Almost all my PPCs were from O2. From XDA Atom, Atom Life and now XDA Flame. But I am now experiencing problem with their customer service. There were many PocketPC Phones available in the market but I bought the most expensive one to unsure reliability, instability and good customer service. The product promises to do a lot of things but fails on so many aspects. I’m always experiencing hanging, Bluetooth problem, no ROM upgrade and many more problems. I let it pass because I believe it could be solved in time with ROM upgrade being done by third party. But what I can’t accept is the hardware problem. My battery, which is still under warranty, is now defective. My mobile phone is not mobile anymore because it always needs to be plug-in to AC power. I called the Customer Service in the Phillipines and they told me to bring the unit to them and they will help me ship it to Hongkong for battery replacement. I don't believe it's a proper practice for a customer service. They told me that they don’t have any parts available here in the Philippines. Now I have a P51t worth of paperweight.
I have emailed O2/MWG International support for so many times and their response always the same
"Dear Customer, Thank you for your enquiry. Your email will be answered within 2 working days.
Warmest Regards,MWg Technical Support"
I really can't believe they're continuously ignoring my concern.
I need to replace my Flame, do you have any suggestions? I just need PPC Phone with good aftersales support. At least 128 RAM, Wifi, video call, bluetooth, commercial IR and can accommodate high capacity flashdrive. Thank you very much.
If it's customer support you want, the best thing to do is get a phone bundled with service from a phone company, and call the phone company about service concerns. They are the only ones who really care.
I believe phone company will also refer the unit to the customer service of the phone manufacturer.
you could have a look at the T-Mobile versions of HTC's phones, i have been with T-Mobile for 6 years now, and never had a problem with customer service.
Cheers,
Hi All,
New member (to state the obvious). Sorry if this is in the wrong place.
Will try to cut a long story short.
The company I work for has aquired the book from a competitor that fell victim to the current financial downturn in the UK.
We have been doing sell offs from various sites around the county.
At one of the sites I found 3 Xda Orbits with all the bits, I assume they belonged to the staff that worked there. They worked for about 3 weeks then suddeny they lost the phone service yesterday. After near 24 hours of reading mostly on here I have come to the following.
1. the bill has not been paid so the phones are suspended.
2. They have been reported lost or stolen and have been blocked.
I don't need the devices as phones as I have a blackberry for work.
I can however make use of one or all as access points on my home network for controlling my media pc and doing away with the wireless keyboard and mouse and need for my laptop when I am in other rooms.
Can you guys please advise me on the following.
If the handsets have been reported lost or stolen do I run the risk of trouble by keeping hold of them. (under the terms of the purchase of the book all assets that remain after the administrators left belong to us).
If it is just a case of unpaid bills then do I have a duty to return them to the provider?
Not a techy type so this is a very gray area for me.
Many Thanks
Mike
(I bet you never expected to be answering this type of question)?
Thats a nice mess you got there.
If the devices have been reported lost or stolen then they are usually rendered useless. Normally you will be in trouble if they have been reported stolen but this is a different scenario. Simply put another sim card in and see if the phone can connect to the network. You might need to unlock the device if you are inserting a SIM from any other operator.
In the case of unpaid bills, you do not have to return them. I am guessing your company owns the contracts now as well so you guys might have to pay the bills anyway. You might want to check the contract terms though before you decide to keep them.
And what a waste for those great phones; access points?
Why not check to see if the phones are insured and if they were reported lost / stolen then maybe they can be replaced. As above try a different sim card and as i understand it, the phones wont be sim locked or at least mine weren't. If you want to solely use the devices to connect to an access point then there should be no problem as the operators blocking (blacklisting) works by preventing the device connecting to a base station and therefore preventing telephony.
tl;dr Phones sold by Gazelle can still be blacklisted.
I purchased two iphone 5's from Gazelle last December 2013, for a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law and one for my wife.
A few days ago, my mother-in-law contacted me to tell me the phone was no longer receiving service.
After trying everything I could find about fixing it, I finally contacted T-Mobile, and discovered that the phone's IMEI has just been blocked due to non-payment by the original owner(!)
