to be resolved. She then did what no one in customer service offered to do for me, and that was to check both systems to see if I was telling the truth. And sure enough, she discovered that they did in fact have an issue. Even after this discovery, she said that due to the phone being blocked by Asurion that she was powerless to do anything. I told her that the hope of the phone being unblocked was well in the past now, by goal was to get them to fix the problem that forced me down this road in the first place.
The end is near I promise. I still think I was wronged on the business side of the equation, so I went to the BBB and filed a complaint. The following Friday, I receive a call from TMo Customer Service, and after an hour on the phone the gentleman told me that due to the way the claim was filed, that he would open a ticket to send to the team that would be able to unlock the phone and that it would be unlocked by that coming Monday. I was elated. Monday comes, and the phone is still locked. I call customer service again, only to be told "the gentleman who told you that did not have the authority to do so, and did not have the means to make a promise like that due to the phone being insurance blocked." I went off, stating that their company's inability to effectively train their employees, especially those who handle escalated issues was not my concern. She apologize profusely. I went back to the BBB and updated my ticket, stating that the company made an obligation to me, they didn't follow through and to contact the business again. 2 days later, an email arrives from TMo stating the obvious "Mr Harrison should not have purchased a phone from an unauthorized source, yadda, yadda", followed by "due to the nature of the circumstances, we are willing to make a 1 time exception for him and have unblocked the IMEI number." My phone was unblocked and remains unblocked today.
I wanted to share my story with all of you because the bottom line is that until you pick up that phone and talk to someone voice to voice at TMo, do not use the IMEI site as your only source of verification. I thought I was safe by using not only their site, but 2 others, and a call to the police to see if the phone was stolen, but I wasn't safe. Use the site as a preliminary determining factor, but then pick up the phone and talk to their customer service directly to make sure the site is telling you right. And when they tell you it is, then double-check to make sure the phone does not have an insurance IMEI block on it.
Thanks!
I don't think you understand that yes the phone was fine before you bought it but afterwards the person who sold it to you reported it stolen, and probably got another one after paying a deductible while still making money off of the one sold to you. You keep repeating about before you bought it, but you failed to realize its a common scam on CL and you should really be careful next time. You're lucky T-Mobile hooked you up though.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
Though there may have been a breakdown in the systems being able to communicate, it still doesn't change the fact that the phone you bought was stolen. You can argue specifics about who told you what and when, but in the end it doesn't change the fact that the device is stolen property.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be upset about getting scammed, but you sound like you are trying to vent all your anger in T-Mobile's direction, when it is not their fault that someone stole a device from them and used it to scam you. It's the criminal who stole the phone and then stole your money that you should be most angry with.
Sure, you didn't know that you weren't getting info from all the sources you should have, probably would've been the same for me and everyone else, but it's not really anyone's fault. They have been updating the way blacklists work for some time now, and while it's getting better, we can't expect instant perfection.
I am glad you shared that T-Mobile doesn't currently have their blacklist synced to Asurions btw, that is very good to know. I just think your anger is a little misplaced is all. From what I've read T-Mobile has been one of the more proactive in sharing blacklist info. Currently they share theirs with AT&T, possibly others.
As I understand it though, in a few months this should all become a bit of a non issue. I've been told that they will be implementing a nationwide blacklist, that all carriers and insurance companies will use, so there will only be one to worry about, and when a device is added to the list, it is instantly blocked everywhere in the US (and maybe Canada).
Sorry to hear about your misfortune, but I consider you extremely lucky to have got them to unblock it. I seriously doubt that would've happened anywhere else. I'm happy for you that they did nonetheless.
Sent from my SGH-T999N using Tapatalk
@dudenphx
First off, allow me to commiserate with your travails. I really do feel bad for you. I am glad it has ended well in the end.
It is a great discovery you made that T-Mo IMEI Checker does not have Asurion Blocks. That alone in my mind gives you Kudos that you greatly deserve. I thank you for that.
So to the problem per se. I am afraid I agree with Doc. You did check on CL Scams. But that was probably was not sufficient. The modus operendi of CL Scam is to Report Stolen AFTER the Sale Not before .
If at all I am buying a phone on Craig's list, I'd first take the IMEI to Assurion and have them Change Ownership on their records for that IMEI. This is similar to Vehicle VIN Number registration to DMV. After that, I'd call the Carriers to do the same thing. Only after that has happened, that I will pay the seller the full amount. I am sure this is not a foolproof way, but at the least I can hang it on Assurion so they don't block the IMEI. If I know them any better, they will still wriggle out of that and block it. But may be I am the half empty kind.
