Can I buy a phone off ebay?

Hey guys,

I have a telus contract for 2 years. I lost my Audiovox 8390 or whatever it is about 2 weeks ago. I'm going to have to buy a new one but I never use my phone and hate to. On ebay I've noticed a lot of people selling Telus phones. Some are from Verizon but most are the actual Telus ones, with Telus boxes and so on. If they are deactivated, can I use them on my account? Or is there a big procedure to do that? Is it better to just spend $150 on a new phone or would a Telus phone on eBay work for me? Thanks!

Yea, you can use it, just for my information is Telus a GSM, or is it a CMDA? Either way, contact telus, they can tell you better.

It has to be CDMA telus does not provide GSM service. That sucks, however, when i lost my phone, I was able to borrow a friend's old phone and activate it on my account. That is ok, some agents will try to tell you that the phone is too old, but then again try to get a phone that was used recently, ie. not a 4 years old phone. That is my experience with telus.

I bought one off ebay last week that has a telus nameplate, but once I figured out how to activate it, it said Verizon on the LCD. It apprears to receive and make calls, but I have no idea if I'm paying $5 per minute or if it's really working properly. Telus was of NO help. They couldn't even access my account to see what I was being charged. (Sorry, wait till your bill comes). If it's truly been working in the Telus network, no problem. Otherwise, buyer beware. And if anyone knows how to make my phone say TELUS when I turn it on, please tell me.

^^how did u program your phone to telus?

before buying a cell phone thru ebay. ask the seller the esn number of that phone and give telus a call, give the esn number of that phone to telus if they can activate this esn number thru there network. if telus give you o.k! then go ahead and but this phone.

I went to the Telus web activation page and followed the instructions. The only problem I had was that the Telus code to start things off didn't work, but 000000 did. After that, it programmed and I just put in my Telus number. My June bill ends today, so I'll know shortly if it works properly. Yesterday a dealer in Vancouver told me it should be okay. We shall see.

You can only activate a phone on the Telus network if it is a Telus branded phone only(unless it's Mike phone that uses SIM cards). Telus has the ability to activate other CDMA phones but they will not do it for you. Only CDMA phones with their ESN # with Telus, they will only activate so beware when you purchase a used CDMA phone. Any CDMA phone that was used by a different carrier will not work, or I should say, will not be activated by Telus.