[Pumathecat]

what if the pin was never activated but you can't set up the email accnt? I read through the thread and still no ans. help.

[Michael Hepples]

what if the pin was never activated but you can't set up the email accnt? I read through the thread and still no ans. help.

OK. First, the standard admonishment about threadjacking. It's a nono, and not the best way to get help. Now, that's out of the way.

What exactly is the issue? Brand new, from VZW Storm, unlocked for use on At&T? Any other services work on it? Or is the email the only thing you can't get working?

[Pumathecat]

email and the BBM. ok, so next time i should start a new thread for the same kind on ques? Is that how it works?

[jayman2]

Just a question. Why would you downgrade the OS when .148 is the official VZW release? And yes, as I mentioned, it is an unfortunate thing, but the PIN being released is one of those things most people don't think of when selling, and most people don't ask when buying. Good luck, and I hope it works out for you in the end.

When I recieved the phone it had .75 on it. I want it to be the same if I can return it so there won't be any problems. I would like to keep it a little longer and continue to troublshoot, but if I keep it too long, PayPal probably won't deal with me. I've had it since this past Wed.

[Michael Hepples]

When I recieved the phone it had .75 on it. I want it to be the same if I can return it so there won't be any problems. I would like to keep it a little longer and continue to troublshoot, but if I keep it too long, PayPal probably won't deal with me. I've had it since this past Wed.

Ah, I see. Carry on then. Given the issues we have discussed here, and the conclusions you have come to, I would suggest taking a quick look at the PayPal agreement, and see how many days you have left to make a report, before deciding how long you want to troubleshoot it for. BTW, feel free to PM me if you do decide to continue to troubleshoot attempt, and I'll be happy to help.

[Michael Hepples]

email and the BBM. ok, so next time i should start a new thread for the same kind on ques? Is that how it works?

Typically, yes. The suggested route is to see if your question has already been asked and answered, then post a new thread if you can't find it. The reason I don't suggest threadjacking, is it takes away from potential help for the OP in this case, and you may not get the same amount of help yourself. That being said, I will get off the high horse (I'm afraid of heights anyways) and point out my sig. There is a thread linked there, where you can get help whenever you need, no question is a dumb question, and the fact that I will help via PM anytime.

Now, to your issue. Can you browse the internet? This sounds like a data issue. Do you have the Blackberry Data Plan, not just the AT&T data plan? The plan which allows access to BIS?

[Pumathecat]

well I should have the blackberry data plan since I called att and had them switch it over to it from the plain data plan. I can't check it online cause att doesn't show if I have it or not. Would that be the problem? I called att before and because the phone is from verizon, they were giving me alot of '...it's not supported by us...' responses, so I thought that the problem was the plan. so i switched it.

[Michael Hepples]

First thing's first, you should contact them and make sure that you have a Blackberry data plan on your account. Regardless of what model, or what branding, a BB needs a BB data plan, and they should be able to give you at least that much info. Without the BB data plan, any other help I could provide to get you up and running would be useless, as you won't have a connection to BIS.

[Pumathecat]

ok. first things first. Then I'll get back.

[Michael Hepples]

ok. first things first. Then I'll get back.

I'll be waiting.

[jayman2]

I'm still receiving the previous owners email. Just as a test, I tried to foward one of the emails and got the message, "messaging services are not configured". Where do I setup "messaging services?"

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[srle_b]

Well, it was late last night when I emailed the ebay seller, whom I bought my Storm from. I'm waiting to hear from him now. He has a 98.9 positive feedback, so I should be hearing from him.

I even called VZ CS this morning before work and explained it to them. They were very cool and understanding, but they said they could not clear the pin without speaking to the previous owner. For security reasons. I can surely understand that. For all they know, the phone may not even be mine.

This should be a good lesson for anyone thinking of buying a used phone off ebay, or anywhere. Make sure the PIN is released, or you can forget about using email.

You can use the previous owners email instead LOL

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

That is crazy I called Verizon today and they were so rude to me. I explained the whole deal about the phone and everything and they said they will not release the PIN to any other carrier unless its verizon. I asked the tech what about if the person who owned the phone calls will you release it then? they said they will not do it. I have a friend who works for verizon so I will talk to him this week and see what he can do for me and if he can help me in any way. I also called back ATT and they said even blackberry is not able to release the pin only Carrier (verizon) is able to do it.

[jayman2]

I was able to return my first storm for a refund and I found another on eBay for only $14 more than my first. Here is part of the eBay description:

"This Verizon Storm Blackberry is in MINT condition. No scratches anywhere, the screen is in perfect condition. Gently used for 2 months. Phone was cleared to original factory settings by Verizon and is attached to NO contract."

I noticed, as soon as I turned it on it started recieving email. I went ahead and unlocked the phone and began setting it up for AT&T. The email still kept coming. When I tried to setup my email, I got the same old "An account already exists on this devise", message. I contacted the owner of this phone and asked him for the username and pw that he used on this phone so I could get in and delete his account and set up my own. He sent me the info, but it still won't let me in. It say, "Incorrect username/password". I contacted the seller again and he said that he had emailed his VZW rep, and was going to call him first thing this morning.

