Buying a used Samsung s4 ???

MissyFit

Hi , ok so I'm interested in buying a Samsung s4 that I've seen on Donedeal . It's locked to Vodafone and I've asked the seller to include the receipt . So , what I need to know is that is it safe for me to do so or can he still get it blocked , say if he tries to for insurance purposes . The last thing I want is to pay a small fortune only to be left with a blocked s4 . Any ideas or help appreciated . Thanks

DECEiFER

Have the seller do a factory reset right before your eyes to ensure there are not anti-theft apps installed where they can track and do all sorts of other stuff to your phone. You can do it yourself even straight away after you've bought the phone and parted company with the seller, so not to offend them, assuming you decide to go ahead and buy it. I don't know if the phone can be blocked. I reckon that will be between the seller and Vodafone, and I'm not sure what the policy is surrounding that. Vodafone, presumably, would have access via the IMEI.

There's always going to be that risk when you buy something second-hand. For example, if you buy a car off a private seller, what's to stop them from calling the cops to say you've stolen it? The logbook wouldn't be in your name and since you'd pay by cash, who's to prove that any money was exchanged for it?

The best advice if using DoneDeal is to meet the seller and get a read on the situation. Then you can make up your mind.

EDIT:
See below for more recommendations, such as using Adverts instead of DoneDeal.

Riesen_Meal

MissyFit wrote: »

Hi , ok so I'm interested in buying a Samsung s4 that I've seen on Donedeal . It's locked to Vodafone and I've asked the seller to include the receipt . So , what I need to know is that is it safe for me to do so or can he still get it blocked , say if he tries to for insurance purposes . The last thing I want is to pay a small fortune only to be left with a blocked s4 . Any ideas or help appreciated . Thanks

Don't go ****ing near it is the best piece of advice I can give you, it will be shut down after you buy it with an IMEI ban from the network, first your signal starts fading, then you can't receive calls, then texts etc etc

Could be month down the line, could be 5 months the down the line when your man stops paying his bill - stick to Adverts.ie where you can weigh up the feedback for the seller, and if their feedback is good you can be confident of a decent buy...

I worked in phone repair for years and the amount of poor sods buying IMEI blacklisted phones on donedeal was ridiculous, save your money and go reputable with Adverts....

I will never buy anything electronic/phones etc from done deal or buy and sell, no comeback at all....

Oh and general rule of thumb, if it is too good to be true, its too good to be true!

coldfire1x

MissyFit wrote: »

Hi , ok so I'm interested in buying a Samsung s4 that I've seen on Donedeal . It's locked to Vodafone and I've asked the seller to include the receipt . So , what I need to know is that is it safe for me to do so or can he still get it blocked , say if he tries to for insurance purposes . The last thing I want is to pay a small fortune only to be left with a blocked s4 . Any ideas or help appreciated . Thanks

Look at the Adverts.ie as Fieldog mentioned. Much safer there. Buy from someone with good feedback. I have bought and sold stuff out there number of times but rarely had any problem.

As the previous poster said that if the price is too good to be true then it probably is. Not everyone is a scammer but there are always some exception.

DECEiFER

+1 for Adverts. Had a look on DoneDeal and the prices are all ~€450 (unless you found a much better deal). On Adverts the prices are about the same.

Riesen_Meal

DECEiFER wrote: »

Have the seller do a factory reset right before your eyes to ensure there are not anti-theft apps installed where they can track and do all sorts of other stuff to your phone. You can do it yourself even straight away after you've bought the phone and parted company with the seller, so not to offend them, assuming you decide to go ahead and buy it. I don't know if the phone can be blocked. I reckon that will be between the seller and Vodafone, and I'm not sure what the policy is surrounding that. Vodafone, presumably, would have access via the IMEI.

There's always going to be that risk when you buy something second-hand. For example, if you buy a car off a private seller, what's to stop them from calling the cops to say you've stolen it? The logbook wouldn't be in your name and since you'd pay by cash, who's to prove that any money was exchanged for it?

The best advice is to meet the seller and get a read on the situation. Then you can make up your mind.

