This is the story of buying a smart phone from an ebay seller and how not only am I out the $417 I paid, but it also cost me a week of my time, removal of my cellphone service and the inability to use any secure website that sends 2-factor authentication login codes via text-message.

It’s a warning against using 2-factor authentication, Consumer Cellular, ebay for phones, and paypal. It’s also the story of how a single over zealous or revengeful agent at Consumer Cellular completely screwed-up my everything for 90-days and it’s still not resolved.

I’m a Google Pixel Phone user. I bought my Pixel-2 from Google direct on a Google-Fi network and a payment plan; my Pixel-6 from Google direct, unlocked and paid in full. I broke my existing Pixel-6 and needed a new phone, see #broke for a picture and details.

Rather than buy a completely new phone a couple of months ahead of the Pixel-9 launch I decided to check out ebay. I watched a bunch of auctions complete to get a feel for pricing and found one local just 10-miles away which I bid on, and was surprised when it sold for more than Google were selling the phones new for. Go figure.

My New Google Pixel 8A

6/23 On June 23rd, 2024 at 3:29 PM I submitted a last minute successful bid for a Google Pixel 8A Sold by jenney86. The phone was $371.00 with taxes, fees and shipping I paid via ebay/paypal $417.56 using my credit card.

The item was described as: Google Pixel 8a – Unlocked – 128GB – Bay – Android Smartphone

The seller, jenney86 had 100% feedback, sadly I didn’t notice at the time of purchase that was only 2-sales.

The phone arrived on June 27th. I didn’t activate until the following day, removing the Consumer Cellular SIM car from the Pixel 6 and putting it in the Pixel 8A, going through the Google Android transfer process which worked much better than on previous phones but still not perfect. After a few additional set-up steps and some additional privacy approvals I was up and running.

What Happened Next?

8/4 Nothing. The phone worked perfectly until August 4th. Then it just would not connect to the cellphone network. I tried powering off the phone, factory resetting it. Nothing. I jumped onto Consumer Cellular help-chat, discussed with an agent who after I provided the IMEI said that it was blocked as “stolen”.

I’d kept the box and packaging and jumped on ebay to reach out to the seller Jenney86. No response. I tried messaging via ebay again, still nothing. This time I submitted for an ebay return. The original order said “no return”, but I could still submit it. The return was closed the same day. The seller, Jenney86 responded on August 6th saying:

I apologize we have attempted to respond via your other messages,
but eBay keeps giving us a invalid error.

Sorry to hear that you’re having an issue with it. The device should
be factory unlocked and should work by just simply putting a SIM
card into it. We have no idea what the cellular company is saying as
it’s not a cellular branded device and we have other devices that are
working just fine. If you’re not able to get the device to work and the
device is still in like new condition you can ship the phone back to us
and we will issue a refund once we receive the device.

I replied asking if Jenney86 knew any history about the phone, and saying that I was willing to keep it if we can resolve the problems. I’ve heard nothing since.

Couldn’t you just return it? As I say, I couldn’t do an official ebay return, and I was skeptical at this point of sending the phone back to someone who sold me a stolen phone and them actually sending the money back.

What’s The Problem Then?

ebay’s buyer protection covers only 30-days, doesn’t apply. I opened a Paypal case, same, they closed the case as it was outside 30-days. They provided no help or guidance about what to do. I reported the sale to my credit card provider CapitalOne on August 22nd, they immediately issued a temporary purchase adjustment for $417.56 – the total price. They’ll investigate.

Back to August 6th as the Pixel 8A was no longer working, I removed the SIM from the Pixel 8A, factory reset it and put it back in the box, I’d wasted enough time on it. Putting the SIM in my old Pixel 6 was apparently the worst thing I could have done.

Consumer Cellular – “Award Winning Customer Support”

8/6 I jumped onto my web based account, and used chat to connect with their support on August 6th, at 5:51. I worked with rep. Juanita R. – I explained my problem, that an earlier rep. had told me the phone was registered as stolen and it was probably on a payment plan which wasn’t fully paid and that’s why it worked for a month and was finally flagged as stolen. I asked for a Consumer Cellular report that the phone/IMEI was stolen.

Juanita R. said she couldn’t supply one. I said “I’m sure I can’t be the first person in this position you must have some sort of process to handle this” and it all went wrong from there. We went around in circles from 6:12pm to 7:32pm. I provided the IMEI numbers for bothe Pixel 6 and the 8A, she responded that they were both reported as stolen. I insisted that the Pixel 6 was purchased directly from Google and paid in full at time of purchase. She said I’d have to contact Google to get the block removed. She said the SIM would work in the Pixel 6 (just so confusing. I have the full chat transcript).

