Greetings! Um, I hope this is allowed here.

I recently purchased the "RIM BlackBerry 8703 8703e Verizon Smart PDA Cell Phone" from eBay. However, the phone is locked, and eBay doesn't offer any codes for this model... I suppose because it's pretty old?

Before I toss my money at it, can anyone tell me if unlock-blackberry.com is reliable? I hesitate to go to Verizon, because I didn't go through a proper shop or whatnot to get it.

Also, it does this really annoying thing, where even if I've got it charging, it tells me the battery is too low and it's shutting down... only it takes forever to do that, if it even does, and beeps like hell in the meantime.

Thanks!
Juliette

It's a CDMA only phone. What carrier are you trying to use it on?

Sounds to me like the battery is very weak/dead.

The 8703e is a very old BlackBerry.

Ah, I figured it was very old. Sorry for being so dumb, but what does CDMA mean?

I bought it for my mother, actually, because the only thing she really wants a phone for is checking her e-mail and occasionally the internet, and that is possible from this phone, correct? We received two Storms from Verizon as a kind of super plan thing, but she uses it for something like 1% of its potential, and I thought I'd get her one of these and give the Storm to one of us kids who'd actually use the Storm. But, that's TMI, I guess?

The carrier is Verizon, if that's what you mean?

CDMA is the technology Verizon uses.

If you want to activate it, I'd take it to a Verizon store. No unlocking equired.

Oh, okay, thanks.

Hmm. But, I... haha, okay, I'm about to make myself look awfully clever. I'd read that when it asks for a password, you just enter in the wrong one all ten times and let it erase the data of the previous user, and then it's good for you to go. So, I did that.

Only, now, it's a white screen with a no smoking sign style cross out, and what's crossed out is a rectangular (sort of like a cassette?) with a square, a triangle, and a circle inside of it.

Check out an excellent FAQ site - BlackBerry FAQ - BlackBerryFAQ

Try out the suggestions in this thread - How do I wipe the BlackBerry using Jl Cmder? - BlackBerryFAQ

Thank you very much! I'll try all that out. Thanks again.