[talrodil]

Let's say hypothetically:

You SB a Samsung or Iphone in store or online (from third party retailer, not Amazon not Samsung) and get a refund. Eventually the retailer finds the box with false contents.

At this point, they should blacklist the IMEI, at least in the origin country. But some phones are not blacklisted.

1. Why is that? Seems like adding the IMEI to a blacklist would be super quick, why wouldn't they do that in every fraud case?
   
2. Some SEs have had success by only activating the device after 30-60 days. If the IMEI was blocked on day 0, why does the waiting period matter?
   

Any insights?

[RefundCEO]

Let's say hypothetically:

You SB a Samsung or Iphone in store or online (from third party retailer, not Amazon not Samsung) and get a refund. Eventually the retailer finds the box with false contents.

At this point, they should blacklist the IMEI, at least in the origin country. But some phones are not blacklisted.

1. Why is that? Seems like adding the IMEI to a blacklist would be super quick, why wouldn't they do that in every fraud case?
   
2. Some SEs have had success by only activating the device after 30-60 days. If the IMEI was blocked on day 0, why does the waiting period matter?
   

Any insights?

Buy it from Verizon, or any store other than Samsung.com. I have personally gotten ipads from Apple, $1000 phones from T-mobile and Verizon and they were never locked or blacklisted. Verizon has a 60 day policy where no matter what they unlock it you just cant use Verizons service.

If you buy it directly from Samsung.com they will disable your devices they did it to 2 of my phones. And while there are services that can unlock them, the problem is they install their own Device Manager or Trusted Installer or whatever it’s called and you can’t take it off or it blocks it again. And they might be monitoring you like a perverted ex spying on his ex girlfriend with spyware.

[talrodil]

Buy it from Verizon, or any store other than Samsung.com.  I have personally gotten ipads from Apple, $1000 phones from T-mobile and Verizon and they were never locked or blacklisted. Verizon has a 60 day policy where no matter what they unlock it you just cant use Verizons service.

If you buy it directly from Samsung.com they will disable your devices they did it to 2 of my phones. And while there are services that can unlock them, the problem is they install their own Device Manager or Trusted Installer or whatever it’s called and you can’t take it off or it blocks it again. And they might be monitoring you like a perverted ex spying on his ex girlfriend with spyware.

Yeah totally wouldn't install a sketchy app to un-blacklist a device, rather just scrap the device at that point.

That's very interesting about T-Mobile and Verizon! In this country there's only carrier-unlocked devices for sale, and I would assume (but not 100% sure) that a blacklist on one carrier would mean blacklist on all carriers.

Also yeah - avoiding Samsung.com. It makes sense that the manufacturer can easily deactivate a device based on IMEI without too much hassle and with very little evidence. A third party retailer probably needs to make a police report, get report to manufacturer, get the carrier involved etc. I can see how that's just too much hassle for the average retail employee, if there's no direct theft involved.

Maybe I'll try to contact a talkative employee about this. Not that it matters to me personally. It's not like I'm trying to avoid blacklisting a bunch of phones that I plan to sell later or anything like that.