Now this morning when I turned on my Storm, about 10 emails came in for my seller. One was a response that he recieved from his VZW rep. This is what the rep said:

"We can delete the pin or once he gets the phone activated the tech support can delete and reset the pin only."

Is this right?? I don't want to activate the phone on VZW. I just want to use the email, everything else works just fine.

Any thoughts?

[pkcable]

I was able to return my first storm for a refund and I found another on eBay for only $14 more than my first. Here is part of the eBay description:

"This Verizon Storm Blackberry is in MINT condition. No scratches anywhere, the screen is in perfect condition. Gently used for 2 months. Phone was cleared to original factory settings by Verizon and is attached to NO contract."

I noticed, as soon as I turned it on it started recieving email. I went ahead and unlocked the phone and began setting it up for AT&T. The email still kept coming. When I tried to setup my email, I got the same old "An account already exists on this devise", message. I contacted the owner of this phone and asked him for the username and pw that he used on this phone so I could get in and delete his account and set up my own. He sent me the info, but it still won't let me in. It say, "Incorrect username/password". I contacted the seller again and he said that he had emailed his VZW rep, and was going to call him first thing this morning.

Now this morning when I turned on my Storm, about 10 emails came in for my seller. One was a response that he recieved from his VZW rep. This is what the rep said:

"We can delete the pin or once he gets the phone activated the tech support can delete and reset the pin only."

Is this right?? I don't want to activate the phone on VZW. I just want to use the email, everything else works just fine.

Any thoughts?

You will need to contact the seller who must call Verizon, tell them he sold the Storm and would like to have the PIN released from his account. The seller (or original owner) must do this.

[jayman2]

You will need to contact the seller who must call Verizon, tell them he sold the Storm and would like to have the PIN released from his account. The seller (or original owner) must do this.

This seller was very understanding and helpful. He contacted his VZW rep and explained the situation to him. His rep told him to have me give him a call with the PIN number and he would release it for me. He was expecting my call and took my PIN and released it right then and recommeded that I do a reboot. I rebooted and all 4 of my emails were on the screen, including my 1 yahoo account also. I just had to validate all of the passwords. Now everything is working great!

Just one last question. The seller's email account is gone now, but not his email. He has over 150 emails in the main message box. Is there some way that I can select and delete multiple emails at one time, or do I have to delete each one, one by one?

Thanks again.

[Michael Hepples]

This seller was very understanding and helpful. He contacted his VZW rep and explained the situation to him. His rep told him to have me give him a call with the PIN number and he would release it for me. He was expecting my call and took my PIN and released it right then and recommeded that I do a reboot. I rebooted and all 4 of my emails were on the screen, including my 1 yahoo account also. I just had to validate all of the passwords. Now everything is working great!

Just one last question. The seller's email account is gone now, but not his email. He has over 150 emails in the main message box. Is there some way that I can select and delete multiple emails at one time, or do I have to delete each one, one by one?

Thanks again.

Great to hear that you finally have everything resolved and are up and running. To delete the multiple emails, either highlight the date, press the BB key, and select "delete prior", or you can touch one email to highlight it, and without removing the finger, touch another one further down the list. Thios will highlight all emails in between, and you can then delete them.

[jayman2]

Great to hear that you finally have everything resolved and are up and running. To delete the multiple emails, either highlight the date, press the BB key, and select "delete prior", or you can touch one email to highlight it, and without removing the finger, touch another one further down the list. Thios will highlight all emails in between, and you can then delete them.

Thanks michael, that will save me some time. I was beginning to think that I would never see this day.

[karadotc0m]

I purchased an unlocked storm from ebay for my boyfriend who wanted a blackberry. He has AT&T and the phone has been giving me tons of problems to get it to work.

I installed the AT&T service books to get the browser back and that works. The only problem is that the phone still receives emails from the original owner and does not allow him to set up any of his own emails.

Does anyone know how I can fix this?

[jayman2]

I purchased an unlocked storm from ebay for my boyfriend who wanted a blackberry. He has AT&T and the phone has been giving me tons of problems to get it to work.

I installed the AT&T service books to get the browser back and that works. The only problem is that the phone still receives emails from the original owner and does not allow him to set up any of his own emails.

Does anyone know how I can fix this?

I had the same exact problem with a storm that I purchased off ebay 2 weeks ago. The previous owner/user didn't have their PIN released. You have to contact them and ask them to do this for you, otherwise everything else will work except the email. You can't call the carrier yourself. They won't do it for you, for securit reasons. It has to be the previous user.

Good luck.

PS: They should post that somewhere here on the board, (if it's not already here). A lot of people don't realize that when they sell a phone with email capabilites, they have to have their PIN released, otherwise it's useless to the new user for email purposes. It's not like a phone that dosen't support email, where you could just sell it and forget it.

