I bought an iPhone 5 off craigslist.
Toby_K
Newbie

Ok so I know craigslist can be shady sometimes but before I bought this device I called Verizon to see if IMEI was reported lost or stolen, and they told me it was clean so I went ahead and bought the phone but it had a broken screen so I ordered a new one and after I had it installed I tried to activate the phone online but it wasn't working, I called Verizon to have it activated over the phone and again the IMEI was clean but the sim card was reported stolen so the guy said to go to a Verizon store and as long as the phone itself was reported stolen. So when I went to the Verizon store they said it was clean and they would just put a new sim card in the phone, it activated as normal and he said that it would take about 5-15 minutes to program the sim card about an hour later it was still not active so I went back to the Verizon store and the employee told me that my phone had been suspended so he put in a new sim card and unlocked my phone and again said that it would be about 5-15 minutes. Another hour passed any my phone was still not active so I sped back to the store and got in right as they were closing. I explained the problem to the first employee that I had talked to and he couldn't explain what was wrong so he went and got his manager, he was gone for about 10 minutes and came back and told me that I had purchased a stolen device, I was as you can imagine furious especially after being told 4 different times that my phone wasn't stolen and that the device was good to use. Evidently the phone would be active for a few minutes and then register as being blacklisted. They told me that there was nothing that they could do even though they told me it was a clean phone. I have no idea what to do! has anyone else ever had this happen or have any advice, I have no way to get ahold of the seller if that helps.

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Re: I bought an iPhone 5 off craigslist.
Spiral
Master - Level 1

Sorry for your problem but not much to be done.  For the future (or others who buy from Craiglist) I recommend that you have the seller meet you at a Verizon store where you can activate the phone on your line (verifying  that it will activate on your line) BEFORE any money is paid.  If the seller does not like this idea, then don't buy that phone.

Re: I bought an iPhone 5 off craigslist.
rcschnoor
Legend

Yes, I agree with Spiral's advice.

However, there is NOTHING from keeping the seller of a phone to report it stolen AFTER you have paid for it. There isn't even any way of telling if the person you pay for the phone is the actual owner of the device. It is just as likely they may have stolen/found the device and the actual owner of the phone just may not have gotten around to reporting it as stolen/lost until after you paid and activated it.

Good luck, however, I have a feeling you will not be able to use this phone.

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Re: I bought an iPhone 5 off craigslist.
vzw_customer_support
Customer Service Rep

Toby_K,

Rats! This is a really tough pill to swallow. I say that because I've actually been there before. What I would ultimately recommend is contacting the seller back if you can to look into the situation or request a refund. Please know that we have this tool available to check device ID's but pending the seller's intent, still may not be the 100% go to utility http://vz.to/URkIzc .

EvanO_VZW

Follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

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