Brian Moody
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Illinois
My spouse and I bought a cell phone from a private individual on January 6th, 2018. Prior to the sale, we confirmed with the seller that she had reset the phone to factory settings and that it was ready for activation. On January 8th, 2018, I went to activate the phone at the Sprint store and the customer service rep informed me that the phone cannot be activated due to the prior owner being in a delinquent status on her account. They went on to inform me that until the delinquent account was satisfied, Sprint could not release the phone for activation.
My wife and I made multiple attempts to contact the previous owner and when we pressed her to pay the delinquent account or refund our money, she changed her position stating she sold the phone for a friend that that it was not her account.
Through a couple additional conversations with Sprint Customer Service, I was able to verify that she is the owner of the account and that phone is tied to her account until she satisfies the delinquency, however, since I am not on her account, I have this information through conversation and nothing in writing from Sprint. In addition, we did escalate the issue with Sprint and they advised that they cannot release the phone until the bill is paid.
With this situation in mind my wife and I feel our only recourse is to work through the small claims process. The seller is not taking responsibility and has refused to refund our money. She sold us a phone that is essentially unusable and cannot be activated. We feel she fraudulently represented the phone and should have accountability to right this situation.
Based on what I have above, what advice can you provide? What steps should we be taking or additional documentation or questions should we be asking?
Thank you in advance.
Brian Moody
My wife and I made multiple attempts to contact the previous owner and when we pressed her to pay the delinquent account or refund our money, she changed her position stating she sold the phone for a friend that that it was not her account.
Through a couple additional conversations with Sprint Customer Service, I was able to verify that she is the owner of the account and that phone is tied to her account until she satisfies the delinquency, however, since I am not on her account, I have this information through conversation and nothing in writing from Sprint. In addition, we did escalate the issue with Sprint and they advised that they cannot release the phone until the bill is paid.
With this situation in mind my wife and I feel our only recourse is to work through the small claims process. The seller is not taking responsibility and has refused to refund our money. She sold us a phone that is essentially unusable and cannot be activated. We feel she fraudulently represented the phone and should have accountability to right this situation.
Based on what I have above, what advice can you provide? What steps should we be taking or additional documentation or questions should we be asking?
Thank you in advance.
Brian Moody