eBay

rodm1975 · ‎05-31-2018

seller refuses to call provider after I make the pourchas they said no do it your self Bell and Virgin Mobile said the owner has to call in so to avoid been messed around what do U suggest thanks

marnotom! · ‎05-31-2018

What does the listing description say about the phone's locked state?

rodm1975 · ‎05-31-2018

says locked to virgin\bell when I called them I said when I a unit that is locked can U on lock it they said seller has to do it. this is a Canada seller

reallynicestamps · ‎05-31-2018

The Resolution Centre is at the bottom of this page.

Open an Item Not As Described Dispute.

You have already contacted the Seller, so skip that step, ask eBay to step in, and escalate to a Claim.

The seller will be required to send you return postage.

If he doesn't , or when the tracking shows you have returned the phone to him, you will be refunded.

You can then leave appropriate feedback. The most effective feedback is calm and factual.

"Sold phone as unlocked Refused to unlock it." for example.

Use the refunded money to buy a phone that is usable.

marnotom! · ‎05-31-2018

@reallynicestamps But if I'm understanding the OP correctly, the listing description says that the phone is locked.

@rodm1975 Did the listing description state how the phone could be unlocked if the buyer was planning on using a different carrier?

reallynicestamps · ‎06-01-2018

There was a shop at the end of the street where I used to live that would unlock phones for a fee.

He also sold 'spy cameras' and was on the wrong side of the 'tracks' (actually a regional road) where house prices dropped about $500K, so I'm not sure if the business was all that upfront.

momcqueen · ‎06-01-2018

Open a Return request with either you or the seller responsible to fund return postage and buy another, usable phone. You're not going to get anywhere with this one. It's up to you whether you want to fight the seller about SNAD or not. In the interest of expediency, I probably would not. The takeaway is that this phone is not good for you. So get rid of it. Send it back. Take your refund and buy another.

marnotom! · ‎06-01-2018

@momcqueen wrote:

Open a Return request with either you or the seller responsible to fund return postage and buy another, usable phone. You're not going to get anywhere with this one. It's up to you whether you want to fight the seller about SNAD or not. In the interest of expediency, I probably would not. The takeaway is that this phone is not good for you. So get rid of it. Send it back. Take your refund and buy another.

I don't think the buyer has a leg to stand on for a significantly-not-as-described claim. It sounds as though the phone was described in the listing as locked to Virgin/Bell and the seller probably expected or intended it to be purchased by somebody using one of those two networks.

That said, my understanding is that there's no charge for Canadian mobile phone owners to contact their carrier and obtain an unlock code for their phones when their carrier contracts expire. If the seller wanted to sell an unlocked phone, they could have done that.

Perhaps.

There's the possibility that the phone is either stolen or the seller acquired a number of these phones and is selling them off individually. As the seller wouldn't have had a contract with Virgin or Bell, he wouldn't be able to get them to unlock the phone, either.

As Stamps suggests, there are places that will unlock phones for a price. There are also services online that claim to sell unlock codes as well.

Lots of "buyer beware" associated with this sort of sale, unfortunately.

EDIT: This article suggests that Bell (and other carriers) may unlock phones belonging to non-customers, but there's a big "unless" attached to that:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bell-telecom-free-phone-unlocking-crtc-1.4517373

momcqueen · ‎06-01-2018

Fair points. We know nothing about the item itself; the listing was not supplied.

Regardless, the buyer needs to return it. This one isn’t going to work for them.