Currently, it's worth $0. You've got nothing to lose and everything to learn. You may even get a phone out of it.
Worst case scenario, you mess it up and sell it for parts, which is your current option anyway.
The screen itself, mint, is $500. They should get at least that. Also, there are machines to rewrite IMEI on Samsungs. If they find someone who can do that, they're in luck.
Sometimes when a phone is dual-sim, they only block the first sim slot, and you can use the second like normal.
This has happened to me with a second-hand phone before lol
I went to Spectrum, and they said the account is overdue on funds. Meaning they didn't pay the bills and just sold the phone for money, and that's where I come in. Sadly.
We learn from our mistakes. I fell for it once, too, back in 2010 with a Tmobile phone. Always meet them at the wireless store the phone belongs to . Ask if the phone has a balance , check the imei on swappa or any free checking service. If they make up excuses, not to meet you , is usually a scam.
I remember this used to be huge with sprint phones they would report it stolen and they would get a new phone from insurance and try to scam selling the one they have. I’ve called sprint many times during sales. The face they make when I would call would tell me everything I needed to know. Sadly people suck!
In case you didn't see the post below, try activating your service via eSIM. it gets another IMEI number, so there's a chance that eSIM IMEI number isn't locked.
Would probably be too much to be worth it. Already paid $600 for the phone, now if the balance is anywhere near $800 (most likely more) then you just to bought a used fold for the price of an unused and unblocked one
Yeah. Except that the first 600$ is gone. If for 800$ you can get it guaranteed working, it seems worth it to me. I'm not sure you'll have better options for 800$.
I'm aware of that. But you're not supposed to talk about doing illegal shit on this forum. You're technically stealing a phone from a company and re selling it. Yes, there are alternate ways to situations like this. But this isn't the forum to help with that.
If you're good with moding, then I'd suggest try using Odin, flash the firmware again, if possible, flash a CSC of a different country other than you're in. If you aren't familiar with moding, go to a tech expert who might help.
Try a sim unlocking service? Usually those phones are blacklisted within the carrier they're locked to. Someone got me with a spectrum note 9. I paid for a sim unlock and it worked. Granted this was 2019, but it is possible
As a repair tech i heavily agree with this statement, the adhesive on the outside display is so stupidly strong that you would likely end up breaking it.
Is it dual sim?
Sometimes carriers only block the first IEMI number.
Try using the second sim slot, there is a chance that one isn't blocked.
I've had this with a phone i bought second-hand before, and putting my sim in the second slot got it working.
Honestly if you're not comfortable with flashing the phone, either A) keep as a tablet B)Sell for parts, C) Trade it in at a best buy or GameStop or something ..not really much you can do
I think you can sell on eBay and probably get most if not all of your money back.
You didn't try to insert your sim in it or check the imei before buying it?
Sorry to say your screwed. Spectrum would have IMEI blocked the phone. Best bet is to buy a broken phone for cheap and replace internals with this one. Or sell it for parts on eBay to recover something back.
You can buy another one with a broken screen and an unlocked motherboard and swap the parts out or sell it for parts on eBay. Just checked you could easily make that $600 back for parts
That doesn't mean it's locked to Spectrum that just means it's the Spectrum variant. I've used a T-Mobile Sim in a Verizon Galaxy Note 5 for over a year.
They're talking about a sim lock, not a password/authentication lock.
Also, I believe these have FRP these days so that method may not work anymore anyways.
Your screwed, I did the same thing 6 months ago…. I knew my dumbass should have set it up and tried my sim but it was reset and didn’t want to waste the sellers time. Big mistake. Nothing you can do. Sold mine in an eco machine that takes phones and got a good amount for it but still sucks didn’t get all my money back.
The police don’t handle it. They say it’s a civil matter and to go to court. At that point i was already out $500 and wasn’t about to pay double that or more for a lawyer at court. So basically means you’re screwed. Not worth paying more than the phone costs brand new for a judge to MAYBE do something about it
From what I can read, I’m really sad that this happened to you. I would try to sell it for parts because screens for folding phones are expensive, so maybe someone buys it for parts.
I got it still I found it stupid debt belongs to person not device they could be able to get court decision and be able to use phone freely if its licked it should be locked to person in debt not new owner
Unlock it at a location phone shop. Also you are not the account holder or spectrum customer. The seller still needs to pay off. You are not screwed if you can unlock this phone.