Careful giving advice about Done deal for phones, all the horror stories come from there tbh

Factory reset won't make a blind bit of difference to if the handset if it is blacklisted....could still work for a week

Of course it can be blocked, a 20 quid ****ty Samsung tocco can be blacklisted...

I was offered a GS4 for 200 quid last week, I know it came from a shop employee, but I still wouldn't risk it, chances are he will get caught and every IMEI off the phones he stole will be blocked...

DECEiFER

Fieldog wrote: »

Careful giving advice about Done deal for phones, all the horror stories come from there tbh

Factory reset won't make a blind bit of difference to if the handset if it is blacklisted....could still work for a week

Of course it can be blocked, a 20 quid ****ty Samsung tocco can be blacklisted...

I was offered a GS4 for 200 quid last week, I know it came from a shop employee, but I still wouldn't risk it, chances are he will get caught and every IMEI off the phones he stole will be blocked...

I'm not on a contract so I have no idea what the policies are surrounding non-payment of a bill and I've certainly never bought a phone off DoneDeal, nor worked in the same industry as you to have seen all the horror stories unfold. I've since posted in agreement of using Adverts.

Riesen_Meal

DECEiFER wrote: »

I'm not on a contract so I have no idea what the policies are surrounding non-payment of a bill and I've certainly never bought a phone off DoneDeal, nor worked in the same industry as you to have seen all the horror stories unfold. I've since posted in agreement of using Adverts.

It's all network dependant AFAIK, some more on the ball than others - I did see your post just after mine, I was as late!

I have never been on a contract phone and I don't think I ever will be, unless the Nexus 5 comes out exclusive to Vodafone or some other provider I despise! :-D

Are you PAYG yourself Deceifer? I'm on 20 a month emobile plan, find it fine for what I need it for.... 30 was overkill....

MissyFit

Thanks all for the advice , he is looking for €420 and he said its a bill pay upgrade . I've asked him to go into the Vodafone shop to see if they will unlock it . Would that make any difference ? I am suppose to meet him t 6 this evening but I think I'll leave it off and look elsewhere . Better to be safe . €420 is a lot of money to me and took me months to save it up . I've heard a few horror stories also about Donedeal regarding iPhones and such . Thanks again .

DECEiFER

Fieldog wrote: »

It's all network dependant AFAIK, some more on the ball than others - I did see your post just after mine, I was as late!

I have never been on a contract phone and I don't think I ever will be, unless the Nexus 5 comes out exclusive to Vodafone or some other provider I despise! :-D

Are you PAYG yourself Deceifer? I'm on 20 a month emobile plan, find it fine for what I need it for.... 30 was overkill....

I've never gone with a contract either in the 14 years that I've had a phone.

Back before the smartphone came out, I remember contracts were more about paying for cheaper calls and texts with the trade-off being that you have to pay every month instead of topping up when it suits you. Nowadays contracts are less about the plans and more about charging extortionate amounts per month to pay for the phone you got for free or "subsidized." To me it's a scam or like taking out a loan. On the other hand, it's handy if you're strapped for cash and want a top-of-the-line phone and don't mind splitting the payments over 12-24 months.

I'm on Three and right now I pay €10 per month for 50 texts and 50 Three-to-Three minutes, alongside 250MB of data. If I want All-you-can-eat, I'll simply top up by €20 in one go and I'll have more than the majority of bill pay customers out there.

To be honest, I don't know if it's just me or a small minority, but I tend not to care about minutes and texts anymore. These days there are so many apps like Skype and WhatsApp, you don't need anything else. I'm more about how much data a plan will include to make those apps work on the go. Ireland is far away from being the stingiest country for data but the networks could be doing better. Look at New Zealand, for example, even their popular fixed-line broadband packs come with archaic caps of 30GB or 60GB (and they're not cheap with Vodafone NZ et all) and their mobile plans are awful. I believe Vodafone IE has a 300GB FUP, which would be unheard of down there at this time (for less than a hefty premium).

Three is doing it right, now if they can go ahead and fill in their many black spots (even in urban areas)...

