Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

[BobGreen]

My phone stopped having signal and after the usual off and on, etc for 2 days I connected Three. They told be my phone had been blacklisted but couldn’t give me be reason why. I had to wait 48 hours to have it unblacklisted. This repeated 2 more times with no progress and new requested being put in to unblacklist my phone every 48 hours. After 6 days of waiting and 8 days without signal, use of mobile data, texts or calls I was told I had to send proof of purchase and wait 5 days. I have sent this 2 days ago but have had no reply to my email to confirm receipt, etc. 

My question is how do I know anything is being done to unblacklist my phone as nothing was done for the previous 6 days. Do I wait 5 days to find out nothing has been done and I am told to do something different and wait longer? How can I chase this request with the email I sent to proof@contact.three? 

[JonathanB]

Thanks @BobGreen that clears things up somewhat. I'm really sorry to have to say this but it's likely that despite this being sold through a reseller 2nd hand, either the original owner has reported the phone stolen, or insurance has been claimed against this as a lost or stolen device.

I appreciate that as far as you were concerned this was being supplied to you as a legitimate 2nd hand device, but it's highly unlikely that a network provider will be able to reinstate the IMEI.

I'd recommend that you approach the reseller again, they claim they won't resell any lost/stolen device so you may be able to obtain a replacement or refund if you show them evidence that they've sold a blacklisted device to you.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[BobGreen]

Hi Jonathan, 

You may be correct, but it seems unlikely as I have had the phone more than 15 months. It seems unlikely that it would reported stolen now, unless the seller held the information for this long. It was only blacklisted 2 weeks ago. 

I have contacted the seller and they are at least trying to be helpful, so that’s some movement forward, and a nice change from what I was receiving from Three. 

[JonathanB]

Thanks for clarifying Bob,

That is really odd, and I can see that making it more difficult to deal with through the reseller. I can only speculate in public forum, but the phone could have been on a finance agreement which since defaulted, or perhaps the person who supplied the phone to Music Magpie wasn't actually authorised to do so but this wasn't discovered by the original owner till a later date.

I'll do what I can to help from my end, at the very least I can enquire about whether we are able to disclose which provider would have raised the blacklist request.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[JonathanB]

Hi Bob,

I've checked this out with our fraud specialists and the internal systems do unfortunately only tell us that a device has been blacklisted when this has been reported by another provider, our customer facing teams don't have access to where the request came from.

It may be worth getting some independent, impartial advice on this situation, I can only speculate, but the Citizen's Advice Bureau may be able to direct you to relevant info or support.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[jr0]

Hello

I've been reading about CEIR in GSMA (which is the central database of blacked IMEIs that countries and operators use to swap information about stolen devices). From what I know and understood from GSMA and Ofcom, UK operators are only swaping information of stolen devices within UK (it sounded they are legally imposed to do it by ofcom) and because they swap information through GSMA, looks like every blacklisted record contains the ID of operator who did the action. The operator ID or organization ID or PLMN ID for Three is 234 20 but for instance O2 has more than one, google will tell you all about it, I used https://mcc-mnc.com/ , so Three UK does know who blacklisted your phone.
what I'm guessing is that the Three support/chat agents are defaulting to what they know and are shown in their systems ( no offense to anyone but probably it is not much). I think you could ask them to raise to a more technical team which probably can easily find who and when was done.
The other option, and this is assuming you have been with Three for awhile, is to use the purchase proof and make it very clear that you have been using this phone since XYZ date, and maybe Three Technical team can find records of usage of your phone. Then push it for them to unblock it.
I also think that Three agents are just following the script and making sure this is not stolen phone (no ofense) and because it was not Three who blacklisted maybe there are assuming they cannot unblacklist (again maybe because of fraud policies). But I also reckon Three could reach out to the operator who blacklisted the phone and try to clarify it and maybe liaise this with them for you.

another option is for you to be provided who blacklisted by three (again Three must have this information) and you go speak to the other operator and inform them of their mistake and ask them to unblacklist, but you are on your own as you are not their costumer 😕

last option, make a complaint with Three and also with ombudsman  https://www.commsombudsman.org

good luck

[BobGreen]

Thanks very much for the information. I had been trying to have my query escalated but have had a couple of operator end the chat when I asked to speak to a supervisor. 
Today I managed to get through to the complaints department but was told they didn’t have any information and then that they wouldn’t give me any information as it would cause a data leak. Then ended the chat. Not very helpful. They show no interest in resolving the situation. 
I think the only option I have left is the ombudsman. 

[jr0]

soz

see also ofcom, https://www.ofcom.org.uk/make-a-complaint/complain-about-mobile-phone-or-internet-services/

and https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/mobile-phones/lost-or-stolen-phone/ in case you decide to try contact the operators on your own