Develop Bugs

T-Mobile Desire: IMEI on phone does not match on box?

To those who have the T-Mobile HTC Desire, is your IMEI number on your phone the same with the one on the packaging box? Mine do not match

LOL, where did you get it from? the official t-mobile shop or some retailer? I think you should contact them asap in case of further misunderstandings

You need to ask T-Mobile about that, I would be making sure that I had matching Box and Handset IMEI numbers, unless they can give you a very good reason why they are different?

I got it on Saturday from T mobile (upgrade). I just realised lol will call them

StuMcBill said:
You need to ask T-Mobile about that, I would be making sure that I had matching Box and Handset IMEI numbers, unless they can give you a very good reason why they are different?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
or they tell him it doesnt matter and the IMEI of the phone is the same with the one in their system

My IMEI matches so no problem here.

some operators can track the phone by the IMEI, so i guess if your phone have been stolen and went to the police station or the mobile service provider for help so they can track the mobile for you, the first thing they will ask is to see the IMEI and prove that its yours, probably through the package
so go to them and tell them about the mix up, atleast if something happened later on, you would have already mentioned it.

Just called them and was told that they are gonna send me a new phone apparently. They are gonna call me back soon. Oh wells!

change imei number?

hi guys.
I just bought another TP2 from Ebay to replace my one which is broken. I've put my simcard but it doesnt register on my network. I've tried my sim card in another phone and it works fine, and I'm able to connect to wi-fi on the new TP2, but not to my network....so I've come to the conclusion that it must have a locked imei number.
I conacted ebay and the seller to ask whether it was a stolen phone, but to no avail. the seller has de-listed and ebay arent interested as the phone is in "working order", even though I cant connect to a network!!!
is there anyway to change the number, or unlock it, so I can use it? Otherwise it's a pretty expensive paper weight! My fault for not checking these facts before buying, but you live and learn....anyone help?
Cheers

Don't expect advice on changing the IMEI here.
As for unlocking, take a look here: http://rhodium.htc-unlocks.com/ (as far as I know, there is no free solution).

report the transation to paypal. You'll get your money back. Especially if the phone was potentially stolen.

i think i may have bought a stolen phone, please help

hi, i have recently purchased a touch pro 2 off ebay and i stuck my SIM card in it to find out i cant get a signal or make calls etc..
i really dont know what i should do.
please help. any advice is helpful.

Was it used or new?

used, he was selling as 'it no longer makes calls or sends texts'
if it was listed as barred theres no way i would have bought it. but with what he wrote it sounded fixable.

earni said:
used, he was selling as 'it no longer makes calls or sends texts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you were suprised when you got it that it doesn't make calls? Call you provider they might be able to unlock it if the phone isn't broken to begin with. Next time i suggest understand what you are buying because this is a pretty ridiculous post. I am questioning my own judgment for even answering to this post.

i wasnt surprised it didnt make calls, i thought he may just have a bad radio or something but i checked the imei on checkmend and it shows up as blocked..

You bought a phone that the seller told you didn't work. You assumed the reason it didn't work was one thing, but it turned out to be another. Whether he lied to you as to why it didn't work or not, you still took a chance on buying a phone you knew was not working. Take your loss, learn from it and move on.

If the phones blocked then he has found/stolen it. Or put in an insurance claim saying it’s been lost/stolen.
If you paid by PayPal put in a claim giving reason that you were not told the phone was blocked. You will then get your money back.

earni said:
i wasnt surprised it didnt make calls, i thought he may just have a bad radio or something but i checked the imei on checkmend and it shows up as blocked..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bwaaaaahahahahahaha...that's what you get...!!!

earni said:
hi, i have recently purchased a touch pro 2 off ebay and i stuck my SIM card in it to find out i cant get a signal or make calls etc..
i really dont know what i should do.
please help. any advice is helpful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had this situation before and although it turned out that the phone I had purchased wasnt stolen, the process will be the same:
Contact your Phone Network and give them the IMEI number and explain the situation. Don't worry - they are used to dealing with this type of call. They will use a database shared between all the network providers to find out the original and current owner of the handset and tell you whether it has been registered stolen or just blocked by the previous owner (this is what happened to me only I found this out a lot later).
If they tell you it is stolen, take the handset and everything that came with it to your local police station, including print-outs of any correspondence you have had with the seller - via the website market place or direct.
The police will give you a crime number and most probably take the device and the print outs from you to investgate further. You will need the crime number to get your money back later on.
Contact the market place and your bank (credit card company) and explain the situation and give them the crime number.
In most situations, the market place will give you your money back (withdraw it from the sellers account). If they dont, your credit card company will do the chasing for you but you'll need to try yourself first.
The market place may ask you for more documents from the police and the police will be very understanding. The police woman assigned to my crime number was very helpful and was in regular contact with me about how the investigation was proceeding.
The whole process may take 6-8 weeks. It can be drawn out but persevere and you will get your money back - and deservedly so.
Good luck and PM me if you need any further advice.

I thought gsm phones cannot be blocked?

