How long can verizon keep a phone blacklisted?

[ciaragusti420]

how long van Verizon keep a phone blacklisted?

[vzw_customer_support]

That is a great question. Having a device on a black list can cause issues with being able to use the device with other carriers or with us as well. To clarify, when a phone is blacklisted it will never be removed unless warranted by us directly. If the device was stolen or lost the device would have to be recovered by the owner of the device to remove the block from our system. Did you locate your lost device? JasperM_VZW

[katman11]

Of course there are things that Verizon could do if they wanted to improve customer service for this Blacklisted phone situation….

Verizon is a behemoth company that generated over $131B in Annual revenues in 2019, with Earnings of $19B+.

• Verizon Wireless Tech, Fraud and Collections (and maybe some other groups) need to work together on this. Somewhere under a VP or SVP or higher is the person that has these three areas as his/her responsibility.

• Prevention – Create an effective online IMEI check tool that not only checks Lost/Stolen, but more importantly, Unpaid Bills, and 2nd account owners so the potential new owner of the device can be made aware ahead of purchase of a used phone or at least during a typical 30 day return window, not 8 months or 2 years down the road! AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint all have public IMEI checks online. Verizon, I believe you sell your Trade In phones through 3rd party online retailers like eBay correct?

• Share blacklisted phones with 3rd party IMEI companies like CheckMEND & lMEIpro.info. I had a Verizon Blacklisted phone that showed up clean on every IMEI check out there (including Samsung), and was told by some of these IMEI companies that Verizon is not sharing the Blacklist info with the Global database. Why would this be the case? Shouldn’t we be trying to help people? Endless phone calls to Verizon Wireless Fraud & Tech support finally provided me with some blacklist documentation for verification purposes but clearly there was no defined process by which to do so at Verizon.

• Fix your broken process that does not flag a device as lost/stolen or having a 2nd account with Unpaid bills immediately upon activation when the phone is fired up at the Verizon wireless store with the new SIM card. How is it possible to use a phone for 9 months only to discover at that late juncture that the phone has a 2nd fraudulent account!

• Fix the Problem for the Honest Paying Customer - Create a process to separate the Finance/Unpaid Bills and Collections process from the IMEI of the device. The only person typically being punished by Verizon when a phone is shut off and blacklisted is the honest paying customer…the person that sold the fraudulent device is long gone working on other scams.  Verizon collection can keep trying to collect the debt, but the honest paying new customer can remain in service and not make countless calls (and being on hold for over an hour in some cases) to Customer Service, Fraud & Tech support to find out what happened to their service. This would save you money Verizon! The last thing a loyal paying customer wants to hear is “there is nothing we can do in this situation”. Unacceptable Verizon!

• Implement a process whereby an alias IMEI can provide Verizon service to the customer, but still leaves the original device blacklisted so it cannot be resold and used by other carriers or in other countries.

Verizon - There are probably numerous other things you can do with all the smart people you have working there….perhaps the community can suggest some others. Some services you provide may even provide a revenue stream as well as better overall customer support for this blacklist phone epidemic.

[vzw_customer_support]

I do appreciate the feedback. We do have internal tools that we do use to help with these kind of situations that check a device being on a blacklist, reported lost or stolen, or even on an account. Our Fraud Team checks IMEI that have been flagged as well. Do you have a device that you are concerned about? AlbertoR_VZW

[Jakob4play]

This is false ! I had bought a phone on Facebook from a friend ...Verizon cleared the phone for me over 22 months ago only 22 months later to blacklist it saying the original owner owed them a lot of money..they are doing this to people during a pandemic when people need phones! Why???

[NewOldcustomer]

That's like saying you bought a used car, and the original loan wasn't paid, do its been repossessed.  

Each carrier has the right to be paid for merchandise, or report it as stolen.  

Buyer beware. 

[Jakob4play]

I got to give it up to Verizon.. Thank you for clearing up your mistake(almost blacklisting my phone!)FYI -don’t ever just switch phones(Sims) with your daughter  Without telling Verizon first! Thank you Verizon for fixing my mess up

[kylerpsu]

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@NewOldcustomer wrote:

That's like saying you bought a used car, and the original loan wasn't paid, do its been repossessed.  

Each carrier has the right to be paid for merchandise, or report it as stolen.  

Buyer beware. 

---

Bad example because car titles are required to list lien holders.  You're not going to get very far on the sale, and even if you got through it, you won't be able to re-title it.  Hard to argue in favor of a carrier that provides no oversight or visibility here, and honestly they should be the ones eating the loss if they choose to continue ignoring a major loophole.

[Verizonisoverstepping]

SO.....I AM ABOUT TO CANCEL VERIZON IF THEY DONT FIX THIS PROBELM THEY HAD NO BUSINESS DOING IN THE FIRAT PLACE......VERIZON DECIDED TO BLACKLIST A BOOST MOBILE PHONE THAT IS COMPLETELY PAID OFF...I NEVER REPORTED IT LOST OR STOLEN...ALL I DID WAS PUT MY VERIZON SIM CARD IN IT DUE TO MY GALAXY S21 PLUS THAT I JUST PURCHASED THROUGH VERIZON WAS OVER HEATING AND I HAD TO PAY TO GET IT FIXED..IN THE MEANTIME I USED MY GALAXY S9 TO CONTINUE MY VERIZON SERVICE...AFTER MY PHONE WAS FIXED I TOOK OUT THE SIM CARD FROM MY GALAXY S9 AND REINSERTED IT INTO MY GALAXY S21 PLUS  AND EVERYTHING WENT SMOOTH..ALL UNTIL I TRIED TO REINSERT MY BOOST MOBILE SIM CARD BACK INTO MY GALAXY S9...THE MESSAGE THAT KEEPS POPPING UP NOW SAYS "THIS IS NOT A VERIZON SIM CARD" LOL WELL THIS IS NOT A VERIZON  PHONE SO I WAS KINDA STUMPED I CONTACTED BOOST AND SPENT ABOUT 10 HOURS ATTEMPTING TO FIX THIS PROBLEM TO NO AVAIL THEN I CONTACTED VERIZON AND THE REPRESENTATIVE TOLD ME THAT MY GALAXY S9 WAS REPORRED LOST OR STOLEN ALL BECAUSE I TOOK MY VERIZON SIM CARD OUT OF IT AND PUT MY BOOST MOBILE SIM CARD BACK INTO IT!!!! 1ST OFF WHERE DOES VERIZON GET OFF BLACK LISTING A PHONE THAT DOESNT EVEN BELONG TO THEIR COMPANY...THEN AFTER CALLING VERIZON AND SPEAKING TO ABOUT 10 DIFFERENT AGENTS THAT ALL TOLD ME THAT THEY UNBLACKLISTED MY PHONE AND I WAS GOOD TO GO....LIE AFTER LIE COST ME ABOUT 2 DAYS OUT OF WORK BECAUSE I HAD TO ENJOY THE VERIZON REPRESENTATIVES PASSING ME BACK AND FORTH TO ABOUT 30 DIFFERENT VERIZON REPS....PLEASE I AM BEGGING YOU UNBLACK LIST MY BOOST MOBILE GALAXY S9.

THANK YOU

[mama23dogs]

Verizon cannot blacklist a phone that is not sold by them. If they boost phone was blacklisted it’s because boost or sprint blacklisted it