Thanks
Perseus71,
Thanks for the kind words. It felt like Rudolph vs the Abominable Snow Monster, and that really sucked.
There has to be a solution that isn't 100% airtight (nothing is these days), but something that would be as low of a risk as possible. Have you called Asurion before and did the ownership change? What would they require for this to be done? I like buying stuff on CL, this was the first bad experience I had, but I would like to continue buying on CL. The risks are there, but isn't life full of risks anyway?
thanks!
If u can help me please pm me
I called tmobile and ask politely and said the right answers and they unblocked my imei
What were the right answers? I bought one off the craigs that stopped working a month later. Had to sell it on ebay and broke even.
pcm2a said:
What were the right answers? I bought one off the craigs that stopped working a month later. Had to sell it on ebay and broke even.
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Right answer? Perhaps giving his credit card number to pay off device outstanding amount.
sixk said:
I called tmobile and ask politely and said the right answers and they unblocked my imei
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How did that work? I bought my Note 3 on Swappa, and after it was blocked, T-Mobile basically told me to go suck a duck. They wouldn't give me any info, except to tell me what I already knew (that the phone was blocked). They wouldn't tell me how much was owed either.
But please tell us what you said. There are many people who have been scammed and would like to be able to get their device unblocked.
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Digitalx1 said:
If u can help me please pm me
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I went through something very similar, except Swappa, not Craigslist. Is the phone just blocked for non-payment of EIP, or is it reported stolen and blacklisted? That might affect your options.
You have a couple of choices, none of which are ideal.
1. Sell the phone on Ebay for a loss. If you sell it internationally, you might be better off since non-US buyers wouldn't care about it being blocked on T-Mobile.
2. Do what I did. Unlock the device (use Chainfire or something similar) and go to another carrier. I ended up going to Straight Talk (AT&T). All in all, it cost me about $10 to unlock and buy the SIM card. I lost my favorite T-Mobile plan, and now pay more for less data (I cry silently each night), but at least your phone will be usable again.
Hope that helps.
Sorry if I am a noob about this but can someone share some light what is happening exactly? I don't want to fall in this category.
People sell their phones to the customer (via Craigslist or Swappa) and the seller does not pay it off which causes T-Mobile to blacklist them?
Try use region unlock that might help you
Sent from my SM-N900T using xda app-developers app
Pedro2NR said:
Sorry if I am a noob about this but can someone share some light what is happening exactly? I don't want to fall in this category.
People sell their phones to the customer (via Craigslist or Swappa) and the seller does not pay it off which causes T-Mobile to blacklist them?
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I think there has been at least one instance in which the phone seemed to have been reported as lost or stolen via insurance. That's based on a phone which was supposedly not on EIP being blacklisted by Tmo. Can't find the thread right now, so that's based entirely on vague recollection.
Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
Pedro2NR said:
Sorry if I am a noob about this but can someone share some light what is happening exactly? I don't want to fall in this category.
People sell their phones to the customer (via Craigslist or Swappa) and the seller does not pay it off which causes T-Mobile to blacklist them?
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Pretty much. Most likely these people are getting their T-mo service cut off for non-payment and since the phone still has a balance, the IMEI gets blacklisted. Shady seller sells it anyway. Poor buyer gets home, finds out its blocked, and has very little recourse especially if it was a CL deal. People also frequently steal phones and try to sell them as well. I work as a phone tester for a popular "sell us your phone!" service that has commercials all over TV right now, and I see TONS of stolen phones. I open the package, turn it on, see the "you have entered the wrong pin too many times, phone locked" screen, and then the ESN/IMEI comes up blacklisted.
Bottom line- people are terrible and will think nothing of scamming you if they can make a quick buck. Trust no one. I won't buy high-end electronics anywhere but a brick & mortar store or a reputable online dealer who guarantees their products. Saving a couple hundred bucks is not worth the risk of getting scammed.
T-mobile has the best customer-service I've ever talked to. On the phone that is
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
Right answer = lies
Im not sure if its the right place to say this.
My N3 was paid off
what I told them was I bought this phone off my girlfriend who wanted to stick with an iphone.
And while she changed back to her iphone there must have been a mistake which blocked the phone.
and after about an hour they said they would review this and call me back... but never got a call back.
