Diamonds on eBay

[06MS6]

Just ordered mine for $274.99 with free express shipping last night. Seller is afezalio1, seems pretty legit (though I still don't understand how people are selling them this cheap). Gives all sorts of contact info and has great feedback.

He is shipping it personally also since PayPal notified me that he printed out a USPS label from them and I did receive confirmation from USPS about the package.

Can't wait!

[diamond1]

I talked to the person whos phone # appeared on my asurion/sprint packing slip (under MDN :, and they have a diamond phone and have zero knowledge of any insurance claim etc. They said they purchased it from a real sprint store not a mall kiosk or other agent. Interesting....

[vipervin]

Ordered mine last Tuesday for $176 ($235 - $58 Cash Back). Received it yesterday and activated fine.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=320317412227

[pgr73]

The problem is, whoever's phone # they used to file the claim is going to be charged when the damaged phone isn't sent back in the return envelope. Complete horse**** and I am sorry I even bought mine. I am going to send mine back and contact the # on the packing slip to let them know they were ripped off. This same **** can happen to any of us. Someone has access to Sprints customer database to do this. So it is an employee or a dealer.

[lawyeradam]

There is already another thread here where someone who had bought the phone from ebay was charged by sprint for the 50 fee and the shipping. There was lots of discussions and speculation on this.

[06MS6]

So can we assume that if we get ours from a seller directly and not from Asurion that the phone is not the result of defrauding another Sprint customer?

[diamond1]

Originally Posted by 06MS6

So can we assume that if we get ours from a seller directly and not from Asurion that the phone is not the result of defrauding another Sprint customer?

I don't think we can--here's why. If the scam artist stops sending direct from asurion, he can have them sent to his or a friends location, then ups it from there. more of a red flag since asurion would see dozens or hundreds of phones going to one address--but it illustrates how a shipment via ups or us mail direct from a seller could still be exploiting whatever this sprint/asurion security flaw is.

I really doubt the sprintstore sales reps have access to the pin #. Even if the pin # database was stolen, all asurion needed to do to protect against this was not allow replacements to be shipped to a name and address if it doesn't match the billing database.

update: here's the thread reporting where another user was charged $57 in fees on their bill a month after buying an ebay diamond--apparently tons of people are getting ebay phone shipped right from asurion. When the unsuspecting buywer activates it, it triggers the $57 fee. what a scam!! http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=43817

I am surprised I am the only one that was too suspicious of the wording insurance replacement, the prepaid return envelope, and the scammed (innocent) customer's Mobile telephone number on the packing slip

[06MS6]

That makes sense but wouldn't that make too big of a risk for the seller since his address would be on file and after a couple (or even one) report Asurion would surely try to track him down.

One thing that is making me kind of mad is how the deductible is being charged after the phone is activated. Whenever I made an insurance claim I had to pay the deductible with a credit card right then and there before they even sent out a replacement. Asurion/Sprint are making this way too easy if these scams are as widespread as they seem to be.

Maybe we should keep track of seller names in this thread. People who have gotten a Sprint bill after activating their phone and were not charged, who did you buy from?

[cincij]

Crap....I was going to get myself a Diamond off Ebay for Christmas, but now I'm having serious second thoughts.

Anybody care to share legit ebay sellers they have used?

[thumper01]

Yeah, it looks like this is probably an insurance scam. I started searching for this and found this thread on the Sprint Users forum: http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144983

Also found this story at the Insurance Journal: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2008/04/04/88853.htm