One local man discovered that the hard way when a cell phone he purchased months ago stopped working. Bobby Hurman man says the new smartphone he bought last November was suddenly deactivated leaving him out nearly $700.
Hurman says he bought the Galaxy Note 3 on Ebay late last year.
"And I found this phone on line, bought it, and it worked fine for about 60 days give or take." Said Hurman.
On January 31st, the phone no longer could get a signal.
"I can't make any phone calls and every time I try to, I just get a not registered on network," said Hurman. "I come to find out the phone was actually still attached to another account. And because of that, I couldn't reactivate the phone."
He discovered that the previous owner never fully paid T-Mobile for the phone. Hurman contacted both eBay and PayPal to get his money back.
"They Basically told me the same story that I waited too long, grace period is up." Said Hurman.
Hurman had the phone for more than 60 days before it locked up. eBay gives consumers just 30 days to file a complaint and PayPal, just 45 days. At first, T-Mobile refused to unlock the phone for Hurma, but after we called the company, that changed and now the phone is now working.
T-Mobile also went on to state: "We advise our customers to be cautious when purchasing a phone... to buy from an authorized dealer." "We do not recommend customers purchasing devices from third party Web sites."
Both PayPay and eBay did not comment on this story. However, in situations like this, it's always buyer beware.
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