DECEiFER

MissyFit wrote: »

Thanks all for the advice , he is looking for €420 and he said its a bill pay upgrade . I've asked him to go into the Vodafone shop to see if they will unlock it . Would that make any difference ? I am suppose to meet him t 6 this evening but I think I'll leave it off and look elsewhere . Better to be safe . €420 is a lot of money to me and took me months to save it up . I've heard a few horror stories also about Donedeal regarding iPhones and such . Thanks again .

They will unlock any phone that's been truly done away with for an upgrade. It could make a difference as once they've unlocked it, there's no reason why its IMEI would become blacklisted. Now on the other hand, you'd need to be sure he got it unlocked by Vodafone instead of forking out €10-20 to do it online, because then it'd make no difference whatsoever, if there's a scam going on where he offloads the phone and ditches paying his bill. So only go ahead if you're confident that Vodafone are unlocking the phone.

The other thing to look out for is on a more basic level. How good is the phone's condition? Has it been dropped, or has there been water damage that might not be apparent at first, because you don't necessarily have any recourse, since you're buying it second-hand off a private seller. If you could stretch to 450, you might get one on Adverts. You can always try and haggle a seller down to 420, or meet in the middle.

http://www.adverts.ie/for-sale/q_Galaxy+S4/

The great thing about Adverts is that it's somewhere between DoneDeal and eBay, run by the folks running Boards.ie, plus you get to throw comments at the seller and vice versa before making phone/in-person contact. It's easier to get things done and it's also safer.

Cale

Would I be right in saying that if VF unlock the phone, you ring up your provider and register the IMEI with them, then the phone can no longer be blacklisted by VF?

DECEiFER

Cale wrote: »

Would I be right in saying that if VF unlock the phone, you ring up your provider and register the IMEI with them, then the phone can no longer be blacklisted by VF?

I don't think that'd be necessary. I'm not sure if the new carrier would use it to push OTAs to your phone. Must look into it.

But even if you registered the phone with the new carrier and stuck in the IMEI (I remember you did this with O2 when registering online), I don't think it would mean that Vodafone would automatically have the IMEI removed from its system. The fact that they'd unlock the phone for you means they're releasing it into the wild and there would be no chance that they would blacklist it, unless there is some huge mistake or system bug! So once the phone has been officially been unlocked through Vodafone, it'd be safe, so the only concern then would be its condition.

Cale

But what if the guy gets it unlocked, then wants to make a claim on the insurance, says it's stolen or whatever and calls up to have the IMEI barred?

Surely they could still bar the phone? Unless the IMEI has been registered to another provider...

Riesen_Meal

Cale wrote: »

Would I be right in saying that if VF unlock the phone, you ring up your provider and register the IMEI with them, then the phone can no longer be blacklisted by VF?

Nope, afaik, IMEI blocks are done from the manufacturer, I think they get a list of phones from each provider and lock them down through the cell masts to triangulate the phone position, can take weeks and months in some cases and minutes in other cases...(usually if it's say an IPhone, Apple can have it done in minutes)

DECEiFER

Cale wrote: »

But what if the guy gets it unlocked, then wants to make a claim on the insurance, says it's stolen or whatever and calls up to have the IMEI barred?

Surely they could still bar the phone? Unless the IMEI has been registered to another provider...

I'm not sure if registering it with another provider would give them exclusive access to it, by revoking Vodafone's. I wouldn't think it would, but I'm speculating based on my own experiences with changing carriers. As for the insurance part, I don't know what their policies are either about handling theft claims. I guess I'm not much help on the matter! Ha.

Whatever the case, I think it's been recommended enough at this point to use Adverts.ie instead of DoneDeal. At least there's some facilities there to handle a dispute should something arise, and you know whether you're buying off someone who's new to Adverts.ie and Boards.ie, or someone who has a good reputation and has associated their account with a phone and/or home address (personally I've only done the former).

MissyFit

Cale wrote: »

But what if the guy gets it unlocked, then wants to make a claim on the insurance, says it's stolen or whatever and calls up to have the IMEI barred?

Surely they could still bar the phone? Unless the IMEI has been registered to another provider...

This is something I'm trying to figure out also .