Just to clarify, this phone has been in daily use since Xmas Day 2013 (~11 mos)!
The T-Mobile rep told me that the original owner had been making payments all this time, but recently closed their account, and were sent a final bill. The bill was 10 days past due and at that time T-Mobile automatically blacklists the IMEI.
I bought these phones specifically from gazelle and paid more for them as a result, as I believed they were essentially guaranteed against this sort of thing.
I even contacted them before my purchase asking them if their phones were checked:
"Thank you for your interest! We do test all items to confirm availability for activation by you upon receipt. Unless otherwise noted in the listing, this item has been tested and is clear."
It turns out, this doesn't mean the device will remain that way after you receive it. An important fact that they continue to omit in their eBay listings.
I contacted their support yesterday and was told that the unit is outside of their 30-day return window and they can not help me further.
As far as I'm concerned, they didn't actually sell me anything. They sold a device that still had a lien against it, and now that it is blacklisted, I basically paid $400+ to rent it for the past 11 months. Technically, this iPhone is still the property of T-Mobile...Gazelle basically sold me stolen merchandise.
I've since opened a complaint with the BBB and am hopeful they will come to a resolution on this issue.
Moral of the story is: Don't think that just because you're buying from a bigger operation, that your phone is free and clear and ownership has been legally transferred to YOU.
As a matter of fact, you can even read Swappa's TOS and you will find a very loose policy on blacklisted IMEI/ESN's. They basically say you're only recourse is PayPal's 45-day dispute window.
Buying from these sites is really not any different than craigslist or a random seller on eBay.
The only way to really guarantee your device is free and clear forever is to buy a new one.
Resolved!
Just to follow up, I received the exchange iPhone yesterday and my issue is now resolved to my relief and satisfaction.
I am happy to say that Gazelle came through and made things right for me in the end. They also told me they are working with carriers on new ways to determine if devices are still under contract and/or still financed, to avoid issues like mine down the road.
Be careful out there!
Welcome
I hope this is the right forum section for such information. My intention is to warn as many possible customers of Media Markt in Germany (Hessen) as possible.
Yesterday we bought a new phone for my sister - Sony Xperia M2
The phone looks brand new, box was sealed with "Media Markt" tapes, the case had still the protective foil on the back and the screen.
Phone technically is performing fine... but the problem is, it was sold as "New" yet turned out to be used one.
My sister initially thought it's possibly a built in Chrome/Google+ feature that it gives you a "template" account to fiddle with yet I asked around, poked around the internet... nowhere was such thing found (Eventually I did find, that she wasn't the only person who bought a used phone, marked as new with Gmail account already present and such)
The price of the phone was to be 189 Euro... on the label... at the register it was already 199 Euro... that was weird but we thought just a label error.
On next day my sister is bringing the phone to me to check it out and teach her how to use some things... and I notice that when I go to Chrome browser... it says that someone with initials "M.P." (Well it's full name there but I will just use initials here since I, as opposed to Media Markt respect other people) with even messages still not read and such, with 2 followers, the G+ account has been operational for some time already.
In that G+ account I am able to see both Gmail and Hotmail e-mails of the previous user together with phone number (which I checked already, it's a German T-Com number).
Still... having just found that account logged in Chrome... I thought... perhaps it's a glitch? But how would it be? Not just IP but also cookies would have to be there from someone else, this didn't make any sense. So I checked more, I see that Facebook on this phone also was accessed, with the same e-mail as in G+ (password wasn't kept this time though and session was logged out).
But what made me 100% that the phone was used was when I went into photo album... while most images there were all default stock images, there was also a screenshot (which ofc is stored in other folder than images, hence why I'm assuming the person responsible for this crime was sloppy enough not to delete it)
The file has a timestamp of October 21 and shows the lock screen with 82% battery, no sim coverage (or no sim at all, not sure about that icon), vibration profile, wifi connected and notifications I think from cloud app, some mail app perhaps Gmail.
All in all, this cemented my suspicion that the phone bought in Media Markt yesterday - sold for full retail price as new, even wrapped to be sold as new, was in fact a previously used phone, for around a month if not longer which is by no means worth the money they sold it for.
