Have bought a Nokia N95 8GB from ebay unlocked, was on vodafone. I unbranded the phone so didnt have any of the vodafone Live icons etc. But i have tried 3 different Sim cards in it, both the orange and O2 sims say 'Sim Card Registration Failed' on start up and my Virgin sim card doesnt give any error message and has a signal but i cannot make any calls, also the Sim displays 'T-Mobile' as the network operator for some reason.
Now i got 'Orange' display for the network operator on the phones screen before i decided to update the phone via the Nokia suite without the Sim registarion error message poping up at all, but it would seem after that or the debranding it has cause the Sim Card Registration Failed' problem for some reason. Any ideas whats wrong, thanks
Lettuce, most likely the phone is barred/blocked
This happens for one of two reasons
The phone is stolen and is now reported stolen to the network providers
OR
The phone was legitly bought by the seller, who then sold it to you and then reported it stolen (even though it was legitly sold)
This is insurance fraud and by this, he got your money, and he gets a replacement phone from the insurance company whilst you get a useless phone.
I see you have typed in another thread with someone else who has had the same problem and though I actually work in a phoneshop, I bought a n95 black from ebay recently too (so I'm getting a bit worried too!)
In order to answer your query on the other thread, there is a way to check whether the phone is blacklisted using a website called checkmend.
You do have to pay however I have an account with them which is unlimited and I can do a check for you.
Can you PM me your IMEI address and I'll get back to you with a report that it generates.
Any queries- do let me know!
PM sent back along with bad news!
Oh dear... newer mobile technology on Ebay... dangerous game. 😞
Thanks for checking that akash84. So is there no way i can go about getting this mobuile unblocked? Even going to the police and getting the the seller prosecuted for a insurance scam???
As far as I know...no
But if you have proof of purchase, you can use this against the seller.
I phoned O2 up on the day I replied back to you as the phone I purchased also off ebay was Unlocked but software suggested an O2 phone.
I have a contact with O2 so I thought - why not.
On asking them the same question as you, they said they could not do much though with proof of purchase, I could potentially supply this to the police but basically not to hold my breath - I suppose really pushed and you might get there.
On the topic of fraud, my boss (the mobile phoe repair place I am at on sundays) bought an iPhone of ebay and recieved a plastic dummy - an unconventional method of threatning the seller actually resulted in a full refund.
Something you could consider if you know the details.
You >could< maybe phone the network of the phone it was on original (lets say voda) and say this is the situation - maybe in your paperwork from paypal and whatever shows the sellers full name etc... Most likely, the phone was purchased on contract and then reported stolen/lost so you could maybe say along the lines of that you know for sure that it is a member of your network, plus you have their fullname, ebay id, paypal id, maybe it warrants for investigation - resulting in phone being unblocked and buyer getting done for fraud.
All the above is mainly thoughts on what I would do if I lost �400 on a sale due to a rogue buyer.
The main question is, were you protected by paypal? Have you claimed?
I cannot make a claim to paypal, until 10 days are up 🙄 . I will try contacting vodafone and see if i get any joy. Have threatened the seller saying i would give him x amount of days to either give a refund or get the phone unblocked by the operator or i would take the matter up with the police, as of yet have not heard nothing. Im guess this seller isnt very smart as he reported the phone stolen even before i gave any feedback on ebay what so ever, and not left it a month or so before reporting it!
Can the operator actually unblock a phone once it has been blocked by them? Do u think i will get any joy with getting the operator to unblock the phone again. On a side note if the above fails, will this phone work fine everywhere else in the world apart from the UK?, does this include Scotland or Ireland??
Yes they can unblock it, but often its only the original buyer they will unlock it for.
Once its blocked, you wont be able to use it in the Uk at all, not Scotland nor Wales etc.
I assume not Ireland.
Id contact vodafone. To get extra attention, when you do the online form, add the following anywhere in the body of the message: FIT135
This alerts a special section who seem to be far better at dealing with things then the usual support.
Right spoke to vodafone, the guy i spoke to was really helpful, and search the IMEI number are reported back to the that it has been blacklisted, and said because it has been blacklisted everything has been blocked on the phone rendering it useless, and said once it has been blacklisted they cant unblock it, usually if its reported lost they temporary block it but if its reported stolen they blacklist it straight away.
He also seemed to think that the phone wouldnt work in any other country either, is he correct on this?, as if the worst came to the worst (like it looks likes its going to) i would stick it on ebay and sell it to the rest of the world apart from the UK!? I dont know if im aloud to ask this on here or not but is there a way a 3rd party has the ability to unblock these phones??
So this phone will defently work in any other country apart from the UK?? As i dont want to sell this on ebay if it wont work in other countries
'definately'... dangerous word.
So theres a chance that a blacklisted phone wont work in other countries then?
Id call the police, report it and maybe you would get an incident number or whatever this is.
Contact paypal (after the stupid 10 days), and keep on at them. You should get most the money back.
Well heres the thing, i just today put a claim into paypal, and once i got to the end of the process, it says that my item isnt covered by paypal, and if the seller gets more than 5 complaints within the next 60 days they shall review my case! WTF does this mean and why isnt my phone covered!
Been busy at work so I forgot about this thread
While it is not definte it will work abroad - it is 95% certain. Having said this, it's more likely to bar in the EU so try and send outside of Europe if you do go down this route.
ok with Paypal/Ebay... go to the thread and on the right hand side under the sellers information, it will generally say how you're protected
(for instance, �250, �500 or "PayPal buyer protection doesn't apply to ..."
Does it have the latter in your case?
While I'm not 100%, I THINK the latter means the buyer may not be covered for paypal protection if you buy from this seller because
The seller has not got a account or address that is "confirmed"
I'm not 100% sure and you might want to ask them/ring them
Now on another note, did this payment come out from your bank account via paypal? If so, are you insured or does your bank protect you? I know mine does (Barclays) and in this situation, I would request a cancellation to that payment in which case it would do a "chargeback" on the sellers account.
I would try this before its too late! If it works, you'll basically have the phone and one p*$$ed of seller - a little taste of his own medicine 😊