DJ_MiX said:
I thought gsm phones cannot be blocked?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am no expert but they can certainly be blacklisted by the owner and that was what I was suggesting.
http://www.unlockme.co.uk/blacklist.html was a site I read up on when I was faced with the same situation.

My phone was blocked. I rang up Orange and told them the situation and they unblocked it - to my surprise. At the same time, I had opened a case in eBay which went in my favour, but I decided to keep the TP2 as it's now working. In my case, I could get a signal (four bars), but it always came up with no connection.

Bad imei/esn on the new AT&T S3 I just bought! ???

Is there a way to unblock these back to the original carrier yet?

paulmagglios said:
Is there a way to unblock these back to the original carrier yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unblock what? Does the imei read 0? Is the phone rooted or modified in any way?

paulmagglios said:
Is there a way to unblock these back to the original carrier yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you buy it?

Sounds to me like you are black listed. If so then you can probably do it if your name was the first attached to that phone and reported the ESN. Upon that failing, you can try to bribe someone to clear your ESN. What I have noticed is that there are a lot of bad ESN phones being sold to Canada, as it seems the checks are not compatible and could work up here. Aside from those options, it seems you have a bad phone.

BCSC said:
Sounds to me like you are black listed. If so then you can probably do it if your name was the first attached to that phone and reported the ESN. Upon that failing, you can try to bribe someone to clear your ESN. What I have noticed is that there are a lot of bad ESN phones being sold to Canada, as it seems the checks are not compatible and could work up here. Aside from those options, it seems you have a bad phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it was a craigslist buy
Also I've heard about the options to sell overseas and to canadians, but would like to use the phone here in the States if at all possible.
So these craigslist and ebay ads about being able to 'fix' the imei back to the original carrier are false?

paulmagglios said:
Yeah, it was a craigslist buy
Also I've heard about the options to sell overseas and to canadians, but would like to use the phone here in the States if at all possible.
So these craigslist and ebay ads about being able to 'fix' the imei back to the original carrier are false?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My understanding is that bad IMEI or ESN is due to the phone being reported lost or stolen. I'm assuming here, but i'd be pretty confident in saying that the original owner would have to contact the original carrier to clear the block. Otherwise anyone could steal and un block ESN. On the other hand, the people offering this service may work for whatever agency or carrier deals with blocking ESNs. Here is an Ebay ad I've found for ATT. Seems kind of legit, but is definitely risky to give someone remote control of your phone in order to swap the IMEI number. Up to you entirely though. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bad-IMEI-ES...217?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cd6ca26e9.

Thread closed before imei swapping ideas are presented as that is illegal in some countries and not allowed on XDA.

Used phone IMEI tag torn off

Hey all,
I've just bought a used G3 online, everything is perfect and almost new as stated:good:. But, when i excitedly opened the phone's back cover and removed battery to put my sim card and sd card in, I found out that the IMEI tag has been part torn/cut off with a blade (pic attached).
Now, that is slightly freaking me out as to why has this been done.
Could anyone shed some light on it, as I've 7days left, within which i can return the phone to the seller.

hsyasin said:
Hey all,
I've just bought a used G3 online, everything is perfect and almost new as stated:good:. But, when i excitedly opened the phone's back cover and removed battery to put my sim card and sd card in, I found out that the IMEI tag has been part torn/cut off with a blade (pic attached).
Now, that is slightly freaking me out as to why has this been done.
Could anyone shed some light on it, as I've 7days left, within which i can return the phone to the seller.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking on my G3, the removed part is the serial number.
Maybe the seller had a refund offer and had to send the S/N ? (usually it's the box one but hum....)
I had 20€ off for a Quick Circle Case, but I sent the label on the box.

Thanks for that raptor2003..
I'm just wondering, can it cause some sort of an issue in the long run, like if i need to get something done under warranty from lg...
FYI: I don't know if i've valid lg warrantly.
In fact is there a way to find out when the phone was manufactured or if i've lg warranty?

hsyasin said:
Thanks for that raptor2003..
I'm just wondering, can it cause some sort of an issue in the long run, like if i need to get something done under warranty from lg...
FYI: I don't know if i've valid lg warrantly.
In fact is there a way to find out when the phone was manufactured or if i've lg warranty?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know there is that with Apple's products, but I don't know if other manufacturers do that.
I've looked a bit to see if we can find the S/N in some software menu. But I haven't found anything. Nothing in the famous hidden menu.

Did you get the phone from Smartfonestore as a refurb?

Thelargeportion said:
Did you get the phone from Smartfonestore as a refurb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes i did, and it was a grade A.

Likewise. And mine has the same sticker taken off. I emailed them but got a crap reply; fingers crossed it doesn't break.

Most likely the motherboard was swapped and a new imei was issued

In Australia serial removal usually means the device has been repaired/serviced/not new. These devices are no longer new/ownedby original owner so serials are removed, so can no longer be sold as new. Serial and IMEI are different things. Typically serial is for manufacturer to identify devices. IMEI are for unique device tracking across world/country. IMEI you can check in ABOUT in settings, missing IMEI sticker i wouldn't worry about, make sure it is NOT registered as stolen tho.