[karadotc0m]

I had the same exact problem with a storm that I purchased off ebay 2 weeks ago. The previous owner/user didn't have their PIN released. You have to contact them and ask them to do this for you, otherwise everything else will work except the email. You can't call the carrier yourself. They won't do it for you, for securit reasons. It has to be the previous user.

Good luck.

The ebay seller I bought it from didn't have the original owner's contact info. By this point in time, I had already did the ##000000 thing to change the phone number of the storm to my boyfriend's phone number. However, I did it again and thought that the second number right below it (MSIS_S or something I think) looked like a phone number. I gave the seller that number and he told me that he contacted the phone's original owner and that she would let him know when she was able to fix it. Hopefully, he's being honest. He seems like a really nice guy and has been extremely helpful so far.

I'm also thinking that I should try wait to get another email to the phone (some facebook ones have been coming in) so I could maybe find the original owner's email address to contact her myself.

[jayman2]

The ebay seller I bought it from didn't have the original owner's contact info. By this point in time, I had already did the ##000000 thing to change the phone number of the storm to my boyfriend's phone number. However, I did it again and thought that the second number right below it (MSIS_S or something I think) looked like a phone number. I gave the seller that number and he told me that he contacted the phone's original owner and that she would let him know when she was able to fix it. Hopefully, he's being honest. He seems like a really nice guy and has been extremely helpful so far.

I'm also thinking that I should try wait to get another email to the phone (some facebook ones have been coming in) so I could maybe find the original owner's email address to contact her myself.

If the seller cannot contact the original owner or correct the PIN problem, then you'll have no problem doing a refund through Paypal. I, was able to contact the original through their email address, but they didn't respond until after I had do the return and had my new storm going. They apologized and said that they had been out of town. I told them that it would still be a good idea to call their carrier and have the PIN released so the next buyer could use the phone.

With my first storm, the previous owner was taking a long time responding to me and the seller, so I contacted paypal and explained the situation to them. They know that a blackberry without email is useless and quickly OKed a return and refund. I went back on ebay and found another for $14 more than my first. I contacted the owner and asked him was the PIN released and he replied, "yes". I bought this one and had the same problem. I contacted him and he called his verizon rep. His VZW rep told him to give me his number and to ask for him by name. I called the rep and he went into his system and released the PIN for me and told me to do a reboot. When the storm came back up, my 4 email accounts were listed on the screen. I just had to verify each password. The previous owners email account was gone and all I had to do was go into my main message folder and delete his old emails. Now my storm is working flawlessly. It's a great phone.

[karadotc0m]

If the seller cannot contact the original owner or correct the PIN problem, then you'll have no problem doing a refund through Paypal. I, was able to contact the original through their email address, but they didn't respond until after I had do the return and had my new storm going. They apologized and said that they had been out of town. I told them that it would still be a good idea to call their carrier and have the PIN released so the next buyer could use the phone.

With my first storm, the previous owner was taking a long time responding to me and the seller, so I contacted paypal and explained the situation to them. They know that a blackberry without email is useless and quickly OKed a return and refund. I went back on ebay and found another for $14 more than my first. I contacted the owner and asked him was the PIN released and he replied, "yes". I bought this one and had the same problem. I contacted him and he called his verizon rep. His VZW rep told him to give me his number and to ask for him by name. I called the rep and he went into his system and released the PIN for me and told me to do a reboot. When the storm came back up, my 4 email accounts were listed on the screen. I just had to verify each password. The previous owners email account was gone and all I had to do was go into my main message folder and delete his old emails. Now my storm is working flawlessly. It's a great phone.

Quick question...If I return it and buy a brand new one that's unlocked, my AT&T emails should work fine, right?

[Michael Hepples]

Quick question...If I return it and buy a brand new one that's unlocked, my AT&T emails should work fine, right?

In short, yes. The issue you had was that the PIN for the device had not been released from the previous owner's BIS account. A brand new unlocked device will not have this issue.

[555-1212]

I am having a similar issue but with a BB Pearl flip 8229

Its a tmobile unlocked that I bought new when I signed up with tmo last year. I have since switched to AT&T
The phones I got with my new at and t account I have sent back and will get new ones; but in the meantime was setting up this tmobile pearl flip to work on at and t. got most everything working but am unable to add new email accounts and edit the olds ones

anyone know the fix for this?

and this PIN that needs releasing; if the emails I had on this phone when it was tmobile work on here now, would that mean its released? Is the PIN like a debit card pin, that *I* pick?

Thanks and sorry if this is a basic question; I just don't understand

[Michael Hepples]

The PIN is a device specific ID number used to identify your device. Is is hardoded into each device and can't be changed.

My suggestion to you would be to contact T-Mobile and ask them to release the PIN of the device associated with your account there. If you are still receiving the emails you had when on T Mobile, it suggests that the PIN was not released.

Once you have done this, log into the AT&T BIS page and set up your email accounts through there, ensuring that the correct PIN has been entered. After that, you should be good to go.