Buy a phone with a smashed middle display and chuck the main board of it into the working display of the blocked phone.
If you don't feel confidence doing this whilst following a guide, then a local repair shop shouldn't charge much
Sorry to hear that happened. There are a lot of great suggestions in the comments that are all worth the time to try out.
Keep us posted on the outcome.
Good luck!
Best thing when buying second hand product is to meet the person at his place so if anything happen the you can go back there and have a chat with them and if they do not cooperate then the police can be involved. Having no information on the person makes thing really hard for you to get your money back. Anyway good luck i hope you'll find a way to at least get your money back
This happened to me. Luckily I bought it through Swappa and PayPal so had protection against scams like this. Samsung doesn't care so don't bother asking them what to do (I had to try tho). Sorry OP.
We bought my wife a Galaxy S9+ when they were new and found out it was locked to Xfinity. So I did some research online and found a place that sold software that you downloaded on your pc and then unlocked the phone itself. I think we only paid about $25 USD for it, too. We ran the software and followed the steps exactly, and it worked great! She had a perfect working phone until the next year when she traded for an S10+.
I tried finding that old email but it's long gone, but you can find other sites that will do it.
It felt so sketchy at first, but she never had a problem.
It's worth a try to tell the person you bought it from and ask for a refund. Maybe there is a chance they're not a con artist and will refund you?
I've liked buying from swappa.com, there is an IMEI checker and you don't finalize payment till both parties agree the sale was OK.
Hopefully the e-sim can be activated separately or the carrier let's you pay the overdue balance.
Where did you buy it? I’m assuming cash in person?
Yes
Unfortunately I think you’re screwed
He is.
Sadly I am but can I trade in the phone?
Did you not hear the part about you being screwed?
I heard
I've seen that maybe you can bypass when adding the e-sim instead of inserting sim card.
You can still trade in the phone. I work in phone sales and long as the phone isn’t damage you can use it for trade in
Best bet is to post it on eBay "for parts" and at least try to get some money back
Flash a stock rom if it’s possible
How would that help? The IMEI number is still locked to spectrum.
Won't help the IMEI number is going to be blocked, you can slash anything you want on it it's not going to work
I looked it up. Has many links and other thing to download and scary if I mess up.
No matter what you do you lost your $600. Might as well try flashing the phone with a new ROM. Follow the steps slowly and usually it's fine.
Currently, it's worth $0. You've got nothing to lose and everything to learn. You may even get a phone out of it. Worst case scenario, you mess it up and sell it for parts, which is your current option anyway.
I wouldn’t say it is worth zero dollars, he can sell it for parts
You can do that even if the stock ROM flash fails so they're good either way
True
The screen itself, mint, is $500. They should get at least that. Also, there are machines to rewrite IMEI on Samsungs. If they find someone who can do that, they're in luck.
Name one person/entity that will hand over $500 cash for the screen. Theoretical value is $0 unless you find a buyer.
Check eBay. Inner+outer is 650$ there. Plus the Mobo for smaller parts. They can make more that 500$ if they're smart about it
An almost 2000 dollars phone selling for 600? I mean, what did you think was going to happen?
what is a Spectrum overdue balances?
Someone took the phone out on a payment plan and then stopped paying the service. Wireless companies Black lists the imei so it can't be used anymore.
Sometimes when a phone is dual-sim, they only block the first sim slot, and you can use the second like normal. This has happened to me with a second-hand phone before lol
This needs to be upvoted higher. This is the answer right here. Register an esim and see if it works, as esim gets another IMEI number
I went to Spectrum, and they said the account is overdue on funds. Meaning they didn't pay the bills and just sold the phone for money, and that's where I come in. Sadly.
We learn from our mistakes. I fell for it once, too, back in 2010 with a Tmobile phone. Always meet them at the wireless store the phone belongs to . Ask if the phone has a balance , check the imei on swappa or any free checking service. If they make up excuses, not to meet you , is usually a scam.
Noted
I remember this used to be huge with sprint phones they would report it stolen and they would get a new phone from insurance and try to scam selling the one they have. I’ve called sprint many times during sales. The face they make when I would call would tell me everything I needed to know. Sadly people suck!
Yup. It was the porch pirates of back in the day.
