Unfair condition of second hand mobile phone sales

[Anonymous]

Mobile phone sales

Responsible department: Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Right now there is no option with the mobile phone operators to transfer ownership of a mobile phone, therefore a second hand phone can be blocked by the original owner simply by quoting the IMEI number and having that phone reported lost or stolen.

I call that the mobile operators make a change in the industry to allow us to buy second hand phone so that they truly would be ours.

It should be a criminal offence to block some one else's phone.

Please vote for this change so that your second hand phone is more secure, and not open to someone else blocking it.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/67125

[MI5]

Fully agree!

[Anonymous]

We do hear of horror stories where phone are blocked due to insurance fraud.

However if one buys their second hand phone from high street shops such as CEX then your covered by the shop warranty.

We need the security feature of imei blocking for the right reasons.

One could call for the ban of second hand mobiles on well known auction sites.

This wouldn't stop it but would possibly cut it down.

[MI5]

Nothing to say the rightful owner still can't block a phone for the right reasons.
The law needs to move in time and keep pace with modern society which it doesn't currently do.

[Anonymous]

Which is why I said.... "We need the security feature of imei blocking for the right reasons."

Probably easy to say but not so easy to do.

I'm no armchair lawyer but I'm sure the industry and law makers will have already looked at this.

Be interesting if anyone could link into any official white papers etc on this.

[MI5]

A change to the current law on ownership would benefit us all and we should be supporting it 100%

[jonsie]

The responsibility for any change of ownership would obviously be on the seller which should be easy enough to do either by phone or online form (with security details passed) and new owner details added.

It may be a little inconvenient and time consuming but everything should be done to protect both the buyer and seller.

Don't forget, a second hand phone can be used for illegal purposes and traced back to the registered owner. If he has no details of the sale things could be a little difficult to explain. There is the obvious fraud element by the seller too.

I can't understand why something like this hasn't been implemented a long time ago. It should be treated exactly like selling a car.

[Anonymous]

I concur this does need looking at.

[Anonymous]

Yeh currently mobile operators do not allow the transfer of ownership of the IMEI number. I got caught and there was no way to resolve the issue. Contacted the police who stated that it is a civil matter and I need to deal with the original owner

[Anonymous]

I would tend to buy from reputable stores with a valid receipt showing the imei number