Forum Discussion
Received an activated phone instead of a brand new
Hola,
We recently added a new line to our family plan and ordered a brand new iPhone 13 mini for the new line. When I received the phone and wanted to activate it, a t-mobile agent told me that the device is already activated with another plan and even its hotspot is used for like half an GB! The agent was not able to answer my question that how it is possible that they send me a brand new phone but it is already activated.
Next day, I called t-mobile customer service to figure out what has happened. The new agent's explanation was not even reasonable! I was asking a clear question that why the phone is activated and who had access to the IMEI for activation, but the agent told me to turn on the phone (it was my first time) and do some setup. Then, they said it is activated now!! I repeated my question and after some waiting, here came an interesting explanation that: sometimes t-mobile has an automatic phone activation when we order a phone online!!! Anyway, this answer was wrong from the beginning because not only dates did not match but also it was not justifying the phone's hotspot usage. At the end, they were not able to solve the issue and redirected me to another agent!
The other agent asked a brief description of the problem and said that it is better to call an agent from sprint (our plan was first created with sprint). The agent set a call back for next day to discuss the issue with a sprint agent. After I hanged up the phone, I saw that they set a wrong call back time!
After all of these, I asked my friend (who opened the phone’s box) about whether the box was open or not when we received it, and it seems like one of the horizontal papers that are torn off on the iPhone boxes, was already opened from one side!
So, it seems like not only t-mobile sent me a used iPhone instead of a brand new, but no one was also able to help me with the problem and accept that the phone is not brand new! Please let me know of any solution that comes to your mind!
Not sure I understand the whole sequence because it’s confusing how you activated the phone but were not the one who opened the package?
Regardless, if you are within 20 days of when your phone shipped from Tmobile, just tell them you want to cancel and return. Then place a new order. The 20 days policy is "for any reason". If they bother asking just say "because you sent me a used phone and I paid for a new one." They may offer an exchange for another iPhone without cancelling your line so that would work too.
Thanks for the help.
I haven't activated the phone, it was activated with another plan before I receive it. They probably sold the device to someone else and maybe that person returned the phone, and t-mobile sent it to me as a brand new phone!
I probably need to do what you said.
It was just interesting that how their agents made everything complicated by telling unreasonable explanations.
Sounds like you may have been sold a refurbished phone.. yikes
