SaintAshlar

Nokia 8290 for Cingular Wireless Network

SaintAshlar was the Buyer on February 8, 2002 AnandTech

Initially, LoverOfTheNight was a very friendly person to deal with and everything seemed fine. I trusted him, since I noticed that he had other cell phone transactions before that appeared to be positive. I received the 8290 with accessories very promptly and everything was packed nicely.

However, things were very different after that. The 8290 that he sent me was not compatible with my SIM card. I got "SIM card not accepted" errors on the 8290. This surprised me, since he told me that the phone was used on Cingular, so it should have worked. I contacted him later that evening and he seemed like he was willing to help. He suggested that I take the phone to a Cingular store, since it may have been a problem with my SIM card. I didn't have a problem with that. I asked him if he would have any problems taking the phone back if it turned out that the problem could not be corrected by Cingular. He told me that he would not and he abruptly signed off.

I thought that this was very cold, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and took the phone to a Cingular store, hoping that they could solve my problems. The first Cingular store I went to basically told me that the phone was probably not a Cingular phone (they tested one of their own SIM cards). They told me that the phone might be locked, and that it could be a VoiceStream phone. You could imagine my surprise when this happened. LoverOfTheNight specifically told me that the phone was a Cingular phone.

I took the phone to another Cingular store and they told me the same thing, using one of their SIM cards. So basically I was screwed because the phone could have been a VoiceStream phone, a locked phone, lost, stolen, or whatever. It remains that the phone is useless and LoverOfTheNight refuses to correspond with me since I asked him about the possibility of returning the phone Friday night.

Also, I asked him about an issue I read about concerning the 8290. Apparently, the LCD is prone to damage because of the slim design of the phone. I asked him if there were any tell-tale marks on the LCD that he noticed and he told me that he had no problems whatsoever. The phone that I have clearly has a defect of some sort on the LCD screen. It's most visible when the phone is turned on. A small black mark appears underneath the plastic and fades away. The same black mark appears when slight pressure is applied on the LCD. I highly doubt that this could have been overlooked because it is very prominent. I would like to believe that LoverOfTheNight just didn't see it, but in all likelihood, this is probably not the case. It was shipped very well and there was no evidence that the phone could have been damaged during shipping. There are other minor scratches on the phone, but I was not as critical of those because it was a used phone, afterall.

I have posted all correspondance that I have had with LoverOfTheNight. You can view this information at http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~rnor/loverofthenight.html .

Hopefully the matter will be resolved and others may find this information useful.

Used Westell DSL Modem

SaintAshlar was the Buyer on January 31, 2002 AnandTech

Modem works great! Very fast shipping! I wouldn't hesitate to do business with him again. A++++++!

TI-89 Calculator

SaintAshlar was the Buyer on December 25, 2001 AnandTech

Great item... the calculator is in great condition. I wouldn't hesitate to do business with him. A+++!