EBay phone ?'s

[jchildress]

Ok, so I am about to purchase a phone for my girlfriend because she is constantly asking me, why can't my phone do that? My answer of course is, because your windows phone sucks! So, she's not due for an upgrade till next year, which leaves me with full retail or finding one on eBay / craigslist. So three questions come to mind.
1. Whats meant by a clean esn?
2. Can I use an unlocked phone with Verizon?
3. Is there a way to test a phone before buying it (Craigslist )?

Droid X, Liberty RoM 1.0

 

[garrett]

1: means the phone is not blacklisted as a stolen/lost phone. Once a phone is listed as lost/stolen verizon will not allow it to be used on their network .. EVER... When buying any used phone get the ESN/MEID from the seller and verify with verizon customer service that the phone is clean.

2: Typicaly no but there are some exceptions. Typically a unlocked phone is a GSM only feature. There are a few CDMA phones that can be unlocked this is only because they are world phones like a blackberry or the Droid PRO.

3: Best bet when buying locally is to have the seller meet you at a verizon store to make sure the phone can be activated there on the spot. If a seller will not meet you at a verizon store the phone is most likely stolen. A legitimate seller will have no problems doing this.

 

[jchildress]

Thanks alot for the answers!

Droid X, Liberty RoM 1.0

 

[takeshi]

Typically a unlocked phone is a GSM only feature. There are a few CDMA phones that can be unlocked this is only because they are world phones like a blackberry or the Droid PRO.

In other words, network/subsidy locks are only relevant to GSM devices (including the GSM portion of GSM/CDMA hybrid devices as pointed out above).

It doesn't matter to Verizon if it's locked or unlocked since Verizon isn't GSM.