Need help regarding being sold a blacklisted phone

bigstevex

Basically here's how the story goes..... (Its ebay related by the way)

8 months ago a friend of mine bought a nokia N95 (Vodafone, unwanted upgrade),

3 nights ago it starts saying Phone Barred. I rang vodafone and its 100% blacklisted.

We've contacted the person he bought it off and they said vodafone won't help them regarding unblocking it unless he takes the phone and proof of purchase into one of their shops.

Anyway the seller has basically said 'no', he has spent enough time helping us already (Spent 5 mins on phone to vodafone, to be told what he needed to do).

So is it reasonable to do a small claims court thing against them? Or is there a better way forward?

Any help would be grateful.

geordie_joe

I don't know anything about mobile phones, but if it was me I would be trying to find out why it is blacklisted.

Was it be stolen before you bought it? Did the previous owner not pay their bills?

Why did it work for 8 months then stop? Did you do something?

Do Vodafone know you have the phone now and not the seller?

I think you need to find out why before you know who to "go after".

bigstevex

It was his contract upgrade that he didn't want apparently,

It couldn't be stolen when it was sold to me as its been 8 months, hence i figure he trying some insurance fraud.

Vodafone didn't give a sh**e :mad:

Help meeee lol

richt71

You could take them to court but i'll depend as always whether he defendant (seller) has any money! If they have no money or assets then you'll be down on court costs and no further forward. Of course if they do have money or assets then it may be worth it to see them in court in 3/4 months time.

Hopefullyuseful1

Hi BigSteve,

I can understand your frustration, i'd feel exactily the same in your situaton and I assure that Vodafone do take these matters very seriously.

When a customer reports a phone as lost or stolen we bar the handset for security reasons and there own protection. We can only remove this bar when the owner who barred the phone requests it to be removed.

It doesn't state on the system why it was barred; this would be noted on the account relating to the owners mobile number. Due to the Data Protect Act we wouldn't be able to share this information with you.

The original owner of the phone would simply need to get in touch with us and request that the handset be removed from the blacklist.

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Hopefullyuseful1
Vodafone UK