So I called back a week later and talked to another person and asked about my phone's status and she told it was not blocked anymore.
Hope that helps.
sixk said:
Right answer = lies
Im not sure if its the right place to say this.
My N3 was paid off
what I told them was I bought this phone off my girlfriend who wanted to stick with an iphone.
And while she changed back to her iphone there must have been a mistake which blocked the phone.
and after about an hour they said they would review this and call me back... but never got a call back.
So I called back a week later and talked to another person and asked about my phone's status and she told it was not blocked anymore.
Hope that helps.
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Sounds so easy. I am assuming you bought the N3 used from a woman at least?
Was actually a guy.
everything was good and was easy to contact but after i bought it he turned off the phone and never heard from him again.
And yea it was craigslist I bought it from.
sixk said:
Was actually a guy.
everything was good and was easy to contact but after i bought it he turned off the phone and never heard from him again.
And yea it was craigslist I bought it from.
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So you basically called T Mobile up and explained you bought this from your girlfriend and get angry and after splitting up black listed the phone or to that effect?
I had an issue like this with my note 3, i purchased it back around October 15 off swappa, then 2 months and about 3 days later my phone stopped working, i looked up the imei and it said it was stolen, conveniently just 3 days too late to file a claim with paypal, I called up tmobile, told them I purchased the phone used, and the date i had started using the phone on their service and said it was now saying it was stolen more than 2 months after this and the person told me they were going to unblock the phone for me, and it would take about 24 hours, it actually took closer to 48 hours but they did unblock it and I've had no problems since.
this is why you do trades at a t-mobile store to verify that it works.
guaneet said:
this is why you do trades at a t-mobile store to verify that it works.
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That only helps if you are SURE to ask the rep to verify nothing is owed........a simple imei scan just states that at the moment it's not flagged. ....had this happen. ..met seller at tmobile. ..rep scanned said it was good to go....literally as I started to hand the money to the dude he mentioned that he owed $500 but had arranged to make payments and that no way he would let his credit get messed up because of it.....I said..."can't do it" and ended up just getting a brand new one from tmobile the next day......glad to not have to deal with the nightmare....
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louforgiveno said:
That only helps if you are SURE to ask the rep to verify nothing is owed........a simple imei scan just states that at the moment it's not flagged. ....had this happen. ..met seller at tmobile. ..rep scanned said it was good to go....literally as I started to hand the money to the dude he mentioned that he owed $500 but had arranged to make payments and that no way he would let his credit get messed up because of it.....I said..."can't do it" and ended up just getting a brand new one from tmobile the next day......glad to not have to deal with the nightmare....
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Oh yeah and the rep had to look up more info to see that money was owed......the guy had left tmobile but his billing hadn't cycled yet so to anyone checking it all seemed legit....be careful guys....even to this day I see Craigslist postings and when you ask if they will meet at store to confirm no money owed...no response. ....use that as a litmus test if you must dabble
you can ask the t mob rep to check it. they arent restricted at doing that with the owner there, you just have to be polite and get the right person.
guaneet said:
you can ask the t mob rep to check it. they arent restricted at doing that with the owner there, you just have to be polite and get the right person.
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What I'm trying to point out is that generally the question is whether the imei is clean.....the "Yes" answer is not a guarantee at all....it may take tmobile 30 days to realize non - payment before it gets flagged....just make sure to also ask whether all handset fees have been payed off as well as imei status.
well basically this is what happens in craigslist, and very rarely on ebay,....
Someone sells there phone, then they report is lost or stolen, then they probably receive another at a cost of $150 pr $175 for a replacement phone.
If you buy this on ebay, call ebay up a tell them to look at the seller of this phone, they will see that it was sold by the seller claiming this imei is in good standards, they should reimburse you... or paypal....
in craigslist you can make sure you print out the add, keep it in a safe place, so when they sell you the phone and you get scammed, try going to the police and let them know you purchased this, they can probably trace everything back to the seller, and probably arrest them, if they claim a good imei and then they have reported it stolen. to receive another phone from the insurance company.
because when someone reports it stolen and does an insurance job, they have to usually get a police report number, then they have to give Assurance or Assurant (insurance company for the cell phones) the police report number then the insurance company... now if they falsified information to the police they can get in trouble. this will really work for the people that sell there phone to do an insurance job. they sell their phone, call the insurance company and get another one.
