Activation Instructions & Helpful Tips after Activation : eBay Guides

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Activating your new phone is simple! Activate our phones with any existing, or new cell phone plan; either as a replacement or additional phone. We at TheBlueDot guarantee*** your phone will activate. Also, included are helpful tips below once your phone is activated.

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The following instructions are for customers who use Nextel/Sprint, Alltel, US Cellular, or Verizon services. 

If you currently have a GSM phone plan from AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers, etc you need only to take the SIM card out of your old phone and place it into your new phone. If the phone is said to activate with AT&T for example, you just need to place your existing AT&T sim card into the device. For phones that are advertised as "unlocked", any GSM sim card will work in the phone.

Step 1: Make sure phone is charged for a full 12 hours before attempting to activate your device. Power on your device.

Step 2: Take the battery out of your new phone and locate the ESN number, which is on the label under where the battery goes.


Step 3: Once you have the ESN number, call the number that corresponds with your cellular carrier below. A representative will then walk you through the activation process.

+For Verizon customers, - Our Verizon Phone Activation Guide

+ For Alltel customers, call: 1-800-255-8351

+ For Sprint customers, call: 1-888-211-4727

+ For Nextel customers, call: 1-800-639-6111

+For US Cellular customers, call: 1-888-944-9400

+ For Cricket customers, call - 1-866-384-4425

+For Cellular South customers, call: 1-877-276-8841

+For Bell Mobility Canada customers, call - 1-800-667-0123

NOTE - We do not recommend taking the phone into any Wireless Store. Sales people in these stores do not get paid to switch your phone number to a new phone and sometimes they see it as an annoyance to them. They tend to tell you a wide variety of reasons why a phone can not be activated to either (1) get you to buy a phone from them, or (2) get you to leave the store without activating your phone. Also, most representatives are only trained on the few models that the store sells and sometimes the sales reps in a wireless store are just not familiar enough with the phone to do the activation. The best trained people are found when you call in your phone at the above numbers.

*** We guarantee our phones to be ready for activation with the carrier mentioned in the listing. In some cases, the outside housing may be replaced to a newer, nicer looking one so the internal ESN may not be the same as what shows on the back of the phone. We can provide you the code for finding your internal ESN number. In the unlikely event you have trouble activating the phone you purchased from us, please do not hesitate to contact us - we will gladly help you. We only receive about 5 out of every 1, 000 phones back to us for activation issues. We check the ESNs upon receiving them, but there are a number of reasons why a phone will not activate upon receiving the phone. Rest assured, we stand behind every product we sell!

Once you have activated your phone, you may find some of these tips helpful. Note – You should contact your carrier and inquire as to whether you will be billed for using each of the following services.

Sprint/Nextel Customers:
· Can contact customer service by simply dialing *2 then send
· Can pay their bill by dialing *3 then send
· Can check their minutes used and their account balance by dialing *4

Alltel Customers:
· Can pay their bill from their phone by dialing #PAY (#729) then send
· Can check their minutes used by dialing #MOU (#668) then send
· Can check their texts used by texting the word MINUTE to short code 696-467 (MYMINS), then send

US Cellular Customers:
· Can contact customer service, make payments, and check usage by dialing 611 then send

Verizon Customers:
· Can check their balance by dialing #BAL (#225) then send
· Can check minutes used by dialing #MIN (646) then send

AT&T/Cingular Customers:
· Can check their balance by dialing *BAL# (*225#) then send
· Can check minute usage by dialing *MIN# (*646#) then send
· Can check data usage by dialing *DATA# (*3282#) then send
· Can make a payment by dialing *PAY (*729) then send

Cricket Customers:
· Can contact customer service by dialing *611 then send

T-Mobile Customers:
· Can check their balance by dialing #BAL# (#225#) then send
· Can check their minute usage by dialing #MIN# (#646#) then send
· Can check their text usage by dialing #MSG# (#674#) then send

Guide written by Chris Samaras

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