I spent $500 bucks on an S23 from Kemo Wireless. I needed a new phone since my old one broke, so I figured why not shop with a strapping local small business, right? The phone had no box or anything, which I didn’t mind buying a used phone. There was no indicator whatsoever suggesting the phone was “stolen/ missing” or even network locked. The clerk would have known that my carrier was a mismatch since I asked him to swap the sim cards. Of course, they have a no refund policy…

I end up going to verizon to get things sorted out, and they tell me that the phone was on the “missing/ stolen” list. I can’t trade the phone in, couldn’t even get a line for it, can’t do anything with it. It’s basically a $500 paperweight. To put the cherry on top, I bought the phone with cash :)…