Phone what is esn

Contact them and request the phones ESN so you can check it yourself before placing your bid. In some cases, this is the only way to get an official company ESN check.

Sprint, for example, no longer does ESN checks over the phone. In the store, you can hand the phone right over to the company rep and ask them to check if the phone is clear for use on their network. On Open the case, pop the battery, and look at the number. On devices that are sealed, like the iPhone, you can find the identification number in the system menu. Once you have the number, you can get to the bottom of things in one of two ways.

You could call the support line for the specific carrier you want to use the phone on. This is by far the best way to go about it.

Call Ting, not Sprint. If the phone has been activated before as a Ting phone, then Sprint will have permanently banned the phone and will report that it has a bad ESN even though Ting will happily activate it again. The same goes for most other major carriers and their resellers; the major carriers will frequently blacklist phones that have been used with their resellers, but the resellers have no problem with them.

These sites will give you a good idea if the ESN is clean or not. As a general rule, the more information online ESN checkers return, the better. In the screenshot above we get a valid ESN check, a carrier, and even a model number. Browse All iPhone Articles Browse All Mac Articles Do I need one? Browse All Android Articles Browse All Smart Home Articles Content on this site may not be copied or republished without formal permission.

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Due to inactivity, your session has expired. Please sign in again to continue. Behind the Battery:. Below are examples of labels that can be found on devices support ESN numbers. Below are examples of labels that can be found on devices that support MEID numbers. MEID is always hexadecimal, represented by 14 characters that are numbers and letters.

The first digit is always A-F. It is always a zero. Accessibility Resource Center Skip to main content. Personal Business. Shop Shop Shop Close. Shop all. Shop all deals. Black Friday. Free phones. My offers. Fios Home Internet. Bring your own device. Certified pre-owned. Featured smartphones. They may not give you information about the account, but they can tell you if a hold was placed and why. Most reputable dealers, even online such as Amazon or eBay , have policies protecting consumers.

If your seller was an individual, they may not know the phone has a balance and that they can settle it themselves. ESN numbers flagged for account non-payment are still usable by other carriers.