Blacklist Phone (But I'm Not With Vodafone)

[riffraff34]

Hi, I bought an iphone 13 from eBay a year and a half ago. I used it on EE for 12 months and then moved to O2. My service stopped 6 weeks ago, and after a LOT of effort, O2 finally were able to confirm that the IMEI was blacklisted by Vodafone. The seller is still active on eBay with 100% feedback on over 200 sales. Any thoughts on how I should proceed? Can/will Voda remove the blacklisting? Thank you!

[AnnS]

You are going to need to go back to the seller about this @riffraff34 , this is something that happens when the seller sells a phone and then reports it as lost or stolen but a year and half ago is a long time to wait to make the report, usually this happens within a few weeks and puts the seller in a position to make an insurance claim for the loss.

Unfortunately, only the person who requested the blacklisting can have it removed, the blacklisting is there for a reason.

[riffraff34]

Thanks AnnS, but will Vodafone be able to check who reported it as stolen? Is it a possible error on Vodafone's part? I've checked it on CheckMend UK as recommended by Apple and while it says it was reported as stolen, there is no record of it being claimed for on insurance. It just seems odd that it has happened after a year and a half - dont see a scammer waiting that long.

[AnnS · Accepted solution]

Exactly my thoughts @riffraff34 a year and a half is far too long for a scammer to wait.

The problem you are going to have is GDPR data protection and it's unlikely Vodafone would provide any information as to who reported the phone as lost or stolen or if it was even a mistake. 

Your best bet is to go back to the seller but the seller may not want to cooperate when the sale was completed over a year and a half ago, you can't even make a PayPal claim now. The other probability is the seller wasn't the original owner.

There is always a risk purchasing from sites like ebay, try to save some money and end up paying a lot more.