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New Member

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25.7K Messages

Friday, July 5th, 2019 10:53 PM

Selling an unopened new phone - is it attached to a number or account?

Hello,

 

recently my grandma was having trouble with her phone. She went into the nearest AT&t store and they talked her into buying a new one - Charged to the family account.  When she got home we looked at her phone and fixed the issue ourselves.  We never opened or touched the new phone, and we talked to customer service who refunded us credit on the account and just said whatever/keep the phone that was received.  My question is can I sell this unopened phone - on ebay for instance - without any trouble of it being attached to her phone number?

 

I assume it is locked to At&T service, but the sticker on the front of the shrink wrap has her name and number on it, so I thought I would ask here before selling.  

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

5 years ago

I’m not believing they told you to keep the phone. I suspect if it’s not returned, you will be billed again.  The return period is 14 days. Anyway, it’s your phone, you can do whatever you want with it. If you do sell it, the buyer may run into an issue activating it. Also, remove the SIM card. If the SIM card in the phone is activated, it may be with your grandmother’s number.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

5 years ago

Appreciate the response, I will have to look into return process/information I received regarding keeping it as I am getting most of this information second hand. 

 

If I were to sell it, you're saying I should open it and remove the sim card.   They can activate a sim card in an unopened phone? My apologies if that's a naive / dumb question.  

ACE - Expert

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64.7K Messages

5 years ago

They can activate a sim card in an unopened phone?

If there is a SIM card in the phone, yes it can be activated and if they pre-assigned your grandmother’s number to that SIM card, then when it is activated it will have her number and her current sim card will be deactivated.

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