Why no mobile/smartphone sale allowed in MM ?

Abraham said:
I said quite clearly

Stolen or reportedly stolen phones can get blocked. Nothing to do with the retailer you bought it from originally, but the person reselling it on here. Working around this block is as far as I'm aware illegal in this country.
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Well, I haven't heard of a blocked mobile in my whole life and some time ago I've even been working in a mobile phone shop/service, we'll sell/buy hundreds every week, buy 'dodgy' ones for silly money and yet I never had a chance to deal with a blocked one hence this whole thing seems silly to me.


And also, why would lets say you, or me, or anyone else with good history on this forum with good positive feedback, mess up his reputation after working on it for years and get banned for some silly phone ?
Scammers/thieves don't spend 3yrs on forums and selling good working items just to then sell 1 dodgy phone.

Even ebay isn't that safe on this matter, a guy with 500 feedback can still sell 2-3dodgy phones and call the buyers morons or blame it or anything else and ppl will still buy from him because it's still 500 vs 2-3.
Here if you've done it once, you're out.

As I said, as much as I'm aware that it might be dodgy or whatever, I feel much more confident buying a phone in here than anywhere else.
 
PhoenixUK said:
Well, I haven't heard of a blocked mobile in my whole life and some time ago I've even been working in a mobile phone shop/service, we'll sell/buy hundreds every week, buy 'dodgy' ones for silly money and yet I never had a chance to deal with a blocked one hence this whole thing seems silly to me.
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Well it's extremely simple to do, and happens to a lot of stolen phones. suprised you've never seen one if you worked in a phone shop that dealt in dodgy phones.
 
PhoenixUK said:
Well, I haven't heard of a blocked mobile in my whole life and some time ago I've even been working in a mobile phone shop/service, we'll sell/buy hundreds every week, buy 'dodgy' ones for silly money and yet I never had a chance to deal with a blocked one hence this whole thing seems silly to me.
.
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It is a very regular thing to "blacklist" IMEI numbers :confused: Look at the number of iphones and things on ebay which say things like "unable to get network" (cue iphone 4 jokes ;)) and the like, all most likely stolen handsets - i bet very few are actually faulty.
 
Well then, you can get blocked phone if you're unlucky but we could say that obviously this is the same as being scammed, and you can get scammed from anything, even worse than phone you can get scammed from 1000quid worth i7 rig and never see it.

And the chance of getting blocked mobile isn't any higher than getting scammed in here,
Most likely only people with few fake feedback comments and no history on the forums will do it and that can be very easily prevent by using BRAIN ! : )

How about we allow sale if you have the original box (which obviously has the phone serial number on it so it can't be just any box ) or receipt to confirm that it's yours and has not been stolen?

And anyways as said before, your chance of getting stolen blocked phone is just as high as getting scammed of anything else as this is actually considered a scam since you're getting 'faulty' item.
 
I too wish it was possible to sell mobiles and the like on the MM, as I get bored with mobiles often and find myself taking them into CEX who will then resell them with a 50% markup or higher. However, at the same time, I can understand the logic behind not allowing them, during my time working for Vodafone the amount of IMEI blacklisted handsets I would run into on a daily basis makes it hard for me to comprehend the amount of stolen kit out there. Add to that the fact that every now and then phones are blocked mistakenly, and you get a really messy can of worms that you just don't want to open.
 
At the rate the Mobiles forum shifts through model upgrades it would be silly not to have some kind of Mobile phone sell and trade allowed in MM - it would save people money and save people the hassle of having to use....eBay (!) or Gumtree (ugh).
 
Khaaan! said:
At the rate the Mobiles forum shifts through model upgrades it would be silly not to have some kind of Mobile phone sell and trade allowed in MM - it would save people money and save people the hassle of having to use....eBay (!) or Gumtree (ugh).
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THIS sold my HTC HD2 on the bay at a cost of one idiot timewaster and the relisted item cost £38 in selling fees. Its a joke:rolleyes:
 
PhoenixUK said:
And anyways as said before, your chance of getting stolen blocked phone is just as high as getting scammed of anything else as this is actually considered a scam since you're getting 'faulty' item.
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Not sure how you don't get the difference, the original owner of the phone can get the IMEI blocked at the drop of a hat, at any time throughout the phones life. The seller could have bought a used phone off ebay, decides it's not for them so sells it on MM, all goes fine, not a problem, but a week later the ebay seller maliciously, or the person the ebay seller nicked the phone off has it blocked.

