Locked iphone 4 to o2 network :-(

mealsonwheels

Hi i hope someone can help me. I purchased an iphone 4 with E2save with a 3 contract. I put my old giff gaff sim in the phone to transfer my numbers ver but it hs locked the phone to the o2 network. O2 wont unlock it, Apple wont unlock it, E2save are refu
sing to help as they say i breached my contract by putting in the wrong sim, To unlock in a shop i costing £65 and it will kill my warrenty. I dont know wat to do

please help

sabretoothtigger

Did you buy it online? Return it under the distance selling act. Unless you ignored some large instruction saying not to put in any other sim card you probably have a reasonable case to dispute.
They will of course tell you you have no case and no act of law allows you to reject the goods but you'll have to figure out yourself if its possible. Meanwhile I guess you should not continue the contract as its unusable

You probably need a more specialist forum then this one, no doubt others have done this

gjchester

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Did you buy it online? Return it under the distance selling act. Unless you ignored some large instruction saying not to put in any other sim card you probably have a reasonable case to dispute.
They will of course tell you you have no case and no act of law allows you to reject the goods but you'll have to figure out yourself if its possible. Meanwhile I guess you should not continue the contract as its unusable

You probably need a more specialist forum then this one, no doubt others have done this

Problem is Three more than anyone else. They view the DSR as a examination / viewing period not a trial period, and if you read the bumpf with the sim card this tells you so. Three won't allow a return under the DSR if the phone is used at all and that includes turning it on, and Yes I know it's a very narrow view but the one Three take.

Contract wise is a clear (although not what you want) the handset is not part of the contract. Three are supplying the airtime network correctly, it's down to the users handset having an issue that the phone is not working. It would be difficult to see any reason for cancellation in these circumstances.


IPhones generally are sold unlocked and lock on the first activation by itunes, I guess you put the GiffGaff sim in first. Iphones check in to Apple when they sync and lock according to their status in the database you can't "take it to a man in the market" as they can't unlock it as they generally won't have access to Apples backend database. Although GiffGaff are o2 they may not have accesss to the appropriate contacts to do unlocks, as they don't sell locked phones.

However whats done is done. So my suggestions...

Do a restore in Itunes, with the right sim in it. That may unlock it and it re-lock on first sync, failing that you can try the DSR route/

You could book an appointment with Apple in store and take it in to an Apple store with the 3 sim in and look dumb, they can probably factory reset it for you to try again.

Worst case is the are people on Ebay who claim they have access to Apple, and you may need to use on of those.

Good Luck

silvercar

IPhones generally are sold unlocked and lock on the first activation by itunes

I thought phones bought in the Apple store were always unlocked.

gjchester

silvercar wrote: »

I thought phones bought in the Apple store were always unlocked.

My understanding is all iphones come unlocked initially. As part of the setup the phone contacts Apple who look at the unique device ID, check it in their database and set the locks appropriatly. Buy it in the Apple Store and the phone remains unlocked, but it as a subsidised phone and it locks to the sim in the phone. Hence the suggestion to do a full restore, it will then need to be re-activated and hopefully to the right SIM.

Thats probably part of the reason why you need to activate iPhones on buying them, until you do the first sync and it checks in to the Apple mothership you can't use an iPhone at all.

OOH - Found the patent that talks about it - http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20090061934.pdf