Situation:

Bought 3 phone off ebay (£240!!!)

Been using it for a couple of months

About a month ago, it got blacklisted

I was told by the operator that it was blacklisted because the phone was the contract phone of the guy i bought it off, he can't sell it on, that phone has to be used with that sim only. Therefore the reason it was blacklisted was because the incorrect sim (my sim) was in the phone

So now i don't know what to do. Tried reasoning with three but they don't understand english on the phone and said that there is no chance it will be unblacklisted because my sim isnt the sim "for that phone"

Tried contacting natwest fraud team, they couldn't do anything.

Tried contacting paypal, but i'm out of the 60 day claim limit

anybody know what i could do? can't cancel the contract i still have to pay for without a fee.. never had an n95 8gb paperweight before lol

thanks

I though 3 had told you if you faxed your receipt to them within five days you would be ok?

they did, and i faxed them the receipts the very next day, but i received a call from the security department today and apparently that wasn't true according to the guy from the security department, so am kinda baffled as to why they wanted the receipts if they were gonna blacklist it anyway

At least you learnt two expensive lessons.

1. Stay well away from Three
2. Never buy anything that expensive on Ebay.

If that was me though, I would contact PayPal again - try to appeal with their management. It should be within their discretion to extend those 60 day limits.

Another thing - I would appeal to Ebay, try and get the good reputation I left changed to negative reputation. Other buyers should be warned.

I find it hard to believe that you are in a situation where you can't do anything.

Clearly the person selling the phone took your money under false pretences. Unless there was a cheeky disclaimer somewhere on the listing then what you bought was not what you paid for. Your bank should be very helpful in such circumstances and I'm surprised they can't do anything.

You could contact citizen's advice and see where you stand. Explain the situation as clearly as possible. Write to, phone and email everyone again and do not stop until you get results.

Go to the police station, explain the situation, provide the details of the seller and let them deal with him.

If the seller has no right to sell the phone as Three claim then you need to be considering theft or fraud crimes here. One way or another, if Three are correct in their refusal to let you use the phone, there's an offence here. If not, and if Three are mistaken, then this should sort it out for you.

You aren't in a situation where you can do nothing because you've been sold something that a service provider is blocking. They need a reason to do that and depending on the reason depends on what action you can take.

thing is im kinda confused, the guy on the phone was saying that the phone was blacklisted because the sim in the phone (my sim) was not the right sim for that phone - the right sim belonged to the guy i bought it off

Apparently its part of the contract that you have to use the phone they gave you, he was also saying that because i didnt pay three for the phone, they blacklisted it

Can kinda see where theyre coming from but i still think its really stupid, and did not know of any such rule that said you could only use the phone they gave

as long as the other guy is still paying his contract right upto the end of his commitment then that phone can be used by anyone i'd have thought, the only thing that would be invlaid is an insurance policy.

Only thing i can guess is he has stopped payign for the contract while in commitment so 3 have blocked the phone based on the fact they have not made their subsidy back yet.

argh man these guys on the phone are really getting on my nerves, im having to explain everything 7 times before they understand, is there a three call centre located in the uk??

Was it stolen, what phone was it?

ok. He does explain what phone it was and what happened in the thread.

Can you not get it unlocked and debranded?

Its not a matter of Unlocking and Debranding. The IMEI is on the lost/Stolen blacklist. It wont work on any uk network unless the IMEI is changed or removed from the list.

Changing the IMEI is illegal.

Why say that for this case? While Three can be sympathetic, they dont really have any responsibility to him to help him out.

still i think blacklisting the handset was a bit harsh.. they even asked me if i wanted to upgrade..ha!

A bit harsh? You bought stolen property.

I know if my phone was stolen I wouldn't want the theives using it / getting away with it. I would want 3 to send a kill signal to the IMEI.

It seems to be a bit like buying a car someone that they bought on finance.

but you'd have thought three the financiers would recover the phone rather than blacklist it.

How did you pay?

If you used a credit card you may have some protection.

but it was NOT stolen property, they only blocked the phone because the phone was a phone the seller received on contract, and the ONLY sim that could be used in that phone was the sim that came with the phone, i.e the sellers sim. Although my sim was also a three sim (like the sellers sim), it was not the sim that came with the phone/was linked to the imei of that phone, therefore it was blacklisted. Apparently u have to be using the sim that came with the contract phone for the duration of the contract, its in the contract you sign or summat

also the operator said the phone was not the guy's to sell, because it still belonged to three and three didnt receive any money for it when i paid the guy (greedy b****rds)

oh well i have an iPhone now so have given up caring..only need to pay £15 a month till october and that contracts done and dusted

this thing about the correct sim having to be used is a red herring / load of hairy gongers. It's just not true. The guy stopped paying his bill. It's a basic scam. Get a free phone on a reasonable plan, may the first couple of months, flog the phone, stop paying. Possibly a stolen debit card too.

But it was really, because when you agree to a contract not to sell the phone because you're paying for it under contract. It's not yet paid for and the person has sold it without the right, breaching the terms of the contract - hence it is virtually stolen. The same as selling a car on HP.

me me me. I came up with the car higher purchase analogy. Yay for me.

But everyone sells their upgrades/new contract phones on Ebay. This is not illegal surely?

That doesn't figure with those that say .....


If your handset goes faulty your supplier is under no obligation to supply you with a short term replacement until yours is fixed , because you were given the phone FREE part of a contract so your paying diddly squat for the actual phone itself and the amount youu are paying month by month is for the minutes and texts etc

everyone sells their upgrades - which is fine so long as they pay their bill.