Tomorrow me and my sister's husband are going to Media Markt to "Go Medieval" on those bastards. We will try to make it as much of a scene as possible as to let know as many possible customers there that Media Markt is engaging in fraudulent behavior by selling used devices as new.
We will demand as much compensation for it as possible and will NOT settle for simply exchanging the phone for another. This is a crime that was committed here and regardless if they "cooperate" or not this doesn't change the fact. If situation was reversed, if anyone would just take something from Media Markt walk out... and then - when caught - simply return it and apologized... would they not notify the police? I doubt. Would they not file in for a crime? I doubt it. These days, people get arrested for feeding homeless people in a park! And yet companies like Media Markt get away with obvious criminal behavior. And no, if they (Manager or whoever up) "knew" it's used or not has nothing to do. IF YOU or ME did not what you did was a crime... would the police/court take pity on you and say - ok, lad, it's fine, you are free to go and you didn't do anything wrong. A crime is a crime. And I am totally disgusted by it
So that's why we are not going to settle for a simple exchange for a new device.
- Assuming that the person who used the phone previously wasn't in on the scam, that person's data, G+ account and Play Store has been all exposed to a random customer who bought that phone as new (Google certainly not refund anyone if my sister started to buy apps only to land in the previous user's account, not knowingly).
- We paid for a "new" device, that was the contract between the customer and retailer. They never delivered the agreed upon goods, they gave us a "used" device. That is a breach of a contract and extortion of money.
- We had to waste time, energy and possibly (if this goes to court, prior to the settlement) our money because of them.
- When we called them tonight they've already told us they don't sell used devices, which as the example shows, was another lie.
In case Media Markt would refuse to compensate us for wasting our nerves, time and openly trying to scam us - and basically stealing our money. We will sue them.
Anyone who had similar situation with Media Markt can now know - You're not alone. This is more widespread than I initially thought, the more I read the more I see situations where retailers sell used things as new, possibly hoping that the customer would be naive and ignorant enough to not realize they have gotten a used - and why if it's stolen?! - device.
You're also free to join us and we can sue them together, more the merrier.
As proof I have all the purchase documents, the screens (some of them I include in attachments) and also some other things, they can try to deny it but that's for the court to settle.
In conclusion this is a warning to check twice or better yet - avoid as much as possible such criminal companies like "Media Markt".
Any update on your story? I`d like to hear how it went.
Das ist wirklich ne zumutung... naja, nichts anderes zu erwarten von MediaMarkt...
Here's how it went.
Next day we went to that Media Markt right when it opened. IF you're interested which one was it exactly, here is the address:
Rudolf-Walther-Straße 6, 63584 Gründau-Lieblos, Germany
At the info counter we've explained that we were sold a used phone as a new one... the woman there looked as if she's offended we even suggested it was used, but my brother-in-law elaborated that we've got the proof of it and we'd like to talk with the manager of the shop - Of course, the manager is "on vacation" -_-'. We were directed to the aisle with phones.
There we've asked another staffer, loudly letting everyone who was considering a purchase there, that they better be careful, because this shop sells used devices as new. The staffer said ofc it will be dealt with, but again, not his business, we were directed to the service. ::
Already a bit frustrated by all this running around, we've explained the situation to the service staff. My brother-in-law immediately turned on voice recorder in his Galaxy phone and put it on the counter to make sure this whole thing would be on the record. Sadly, the service staffer had NO NAME TAG! None of the service staff had... how convenient?
First the service guy tried to show as much disbelief and deny that it's even possible to buy used phones from them... then when we've showed him all the proof and talked him through it he said that "Oh, it must've been a mistake! Clearly we must've had such phone delivered to us from the supplier" (doubtful since the person's profile was a person living nearby). Next we kept drilling the guy who was like he's having a lot of fun talking about it - quite annoying attitude if you ask me. He obviously had limited knowledge about phones too.
When asked about why do they sell things with previous users data? - He said it was a mistake and he's just as surprised.
When asked how can we be sure, that now, when we give the phone away, they won't sell it (with my sister's leftover data) to another customer? - He said it's gonna be cleared up and returned, thinking we'd take his word for it.
