Releasing a Verizon iPhone 4 bought but tied to another account?
mtishmael
Newbie

I recently purchased an iPhone stupidly not doing any background research or knowing that Verizon did not use SIM cards in the iPhone 4. I was hoping to just switch the SIM from my AT&T iPhone 4 into this phone and unlock it as it had more memory than my phone, but after purchasing the phone I realized there was no SIM card slot. Knowing someone with a Verizon account and had been wanting a phone like this I decided it would make a great Christmas present for them. Then another dissappointment occured after calling into Verizon and finding out that the phone was still on another person's account and would need them to release it before I could transfer it to another account. They confirmed to me that this phone was not reported lost or stolen, but could not release any other info to me due to privacy policies. Later on I called up to Verizon to see what I could do with this practically useless phone or if there could be any other possible attempts to release this phone since the person I bought the phone from wasn't the original owner and had no way of contacting them. Knowing that Verizon could not release any information to me but they could access the information based off the MEID from the phone, I asked them if they could contact the original owner to see if they would release the phone so that I could transfer it to another account and they said they could do that and put me on hold, while on hold our call dropped. I called back to see what kind of progress there was and the represenative told me anything that me and the previous represenative had done could not be obtained and so I asked him to do the same thing the last represenative had done. He agreed and put me on hold and tried to contact the original owner and said there was no answer and they left a message. He also said he noticed that the other represenative had called and left a message as well. While talking about my other possibilities with the first represenative he had mentioned that this phone was not yet activated and that it didn't seem to be that old and had asked me how old the phone seemed to be, I still don't know what those intensions were or what he was trying to lead up to. I tried back with Verizon a few days later to see if they could try again and see if they could ask the original owner would be fine with releasing information to me so that I wouldn't have to explain everything to Verizon everytime I wanted to try to contact him, she said that would be unlikely that he would since he does not know me. She agreed to calling him, but asked me first for the number of the person who had sold me the phone and I gave it to her. She put me on hold and I waited while she called and then she came back and asked if I was comfortable with leaving the orginal owner my contact information and I agreed and she took my name and number and put me on hold again. When she came back she said neither had answered and that she called the original owner and left him a message with my contact information. I've had this phone over a week and tried to go to the verizon store which they released to me the account holder's first name and confirmed that it was still not reported lost or stolen, but said they could not contact or access any of their information. I tried calling customer support and now they are telling me that it is against their policy to try to contact the original owner when they were just able to a less than a week ago. I asked to speak to a supervisor or another represenative figuring that maybe that one just didn't know how to or to ask about the policy and if I could see it and they said no to both. I don't know what to do now and I am very confused on what Verizon can do for me.

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