Verizon Black Listed IMEI Thinking Phone is Lost or Stolen

[User85585]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to see if anyone else has had this issue and if they can guide me with some information to get solved.

Recently I moved from Australia to the US and bought a Verizon prepaid Sim because people in my family say its got the best reception in the area, only to realise that Verizon couldn't offer me Wi-Fi calling due to having an international phone, which is kind of a deal breaker because I have a property that doesn't receive cell reception and in order for me to contact anyone I require Wi-Fi calling. With this in mind to this I then go and buy a new service from Straight-talk and port my Verizon number to Straight-talk, I was able to successfully port the number over but during the process my account was suspended and then my IMEI was reported lost or stolen by Verizon.

The IMEI is now blacklisted and I cannot access any cellular network from any carrier, I have tried contacting Verzion they have no record of me ever being a customer with them (I have the Account number, I have the Sim, Initial order number, Account Pin, basically everything to verify) and in order to remove it from the black list they need to verify that I am the owner etc, everytime i give them my IMEI they say it was never connected to any line or service, I know i was with verizon because i went into the local store to set up my account and service, they ask me to contact Samsung Australia they said they cannot do anything, and they then pass me onto Samsung USA which they said we cannot to anything as its a carrier issue, I have gone into my local verizon store and explained to them and they weren't too interested in taking my issue seriously and continuously said they cannot find my account either and kept on palming me onto contacting customer service with this issue, which then starts the process all over again.

So now I am now stuck in a situation with no end in sight, my phone is practically new (having bought it in May last year), it is unlocked and I bought it outright directly from Samsung Australia, my straight-talk service is active but I cannot use it, is there any way to show that I am the owner of the device, I have the invoices and emails to show that I have bought the device, plus emails and texts from verizon when i set up my account/service.

Any help would be appreciated.

[SynthpopAddict]

I see a few potential issues...

1) International versions of phones typically only support GSM technology and not CDMA, which Verizon has historically used in their network.

2) Your phone may not support all the LTE or 5G bands used in the US.

3) Straight Talk was recently acquired by Verizon, and before that, they were a 3rd party mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) who does not have a network of their own.  I think Straight Talk used to use Verizon's network for service, which would mean your Verizon service issues wouldn't be any better with Straight Talk.

4) If your IMEI is indeed coming up as blacklisted and Verizon was the one who put it on the list, then you'd need to provide them plenty of proof of purchase as well as being able to prove you are the original owner of the phone to get it off the lost/stolen list.