Need some advice, I think I bought a bad ESN phone :(

[BooDaddy]

OK everyone, here is the story.
I traded a few PC parts with a guy from my area who had an Evo for trade on craigslist. He said the ESN should be clear and ready to activate since he cancelled the account almost a month ago. So I traded with him.

I get home and call to check the ESN and the lady said that its still "held up" on the other account. She couldnt give me a reason of course, but said the ESN couldnt be activated on my line at this time. So, I emailed the guy, and hes been pretty good with communication so far. He has called them numerous times and tried to find out what is up, but keeps getting the run around from Sprint (his words to me in the email).

At this point, I am not sure what to believe, except I have a very clean looking EVO that has a bad ESN at the moment. I do remember Verizon holding my old phone in their system for 30 days after I cancelled my account with them, so I wasnt able to sell them right away. Does Sprint do something similar?

Just asking for advice from the forums folks. The PC stuff I traded him wasnt really useful to me, so thats why I am not asking to trade back, and the guy has been pretty sincere about trying to find out whats going on on his end.