If I signed for the phone, and the plan owner says its been stolen can i get in trouble?

[Creative941]

Okay, so a little back story. I had a Fiance whose dad I worked for. Said dad purchased a phone for me as part of his plan he also uses for another worker. If you noticed I said "HAD a Fiance" then you by now realize that we are no longer together, but that is a story of its own. However, the aforementioned father wants to take my phone back with the threat that he will call verizon and say thee phone was stolen, with the premise that I could be arrested for using it or keeping it in general (even though we discussed that I could pay for it, he is being unruly.) Problem is, I am pretty sure the phone itself is in my name. Could he legally take the phone from me? And if so, can he do anything if I were to refuse? How do I check to make sure my name is on the contract, and does it matter? Please help, he's threatening action today. I love this phone, if I can't have it, I don't want him to have it, because he made me spend so much money in the past by holding things like this over my head. It's f'ing constant with this man.

[#2]

All the contracts on an account are in the name of the account owner.  He is the guy responsible for paying the bill and the guy who's credit rating is at risk.  Give the man his phone and move on.

[#3]

The phone can only be used on the Verizon network, and if he reports it stolen, it cannot be used there and it cannot be sold.  He is also probably not going to let you do an AOL so you can keep the phone number.

[Creative941]

Whats an AOL? Because we were (before this crazy step) trying to figure out a way to make this work so I could keep the phone.

[Ann154]

Creative941 wrote:

Whats an AOL? Because we were (before this crazy step) trying to figure out a way to make this work so I could keep the phone.

Assumption Of Liability

[rcschnoor]

If the phone was purchased "by him" to be part of "his plan" then I am not sure what would lead you to believe the phone is "yours" or even in "your name".

All phones on his plan would be in his name. For a phone to be in your name, you would need to have an account with your own plan. Doesn't matter how many different people are on a plan, ALL the phone on the plan are in the name of the account owner.

If the father of your ex-fiance is willing, you could do as Horses 547 suggested and perform an AOL in order to transfer ownership of the phone to you. Your ex's father may expect some form of payment for the phone, though.

Otherwise, you could just start your own line with a new number in your own name.

[#7]

If possible, talk with this person and offer to buy the phone for a fair price if he will assist you in doing an Assumption Of Liability (AOL) and transfer your line of service and phone number from his account to a new Verizon account in your name.  This can get complicated if you don't have a good credit record and it might be easier to simply return the phone to him and start over with a new account in your name with Verizon or elsewhere.  If you do return the phone to him, make sure you do a factory reset first to remove all of your information.

[AZSALUKI]

what phone is it? how old is it? the reason i ask is because, depending on what it is, you could just do a factory reset (wipe everything off of it, pull out the sd card if there is one) and give it back to him. then set up your own account and get it pretty cheap (new account=subsidized phone. new, high end ones are about $200. some that are a bit older are as cheap as free.) you don't want this hanging over your head. even if you were to work something out with him to keep it on the current line, you'd be attached to him through the phone plan. you just don't want that.