When we asked him why was the price 199 when we purchased, yet on the shelf the price even now is still shown as 189? - Oh must've been the previous week price tag, someone forgot to take it off.
In the meantime of the discussion we have called my sister to confirm the color and if she's going to sue them or not. She, being a very peaceful person decided she'll settle for their "compensation".
The compensation was a miniscule one to say the least. This is what we've achieved after my sister decided not to sue them:
- Without any apology they agreed to replace the phone (we spent 30 minutes waiting for them to find another like it)
- There were no more phones of that color, so they could give us only purple one (my sister was happy, my brother in law said it looks like crap)
- Because of the lack of color, they have "generously" agreed to give us a crappy black xPeria M2 phone case for 1 cent
- They have returned us the 10 Euro they've asked more vs the shelf price tag
- Not trusting them to do the job I have wiped everything from that bogus phone before I gave it back to them
I disagree with my sister's decision but it was her to make so I can't force her. We are waiting till we get more free time so we can contact the previous owner, she also deserves to know what happened with her data and previously owned phone.
We have decided not to buy stuff from MediaMarkt again after this. My sister said that she's pretty worried now, she had no idea - being just a casual user - that such things happen and now she "understands" why there was so many malfunctions in the past when she was buying laptops from there and things tended to break inside like wifi card and sound card etc.
Here is additional read I found after we came home, turns out this is more widespread than I thought
(given that I've got a fresh account have to put the link in txt file attached to this reply)
I suggest you direct this towards the Metro Holding Group. http://www.metrogroup.de
It's the company that owns the entire Media Markt chain. This seems like a complaint to take a bit higher up if the manager won't speak to you.
I do have to mention, in all the times I've been to Media Markt, the boxes with the Media Markt tape on it were the ones that were previously returned.
New ones had factory seals on it. (And usually a 'If seal is broken, do not buy/sell device" over the rim.) Were those still present on the box when you bought it?
I've always bought about half of devices and electronics at MediaMarkt (The other half at Saturn or Conrad. I remember when Conrad was still just a small store in Boekelo!), in Nordhorn, and Dorsten. I've never experienced what you're describing, as those devices have always had a sticker on it marking them as used.
But I'm not doubting that it happened. Media Markt Netherlands has a tendency to do this as well. And they charge us 100-300 euro more for the same devices, too!
ShadowLea said:
I suggest you direct this towards the Metro Holding Group. http://www.metrogroup.de
It's the company that owns the entire Media Markt chain. This seems like a complaint to take a bit higher up if the manager won't speak to you.
I do have to mention, in all the times I've been to Media Markt, the boxes with the Media Markt tape on it were the ones that were previously returned.
New ones had factory seals on it. (And usually a 'If seal is broken, do not buy/sell device" over the rim.) Were those still present on the box when you bought it?
I've always bought about half of devices and electronics at MediaMarkt (The other half at Saturn or Conrad. I remember when Conrad was still just a small store in Boekelo!), in Nordhorn, and Dorsten. I've never experienced what you're describing, as those devices have always had a sticker on it marking them as used.
But I'm not doubting that it happened. Media Markt Netherlands has a tendency to do this as well. And they charge us 100-300 euro more for the same devices, too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion, but like I said, we've decided to give it a rest and just avoid the shop altogether, it's not like there's no competition that can do better. Hell even on eBay/Amazon I can get a brand new for same price and used? Would never go for the MediaMarkt price which makes it not useful to us anymore.
As for the packaging, it wasn't market as used, it was together with other boxes (some with MediaMarkt stripes over them, some not, it was as if up to the customer to pick up with no indication of devices being used) and all of them had given same price 189 and the one my bro-in-law bought turned out to be counted for 199 which doesn't seem like it was all supposed to be "sold as used" unless it's MediaMarkt's policy to sell used at higher price than brand new not to mention they've denied and looked all surprised, not a moment they said "We sell used goods this way".
