Stolen Droid, found, I have replacement + old phone

[Candice]

My friend had his Droid stolen from a BK on wednesday, called verizon, suspended the phone. Then, my the grace of God and some good people, the phone was recovered, in the lawn of someone's yard and returned to a Verizon store. In the mean time, he had called Asurion, and got a replacement (paid $50, in case some were wondering). Now he has two. (Though someone had taken off the screen protector and even though he had a case on it, both the case AND the phone were a tiny bit scuffed.)

The rep at the store said he could just sell one of them, since he took it off the lost and stolen list. My friend's not too sure about it. He doesn't want to sell a $300 phone to someone and then they won't be able to activate it.

I'm sure someone here has some insight.

Any advice would be helpful.

TIA!

 

[Mamaperk]

My friend had his Droid stolen from a BK on wednesday, called verizon, suspended the phone. Then, my the grace of God and some good people, the phone was recovered, in the lawn of someone's yard and returned to a Verizon store. In the mean time, he had called Asurion, and got a replacement (paid $50, in case some were wondering). Now he has two. (Though someone had taken off the screen protector and even though he had a case on it, both the case AND the phone were a tiny bit scuffed.)

The rep at the store said he could just sell one of them, since he took it off the lost and stolen list. My friend's not too sure about it. He doesn't want to sell a $300 phone to someone and then they won't be able to activate it.

I'm sure someone here has some insight.


Any advice would be helpful.

TIA!

Could your friend have another VZW customer try to activate it to see if that works first? I have a family plan so I would probably try activating it under my husband or daughter's line to see if it worked before putting it out on craigslist or ebay.

 

[christim]

If I were purchasing a phone from someone that I wanted to activate I would meet them at the local store and get it activated there and when it worked turn over my money to the seller at that point in time. Your friend can offer to do the same.

or as suggested above..couldn't he activate it under his own line to make sure it worked ok?

 

[Candice]

If I were purchasing a phone from someone that I wanted to activate I would meet them at the local store and get it activated there and when it worked turn over my money to the seller at that point in time. Your friend can offer to do the same.

or as suggested above..couldn't he activate it under his own line to make sure it worked ok?

I guess this is where my knowledge is limited, I have verizon too, (obviously) if I activate it under my line, would it be easy to switch back?

 

[CatsTide]

or as suggested above..couldn't he activate it under his own line to make sure it worked ok?

+1...but remember assurion and verizon are two different companies. just because verizon told you to sell it i would check with assurion first. chances are they will tell you to send one of them back.

 

[hookbill]

Technically speaking i think that phone rightfully belongs to Assurion.

If you got your car stolen and the insurance paid it off and then through some miracle the police found your car, would you just try and sell it? I think the insurance company would consider any profit you made off that car to be turned over to them.

Now I'm not trying to be all moralistic and all that kind of stuff, to me it's small potatoes but it's still something to think about.

 

[iPirate]

Id call the insurance company and ask what they think. It would suck to get stuck in court for fraud

 

[christim]

Technically speaking i think that phone rightfully belongs to Assurion.

If you got your car stolen and the insurance paid it off and then through some miracle the police found your car, would you just try and sell it? I think the insurance company would consider any profit you made off that car to be turned over to them.

Now I'm not trying to be all moralistic and all that kind of stuff, to me it's small potatoes but it's still something to think about.

Good point. The rep at the store also may not have been officially speaking on behalf of Verizon when he said that, even though he was behind the counter and working at the time.

 

[Candice]

Thanks for the responses. I should have mentioned that option B was to return the Asurion phone, to get his $50 back. (I assumed that would be understood.)

But I think he's going to end up keeping the asurion droid, and returning the scuffed up old droid to avoid any of the potential headaches.

 

[dmt316]

im curious. please let us know the out come!!

 

[Vulcan1600]

As a former VZW CS rep, here's what is what. You got a replacement phone from Asurion (and it is $90 for a replacement Android advanced device), the ESN from the phone that was lost is put on suspension. Since the phone was found, you must report this to Asurion. The phone ESN can not be reactivated, and if a VZW employee tells you they can, then they are not being up front. Bottom line, report it to Asurion, because really you're now dealing with property of Asurion (the lost phone that is now found).

 

[Candice]

As a former VZW CS rep, here's what is what. You got a replacement phone from Asurion (and it is $90 for a replacement Android advanced device), the ESN from the phone that was lost is put on suspension. Since the phone was found, you must report this to Asurion. The phone ESN can not be reactivated, and if a VZW employee tells you they can, then they are not being up front. Bottom line, report it to Asurion, because really you're now dealing with property of Asurion (the lost phone that is now found).

He said the rep told him the phone was off the "Lost/Stolen" list. He actually used it before receiving the phone from asurion. He's since activated the asurion phone and the "stolen" phone isn't active. He's still undecided and just weighing the options.

 

[cuskit]

As a former VZW CS rep, here's what is what. You got a replacement phone from Asurion (and it is $90 for a replacement Android advanced device), the ESN from the phone that was lost is put on suspension. Since the phone was found, you must report this to Asurion. The phone ESN can not be reactivated, and if a VZW employee tells you they can, then they are not being up front. Bottom line, report it to Asurion, because really you're now dealing with property of Asurion (the lost phone that is now found).

He said the rep told him the phone was off the "Lost/Stolen" list. He actually used it before receiving the phone from asurion. He's since activated the asurion phone and the "stolen" phone isn't active. He's still undecided and just weighing the options.

I'd say he has NO options but one - the phone must be returned to Asurian - or at the least, a phone call to them asking them what his responsibility is... mike

 

[ptfd13]

As a former VZW CS rep, here's what is what. You got a replacement phone from Asurion (and it is $90 for a replacement Android advanced device), the ESN from the phone that was lost is put on suspension. Since the phone was found, you must report this to Asurion. The phone ESN can not be reactivated, and if a VZW employee tells you they can, then they are not being up front. Bottom line, report it to Asurion, because really you're now dealing with property of Asurion (the lost phone that is now found).

I would have to disagree with Verizon not being able to reactivate it. Maybe their policy has changed since you were there but I had a phone stolen not too long ago and had it suspended. It found its way back to me thanks to Mobile Defense and I took it to the local Verizon store and they were able to re activate the service to it without any problem at all. They even showed me how to do this online via the My Verizon page. Customers can log on and suspend a phone if it is stolen/ lost/ etc and then if it is found simply click a button to reactivate the service.

 

[Candice]

Just noting: he's just sending the old phone to asurion. He didn't want to deal with any potential problems.

And for the record, the droid replacement was only $50. Not sure how, but his card was ONLY charged, $50. So perhaps the rumors of the grandfather clause are true. (I asked, twice to make sure.) The downside, it was a refurbished droid without a SD card, so thankfully he was able to recover his old one.

Thanks for the advice and commentary.

Have a great weekend kiddos!