brand new yet bad esn...how?

[thekafka]

i was surfing ebay, trying to buy a htc touch pro. and i came a across one that the selller said that the Touch Pro was brand new sealed in box, yet the esn was bad for sprint and it could only be used for metro pcs...how is that. Wouldn't the serial number have to be activated at one point to become bad for whatever reason...and thus shouldnt the phone have been activated and programmed/taken out of it's box.....if anyone could explain how a situation like this could happen i would appreciate it. -thekafka

[darren.wlsn1]

scam, steer clear if i were you. theres a guy selling one pretty cheap on our site that has lots of extras and he said to make him a offer if his price is no good. might still be there, saw it yesterday. this the wrong forum also.

[Dr.8820]

what are you trying to spend?

[darren.wlsn1]

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=72760 heres the one i saw.

the main reason for bad esn's " new in box" is thieft. if they get stolen prior to delivery the esn's are reported bad so the thief cant sell and ppl come back to sprint to acivate a stolen phone.

[bubur123]

Originally Posted by cagrant

the main reason for bad esn's " new in box" is thieft. if they get stolen prior to delivery the esn's are reported bad so the thief cant sell and ppl come back to sprint to acivate a stolen phone.

do your service provider has RUIM for its service? you can do an upgrade to made a jumper on the board and apply RUIM slot on it. so you can user/change the RUIM card anytime, and get rid all of bad ESN Problems.

[kieller]

If it is a CDMA phone, and it sounds like it is, just like here in Canada, CDMA networks actaully keep all their ESNs on file, so if you were to try and use one CDMA phone from one carrier on another one, it will not work since that ESN is only good for the carrier that it was made for. Thats the nice thing about GSM, it only registers the SIM card, not the ESN of the phone, so if the GSM phone is unlocked, it's not carrier specific.

[Raven524]

Also, since the ESN is on the outside of the box, it could have been "cloned" to another phone, and therefore already in use on the network (i.e. "BAD" esn not able to be activated).

[Major_Nate]

You could also get the ESN from the seller, and call adv tech support @ 1-877-654-9111 (option 2) and tell them that you want to make sure that this ESN is clear.