Well here it goes, I was lucky enough not to pre order this device and was able to walk into Bestbuy and purchase one. Of course the night that I got my phone or night after with my luck I was getting out of my truck and totally forgot the phone was on my lap and jumped out, it hit my step on my truck and then landed on the gravel. Ended up cracking of course I posted about it when it happened so I jumped through hoops and called Asurion and filed a claim. They sent me a brand new device which is awesome so I sent the other phone back and was fine, well literally a day or so after the recall was announced. Being that it was fresh no one really knew what was going on so I let it be. I have requested my money back from Asurion since technically I paid for a claim that was never needed since they would have swapped the phone anyway which didn't fly because they said they couldn't get my original device back to me, Bestbuy said I can't do anything even though the phones brand new because the IMEI numbers don't match and Verizon is pointing at Bestbuy and Samsung. Asurion has told me that I can't do anything besides wait until they get devices to ship me out another one. It's been over twenty days and they claim it is still on backorder which I don't understand because all carriers have gotten devices to swap everyone out with. At this point I have no idea what to do, I like the device and I just want my replacement but at the same time I think it's taking them a little too long. Just looking for any suggestions ( besides wait ) lol. While I don't think my device has any battery issues and is okay I still don't feel comfortable when I go to charge it every night.
Did you check the IMEI on Samsung's recall website? Or tried the Samsung + app which will tell you if it needs to be recalled? Not every device was affected.
raduque said:
Did you check the IMEI on Samsung's recall website? Or tried the Samsung + app which will tell you if it needs to be recalled? Not every device was affected.
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Yeah mine falls under it and I got the beautiful notification that reminds me everytime I charge it too. Just been a nightmare lol
do you live near an official Samsung store? sounds like you have two options... deal with asurion or Samsung directly
Samsung has really been no help telling me to go to my carrier which tells me to go to asurion. They told me today they have no clue when they will have a device for me. They did offer a full refund but of course I have to jump through hoops. I have to pay the phone off in full with Verizon and send my receipt along with the phone back to asurion and I will get my money back in seven to ten days.
Talk to Verizon online and tell them to annotate your account for a swap. Walk into the store and explain them that what the online folks told you and say that your account has been annotated for a swap.
I did similar for mine as my replacement was having issues and Bestbuy would not take it back as they had none to give out. Initially I went between Samsung, Verizon and Bestbuy. Last resort, I called my credit card to help me out and they suggested to talk to the company to which the payments are being made. So I finally called verizon and walked them through the process (that Discover guys had explained me) and they then annotated my account.
My replacement was heating up and had terrible battery life.. Like 3 to 4 hours.. Charged it like 4-5 time.. Resetted it like 10 times.. Even filed a case with Samsung.. they wanted to send me the device for repair at my expense..
I can feel your pain Man.. dealing with all these nonsense. Just be persistant and things will fall in place..
Well surprisingly after yesterday's call to Asurion it must have either lit a fire under someone or it just happened that they received stock of them at 3am. I got a email saying they finally had some and to call, called this morning and it will be here sometime tomorrow. Scary part is I hope it's not a refurbished unit which I highly highly doubt but anything is possible. I was honestly getting impatient but at the same time, it was just frustrating not being able to get my replacement when it was available to everyone else. Like I said nothing is wrong with my device or i should say at least I don't think but there is always that what if factor and I don't like that. Especially now with there washer machines apparently catching fire too....
Hello. trying to relock bootloader to return to bestbuy and for the life of me I cannot get the phone into fastboot with adb. I have USB Debugging on, the computer authorized through the phone, but fastboot devices doesn't do anything. I can't even flash a factory image. I can even get it to show up with adb devices but that's all I can do. I have all the drivers installed and am plugging into the back of the windows 10 computer and also tried two different cables. I'm not sure what to try next. I also cannot get it to go into fastboot with power and vol+. Phone works great otherwise. Nothing wrong with it.
You're typing adb reboot-bootloader? And that doesn't do anything?
Okay I'm an idiot. That was the problem. I was typing in fastboot devices. Still weird how the factory image wouldn't send it to bootloader.
spudsmac said:
Okay I'm an idiot. That was the problem. I was typing in fastboot devices. Still weird how the factory image wouldn't send it to bootloader.
