[1337INT13H]

Ok we bidded on a phone on ebay. Trouble is it's not a SIM free unlocked phone. We won the bid but the seller was using a different email address on paypal to the email address I made the payment to on ebay, the money didn't go through & it was unclained. Due to the seller not answering questions & answering quick enough we decided to not buy it. The bid was won sat 19th. The seller said he would update his paypal email address to the ebay one. We decided to go ahead & get the phone today & I made a payment to the seller through paypal.

The only problem is this. I didn't even think or realize that the phone was just said Nokia N900 Brand New Boxed T Mobile 32GB! Now my N900 was genuine Nokia SIM free unlocked with no branding. But this is going to have all he branding rubbish. I really wanted to get my MUM a proper Nokia unlocked unbranded without all operator rubbish. Now I feel I bad in trying to contact the seller asking him that we wan't our money back & don't want the phone for reason that we have found out!. I fear it might be too late.

What a mess up. Is there anything I can do. HELP (SOS) ... -- ...

[Mick_H1 · Accepted solution]

OK, first things first:

1) The N900 was never branded. T-Mobile never stocked the N900 because they couldn't install any of their software on it. The only network that stocked the N900 was Vodafone. And the nearest they got to branding was having their own model number.

2) If you wouldn't mind, how about giving us a link to the ebay page? Because, to me, this one sounds dodgy. He wasn't using an email address linked to his ebay account and he wasn't answering some of your emails. There's a lot of fake N900s doing the rounds, and the way some sellers write their descriptions can easily mislead the buyer into thinking they are buying a genuine N900.
I reported one such seller for that last year. So you really have to read between the lines. Some phrases to look out for are:

"Genuine N900 style mobile phone"
On the listing page it says "Nokia N900 phone" and in tiny writing below that it says "From Hong-Kong"
The phone is described as "Dual SIM". The N900 was never "Dual-SIM".

That's 3 things that should set alarm bells ringing.
If you're paying by credit card, you may be able to get your money back if the phones you get are not what you expected, and you can prove the sellers descrption was misleading, so print the page out and keep it, just in case.

[virajxx3006]

@Mike,

hey, if the N900 is operator locked, cant we remove it by flashing the device...? =/

[Mick_H1]

---

virajxx3006 wrote:
@Mike,

hey, if the N900 is operator locked, cant we remove it by flashing the device...? =/

---

No N900s were operator locked. That's why Orange, T-Mobile and O2 rejected it. They couldn't put their own restrictive network rubbish on it and take off the bits that they didn't want you to have.

The best that Vodafone could do was to have their own product code and that was easily surpassed by Maemo Flasher. They tried hard to get the Skype functionality removed though, which infuriated a lot of Voda customers.

[virajxx3006]

Mike,

Thanx mate we dont have stuff like "operator lock" in our country ..

Anyway cheers

[1337INT13H]

That's very interesting mike. Here is the page? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220755423895&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Hope you can see this page. The guy has e-mail me & seems genuine. Maybe I can buy it from him after all. He said he is going to refund the money I paid out through paypal. he also said "sorry I should have put the correct description on it."

[1337INT13H]

Could he of received phone from T-Mobile then? no operator lock? he must of listed it because he has used his T Mobile sim in it or i don't know! Anyhow It's listed as Nokia N900 Brand New Boxed. T Mobile 32gb. It could be ok for me to get it then

Nokia N900 Brand New Boxed. T Mobile 32gb

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220755423895&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

[Mick_H1]

That certainly looks like the genuine article alright. But still not sure why he says it's SIM locked.

Shouldn't be a problem though, just a case of reflashing to a generic firmware, but I reckon you should get away with any SIM.

[montana_uk]

It might not be SIM locked at all.    Just as he's created the listing and the form asks what Network is the phone on, the seller may have just selected T-Mobile, as that is who he uses.  It doesn't necessarily mean it's locked to them.

As said above, networks didn't want this phone as they couldn't lock it down with their own **bleep**.

If you can ask the seller for the Firmware version from the "About Product", that will tell you for definite.

[ceroberts75]

BUYER BEWARE!



Seller information





Member ID charlwoodseller ( Feedback score of 0 )




he has a high-ticket item and absolutly ZERO feedback.

these phones were not branded/locked. some branding, yes, but they were flashable and most people did. but there really were not too customizable like other OS are for the carrier...though it is easy, there wasnt really a way for them to "lock" them.


i would move on to another unit and find one that has some feedback, or there is a really high risk you pay for beach-front property in Arizona!

[Mick_H1]

The other problem with buying mobile phones from ebay, is that more often than not the seller is selling the phone because they can't afford to keep the contract going, so they are selling to pay their bail-out fee and then reporting it stolen.

So you could find the phone being locked by the network.
And if you use it on a different network, they too will eventually lock it too.

[montana_uk]

I hadn't noticed the seller ID bit, with zero feedback etc.  

Good call to walk away...In fact, RUN...lol.

[1337INT13H]

Hey all. Just thought i should finish off this thread & let you know the conclusions of things. I was able to get my money funds returned from the seller charleswoodseller into my bank account.

In the meantime I had bid on a new phone which arrived today from seller s8chp. heres the link he sen as Special delivery as requested. Thanked me for my prompt payment! i won it for £260 which is more than the charleswoodseller £230 but my mum opened box & everything is there brand new. unlocked. Heres the link http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150579907027&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I've been playing around with my *new phone & installed too much to mention. i keep getting worried that i'm soon going to run out of app memory - don't have microsd card yet! I think'll I've got some problems & some questions to ask in new thread.

Cheers all,

Jamie