Cale

Fieldog wrote: »

Nope, afaik, IMEI blocks are done from the manufacturer, I think they get a list of phones from each provider and lock them down through the cell masts to triangulate the phone position, can take weeks and months in some cases and minutes in other cases...(usually if it's say an IPhone, Apple can have it done in minutes)

So if they try and lock them down through, say a VF mast, they can't because it'll be registering on a Three mast..?

Or would who's mast it was even matter? Just wondering as the request would come from the network provider...

DECEiFER

Fieldog wrote: »

Nope, afaik, IMEI blocks are done from the manufacturer, I think they get a list of phones from each provider and lock them down through the cell masts to triangulate the phone position, can take weeks and months in some cases and minutes in other cases...(usually if it's say an IPhone, Apple can have it done in minutes)

Would an insurance company have this done if a claim was put through? I know it serves honest policyholders well but damn, that's not good if anyone is buying second-hand from a stranger. Even though there's always a risk when buying second-hand, something like Adverts.ie is good to help mitigate some of the risks assocated with it.

EDIT:

Some info here: http://www.bmw-driver.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-25591.html

At least if you hold the receipt, you can prove that you bought the phone legitimately and that will hopefully screw the guy over for making a fraudulent claim. In the end, the IMEI could be whitelisted again. But it's assuming the guy you're buying it off is a scummy sort. Chances are he's not and he just wants to sell the phone and take his money, but admittedly there's always a small few with ulterior motives. If you can get a receipt, hold onto it for as long as you can.

Cale

DECEiFER wrote: »

If you can get a receipt, hold onto it for as long as you can.

Or take a picture of it with 'Camscanner' from your shiny new GS4 and hold on to the PDF

Riesen_Meal

Cale wrote: »

So if they try and lock them down through, say a VF mast, they can't because it'll be registering on a Three mast..?

Or would who's mast it was even matter? Just wondering as the request would come from the network provider...

Shouldn't matter what mast its on, in a lot of cases they share masts with other providers anyway and networks, similar to the way I think 3 use 02s coverage masts, think they rent them off each other.. Think Tesco piggyback that with 48 also!

That's why there is a huge market for stolen phones on eBay - say your on 3 Ireland with a legit purchased phone, and it gets stolen - you report it to three, 90% chance that phone is barred in Ireland and in some (not a lot of cases) UK, there's nothing stopping the thief shipping it to Uk (if it works) or even Spain or France where it should work perfectly...

DECEiFER

Cale wrote: »

Or take a picture of it with 'Camscanner' from your shiny new GS4 and hold on to the PDF

I wouldn't be too sure that would hold up in a dispute. Ha, all this talk will scare the bejaysus out of MissyFit. But legally speaking, who's to say you didn't take a photo of the receipt before stealing the phone? It's better to have the original copy of it.

Trouble is, though, when you buy a phone, they normally add the name and address of the customer (and the phone number!) to the receipt. I wonder if there's a way for the original customer to have that officially amended to the new owner's details? If there is, that would go a long way towards safeguarding the new ownership.

Fieldog wrote: »

Shouldn't matter what mast its on, in a lot of cases they share masts with other providers anyway and networks, similar to the way I think 3 use 02s coverage masts, think they rent them off each other.. Think Tesco piggyback that with 48 also!

That's why there is a huge market for stolen phones on eBay - say your on 3 Ireland with a legit purchased phone, and it gets stolen - you report it to three, 90% chance that phone is barred in Ireland and in some (not a lot of cases) UK, there's nothing stopping the thief shipping it to Uk (if it works) or even Spain or France where it should work perfectly...

As the thread I linked above mentions, they share a common blacklist here so in Ireland at least, it doesn't matter what network you'd be on. Again, this is all very unlikely to happen so let's not put MissyFit off buying a phone second-hand completely. People do it every day and end up being very happy with their purchase, I'm sure.

Cale

DECEiFER wrote: »

I wouldn't be too sure that would hold up in a dispute. Ha, all this talk will scare the bejaysus out of MissyFit. But legally speaking, who's to say you didn't take a photo of the receipt before stealing the phone? It's better to have the original copy of it

A photo of Missyfit taking a photo of the receipt with the seller and with today's newspaper in hand? :pac:

DECEiFER

Cale wrote: »

A photo of Missyfit taking a photo of the receipt with the seller and with today's newspaper in hand? :pac:

Sure...or just keep the original. :P

Good thinking, though. Wouldn't be a bad idea to have both on hand, if you could manage it! Hahaha.

