ESN locked on 700w

[germanyfurth13]

Hello,

I recently bought a Palm Treo 700w from someone on ebay and they said it was not unlocked. I did not feel this was a problem because it was a verizon Treo and that is the service I have. However, when I called Verizon to switch from my current phone to the Treo they (Verizon) claimed they could not help me because the ESN is locked as stolen. What if anything can I do?

germanyfurth13

[LotusLord]

Sounds like you'll have to take it up with the seller, or eBay itself. Though they did say it's not unlocked. If you have a link to the auction, that might help us determine.

[skoenig]

Post a link to the auction. The very same happened to me. Though in my auction the seller stated the ESN was clear. I ended up getting a refund from Paypal - eBay weren't interested - but I had to wait ages and frankly they made me send lots of correspondence and dragged their feet hoping I would go away.

Here's some tips when buying anything through ebay or paypal.

- Obviously check the auction and save a copy of it to your hard drive (ebay culls them after 60 days).

- Contact seller through the ebay tools if at all worried and ask specific questions, make sure you get specific answers. Do NOT use regular email to correspond.

- Use paypal to pay but ONLY use a credit card to pay with. Do NOT use paypal funds. For ease, keep you Paypal account at zero.*

If you have any problems and want a refund, spend some time going through the ebay/paypal resolution process but do not allow it to go past 30 days since you used your credit card.

Ultimately I find my credit card company much more responsive at issuing refunds so if Paypal/ebay/seller put up too many barriers go with the credit card provider. That puts the ball in Paypal's court to chase you for the money if there's a problem. You can ONLY do this if you used your credit card to purchase the item.

* Keeping your account at zero ensures you get the option to pay with a credit card, if you have funds they hide the option away (on purpose) - in fact I've never seen it when I've had funds in my PP account.

Paying with your credit card gives you a whole bunch of extra protections and allows you to ultimately deal with a real person at your credit card company regarding the purchase if you need to especially in the UK and maybe in the US.

Hope this helps.

~ Steph

[LotusLord]

Good post there Steph