[kelly_p]

I recently purchased a used storm 9530 for $480.00 off eBay. The seller claimed it was fine and has since disappeared..... I wish I would have seen this site before I bought Oh well!!

It is in perfect condition.....like brand new! I tried putting my old sim card in and it's not working. I even tried putting in a friends card from her storm, and the same thing happens. The phone is on but a message about the sim card appears. I'm not sure if I bought a stolen or lost phone?? Is there anything I could do to get it to work...... or am I out of luck(money)?


thanks..

kelly ;)

[jmwking]

If you're using it on Verizon, I don't believe you need the SIM card at all - it's there for international roaming.

As I understand it, if you're on a different domestic carrier you'll need to get it unlocked to use a SIM card from that carrier.

-jk

[TroyDBrown]

What are you trying to do and what is the exact error.

Originally Posted by kelly_p

I recently purchased a used storm 9530 for $480.00 off eBay. The seller claimed it was fine and has since disappeared..... I wish I would have seen this site before I bought Oh well!!

It is in perfect condition.....like brand new! I tried putting my old sim card in and it's not working. I even tried putting in a friends card from her storm, and the same thing happens. The phone is on but a message about the sim card appears. I'm not sure if I bought a stolen or lost phone?? Is there anything I could do to get it to work...... or am I out of luck(money)?


thanks..

kelly ;)

[kelly_p]

I'm with at&t(crap iphone) right now. I want to switch to verizon with this new phone. I thought It would take my sim but it didn't. I tried my friends card from her storm 9530 and got the same message.... "unable to read sim card". I just called verizon and they said it probably has been reported lost or stolen. My guess is it's locked??? I have no clue. Sorry for being an idiot. And thanks for the help!!!!

[jmwking]

Unless you have a VZW acct you can add the phone onto, VZW won't recognize it on their native network. VZW uses CDMA which doesn't use SIM cards normally. They do provide them on a few phones for (expensive) international roaming only.

If it's locked, it won't recognize anyone else's SIM card, either. You'll be stuck much as you are now.

That said, though, I don't know if VZW ties the included SIM to the CDMA account in any way. Pure speculation here: perhaps they see a VZW SIM card but recognize that it's not in an otherwise registered phone and so won't accept it.

-jk

[coldconfession13]

Ill trade you my 8310 for your storm ha ha

[kelly_p]

Thank you guys for the the fast input!!!

cc13....... if I can't figure something out quick, you can have it;) hehe....

[noelstrom]

Sounds to me like it's locked to VZW. If you want to go with them, get a hold of customer service. Give them the ESN, and ask them if it's on a "negative file" (lost,stolen, unpaid debt accounts). If it's not and it's good, set up your VZW account and you'll be set. The fact that you're getting a SIM error when you put your AT&T card in leads me to believe this phone is not unlocked. But, as you mentioned, you wanted to switch to VZW anyway. Call them - you'll either have it working in minutes, or you'll confirmed you were scammed. Either way, you'll have resolution.

[UncleMike]

Locking is something that's done with SIM-based phones. It prevents subsidized phones from working with any SIM not issued by the carrier that subsidized the phone. This doesn't apply to CDMA-only phones. With CDMA-only phones, carriers will just refuse to activate any phone that didn't originate with them. Since the Storm is both CDMA and GSM (SIM-based), the GSM portion is locked - I think to Vodafone, a carrier that partly owns Verizon, but doesn't offer service under that name in the US.

I suspect that the Storm that the OP has is still locked - preventing it from working with another carrier's SIM. Since it hasn't been activated on Verizon's network, it doesn't work there either. As noelstrom said, since the OP wants to go with Verizon anyway, the solution is to check with and activate the phone on Verizon.

[noelstrom]

So, OP - did you call Verizon?

[ooGMiLLSoo]

Should of just got a verizon account. You wouldn't of had to pay as much. You would of had a brand new phone. And you wouldn't have to go through all this shit.