I don't particularly disagree with selling phones on the MM, just don't get how you can't see the difference with phones being able to be blocked AT ANY TIME and selling a duff piece of hardware.

I think a sensible route, if one were to be considered would be to have phone sales restricted to a higher criteria of user than the normal MM, and maybe enforce having original proof of purchase or similar.
 
i know nothing about blocking of phones but im sure nokia etc don't just block phones on whims wojuld they not require a police statement or something to that effect. What benefit would that be to the seller to block it.

If i bought it on ebay and it was subsequently blocked i'd be on to both ebay and the phone maker to get it deblocked. I'd also ask for the phones details including the IMEI number and proof of purchase before buying.
 
Too high risk. Same as car audio. Yes, anything can be stolen/dodgy, but both of the above are easy and common targets.

It's all great until a deal goes pear-shaped (or, more usually, several deals). Then you get a clamour of members expecting the Dons to sort it out. Like they can do anything.

Easier just to nip the problem in the bud and say no.
 
jas72 said:
i know nothing about blocking of phones but im sure nokia etc don't just block phones on whims wojuld they not require a police statement or something to that effect. What benefit would that be to the seller to block it.

If i bought it on ebay and it was subsequently blocked i'd be on to both ebay and the phone maker to get it deblocked. I'd also ask for the phones details including the IMEI number and proof of purchase before buying.
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The networks block stolen IMEI's not the manufacturers. They do it when their customers report the phone stolen and the blacklisted IMEI is shared between all UK operators.
 
Abraham said:
Not sure how you don't get the difference, the original owner of the phone can get the IMEI blocked at the drop of a hat, at any time throughout the phones life. The seller could have bought a used phone off ebay, decides it's not for them so sells it on MM, all goes fine, not a problem, but a week later the ebay seller maliciously, or the person the ebay seller nicked the phone off has it blocked.

I don't particularly disagree with selling phones on the MM, just don't get how you can't see the difference with phones being able to be blocked AT ANY TIME and selling a duff piece of hardware.

I think a sensible route, if one were to be considered would be to have phone sales restricted to a higher criteria of user than the normal MM, and maybe enforce having original proof of purchase or similar.
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Berserker said:
Too high risk. Same as car audio. Yes, anything can be stolen/dodgy, but both of the above are easy and common targets.

It's all great until a deal goes pear-shaped (or, more usually, several deals). Then you get a clamour of members expecting the Dons to sort it out. Like they can do anything.

Easier just to nip the problem in the bud and say no.
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See what I've read later on, sure fine, you can get it blocked now or later whatever. BUT it doesn't change the fact that at the end of the day it's just a scam.

Example 1: You buy a laptop for 200pounds, you pay the money and the laptop never shows up.

Example 2: You buy a mobile phone for 200pounds, the phone comes in but it's blocked.

Example 3: You buy a mobile phone for 200pounds, the phone comes in working but week later gets blocked.


OUTPUT = THE SAME = YOU JUST GOT SCAMMED AND YOU're 200QUID SHORT AND NEITHER DONS OR ANYONE ELSE HERE CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

So how to prevent from getting scammed ? Check some posts of the person you're buying from ( obviously if they write a lot of serious and constructive posts and been on the forums for years - I see no reason why would they scam anyone ). Check their feedback, if they have low feedback, don't buy or ask them to send it first to test it.


Also as I said if you're that sensitive about the 'phone history' part, maybe just allow if they have the original box / receipt - then you can be sure the phone hasn't been stolen.

But at the end of the day it's just another type of scam that can happen with just about anything.

At least if you get scammed with blocked phone, you can sell the bits to get some cash back ( screens - very expensive, original covers too for some ) rather than pay for a laptop/gpu/cpu/pc/ speakers, pay the money and never see them ;-).

So yeh, I'd prefer to get a blocked phone than a burnt CPU or pay for something and never get it.
 
bump!

Would like to see more dons opinion on it, I think the arguments above are pretty strong. It's just another way of scam but in some way even better to get dodgy phone than get nothing ; ).
 
Suppose it has a high link to insurance fraud....

If I wanted to sell my iPhone 4, i would get insurance on it.... Sell it on here.... Profit :D .... Report it lost 1 week later.... Get a replacement.... Profit :D

For this I think they are right not to allow it..... Just go on ebay.... you have far more protection!
 
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