activating a phone from ebay?

If I buy a phone off ebay, is there a way I can activate it myself and
attach it to my alltel account? Or do I have to take it in to an alltel
retailer and pay them to do this?

I ask, because my friend with verizon was able to acomplish this by
using some technique and vzw's website for free. Now, I got a good deal
on an alltel razr on ebay and want to know if I can do the same thing,
& make this my phone.

TIA

On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 10:40:57 -0800, yerk55 wrote:

> If I buy a phone off ebay, is there a way I can activate it myself and
> attach it to my alltel account? Or do I have to take it in to an alltel
> retailer and pay them to do this?
>
> I ask, because my friend with verizon was able to acomplish this by
> using some technique and vzw's website for free. Now, I got a good deal
> on an alltel razr on ebay and want to know if I can do the same thing,
> & make this my phone.
>
> TIA

you only need to call them with the info from the phone to make the swap,
only time that will not work is if the phone is on the loss list or its
tied to an account thats suspended or in writeoff status....

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In article <toadnXo6_tPjIgvYnZ2dnUVZ_u3inZ2d@comcast.com>, jjim wrote:

> you only need to call them with the info from the phone to make the swap,
> only time that will not work is if the phone is on the loss list or its
> tied to an account thats suspended or in writeoff status....

Or if it uses different technology (like Cingular or T-Mo; they use GSM
and Alltel uses CDMA) or if it's locked (SprintPCS uses CDMA but locks
their phones for use only on their network).

Your best bet is to find an Alltel phone, then you only have to be
concerned whether or not the phone was reported stolen or the account
was suspended. And a reputable seller will give you the Electronic
Serial Number which you can give Alltel and they can tell you whether
or not you can activate it... the second-best bet is a Verizon phone,
which uses the same technology and shouldn't be locked (Verizon didn't
lock their phones while I was a customer, but I left them in '04).


--
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.