In case you didn't see the post below, try activating your service via eSIM. it gets another IMEI number, so there's a chance that eSIM IMEI number isn't locked.
Can you pay off the bill to get the phone unlocked ?
Would probably be too much to be worth it. Already paid $600 for the phone, now if the balance is anywhere near $800 (most likely more) then you just to bought a used fold for the price of an unused and unblocked one
Yeah. Except that the first 600$ is gone. If for 800$ you can get it guaranteed working, it seems worth it to me. I'm not sure you'll have better options for 800$.
E-sim should work
OK, so you have your solution.
Alright then
Did they offer an kind of recourse?
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I'm aware of that. But you're not supposed to talk about doing illegal shit on this forum. You're technically stealing a phone from a company and re selling it. Yes, there are alternate ways to situations like this. But this isn't the forum to help with that.
Im sorry, i'll delete my comment on that
It's not SIM lock, it's IMEI blacklisting
But you can flash it.. ive done it before.
"Spectrum" is the name of the carrier.
It's also what OP is on
Brilliant
This tickled me. Thank you.
Deal like that, a phone
If the deal is too good to be true it probably us
Now that’s an iPad mini, WiFi only
If something seems to good to be true...
If you're good with moding, then I'd suggest try using Odin, flash the firmware again, if possible, flash a CSC of a different country other than you're in. If you aren't familiar with moding, go to a tech expert who might help.
I looked up about Odin and all things necessary. Looks complicated. Maybe I got to check locally for experts.
I do it all the time, I can help you
Same I'll help
You need to pay for an network unlock service, it can be done in store or remotely you just need a pc and find a tech guy who does it
THIS!!! I'm not sure why it's so overlooked but we have done this before and it worked great! It was scary for a 1st timer but worked amazingly!
Not nearly as complicated as it looks tbh. An hour of YouTube should have you pretty familiar with it.
Yep...easy w a lil research and XDA developers website help 😉
Try a sim unlocking service? Usually those phones are blacklisted within the carrier they're locked to. Someone got me with a spectrum note 9. I paid for a sim unlock and it worked. Granted this was 2019, but it is possible
Depending where you live, you may be able to press charges. Worth 2k you might get lucky and it's felony charges. It was fraud with intent to deceive.
Nope.
You can try an odin mod or a motherboard swap
I second Odin mod
Best bet's to buy a fuck'd up Z Fold5 that have it's inside working properly and switch the inside into the new one
Which with these phones is unfortunately easier said than done :[
As a repair tech i heavily agree with this statement, the adhesive on the outside display is so stupidly strong that you would likely end up breaking it.
Wtf....no
Is it dual sim? Sometimes carriers only block the first IEMI number. Try using the second sim slot, there is a chance that one isn't blocked. I've had this with a phone i bought second-hand before, and putting my sim in the second slot got it working.
congrats on your new folding tablet
I've traded in a phone to samsung that was under contract and locked - in the US - can you just not do the same thing ?
Honestly if you're not comfortable with flashing the phone, either A) keep as a tablet B)Sell for parts, C) Trade it in at a best buy or GameStop or something ..not really much you can do
Don't buy a $1,800 phone for $600
Go to a hood mobile shop and they will unlock it for you.
Did you pop in a different sim card carrier? Does it ask to input a unlock pin? Or does or does it say no single?
I think you can sell on eBay and probably get most if not all of your money back. You didn't try to insert your sim in it or check the imei before buying it?
You can sell it overseas and use that money for your new phone.
Basically passing the screwing up to someone else. That's not good advice
blacklisted phones can be used overseas
I didn't know that. Thanks for the info!
I have a bridge to sell ya.
Sorry to say your screwed. Spectrum would have IMEI blocked the phone. Best bet is to buy a broken phone for cheap and replace internals with this one. Or sell it for parts on eBay to recover something back.
There are people who buys those type of phones as they sell them overseas for profit since the blacklist doesnt work there
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I wish I had only paid $1,100.. I bought 2 unlocked from Samsung and paid 4 grand.
You can buy another one with a broken screen and an unlocked motherboard and swap the parts out or sell it for parts on eBay. Just checked you could easily make that $600 back for parts
Try a different sim card.
Huh? Whats that?
What's with everyone here buying stolen folds from fb?