At the end of the chat I was prompted to leave feedback by Consumer Cellular:

RATING Bad

COMMENT

this was a complicated and confusing exchange of messages about a phone which is apparently blocked or suspended due to a report of theft. Consumer Cellular could make this much simpler by having an appropriate web page or FAQ to deal with this problem. I refuse to accept that I am the first person to buy a used phone which turns out to have been stolen. I understand that’s not your problem, but as a long standing customer with an up to date account you should be able to standardize a response for such an occurrence. The time spent with Juanita R. must have been expensive for you, it was time consuming and was frustrating for me.

8/6 I jumped on my Google Store account and asked about the two IMEI phones being blocked as stolen. Here is snippets of the Google chat with the IMEI numbers redacted. Net, net, Google says neither phone is registered as stolen.

I paid online for two IMEI checking services. Weirdly neither of those report the Pixel 8A as stolen.

Since we know that Consumer Cellular doesn’t have their own network, and the t-mobile network isn’t available in my neighborhood, chances are I’m using AT&T via Consumer Cellular. Last effort to get to the bottom of this was to go to the local grocery store and purchase an AT&T pre-pay SIM.

AT&T Pre-paid SIM

I unpacked the SIM, followed the instructions and it failed to activate.

I called 1-800 901-9878, AT&T Prepaid. I tried activating through the phone it also failed. I got through to an agent who told me a 3rd party had registered the IMEI as “under contract” and so a 2nd SIM couldn’t be added.

I’m just so confused and exhausted at this point. Also I had no cellphone service. I decided that the only way out was to port my number to Google-Fi network and if they had a problem, since the phones came from them it would be easier to resolve.

Two Factor Authentication and Related issues

From August 6th until August 10th I had no access to my cellphone number and couldn’t receive phone calls or text messages. For the most part through no fault of mine except buying a used phone from ebay.

While I can make calls using messaging apps over wifi nothing else worked. That meant that when I logged on to my bank, social security or other account that sent a PIN via text message meant I couldn’t login. I also receive text messages for my prescription meds refills, I didn’t get the texts and couldn’t reply to confirm delivery. There loads of services I couldn’t use.

My recommendation is if a service you use requires of suggests using 2-factor authentication for security, don’t use it unless you can register two numbers or a number and an email address.

Remember, if you loose access to your primary number for some reason, any reason, you are screwed. Changing your 2-factor number, when you don’t have access to the original is nearly impossible because they’ll want to send a confirmation to the number you don’t have access to.

It’s ok now though, right?

More Consumer Cellular Service

8/10 On Saturday August 10th I called Consumer Cellular via a Google Voice number to get a port-out PIN to transfer my number to Google-Fi. I initially spoke with Rafael. I could tell something was up at his end and he eventually said he’d have to transfer me to someone who could help, a supervisor.

I spoke with Ryan. Ryan told me they can only send a port-out PIN to the actual phone number. Since I didn’t have service, I couldn’t receive it. #catch22 – Ryan put me on hold and went away for a while. He eventually returned and said he was able to restore my service and would send a port-out text. He told me to power-off my phone and switch it back on.

It worked, I was back on the cellphone network. I got the port-out PIN. I asked Ryan why my Google Pixel-6 was blocked, he said it wasn’t it was my Consumer Cellular account. I assume that must have included a block for the Pixel-6 IMEI – I don’t understand enough about how the networks work.

It’s ok now though, right?

Account Access Blocked

8/18 No, I got my monthly bill notification on August 18th. for whatever reason it was $13 higher than normal. I clicked the link to see my invoice.

I tried to login and got a blocked message. I tried the app, it failed to connect with a message that just said “FRAUD”.

8/19 I called the number listed. I was told my account access had been suspended for 90-days due to possible fraud. I explained, I tried, but I was told no my account access was blocked until the 90-days was up and there was nothing they could do. The support person said they’d send the account statement/invoice to my registered email address. Again left exhausted and frustrated.

8/23 The statement never arrived by email and so I called again today. Initially I explained to Austin in support, he said there was nothing he could do and would put me through to someone who could help, Anthony. Anthony explained that I couldn’t access the account due to possible fraud. He also told me that he could not access it either. He could also only send me a summary email with the $ amount in it. He said he would have to send the actual bill/invoice via USPS Mail. I pointed out I’d already received that email as part of auto-bill. He would tell me my bill was higher because of international calls, but for privacy reasons would not tell me the numbers called.