Riesen_Meal

A phone can be whitelisted again alright, if a block was put in error, or maybe in some cases as a goodwill gesture of the network if a customer was ripped off by a done deal type of scammer...them cases are few and far between though I'd say!

Fair play to Apple though on that BMW forum link you posted Deceifer...

Anyway MissyFit could save all this hassle (and a few quid) and just buy a Nexus 4.... :P

DECEiFER

Fieldog wrote: »

Anyway MissyFit could save all this hassle (and a few quid) and just buy a Nexus 4.... :P

Absolutely but I hesitated recommending it because it might eventually be seen as us Nexus brethren trying to bring unsuspecting people over to the dark side. :cool:

But sure, MissyFit, unless your heart is set on a S4, have you considered a Nexus 4 instead? What are you upgrading from, if you don't mind me asking?

Riesen_Meal

DECEiFER wrote: »

Absolutely but I hesitated recommending it because it might eventually be seen as us Nexus brethren trying to bring unsuspecting people over to the dark side. :cool:

But sure, unless you're heart is set on a S4, have you considering a Nexus 4 instead? What are you upgrading from, if you don't mind me asking?

Or a GS4 Google Edition brand new if Missyfit saves a wee bit more....

Today's exchange is : 492.61 euro

And you get a brand new phone with no crappy Samsung overlay...

Cale

Fieldog wrote: »

Or a GS4 Google Edition brand new if Missyfit saves a wee bit more....

Today's exchange is : 492.61 euro

And you get a brand new phone with no crappy Samsung overlay...

Ah Touchwiz isn't all that bad....besides, Missy, there's no end to what you customize.

DECEiFER

Problem is, it's from the US. Returning a phone should there be a defect is going to be a BITCH. Look at the Nexus 4 apps thread, there's a guy in there in that boat right now. Google refuse to allow him to return it to the UK instead and they insist he return it to the US, from the US, and receive the replacement or repaired device at a US address. He had bought the phone when he was over there but he's not there anymore.

They gave him LG's out-of-warranty repair number and he said he'd give them a call to see what they'd be able to do. It'll cost money, though, but how much...that's the question. Google are generally unwilling to help anyone by bending a simple rule, so when dealing with Google, best do it by the book. That's why even buying from Google using Flubit is better than going direct for us in Ireland, because as far as Google's concerned, Flubit are based in the UK and they'll handle the return to Google for you (and reimburse your postage costs after you've mailed it to them).

Best advice: don't buy from the US. Sure, there's http://www.shipito.com/, but that is costly. The postage costs from the US are always extortionate (even with USPS) compared to the reverse.

A packet up to 500G to the US from here with An Post is €5 (Standard Post) or €9.60 for Registered Post (with €35 insurance cover). Express Post is only €11.50. USPS to Ireland would cost at least double for something of that weight, I'd say over $20 easily without insurance and without tracking. The Americans don't seem to like mailing outside of their borders...

Riesen_Meal

I assumed it was available on the UK play store also, scrap that then so!

:-(

DECEiFER

Fieldog wrote: »

I assumed it was available on the UK play store also, scrap that then so!

:-(

Nope. As I've always said, Google are very American-centered. I reckon they could make the effort to bring it to the other regions within a few weeks but they don't because it's their strategy. If you're an American living in the US, Google loves you! They do this with everything. Look at other experiences like Google Voice. Not American? Sorry! Anyways, rant over. You get the idea. :P

Besides, the US LTE variant is the I9505, which is what the Google Edition is based on. The I9505 comes with a Snapdragon 600 processor at 1.9GHz and the same graphics as the Nexus 4, so it's not the same or quite as powerful as the I9500 (International) octa-core version that we'd get over here. Qualcomm make the LTE chips so they use Qualcomm SoCs on their LTE variants and so far have used ARM (Cortex) for the others. This is why the S III US variant only had a dual-core processor, because at the time, Qualcomm had not released a quad-core processor.