locked mobile phone by Orange

penna_2

:mad:
I am out of contract with Orange, still awaiting a customer service call back from 15th April!!.Gave up and moved to Tesco however Orange have now locked my phone, and am going to sting me with a fee of £20 for leaving them. Apparently the phone will be locked for up to 20 days!! Can't believe Orange can do this. Any suggestions what I can do. In the meantime I have bought a pay as you go sim card, in order to receive calls, but it is eating my money.

Buzby

Your phone has ALWAYS been locked. You benefited from a network subsidy (discount) and to prevent unscrupulous consumers from leaving, they lock them. If you pay the full price and buy SIM free, this does not happen.

How does a PAYG handset receiving calls 'eat up your money'?

The fee to unlock has been standard on Orange for many years - some charge, others don't. One of the reasons why many buy SIM free at the outset. That is what you should do when you next replace it.

As for your 'poll' - you might wan't to delete it - it serves no useful purpose.

d123

As Buzby says, Orange phones are always locked, in fact they have sim locked their phones since the day they launched in the UK.

If you want the phone unlocked you need to pay Orange and wait for their tardy processing, as it is an iPhone you have no other choice.

Your poll makes you look silly, far better to just edit and remove it.

HeadAboveWater

I requested the code to unlock my old Sony Ericsson phone back in Oct/Nov last year. After seriously heaps of useless phonecalls, by the first week in January I'd given up. I got a new phone in March and gave mum my newer SE.

I got a random, out-of-the-blue email from Orange on the 8th May with the unlock code!!!!!! :eek:

And the £20 credit hasn't been taken off mums PAYG card. If it does I'll go mad!!! :mad:

AMG762

My Iphone 5 was purchased SIM free from the carphone warehouse. These phones lock to the first sim inserted. Mine locked to TMobile.

I contacted the Tmobile Iphone support last friday 10th May and asked they unlock it. I paid the £20 fee and was told it could take up to 20 days.

Yesterday, Tuesday 14th May it was fully unlocked. Very quick and efficient service for me. They also kept me informed by both text and email throughout the process

d123

AMG762 wrote: »

My Iphone 5 was purchased SIM free from the carphone warehouse. These phones lock to the first sim inserted. Mine locked to TMobile.

Still find it very annoying with this scam by CarphoneWarehouse, anywhere else sim free is always sim free, just not for an iPhone from CPW that you pay as much for as a proper sim free one from Apple :mad:.

19lottie82

penna wrote: »

:mad:
I am out of contract with Orange, still awaiting a customer service call back from 15th April!!.Gave up and moved to Tesco

Are you still paying the bill, or did you cancel the direct debit?

penna wrote: »

:mad:
Orange have now locked my phone

Nope It was locked from the start. In fact I think it is protocal form all networks to lock all of their phones. Nothing new here.

penna wrote: »

to sting me with a fee of £20 for leaving them. Apparently the phone will be locked for up to 20 days!! Can't believe Orange can do this.

Why can't you believe it? It's in the T&C's that are easily avaliable.

penna wrote: »

Any suggestions what I can do. In the meantime I have bought a pay as you go sim card, in order to receive calls, but it is eating my money.

Yes, wait for Orange to unlock your phone, like everyone else who wants it unlocked has to, and make sure you cancel your contract properly.
If you just stop paying it, your arguement of "they never called me back", will be no use when your credit report is trashed and you can't get any credit for the next 6 years.

Kingsd316

d123 wrote: »

Still find it very annoying with this scam by CarphoneWarehouse, anywhere else sim free is always sim free, just not for an iPhone from CPW that you pay as much for as a proper sim free one from Apple :mad:.

I never got this either, why would you pay the no subsidised cost, then be locked to a network, you might aswell go straight the the network to get the phone at a discount then unlock it through them for £20.

The only reason must be for people who have good sim only deals, but then why wouldnt you get it direct from Apple

AMG762

Kingsd316 wrote: »

I never got this either, why would you pay the no subsidised cost, then be locked to a network, you might aswell go straight the the network to get the phone at a discount then unlock it through them for £20.

The only reason must be for people who have good sim only deals, but then why wouldnt you get it direct from Apple

TMobile are have very strict terms around unlocking iPhones when they are tied to a contract and subsidised.

I agree its best to buy an iPhone sim free from apple and its not fair how carphone warehouse get away with charging full price for a phone that locks when a sim is inserted.

My reason for buying from CPW and paying the additional £20 fee to TMOBILE to unlock was to save standing in the queues at the apple stores when the phone was released, and the difficulty obtaining stock afterwards

FloFlo

I have been waiting since March for Orange to unlock my iphone, paid my £20 and have called several times but still waiting.

mattyprice4004

penna wrote: »

:mad:
I am out of contract with Orange, still awaiting a customer service call back from 15th April!!.Gave up and moved to Tesco however Orange have now locked my phone, and am going to sting me with a fee of £20 for leaving them. Apparently the phone will be locked for up to 20 days!! Can't believe Orange can do this. Any suggestions what I can do. In the meantime I have bought a pay as you go sim card, in order to receive calls, but it is eating my money.

Shock horror that Orange lock a handset to their network. Welcome to about 20 years ago.

It's common, most phones directly from networks (and some CPW / P4U handsets) will be locked. £20 is a lot cheaper than the £100 odd it costs to unlock an iPhone if you don't use Orange.