Hello All,
I am posting this to get some advice from you that may have experienced something similar.
I purchased a T-Mobile phone from a seller in the US spending about $660 CAD. His description said the phone is in excellent condition and has clean ESN, ready to go. He posted pictures of the phone while removing the IMEI number and also posted a screenshot of an IMEI checking website showing the phone's IMEI number is clean with T-Mobile. Of course, the IMEI number was hidden on the screenshot. Stupidly, I believed that the seller wanted to protect the IMEI information for a good reason... My fault..
Anyway, the phone was shipped through GSP and I received the phone today. Everything was as good as the seller's description and the phone is not blacklisted. I was happy until I checked the phone's IMEI number on T-Mobile's website. It showed there is an outstanding balance on the phone and it must be paid or the phone may not work on their network... I quickly did some research and found so many postings regarding this kind of situation and phones stopped working in a month or two..
I kind of panicked but still wanted to give the seller a benefit of doubt since he is a pawnshop owner according to his eBay profile.. I figured he may not have known this. I sent him a message this afternoon asking if he knew the phone is under EIP and if he could contact the original owner and have the person pay off the outstanding balance. I know it is a long shot but still want to keep this phone as I waited for it for two weeks.. Frankly, I don't wait for another 2-3 weeks for the phone return and refund..
Sorry for all the long explanation. Here is my question. If the seller can't or doesn't want to get the balance paid off, or doesn't respond to me at all, will I be able to win an INAD claim and get my payment back including the charges from GSP? One thing I am worried is that the description never said the phone has been fully paid off. It didn't say the phone is under EIP either...
Please help me..
