imei: 00000000-000000-0

cpab

G'day all,

My wife's SE C901 was loosing pixels on the screen. Rather than changing to another type of phone, we bought another C901 from China. This phone seems to be call barred, at least to our vodafone in Australia. Tried unlock freedom, but they are now sending a refund. I have previously flashed a phone, about 7 years ago that I knew was locked to Optus. This one, I am unsure of, because under the battery it gives a 15 digit number after the serial number, but it does not say that it is imei. This number:35467703-012867-3 is different from the number that comes up when I put in *#06#, which is 00000000-000000-0
Can anyone help with this?

Regards

Chris

Techhead_2

Unfortunately many of the phones from China are copies and the IMEI is invalid. This will result in the handset being blocked on all networks in most countries (eventually).

I don't know what the situation is in Australia but in the UK it is illegal to change the IMEI, except for manufacturers, or their agents, with a valid reason.

Personally, I would try to obtain a refund or replacement from your supplier.

cpab

G'day and thankyou for your reply Techhead.

We did finally sort out the problem.
The explanation is that the phone was blocked by Vodafone Australia. It took quite a while to get information from the tech from Vodafone. My wife had spoken twice last week with Vodafone, getting no answer to the lockout of this phone, other than, it may be locked to another network. I believe Vodafone Australia mobile support comes from India. Some of the accents are difficult to understand. After researching some of our options on the net, I decided to try Vodafone again, yesterday. I got a tech who's name I did not hear clearly(I'm half deaf with tinnitus so I can't keep saying "ay?", I have to let some things go). This tech was very straight, but I gradually managed to get the problem out of him. Someone had put a 'block' on this handset on 5 June 2011 with Vodafone Australia. The technician said that it was reported as stolen.
I explained to the tech from Vodafone that this was impossible, because the phone was put in the mail system on 27 May 2011, between China and Australia, with a tracking number at the time of the reported 'block', in Australia. I convinced the technician to contact the person who reported the phone stolen. It turned out that the person had not reported any phone stolen and had never owned the phone. Somehow, someone must have made a mistake in the Vodafone system. Vodafone finally took off the 'block' last evening.
I don't know how unique this IMEI number is, though I found a couple from China Mobile with the same number, with 2 additional numbers, ie 00000000-000000-0-01 and 00000000-000000-0-19. These wer for a SE K850c and a SE 660i or such.
But to have your phone with such a unique number, gliched out of the system, which took a week to find out, was a damned nuisance.
Thankfully resolved.
I hope this information helps others with similar issues, which may offer other ways to solve their phone problems.

Regards

Chris

cpab

Also to Techhead,

Yes the 15 digit number under the battery is different to the 00000000-000000-0 generated by the phone when *#06# is pressed.

What this means, I have no idea. The seller seems to be a legit power seller on ebay, ironically dealing more with the UK market than Australia.
I found them to be very sincere and concerned for the quality of their service.
I have bought all of my phones this way, rather than paying contracts. I wait a year or two until the prices go down on a particular phone that I'd like.
Then we use prepaid on 365 days.

Regards
Chris

Techhead_2

I think there is some confusion. here between network locking and blocking of a handset.

However with regard to the block being removed, often these Chinese handsets have a valid (but non-unique) IMEI printed on the label. Which is different to the IMEI reported to the network. This would explain the conversation where the operator thought that the handset had been reported and blocked. If so you may find that it becomes blocked in the future.

Hopefully I am wrong and this was simply a mistake.

On the subject of different IMEI, the last digit is a checksum, so you would not get two numbers differing only via the last digit .

JJ_Egan

Flashing firmware may also change your IMEI .

jje

Techhead_2

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Flashing firmware may also change your IMEI .

jje

I don't think that's the case with Sony Handsets but you are correct that with some manufacturers it's very easy to erase or alter the IMEI.