Orange iPhone unlocking

chandleo

Anyone got any advice for getting an iPhone unlocked with Orange?

Just to give the whole story - at the beginning of October I upgraded to an iPhone 5c once this was all sorted I phoned up on the 9th and requested by old iPhone to be unlocked so I can give it to my partner who is on Tesco Mobile. I was informed that this would take up to 20 days and that someone would email with the 'unlocking code' I politely informed them that iPhones do not have unlocking codes and that the change needs to be sent to Apple in order for me to successfully activate the phone with a Tesco Mobile SIM card.

20 days later still not unlocked I called them again to be informed that I'd only requested the unlock the day before and it would be the end of November before the person put me on hold and hung up on me. Called the next day and told they get see that I called on the 9th for an 'unlocking code'.

I've called most days since and for the second time have been told 'I will escalate to my supervisor and you will receive unlocking code within 48 hours' which seems to be the latest fob off line.

So very frustrated right now and sick of talking to people who don't seem to know what they are doing, get the feeling I'll never get my phone unlocked, surely it shouldn't be this difficult!

Anyone got any advice for getting this sorted, would be really appreciated!

daleski75

I was given the same story and also got told I would get an email within 48 hours saying the phone is unlocked.

Waiting about the same time as you and it's very frustrating and when our contract ends I won't be touching Orange again.

A thread over at digitalspy also rings a bell where it took Orange 38 days to unlock his phone which is 30-35 days longer than anyone else which is truly shocking.

Just spotted this, is it worth a shot?

https://explore.ee.co.uk/unlock

grumbler

Orange are notorious for taking ages to unlock iPhones. My theory is that they are deliberately pushing people to pay close to £100 on e-bay to their 'pirate' unlocking outlet(s).

The only way is to complain, probably directly to the executive office. And, after they unlock it, demand full refund as they have broken their 20 days deadline.

chandleo

Thanks all for the replies, much appreciated - I've emailed the executive office and will update here if I hear anything,

Thanks again.

Jon_01

grumbler wrote: »

Orange are notorious for taking ages to unlock iPhones. My theory is that they are deliberately pushing people to pay close to £100 on e-bay to their 'pirate' unlocking outlet(s).

The only way is to complain, probably directly to the executive office. And, after they unlock it, demand full refund as they have broken their 20 days deadline.

I love your theory, but I think the reality is more mundane.

I think they only have one person processing iPhone unlock requests and it's not even their full time job. Add to that, that most call center staff work 3 days on 3 days off and you can see where the problem is...

Its just another case of Orange going downhill at speed after the EE merger.

westy22

Its just another case of Orange going downhill at speed after the EE merger.

Orange has been notorious for its slowness in unlocking iPhones for years before the merger. I had to wait for well over 6 weeks back in 2010.

Jon_01

westy22 wrote: »

Orange has been notorious for its slowness in unlocking iPhones for years before the merger. I had to wait for well over 6 weeks back in 2010.

Orange started to forced the 3 days on 3 days off onto staff around 2003.
Also the processing of customer requests through the website (or the ironically named 'Smart Forms') was done by call center staff but only when they had nothing else to do, or if the amount waiting reached huge numbers!

Now that Orange have 'let go' even more front line staff its a wonder that anything going through the site is ever done!

Kingsd316

Also good luck if you have had it replaced by apple under warranty!

ConsumerTalibandit

I got my phone unlocked with EE today, having had the very same experiences as above.

In summary, T-Mobile told me that simply could not unlock my phone and that I should go to a market stall to get them to do it. I had been a T-Mob customer for 5 years, paying on average £55 a month for the phones I had over the period. I was paying over the odds, I was one of their cash cow customers. I left for Voda and did not realise I had to request an unlock before my contract ended (according to T-Mob anyway). I requested an unlock, waited 20 + days, phoned to ask why nothing had happened. Over the next 5 days, I was told variously that i) It hadn't happened because I was out of contract, ii) It hadn't happened because they had forgotten to send it to apple. iii) It was up to apple to unlock it. iv) now i am out of contract, they can not unlock it - absolutely no way.

