So, after you have read my review your still willing to buy a BB phone but, don't have enough money to buy a new one of the shelf so, you decide to look for alternate ways. That's when you decide to buy a second hand BlackBerry phone. Here are a few tips that you need to keep in mind before you buy one and later realize that its a stolen device.
Before I get there, here are a few things you should know by now: Most Network Operators sell BB phones under different plans in most cases in the US, India and UK these phones are sold by Vodafone and T-Mobile in the US, under such plans. The phone PIN# is locked by the service provider. Its next to impossible to have these codes unlocked by the service provider if they are stolen. This is how it works, the first owner's details like his/her name & full address, day of the service being activated the plan type activated, along with a complain details, if the device has been stolen.
Not that they are many way to find out if your device is a stolen one or not, just be smart than be sorry. Read on:
1. Before you decide to purchase a BB secondhand phone, please ensure you go meet the seller of the device check the phone, if the seller offers it for 1/3rd the price you sure know something would be wrong in the phone don't make any mistake of paying him the money and buying the phone. Inquire why he/she is selling the phone. Ask them do they have their BIS service active on the device, why? read the next point.
2. Very often you notice people who sell stolen phone happen to remove the sim card and say they have recently de-activated their BIS services on the phone, they switch on the phone show you all the basic feature but fail to show you if the mail service or the BBM is active or not. B4 u decide to buy on try this smart move, check with your friends who have BB phone and who have BBM service actived on their device, request them to come along with you while you check out the device that is on offer. In such cases you can use your friends sim card on the device that is on offer to check if the BBM service works or not. Your friend who already owns a BB will help you activate the service on that device before you decide to buy it off. If your friend agrees to swtich sim with the other phone that's going to save a lot of time and energy.
One another thing you can notice is if the phone happens to be a stolen on after you have inserted the sim with active BIS you have to follow these steps to activate BIS service on BB device by going to Menu >> settings >> Advanced Settings >> Host Routing Table which you click on it you'll notice this *No Entries* click on the menu button and your have a drop box with the first option being REGISTER NOW click on the register now and wait for the message to be sent within 10mins after sending the register now message you'll get the setting on the phone and a message from the service provider stating that the
BLACKBERRY SERVICE IS ACTIVE ON YOUR PHONE. What you then have to do is to do a hard reset by opening the back batter compartment and pull out the battery while the phone is working and insert the batter back. Wait for the device to start up it will take about 5mins.
Once the device is switched on on the top of the extreme side of the screen you'll notice the Reception Bar and the word edge followed by the reception signal bars. If the word is all inupper case like this EDGE then your device is ready for using BIS service and BBM after you have called the customer service provider to help you create an BB account you will get a unique email address and a password to use the services. In case inspite of getting an message the word is still in lower case like this edge then then device is a stolen device.
In case you have no known close friends with BB phone and service activated the smartest move to make then is to ask the seller to come to the nearest vodafone outlet and have the deviced checked by the sale people with an active SIM card. If the phone fails activate the BIS service i.e, when I say BIS service here I mean when ever you activate your BIS service through your network operator will create an email account and a password so you can activate your email service and add upto 10 email accounts and work on BBM. I have added a few pictures, which aren't the best of clarity but, you see my email address on the bottom of the picture. And my active friends on BBM in the second picture.
Guys, incase you end up buying a device which is working with the owners sim card but isn't working with your sim it, simply means the BB PIN# is still locked to the network provider, in that case all you need to do is have the first owner and the true owner to write a letter confirming him selling the phone to you along with his billing address and your billing address and have an email sent to the service provider with whom the device is locked to, the process takes 15day to a month in some cases before they free the PIN# so that you can use it on any service provider.
I hope this has helped, there's no other way to find out if a BB device has been stolen or not, so buyers play smart and don't get cheated. And please if you lose your device ensure you remember your IMEI # so you can provide it to your service provider and the cops so they can track the device if its switched on again.
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