After months of use my phone was blacklisted

A friend of mine purchased a phone from his co-worker, who had purchased it from original owner in his family. My friend has had this phone for over three months working on his plan with at&t and then suddenly the coworkers family member wants the phone returned without a refund and now has blacklisted the phone. Is there anything for my friend to do that would allow him to keep his iPhone with his at&t account considering this is simply put just a bad business deal or is there a way for him to remove the phones IMEI from the blacklist and continue his at&t network?

Is this about your phone, or your friend's phone? The title of the question and the question itself contradict each other.

Either way, it seems very much like the phone you or your friend bought from someone who who was related to someone else is actually a stolen phone. Either that, or the original owner has genuinely sold it but then made a fraudulent loss or theft report in order to defraud a phone insurance company.

Unfortunately there's nothing you can do. Blacklisting an IMEI number is a one-way process which can't be reversed.

What you've reported is such a common occurrence that it is foolish to buy used phones when there's a complicated trail of previous ownership.

You can ask your co-worker for a full refund but if you had a signed bill of sale then you could also try to sue your co-worker in a Small Claims Court, but even if you win the case there's sod all you can realistically do if your co-worker refuses to compensate you or claims to be unable to do so.

First, in order for your friend's services to be restored, they will need to move their SIM card into another compatible phone BEFORE contacting AT&T's customer service. The service rep will ask for the IMEI number of the new phone (which a good rep may check against the blacklist, just to avoid a repeat of headaches) so they can update the information in their system. They can't restore service to number with a blacklisted IMEI as their automated system will resuspend services.

As for getting the phone removed from the blacklist, only the original owner can do so as they must physically have the phone in their hand when they contact their carrier (I'm assuming AT&T here) & get in touch their their stolen devices department (as they have the final say on whether or not it gets removed from the blacklist). It generally takes 24 hours for a phone to removed from the blacklist in this manner (DO NOT USE THE PHONE DURING THIS TIME as the automated systems may still flag it as stolen until it's updated). HOWEVER, by having the phone reported as stolen, it becomes ineligible to be unlocked (as AT&T's unlock policy states that the phone can't be reported as lost or stolen). If the owner received an insurance replacement, they are legally required to turn in the stolen phone to the insurance company if it's ever recovered as a condition of the replacement. Failure to do so may constitute as insurance fraud & the insurance company will likely take legal recourse.

As for the phone itself, you'll need to have any proof of purchase before you set up any civil lawsuit against the seller of the phone in Small Claims Court for the cost you spent on obtaining the phone legally. It'll likely be a drawn out affair, but it'll likely boil down to you return the phone in exchange of getting a refund with a reasonable judge / arbitrator would rule. However, you'll likely spend more time & money in legal fees than desired… So proceed at your own risk here.

Hope this sheds some light on the subject.