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Are you getting a replacement or simply returning? Curious because I think I might be taking mine back. To many issues. Part of me wants to get another one but if it comes with 7.1.1 and I can't unlock bootloader I'd return for good anyways and skip this phone.
aholeinthewor1d said:
Are you getting a replacement or simply returning? Curious because I think I might be taking mine back. To many issues. Part of me wants to get another one but if it comes with 7.1.1 and I can't unlock bootloader I'd return for good anyways and skip this phone.
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I just got a new one from best buy last week for my wife. Hers came with the October build on it.
aholeinthewor1d said:
Are you getting a replacement or simply returning? Curious because I think I might be taking mine back. To many issues. Part of me wants to get another one but if it comes with 7.1.1 and I can't unlock bootloader I'd return for good anyways and skip this phone.
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I'm going to try to return because I don't like the locked bootloader and I also think the Pixel XL is too big. It's hard to use with one hand and I'm afraid I'm going to drop it. I'm on my Note 3 until my Pixel comes in from google, but I actually don't mind the Note 3 since the bootloader is now unlocked for Verizon. There's a lot of good roms out now. I don't know if I can step back to the Note 3 camera from the Pixel and 6P before....
toknitup420 said:
I just got a new one from best buy last week for my wife. Hers came with the October build on it.
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Haven't returned anything to best but before what did you tell them? Did you have to show them the issue? Reason I ask is because I was in there black Friday and the 2 people in the mobile department were very rude to the point where I got in an argument with them and had to talk to the manager. I just wanna at least try getting a new one before returning for good. Was there a restocking fee or anything
aholeinthewor1d said:
Haven't returned anything to best but before what did you tell them? Did you have to show them the issue? Reason I ask is because I was in there black Friday and the 2 people in the mobile department were very rude to the point where I got in an argument with them and had to talk to the manager. I just wanna at least try getting a new one before returning for good. Was there a restocking fee or anything
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I'm about to head there now. I'll update when I get back. I have a scuff on the phone so I hope they let me return.
spudsmac said:
I'm about to head there now. I'll update when I get back. I have a scuff on the phone so I hope they let me return.
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Good luck! Keep me posted I'm gonna head there tomorrow. Not even sure if they have any in stock. I don't know if they are gonna make me show them the issues or tell me to call Google support first.. or if they will simply swap it out.
---------- Post added at 03:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:51 AM ----------
Crap I just realized I bought mine online..
aholeinthewor1d said:
Haven't returned anything to best but before what did you tell them? Did you have to show them the issue? Reason I ask is because I was in there black Friday and the 2 people in the mobile department were very rude to the point where I got in an argument with them and had to talk to the manager. I just wanna at least try getting a new one before returning for good. Was there a restocking fee or anything
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Hers was a new one that I ordered. But I've returned phones to them a bunch of times with no issues. I replaced my wife's old 6p twice at best buy. They just gave me a new one off the shelf both times.
They would not return it because it was outside of the 14 day return policy. Their return policy with the holiday season is ambiguous but I'm stuck with it now. Maybe I'll try to sell on swappa and get a Pixel or go back to my Note 3.
aholeinthewor1d said:
Haven't returned anything to best but before what did you tell them? Did you have to show them the issue? Reason I ask is because I was in there black Friday and the 2 people in the mobile department were very rude to the point where I got in an argument with them and had to talk to the manager. I just wanna at least try getting a new one before returning for good. Was there a restocking fee or anything
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So I managed to return it today. I brought in the return policy from online which shows off contract phones are under the holiday return policy. There might be a $35 restocking fee though. I had someone more competent today than last night.
spudsmac said:
So I managed to return it today. I brought in the return policy from online which shows off contract phones are under the holiday return policy. There might be a $35 restocking fee though. I had someone more competent today than last night.
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I actually got really lucky yesterday. I looked online and the only best buy that had them in stock was an hour and 10 minutes away from me. I called customer service to confirm. So then I wanted to talk to someone IN the actual store before driving there and confirm the return process and also make sure it was there. Figured out that if you call your local best buys number it's nearly impossible to get someone from that actual store and not customer service. I pretended to have a question for the Geek squad and once I got them on the line asked for the mobile department.