I am effectively being held hostage by my cellphone company. About then I remember writing about this on a long past blog post in 2017, on my work blog.

Joshua A.T. Fairfield, Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University argues that while we think we are buying devices, we don’t really own them, Richard Stallman made the same case in his original drive for open source, way back in the 1980’s. He argued that we don’t own the devices we buy, we are merely buying a one-time license to the software within them.

You don’t have to give up control when you buy a new device. You do own the skeleton of the hardware. You’ll have to make informed choices, and probably will give up control, if you want to own the soul of the machine, it’s software.

I’m afraid to port my number in case I ended up in limbo. I’m unable to view my bill because I’m locked out of my account, and unable to stop paying as it would mean my account being locked out until the 90-days were up. I cannot change my auto-pay or electronic billing options because I am locked out of my account. Until mid-November I’m stuck paying whatever Consumer Cellular so I owe them. They will auto-debit my credit card, I’ll have to go through two levels of support to get a statement via USPS.

Austin replied that yes “I have my own issues with this”. I thanked him, and told him that this was a ridiculous situation that only involved Consumer Cellular. I’d been paying my bills on time, every time since 2021. I won’t get account access back until mid-November.

It’s ok now though, right?

What Did ebay do?

The only company I hadn’t reported this to was ebay. In so much as I’d received the phone and left positive feedback and was outside their 30-day buyer protection window, I didn’t have anything to report.

8/23 I started searching for “ebay stolen” and eventually found a link to a chat support system for buyers. Essentially though since it was outside of the 30-days they would only give me a link to report the seller to their Trust & Safety team. The agent wouldn’t/couldn’t remove my positive feedback for the seller/Jenney86, even though I said I didn’t want anyone else to get ripped off due to my positive feedback. This was my report.

Sold and shipped a phone that after 38-days was blocked on the networks as “stolen”. Tried contacting and submitting a return, return closed, seller not responding.

As a result of putting the SIM in the stolen phone and back in my existing phone, Consumer Cellular marked my account as fraudulent, and blocked my number. While they have restored access after a week, during which I could get no text messages or phone calls, access to my online Consumer Cellular account has been blocked for 90-days. It’s been a disaster.

I have the phone, the original packaging and the sellers name and address on the mailing label. I can’t use the phone. I was open to working with the seller to resolve this, but they have not responded for 2-weeks. Even if they did now, I would be unwilling to send the phone back for a refund as there is no guarantee I’d ever get my money.

Paypal closed the case as it was over 30-days, your moneyback doesn’t apply. I’m screwed. This has been terrible.

That’s all, right?

Final Steps

I contacted my local police and plan to report the phone as stolen and will give the sellers name and address. I reported it as a non-emergency. If the police require it, I’m happy to surrender the phone and box. My guess is though, they won’t care and won’t take any action.

I wrote to the executive in charge of customer satisfaction at the Consumer Cellular corporate HQ in Scottsdale Arizona ^[1]USPS.com® – USPS Tracking® Results. I attached a hardcopy version of this post. It’s my opinion that while I was responsible for the original sin, the rest of this is a farse of entirely Consumer Cellular’s own making.

I don’t really know, and can’t prove that the Pixel-8A was actually stolen. Remember, the same agent later told me the Pixel-6 was stolen which both I and Google know it wasn’t.

Beyond that, I plan to just let this go and hope CapitalOne come through in the end. CapitalOne are the only company in this whole process who have come through with any integrity. It was also incredibly easy to report the fraud/stolen phone charge to them and they acted immediately.

I doubt anyone will read this far, if you do, I will update depending on what happens. Thanks for reading. A list of updates can be found at the end.

Why Did I Need A New Phone?

Typically I’m not a new technology chaser when it comes to anything anymore. Since I’m on a fixed income and pension, I neither have the budget or need for something new every year or two. Given I had a Pixel 2 for 4-years, and the Pixel-6 3-years, it’s fairly safe to assume I might have upgraded in 2025 to a Pixel-10 assuming there is such a thing.

However, this happened back in June. I have really no idea how. Since I’m a guy, I keep the phone in my pocket and the hole attracts pocket lint, dust and as seen even threads. Pictures are often blurry when I try take them.

UPDATES:
8/23/24 6:30pm minor updates and clarifications about my current Consumer Cellular predicament.
8/27/24 9am update to include USPS tracking of certified mail letter etc.