Why do mobiles get blocked?

blondmark

I bought a top of the range smartphone on eBay a year ago. It was a new boxed T-Mobile upgrade and the seller gave me all his paperwork.

A year+ later I suddenly find I can't make or receive calls - the mobile is blocked. Several mobile repairers confirmed this, as did T-Mobile in 6 separate calls, but they won't tell me the problem because I'm not the account holder.

The account holder who sold it to me is saying when he calls T-Mobile they're saying it's not blocked, but I must assume that's a lie, because it's definitely blocked, which T-Mobile confirmed to me six times.

Any idea what could be happening here?

Also, having proved my legitimate ownership of the mobile to T-Mobile with copies of the eBay transaction, signed receipt on T-Mobile account documentation and my copy passport, on what basis could they possibly block my mobile?! They have proof of me purchasing it, and I'm nothing to do with them.

I'm baffled! :huh:

OneADay

Proof of ebay is worthless when you are looking at mobiles, the seller could have reported it lost/stolen, made a claim on insurance and finally something has twigged and the IMEI has been blocked.

Best bet - won't sort the problem, just report it to ebay but they won't do much after this amount of time, might help stir the seller a bit if he/she wants to keep their ebay account.

How did the seller get the phone? Doesn't matter how they got it, fact is it was their contract or someone else's or they got it through dodgy means in first place, there is nothing you can do as you are not the registered account holder.

ZhugeEX

blondmark wrote: »

Also, having proved my legitimate ownership of the mobile to T-Mobile with copies of the eBay transaction, signed receipt on T-Mobile account documentation and my copy passport, on what basis could they possibly block my mobile?! They have proof of me purchasing it, and I'm nothing to do with them.

I'm baffled! :huh:

Unfortunately this means nothing. You never actually purchased it from t-mobile direct. You purchased it from a guy on ebay who may or may not be the account holder. Even if he is the account holder the phone is always registered under his name. Only the account holder can ring up t-mobile to talk about the phone/change ownership etc...

To be honest, this sort of stuff happens all the time on ebay where people take out insurance for the phone, sell it for a profit, report the phone stolen and block it, then cash in on the insurance.

I'm not saying that's what happened. But it could be. But yeh, only the original account holder can unblock the phone. So if they rang up t-mobile and said the phone is fine, they're most likely lying to you and have probably done the above.

Keep pressing the ebay seller/open a dispute (if you can). And also get t-mobile to tell you when the phone was blocked and how?

grumbler

Most likely T-mobile blocked it on request of some insurance company.
I would try getting from T-mobile what insurance company it was, then contacted the insurer.
Alternatively provide all the information to T-mobile and demand from them passing it to the insurer.

IMO all this blocking malarkey is the greatest nonsense that creates problems, but doesn't benefit anybody.

blondmark

Thanks for this helpful background on why mobiles get blocked - it's all new to me! And to the posters who suggest I get more details from T-Mobile, they refuse to discuss it or anything about it, save to say that my mobile is blocked.

So a legal point here ... I'm what's known as a 'bona fide purchaser for value without notice' otherwise known as 'the owner'. So even if there were fraudulent circumstances on the seller's part surrounding the sale, I still get good title to the mobile because I paid the going rate without any knowledge of anything dodgy the seller may have been involved in. (The exception to this legal rule is the sale of a car, but that's not relevant here).

So if you accept for the sake of argument that I am the genuine owner of this mobile that has now been 'bricked' by T-Mobile's action, would there be any reason why I could not now sue the network for blocking my phone? After all they have no rights against me or my property, and whatever argument they may have with their account holder has nothing to do with me as I am a stranger to their agreement.

grumbler

blondmark wrote: »

...So if you accept for the sake of argument that I am the genuine owner of this mobile that has now been 'bricked' by T-Mobile's action, would there be any reason why I could not now sue the network for blocking my phone? After all they have no rights against me or my property, and whatever argument they may have with their account holder has nothing to do with me as I am a stranger to their agreement.

I agree absolutely.
This blocking scheme has to be backed by some legal mechanism of tracking mobile phones ownership. Without this mechanism blocking makes no legal sense.

Ich_2

I wonder if there is a restriction on "selling on" phones that have been acquired as an upgrade? Particularly as the refer to the seller as the account holder
Can't find the T&Cs on their site though

Herongull

How do you know you are the legal owner? Because you paid someone money in exchange for the phone?

But what it wasn't his to sell?

He could have stolen the phone.

Or he could have been the owner, but then claimed on the insurance, saying it was stolen. In this case, I think it may belong to the insurers.

If you "buy" something off someone who doesn't own it, you don't become the new owner. Ownership stays with the real owner

blondmark

Ich wrote: »

I wonder if there is a restriction on "selling on" phones that have been acquired as an upgrade? Particularly as the refer to the seller as the account holder
Can't find the T&Cs on their site though

There might be, but any such restriction would apply only to the seller and not to me because I am not a party to the contract he has with the network.

blondmark

Herongull wrote: »

How do you know you are the legal owner?

Because, as I mentioned, I am a bona fide purchaser for value without notice. As a matter of law, this gives me good title to what I bought. But this is a side issue; I'm clear on the law - I just can't get my head around how a network can unilaterally block other people's mobiles irrespective of whether they own them.

ZhugeEX

blondmark wrote: »

Because, as I mentioned, I am a bona fide purchaser for value without notice. As a matter of law, this gives me good title to what I bought. But this is a side issue; I'm clear on the law - I just can't get my head around how a network can unilaterally block other people's mobiles irrespective of whether they own them.

Because you are not the registered owner. The original owner bought the phone on contract so the phone will always be registered under his name. So he or the network can block it/unblock it at any time if it's stolen.

You're right that you legally own the phone. But when it comes to phone contracts the phone is not going to be under your name as the phone is sold on a contract.

I agree that blocking needs to be worked on, especially when you can sell a blocked phone overseas and it'll work.