For prospective customers or current customers, buying a used phone is one way to save money, but it was usually a hassle to check definitively whether phones were free and clear of any outstanding obligations before purchase, especially those from Verizon and Sprint. To solve that issue, Sprint has stepped up with another company in Recipero to roll out a new tool called CheckMend.
CheckMend maintains a global database of stolen phone serial numbers and all Sprint stores will check the serial number of used cell phones against CheckMend’s database to determine if they are stolen before being traded in under its recycling programs. Devices listed as stolen cannot and will not be activated on Sprint’s network and Sprint will also submit the serial number of any Sprint device reported lost or stolen by customers to CheckMend to further improve the database’s accuracy.
As CheckMend is also available online, prospective and current customers can use it to check the validity of a used phone’s serial number before they purchase it, and the tool can also be used by law enforcement to assist in recovery efforts for stolen devices. Sprint supports the national device registry for stolen devices along with the other major carriers and will be the first national carrier to roll out such a tool for customers.
