[Droid Turbo 2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] br0adband:
I know I'm going to regret this and I probably already do so here goes:

I picked up a Motorola Droid Turbo 2 off craigslist tonight, traded another phone for it (LG Stylo 2 Plus) and everything was working fine during the actual meeting with the previous owner. He checked out the Stylo while I checked out the Turbo 2. Aside from scuffs and scrapes and whatnot I decided it was worth the trade - he said he was moving to Europe and just wouldn't need it anymore and he then showed me his Moto X Force (first time I'd ever seen one in person, verified it with the phone info, etc) and I figured what the hell, I'm good.

So he leaves, and me having not messed with a Verizon device for some time figured "Ok, I know all the Verizon devices are GSM unlocked from the factory since the summer of 2013 because of the FCC frequency auctions, no problem..." and then I power down and remove the T-Mobile nanoSIM from my Moto X 1st gen and power down the Turbo 2, etc, moving the nanoSIM over.

Power the Turbo 2 back up and of course I get the "SIM Card not from Verizon Wireless..." notification which I've seen in the past. I go into Settings and then set it for Global mode and... nothing, still doesn't work. Check the About phone info, it sees the nanoSIM, doesn't pull the APN data from the card so I put it in manually, still nothing. Reboot, still nothing, and so on and so forth.

I do some research and find out that Verizon - since some point in 2015 - now sells their devices technically unlocked for GSM operation but there's some funky network-specific lock on them for at least 1 year after the sale/purchase of the device so they guarantee they get something back on their investment. I called the previous owner, asked him what the deal was, he said he bought it December 1st 2015 and because he was moving that was that and it wasn't his problem anymore.

So yeah, I'm probably screwed on this for use with T-Mobile now but I figured I'd ask here anyway: not looking to rip anybody off but, I don't use Verizon, never have, never will, and I don't even know anyone that uses them either so I'm not sure how to proceed. In the good old days you could do the 4-corner trick and bypass the need to activate the phone with Verizon but obviously nothing is that simple anymore.

Is there any way to get this device up and running with T-Mobile since it should be unlocked? I called Verizon and they said because I'm not the original owner/purchaser (neither is the guy I got it from, apparently he got it used himself earlier this year) they won't provide me whatever info or method is required to make it truly GSM unlocked as it's supposed to be so I'm stuck there.

It's not blacklisted, at least that Verizon would tell me, nor stolen from what I gather - I checked the ESN against several sites like Swappa and CheckESNFree and it shows green/clear/ready for activation and yet it's just not happening.

Any advice or suggestions or straight out method to get past that aspect and make it work properly with T-Mobile is greatly appreciated if anyone can help.

If I end up using it as a Wi-Fi only device, so be it, but that wasn't the idea when I got it - my mistake was not doing research ahead of time on this new device. I've owned several Droid MAXX/Ultra/Mini smartphones - all Verizon devices of course - and never had to deal with this activation BS, I just put my T-Mobile SIM card in them and rebooted and wham, always worked without problems.

I should have known it wouldn't be that simple anymore. :D