The broken seal thing. I disagree that it's an indication that I shouldn't be buying it - First of all it was my brother-in-law, who just got back from work, asked for a NEW device and was willing to pay all the money needed to buy it for his wife, he wasn't "hunting for a bargain" and he was not notified and had the benefit of not even caring about any policy the shop has, he was buying a new device, hell he even asked for black one and then the woman servicing him there told him they don't have them so he can only take the white one, which could be taken as he was railroaded into buying crap by the employee of the shop, is that how it should be? I don't think so.
Other than that, there are plenty of shops that OPEN the packages when they get them delivered from suppliers to "test" if the goods are working and then reseal it after verifying things work. So why is it all of a sudden the customer's duty to make sure which shop does what? You go to a shop, wanting to buy new device, you should get one. Also, I never seen a "returned, second hands merchandise" corner in MediaMarkt, they don't seem very up front about it at all.
Furthermore, to entertain the "MediaMarkt seal" notion. Are you honestly suggesting that MediaMarkt is totally not culpable for selling used goods with previous user's private data, passwords, e-mail account, G+, Apple store, Google Play, MS Store and so on? Is simply "putting a MediaMarkt wrap" on it means that those goods can be sold with such blatant breach of privacy of previous customer?
As for you being happy with MediaMarkt that's irrelevant, as analogy I also never had problems with racism it doesn't mean that racism isn't a thing. I've used their franchise across 3 different countries and had small issues now and then, but this is unacceptable.
To contrast this say, with "Expert Klein" which I had wonderful experience with. Here's the Expert Klein story to show how different that one is from MediaMarkt:
I went to buy a computer monitor (LG) and they had the last one on display, but I really wanted to get that last one, it was already on discount (by 20 Euro from org price) and when talking with the staffer who was very helpful and spoke good English (In MediaMarkt we had to do everything in German) he said he can get the price lower (he seemed genuinely sympathetic that I got unlucky to find myself buying last one of that model), called the manager, while I checked the monitor if it's in good condition (was almost perfect 'cept a bit of dust on it which the employee cleaned before packing it for me). In the end I got over 70 Euro discount for a computer screen worth a bit more than 150 Euro. That's almost half the price lower.
Now back to MediaMarkt... there he was sold a used device 10Euro dearer than a brand new. It's unacceptable.
So I bought a Samsung Galaxy S6 in November of 2015 on ebay for $370. I checked IMEI before buying and it was clear. I received the phone and activated it on my Verizon account and continued to use it on that account for almost 2 years until recently when I attempted to move it to a different account.
After completing the port of my number to the new verzion account I was unable to activate the phone that had been previously working. Sometime between November 2015 and when I ported the person who sold me the phone decided to stop paying their bill and Verizon blacklisted the phone as stolen. I spoke to Verizon's fraud department and they are unwilling to take the device off the black list. Verizon continued to state that since I bought the phone from ebay and not directly from Verizon there was nothing they would do.
As infuriated as I am at losing a device for someone else's financial obligation (rant below) I am mainly writing this as a warning to the many people like me out there who buy used phones. I will likely never buy another used phone from a private seller because of this and I suggest you strongly consider the same. I believe this is going to become more widespread as Verizon introduced the device payment plan a couple years ago and this appears to be a clause in the terms that allows them to black list the device as stolen should the individual not pay.
I've contact ebay but am unable to open a case as the sale was 2 years ago. I contacted paypal and they likewise are unwilling to do anything.
Rant: It is as if Verizon is treating the device like a car and has a lien against it. With a car when you purchase and go to register the car under a new owner this can only happen once the current owner has satisfied the lien. Seemingly although the act of activating it on Verizon's network is the same as registering a car it does not require the former lien be satisfied. This leaves a person like me with no way of knowing if the phone will be black listed after I purchase it. Verizon should either not allow the phone to be activated on another account until the balance has been satisfied or at least provide a way to know if an IMEI has an outstanding balance associated to it.
This is kinda common knowledge though. It is the reason xda stands behind and supports swappa.com
This has been happening for years. The only way to make sure is to not use eBay and use a more reliable and vetted source.
There are ways around this (you will find the results I'm sure) but mind you they are illegal and you won't find help here with it.
I feel bad for you. This is still kinda a new thing in the states and carriers are really coming down on it. Just be careful.
As I said swappa.com is a great source. Just about everyone here uses it.