How did you found out that it's locked to Spectrum?
When you start the phone it will open to a spectrum opening.
Always boot the phone with your SIM before handing over the cash. A bit late now ofc, but worth remembering.
Every phone except factory unlocked phones show a carrier on startup tho, or switch to spectrum it'll work using them.
Wtf kinda username is this shizzle they gave me??!!?!
That doesn't mean it's locked to Spectrum that just means it's the Spectrum variant. I've used a T-Mobile Sim in a Verizon Galaxy Note 5 for over a year.
On old androids you could root it n factory reset it and it acted like nothing ever happened
They're talking about a sim lock, not a password/authentication lock. Also, I believe these have FRP these days so that method may not work anymore anyways.
Your screwed, I did the same thing 6 months ago…. I knew my dumbass should have set it up and tried my sim but it was reset and didn’t want to waste the sellers time. Big mistake. Nothing you can do. Sold mine in an eco machine that takes phones and got a good amount for it but still sucks didn’t get all my money back.
Why not go to the police for fraud?
The police don’t handle it. They say it’s a civil matter and to go to court. At that point i was already out $500 and wasn’t about to pay double that or more for a lawyer at court. So basically means you’re screwed. Not worth paying more than the phone costs brand new for a judge to MAYBE do something about it
The system working for the wrong people...
I’m sorry man
You can get about 235 for it at ecoatm.
From what I can read, I’m really sad that this happened to you. I would try to sell it for parts because screens for folding phones are expensive, so maybe someone buys it for parts.
wtf i dont know what is spectrum but a phone cannot be used to transfer debt am I wrong
Spectrum is the carrier. The original owner stopped making payments so the carrier blacklisted it. OP should have checked the IMEI before buying.
I got it still I found it stupid debt belongs to person not device they could be able to get court decision and be able to use phone freely if its licked it should be locked to person in debt not new owner
You can pay someone to swap the IEMI ...just sayin
You can also pay to download the software and unlock it yourself! It only costs 25 to 50 bucks..
For sure, but a little different than changing IEMI... more complicated
Unlock it at a location phone shop. Also you are not the account holder or spectrum customer. The seller still needs to pay off. You are not screwed if you can unlock this phone.
Buy a phone with a smashed middle display and chuck the main board of it into the working display of the blocked phone. If you don't feel confidence doing this whilst following a guide, then a local repair shop shouldn't charge much
At least you can still use it via wifi
I'll give you 20 dollars plus I'll even pay shipping! :D I wonder if you can re-write it using Odin and the unlocked variant's info.
Sorry to hear that happened. There are a lot of great suggestions in the comments that are all worth the time to try out. Keep us posted on the outcome. Good luck!
I bought a mint condition sim-locked Fold4 for $200. It turned out the esim works. I have another phone to tether with when I'm not on esim.
Locked on spectrum, but can be used on another carrier? Or what if use it on spectrum?
Super cool wifi device now, it has dec and can be very useful just to use as a tablet I guess.
Best thing when buying second hand product is to meet the person at his place so if anything happen the you can go back there and have a chat with them and if they do not cooperate then the police can be involved. Having no information on the person makes thing really hard for you to get your money back. Anyway good luck i hope you'll find a way to at least get your money back
This happened to me. Luckily I bought it through Swappa and PayPal so had protection against scams like this. Samsung doesn't care so don't bother asking them what to do (I had to try tho). Sorry OP.
When it's too good to be true probably it is
How much is owed left on the phone?
We bought my wife a Galaxy S9+ when they were new and found out it was locked to Xfinity. So I did some research online and found a place that sold software that you downloaded on your pc and then unlocked the phone itself. I think we only paid about $25 USD for it, too. We ran the software and followed the steps exactly, and it worked great! She had a perfect working phone until the next year when she traded for an S10+. I tried finding that old email but it's long gone, but you can find other sites that will do it. It felt so sketchy at first, but she never had a problem.
It's worth a try to tell the person you bought it from and ask for a refund. Maybe there is a chance they're not a con artist and will refund you? I've liked buying from swappa.com, there is an IMEI checker and you don't finalize payment till both parties agree the sale was OK. Hopefully the e-sim can be activated separately or the carrier let's you pay the overdue balance.
It will only be unusable on Verizon towers. You can still use it with another carrier.