Expert: DebiN - 1/8/2010

Question
I recently purchased an unlocked sprint palm treo 755p from ebay.the vender says its flashed to metro pcs and that he used it when he lived in florida but then moved to boston and could not use it there. i lost my phone and my boss gave me an old metro pcs samsung r210m and had my number moved to it but the screen always goes out of wack so i have to keep taking the batterie out and back in. as soon as the treo arrived i tested it by dialing any phone number and a sprint recording that says this phone is not allowed to make or recive calls yada yada yada but if i dial 611 the hello helo hello metro pcs and an operator comes on. now i took it to the metro pcs store to transfer my number to it and was told they cant do it cause the esn does not exist in their inventory anymore i even tried to do it over the phone but no success. now im stuck with the treo i cant return it and am still using a cell with a bad display. i can always get anothr phone but i really like the treo. can you help me or am i just wasting my time?

Answer
As much as I hate to say this, but yes, you are wasting your time. If the ESN does not exist in MetroPCS's database, they cannot activate it on their network. I would recommend trying to return the phone to the seller since he sold you something that was jury-rigged to work and was not legitimate on Metro's network. If he won't take it back and refund your money, report him to eBay. I would highly recommend just buying a new phone from MetroPCS. That way, it is under warranty and guaranteed to work. When dealing with CDMA devices, I always recommend buying directly from the carrier. It makes the most sense and is usually the lowest cost way to go as well. I hope this helps. Thanks. DebiN