2nd hand phone from Giff Gaff blacklisted after 1 year

Chiara21

I wonder if anyone can help - I bought a refurb phone for my 13 yr old in March 2020 from Giff Gaff and it has been working fine until about 10 days ago - no SIMs at all work in it

I took to a phone repair shop, they changed the antenna and no joy, but have now advised the phone is blacklisted. I raised a case with giff gaff who said it was blacklisted by EE and I had to call them

I called EE and was told it was blacklisted by Virgin Mobile on the 23rd March - how does this even happen, surely all the networks use the same databases?

I called Virgin Mobile twice yesterday, the first lady could not help me as I wasn't an account holder, wouldn't transfer me to a manager, then cut me off. I called again and a 2nd lady found an account linked to the IMEI number but couldn't give any further due to data protection I guess, I asked to transferred to a manager but she managed to cut me off. I will have to try again as you cannot complain via web or email them without an account number

Either a mistake has been made by virgin, or their customer has committed fraud and they are protecting them, and I who bought the phone in good faith are stuck with the issue.

It's been checked on CHECKMEND, says lost/stolen reported to MNO, not police, this report doesn't say who blacklisted.

I have since bought 2 further phones from giff gaff and 2 SIMS. Whilst I appreciate the phone was not blacklisted when I bought it, I'm a little surprised no real support from giff gaff, I moved to them as they were highly recommended by Which? for customer service, and they advertise on TV about refurbed phones helping to save the planet
and why isn't there something in place to check phone credit contracts before resale like there is with cars? too much effort I guess
has anyone successfully resolved a similar issue? I also have a further 12 months to pay giff giff for the phone in question 

Rodders53

Go back to Giff Gaff.
THEY sold you the phone that they obtained from another user and refurbished.
(That has since been blacklisted, due to their lack of due diligence and checking, perhaps.) 
THEIR problem, not anyone else's. So don't be fobbed off to another Network provider.
Ask them for another phone to replace the blacklisted one asap and/or release from the contract and credit agreement with no penalty?

Try asking the same Q. on the Giff Gaff Community forum?  That may grab their attention more than here on MSE?

Jon_01

As above, just talk to Giff Gaff.

There is no point talking another other network. The date protection regs mean no one will tell who placed the blacklist, doesn't matter if you speak to the front line CSR's or the call center manager you will not get info out of them.

ivinsp

giffgaff have a phones team and as long as a case was raised against the account that was used to purchase the phone then it should be passed to them to deal further