Here’s a mobile phone question that came in yesterday that I don’t have a great answer for. Maybe some of you Operation Gadget readers can offer some suggestions?
Randy Stevens wrote:
Dave,
May be you can help me, I�m a bit desperate at this point. My daughter dropped her Cingular phone in the water. Called Cingular Customer Care who said since you are still under contract and have no insurance your best bet is to buy a new phone off EBay. I bought a phone that the person told me was unlocked however when we put her sim in it is asking for the subsidy code which as I understand it means it is locked, to T-Mobile. Cingular will not help me and T-Mobile says I have to have an active account. I can�t get T-Mobile service where I am anyway so I can�t even have an active account. I seem to be hung between two companies who are unwilling to help me. What can I do other than throw the phone through the window and contest the sale through EBay which could take months and she will have no phone all that time?
Thanks for any help you can provide,
Dave Aiello replied:
Randy,
That’s a real unfortunate series of events. Several instances of fraud and deception connected with mobile phone sales on eBay have been pointed out to me, so I’d say that people need to exercise extreme caution when buying replacement handsets that way.
I purchased a reconditioned, unlocked Treo 180 via eBay back in May. Although the unit looked good when I received it, it developed a problem with repeated crashing and I returned it to the seller. The good news for me was that the seller (a company) guaranteed the device and refunded my money when it couldn’t provide me with another Treo 180 that worked.
You said that the seller represented that the phone was unlocked. Did you tell him that the phone was not unlocked and ask him to take it back? Based on what you’ve said, I think the eBay seller is the only person with a responsibility to you with respect to that replacement phone.
If you have soured on eBay and you still need a phone, Amazon.com now sells a limited number of mobile phone models that are already unlocked. I trust Amazon to stand behind what they sell. (FWIW, many other Amazon partners such as Target, Toys R’Us, and J&R Music World are similarly trustworthy, although they are not selling unlocked mobile phones at this time.)
Good luck getting your daughter back on-line. If your eBay seller misrepresented his merchandise or is unwilling to replace the phone you bought, I would do everything in my power to make his life miserable, including complaning to his state’s Attorney General. On-line auction fraud really needs to be stopped.
If any Operation Gadget readers have anything to add to my suggestions, or want to offer different advice, feel free to post a comment. Thanks.