I LOST MY RAG. Turns out the above was a lie.

I contacted apple live online via their website and demanded they unlock my phone. The apple guy asked if he could call me to chat face to face (impressive). First apple guy said that i) It is only the mobile carrier that can unlock my phone, ii) T-Mobile send apple nothing. T-Mobile lies when it says they are waiting for apple to reply. The only involvement Apple has is that Apple hosts the servers that T-Mobile rent from them to store iPhone data on. i.e. apple has no access to this data. It is not their information, they have ZERO access to it. It has nothing to do with apple. He said phone back and tell them this.

Next day, I phone up again. Same story, they tell me that they can see from my record that I'd spoken to a manager who advised that they cannot unlock my phone now i am out of contract with them.

LOST RAG AGAIN.

Phoned apple the next day. This time, did live chat and requested a call-back. Got a call from an apple person in the US. He was amazing - he phoned T-Mobile for me, told them to stop dicking about and unlock my phone, and to stop telling lies to customers about apple & unlocking phones.

Within 4 hours they had unlocked my phone. (Not 20 days - so they can do it if they want to).

However, first, I grilled them for 40 minutes and recorded the conversation, during which the person I spoke to admitted it was their policy to not unlock phones out of contract, even though i) they are the only ones who can, and ii) if you go to a high street shop that does unlocks, they phone T-Mobile to get it done. (I know, because my local shop told me and also told me they charge that shop £££ to do this). and iii) if you go to a high street shop it can damage your phone (the apple guy was furious to learn that T-Mob suggest I go to a dodgy phone shop).

My view is that they are behaving anti-competitively as they make it SO hard to change network. I guess they hope people will return to them. Or perhaps they see it as a punishment beating for leaving. I recorded the conversation because I thought that this was systematic policy of theirs to do this. Reading around these forums, I think that this is the case.

Shall I take this to Watchdog, my local MP?? Yes, I think so.

RESULT: Phone unlocked inside 3 hrs, T-Mob recorded admitting it is their policy to not unlock phones (when they are the only ones who can).

Best of luck all. You CAN do it

gjchester

ConsumerTalibandit wrote: »

The only involvement Apple has is that Apple hosts the servers that T-Mobile rent from them to store iPhone data on. i.e. apple has no access to this data.

I'm glad you got the result but most of the story is just wrong.


Apple own the servers that control the unlocks and own the process, they even have patents around the process.


The Carrier requests an unlock and Apple action it. When a phone has it's SIM swapped it contact Apple as part of the activation process, reads the data off the server and unlocks (or not) the phone depending on that interaction. How can Apple not have access to the servers to do that otherwise?


If it was any other way around you would not be able to get an unlock if you moved networks, and slow as Orange and EE may be they will unlock phones after they have been on their network a time (usually 6 months). Again that's simply not possible if the networks own the servers and Apple have no access.


It would also mean if you put in a new sim to a phone (as you need in order to do the unlock) it would be talking to a different networks servers and so never be able to get to its "original" server and so never unlock.


Local shops CANNOT legitimately process an Apple unlock they have no access to Apple or the unlock servers, anyone at either Apple or a network telling you so is talking rubbish. The only way a shop can do it is having an inside man at the network who can feed codes into the Apple system from time to time. Long gone are the days when jailbreaking could be a means to unlock a phone.

chandleo

Well still not sorted despite repeated calls, and lord knows how many times it's allegedly been escalated!

Spoke to a lady in the UK (hurrah!) who apologised and said they wouldn't charge me for the unlocking as it's taken so long, low and behind they've not only charged me, they've also overcharged me on the new contract (36 instead of 27)which they won't budge on, despite me having it all in writing) and the phone still isn't unlocked!

Really wish I hadn't stayed with Orange now, absolutely appalling company with no levels of customer service :-(