Orange iPhone 3GS network unlock charge

wilkins_micawber

The wife recently finished her 18-month iPhone contract with Orange, and thanks to how dodgy the 3G signal has been since the merge with T-Mobile, we decided to transfer to O2.

We've had the PAC code from Orange, contacted O2, got a new SIM and swapped it over, everything updated at O2's end, etc ... but no-one deemed to tell us that the handset would need the network unlocking first before the O2 SIM card would work.

We only learned this from the last contact we had with O2 - surely Orange should have mentioned this if they (a) knew we had an iPhone and (b) had requested a PAC code to transfer to a new network?

Orange are requesting the princely sum of £20.42 and at least a week to perform the unlock (which as I understand it involves them simply quoting the handset IMEI number to Apple).

Seeing as the wife has completed her contract in full and not missed any payments, are they legally able to effectively hold her handset to ransom like this?

Browntoa

yes they are

and the fee is perfectly reasonable for their time to supply you with the code from Apple

custardy

well you bought a locked handset
I doubt Orange are under any obligation given thats what they provided to begin with

Browntoa

and the handset was either free or heavily subsidised when you got it , hence the network lock

gjchester

wilkins_micawber wrote: »

Orange are requesting the princely sum of £20.42 and at least a week to perform the unlock (which as I understand it involves them simply quoting the handset IMEI number to Apple).

Seeing as the wife has completed her contract in full and not missed any payments, are they legally able to effectively hold her handset to ransom like this?

OfCOM require them to let you unlock the phone but permit the networks to charge an admin fee. Some do, some don't it's a business choice they make.

Look on the bright side, some countries don't even have that rule in place so networks don't have to unlock at all.

You may be able to get an online or market stall unlock cheaper, however as you said it's done by passing your IMEI to Apple who mark it an unlocked in there servers and then it's unlocked via Itunes.

Any other non official method may mean that your phone gets locked again after a future firmware upgrade.

NFH

wilkins_micawber wrote: »

Orange are requesting the princely sum of £20.42 and at least a week to perform the unlock (which as I understand it involves them simply quoting the handset IMEI number to Apple).

Orange are often taking more than the advertised delivery period of one month to request Apple to unlock iPhones. Therefore if Orange performs the service after the one month period has elapsed, you can request a refund in respect of Orange's breach of Section 19 of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.