So I talked with them and confirmed they had it..told him what was happening with mine and he said it was no problem and he will set one aside for me. He mentioned something about "processing the return" so I wanted to clarify with him what was gonna happen. Best buys $10 a month deal is different than Verizon's. I was worried that if he processed my return and did the purchase from scratch that it might somehow mess this loop hole up and I'd be stuck with Verizon's 2 year bill credits. Thankfully this guy was familiar with EXACTLY what I was talking about. He said they don't know how it is different than Verizon's deal but said he is totally aware of it. So he said he would talk with someone about the exchange process and call me back. Over an hour later I had to call them again. He told me I had two options and he said the first option is something they aren't really supposed to do. He told me they would literally just swap them out and not process any kind of return/exchange with Verizon. He said the only downside to this would be if I ever wanted to trade the phone into Verizon I wouldn't be able to because the one on my DPP would be the original IMEI not the replacements' IMEI. Second option was to process a return and set it all up from scratch. He said we would then have to call Verizon to fix the pricing and get me the $10 deal and that it most likely would be with Verizon's bill credits though.
Naturally I jumped on the first option and told him I'd be right there. Then I asked if I HAD to activate the replacement there and he said "yea that's normally how they have to do it". I then explaied to him how I can't unlock the bootloader if it installs the software update during setup so I need to take the SIM out and skip the setup so I could unlock with my computer at home. Again he knew exactly what I was taking about and said he would ask the other guy again and call me back. 10 minutes later he called back and said "yea we can do that it won't be a problem" so I told him I'd head up there right then.
So I get there and it was as simple as handing him my box (they didn't even look it in).. he did some kind of magic on his computer.. as he was doing this I opened the new one..took out the SIM and skipped through the setup..enabled developer options and turned off automatic updates.. then he gave me a receipt and that was it!
What started out as a confusing nightmare because no stores had them in stock so I was worried about a replacement shipping with the new software.. ended up working out easier and better than I could have imagined.
I got so LUCKY that I dealt with the person I did at that Best Buy becasue the people at my best buy would have been clueless and not done anything like this for me.
Phone is already unlocked and updated now
aholeinthewor1d said:
I actually got really lucky yesterday. I looked online and the only best buy that had them in stock was an hour and 10 minutes away from me. I called customer service to confirm. So then I wanted to talk to someone IN the actual store before driving there and confirm the return process and also make sure it was there. Figured out that if you call your local best buys number it's nearly impossible to get someone from that actual store and not customer service. I pretended to have a question for the Geek squad and once I got them on the line asked for the mobile department.
So I talked with them and confirmed they had it..told him what was happening with mine and he said it was no problem and he will set one aside for me. He mentioned something about "processing the return" so I wanted to clarify with him what was gonna happen. Best buys $10 a month deal is different than Verizon's. I was worried that if he processed my return and did the purchase from scratch that it might somehow mess this loop hole up and I'd be stuck with Verizon's 2 year bill credits. Thankfully this guy was familiar with EXACTLY what I was talking about. He said they don't know how it is different than Verizon's deal but said he is totally aware of it. So he said he would talk with someone about the exchange process and call me back. Over an hour later I had to call them again. He told me I had two options and he said the first option is something they aren't really supposed to do. He told me they would literally just swap them out and not process any kind of return/exchange with Verizon. He said the only downside to this would be if I ever wanted to trade the phone into Verizon I wouldn't be able to because the one on my DPP would be the original IMEI not the replacements' IMEI. Second option was to process a return and set it all up from scratch. He said we would then have to call Verizon to fix the pricing and get me the $10 deal and that it most likely would be with Verizon's bill credits though.
Naturally I jumped on the first option and told him I'd be right there. Then I asked if I HAD to activate the replacement there and he said "yea that's normally how they have to do it". I then explaied to him how I can't unlock the bootloader if it installs the software update during setup so I need to take the SIM out and skip the setup so I could unlock with my computer at home. Again he knew exactly what I was taking about and said he would ask the other guy again and call me back. 10 minutes later he called back and said "yea we can do that it won't be a problem" so I told him I'd head up there right then.
So I get there and it was as simple as handing him my box (they didn't even look it in).. he did some kind of magic on his computer.. as he was doing this I opened the new one..took out the SIM and skipped through the setup..enabled developer options and turned off automatic updates.. then he gave me a receipt and that was it!
What started out as a confusing nightmare because no stores had them in stock so I was worried about a replacement shipping with the new software.. ended up working out easier and better than I could have imagined.
I got so LUCKY that I dealt with the person I did at that Best Buy becasue the people at my best buy would have been clueless and not done anything like this for me.
Phone is already unlocked and updated now
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Glad it worked out. Expecting my Google Store Pixel to come in Monday.