Service Project Gone Wrong

[TheEpitome1920]

Has your chapter had a service project where you donated used cell phones to a battered women's shelter? Or something similiar?

Well a Soror informed me the other day that she participated in this program and SOME HOW a person was able to get the phone turned back on in HER name. She wound up with a $3,000 cell phone bill. Has anyone else heard of this happening?

[winneythepooh7]

Oh my! That is crazy! Did she end up getting out of the bill? It sounds like the same thing as when people get ahold of your credit card info. That sucks.

[Lady Pi Phi]

Originally posted by TheEpitome1920
Has your chapter had a service project where you donated used cell phones to a battered women's shelter? Or something similiar?

Well a Soror informed me the other day that she participated in this program and SOME HOW a person was able to get the phone turned back on in HER name. She wound up with a $3,000 cell phone bill. Has anyone else heard of this happening?

Yeah I have heard of people being able to turn deactivated cells on. People clone the cell number and it gets back to the previous owner. Something along those line. I have heard of it though.

[decadence]

Orignally posted by TheEpitome1920: Has your chapter had a service project where you donated used cell phones to a battered women's shelter? Or something similiar?

Well a Soror informed me the other day that she participated in this program and SOME HOW a person was able to get the phone turned back on in HER name. She wound up with a $3,000 cell phone bill. Has anyone else heard of this happening?

No / N/A.

Although, a similar thing happened to my dad. His car was broken into in say about August and his cellphone was stolen. It was reported to the police first and then to the cellphone company that he had the contract with - where he gave them the crime number. He only had a month to go on his contract so it was agreed he'd just get a new SIM/phone but that he wouldn't need to change all his direct debits for the new contract (same account #).
He also had a pay as you go SIM so he waited a while to go and get a new phone with new contract SIM etc. He went in to the store, arranged things and all was well with his new phone, new number, same account.

Some time later, he gets a text message asking him to call Customer Services. He does so (I spoke to them too), the company messed up and reactivated his cancelled (blacklisted as was stolen) number instead of whatever else they should have done and in 3 days that person rang up a (equivalent of) over $1000.

Since he had the crime number logged with them and he had reported it stolen and they shouldn't have reactivated it, he didn't have to pay any of that.

I hope your friend (although it wasn't stolen) took measures to ensure the phone company knew she no longer had the phone. She should also report it to the police asap. Regardless of who might've used it or their cirumstances (and chances are from the size of the bill that the phone was sold on).

[Kevin]

Most American phones (except for GSM which is becoming prevalant) are identified on their network by way of their ESN#. The ESN is usually associated with the phone# which is associated with the account# and that's how the whole billing/phone use thing works.

When these companies take phones for charity purposes, they are SUPPOSED to wipe the phone's memory. Easily done on most models, especially Nokia which is by far the easiest to program.

If you have a Nokia and want to get your phone number off of it before donating to charity, just go to the main screen (can be done by pressing the end key) and then press *#639 hit next until you get to the phone # and then enter all 0's. Keep going and eventually the phone will reset.

[WCUgirl]

Oh! That's not good. We've done that - and I'm the one who's been collecting the phones from my alum. association to give to the lady at the Alum. Panhellenic who is in turn giving them to the shelter. So I'll feel really really bad if something like this happens, 'cause they'll probably all yell at me!

What about the address books? If we don't erase those before handing over the phones, do they erase that as well?

[Lady Pi Phi]

Originally posted by AXiD670
Oh! That's not good. We've done that - and I'm the one who's been collecting the phones from my alum. association to give to the lady at the Alum. Panhellenic who is in turn giving them to the shelter. So I'll feel really really bad if something like this happens, 'cause they'll probably all yell at me!

What about the address books? If we don't erase those before handing over the phones, do they erase that as well?

You should probably send an email to your alum who aer donating phones and tell them before they hand over their phone make sure they erase everything on it.

[Kevin]

Originally posted by AXiD670
Oh! That's not good. We've done that - and I'm the one who's been collecting the phones from my alum. association to give to the lady at the Alum. Panhellenic who is in turn giving them to the shelter. So I'll feel really really bad if something like this happens, 'cause they'll probably all yell at me!

What about the address books? If we don't erase those before handing over the phones, do they erase that as well?

Probably not.

[ZTAngel]

Originally posted by ktsnake
Most American phones (except for GSM which is becoming prevalant) are identified on their network by way of their ESN#. The ESN is usually associated with the phone# which is associated with the account# and that's how the whole billing/phone use thing works.

When these companies take phones for charity purposes, they are SUPPOSED to wipe the phone's memory. Easily done on most models, especially Nokia which is by far the easiest to program.

If you have a Nokia and want to get your phone number off of it before donating to charity, just go to the main screen (can be done by pressing the end key) and then press *#639 hit next until you get to the phone # and then enter all 0's. Keep going and eventually the phone will reset.

Is there a way to find out how to do this for your particular phone? I've been wanting to donate my old Motorola phone for a while but haven't gotten around to it. This worries me enough to not want to donate it.
Just wondering if there's website or if I could call Motorola to find out how to do this.

[Kevin]

If you have your original package, there should be something called "programming instructions". If it's an older motorola phone, you could probably find the instructions on the www. I didn't deal a whole lot with them, but as I recall their programming wasn't too bad.

Newer phones are beeotch to do. If you want the phone # removed, you need to go to your carrier (or call customer service). Newer phones have unlock codes that are based on some kind of formula that I guess involves the ESN of the phone. Although you could probably find an unlock code generator on the www if you looked hard enough.

[_Opi_]

I was thinking of that as a service project.

I guess not anymore

[Kevin]

Originally posted by _Opi_
I was thinking of that as a service project.

I guess not anymore

It's not really a bad deal. You just need to get carriers to agree to reset the phones as they are brought in. There are probably no more than 4 or 5 carriers in your area, so you wouldn't have much of a problem here in all likelihood.

Don't contact their retail stores, call their local corporate office.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally posted by Lady Pi Phi
Yeah I have heard of people being able to turn deactivated cells on. People clone the cell number and it gets back to the previous owner. Something along those line. I have heard of it though.

And I'd like to thank AT&T for STILL after 3 years, trying to get us to pay $400 that I do not owe.

[adpialumcsuc]

I have heard of this so many times. My husband used to work for AT&T wireless and people would have this happen all the time. Most of the time it was because they lost their phone or gave it to someone they didn't know or something along those lines. I have a huge box at home of phones that we have had over the years. I wanted to throw them in the trash but hubby won't let me because he knows how easy it is to do just that.