re: Legal question for our resident lawyers

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Cuz I'm pissed and it won't cost anything except court filing fees, 50 or 100 maybe

And it's shitty business

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Good for you.

The right lawyer will have this resolved very quickly.

Threat of a story in the paper, or consumer protection TV news segment should resolve it.

Good luck!

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Legal question for our resident lawyers

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No means a lawyer, but I'll tell you how this is about to go down based on simple contract comprehension skills.

Seller sold you a device that had its IMEI associated with a debt (presumably with Verizon). Seller sold you that phone for a fraction of what was owed on the phone. You used said device for a season so Verizon recognized that the phone was still in use but maybe homeboy (seller) hadnt let his account go to shite. You happen to deactivate the device so it no longer registers as active on their end at a similar time that this guy stops paying his bills. You try to reactivate a device that you "stole" from Verizon and they say no, that IMEI still owes us money. They are protecting themselves from folks going in and creating accounts just to ditch em and sell new phones for less money.

You're wasting a whole lot of time and energy. Put that thing on EBAY as a locked device and some Asian will buy it and ship it off somewhere.

Excellent analysis

May be what I do

Do you think I am wrong here?

ETA_ they lock phones even if still in use - yes maybe a waste of time

But real shitty businesses on their part...

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I called my lawyer and we are initiating a lawsuit

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Then why are you asking for lawyer advice? Probably not a good idea for a lawyer to give advice to someone that already has retained counsel.

Your post doesn't really clarify anything.

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Once verizon verified the phone was OK, I paid for it and placed it on my account

7 months later, the guy I bought from failed to pay his bill

Verizon locked the phone and now I can't use it be a use of the original owner's unpaid bill

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Why is Verizon looking at a balance on an account the phone is allegedly no longer registered to?

Do they have a policy stating once a phone is purchased, it's functionality will remain contingent on the account status of the original buyer, regardless of who the phone is registered to? What if the original buyer cancels their account?

This makes more sense. So the debt was incurred prior to the sale of the phone- not after?

The time frame was a little wonky.

I don't fault Verizon for their practices in this instance if the situation you describe is actually what happened. Otherwise, people could transfer phones forever and never pay a bill.

Locked the imei months after I bought it

If they allowed it to transfer to me, then it should be mine

I would have never known if my daughter had not poured a bottle of cleaning solution on the phone I normally use

Was keeping this phone as a backup in case the other one got damaged

Maybe I'm wrong here, I don't think so

Was hoping someone more knowledgeable could offer an opinion...

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Locked the imei months after I bought it

If they allowed it to transfer to me, then it should be mine

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This is where I get lost in the weeds. Either there was a clerical error or you purchased the phone in the twilight period between bills being late and them shutting down the phone.

Question that has to be answered is if they have an obligation to tell you if an unlocked, unstolen phone has an outstanding debt. Might depend on state with respect to "buyer beware" statutes, but I'd imagine they will say they have no obligation to facilitate third party negotiations.

eta: as it comes to no surprise to anyone, I have zero law training or any interest therein. I'm just trying to spitball here because I'm bored

I understand your anger, but it sounds like your damages at worst are 75 dollars. Court costs will probably be at least 250. This isn't legal advice. Just an observation.