Can this iPhone 4 be unlocked?

choccyface2006

Hi,

Please help if youcan!

I bought a secondhand iPhone 4 locked to O2 for my daughter, the idea was to unlock it so shecould use the bargain T Mobile sim I ordered two weeks ago (as seen in theweekly MSE email)

I thoughtunlocking it would be straight forward, after asking locally and finding itcould cost £35 and take 20 days I decided to look on eBay instead.

I found a sellerwho unlocks mobiles for £12.50 and it can take up to 8 days so went with thatand sent the seller the IMEI number.

The seller outsthis on his listing:

VERY IMPORTANT -If you are unlocking a second hand/pre-owned iPhone or iPad then you MUSTensure that "Find my iPhone" feature is disabled before updating toiOS7. Apple have added a new Activation lock feature to iOS7 which preventsactivation without the original owners iCloud details. We are unable to assistyou with this problem should it arise after updating to iOS7 so please ensureyou have these details or the "Find my iPhone" feature is disabledbefore ordering. NO REFUNDS CAN BE GIVEN AFTER AN UNLOCK HAS BEEN COMPLETED ifthis problem arises.

Now I checked the iPhone settingsand the 'find my iPhone' feature was already disabled. I knew this did notguarantee it was off before iOS7 was installed but thought there was a goodchance it was.

So yesterday I got a message fromthe seller to say the unlock had 'processing failure'

'Reason : NOT CLEAN/ NOT PAY MONTHLY / IF CLEAN PROCESS IN ALL PLANS'

The mobile isclean (not blocked) and was on contract but I don't understand the 'process inall plans’ part.

I have messagedthe seller to ask what they mean and to see if the 'find my iPhone' featuremight be the problem but no reply.

My daughter isso upset. Can this iPhone be unlocked or will we have to sell it as locked to O2and buy an unlocked/locked to T Mobile iPhone?

Thanks you inadvance.

Sarah x

grumbler

choccyface2006 wrote: »

I bought a secondhand iPhone 4 locked to O2 for my daughter, the idea was to unlock it so shecould use the bargain T Mobile sim I ordered two weeks ago (as seen in theweekly MSE email)

I thoughtunlocking it would be straight forward, after asking locally and finding itcould cost £35 and take 20 days

Where? AFAIK O2 do this for free and much faster for their customers.

I decided to look on eBay instead.

A proper unlocking costs close to £100 on ebay. This can depend on the network. Unlike for all other phones, theoretically, only networks can unlock iPhones legitimately, that's why ebay prices are that high.

sdduk

Sounds a bit funny to me and cheap to unlock a iphone 4 they are normally about £35 up of ebay
If you paid through paypal open a case against the seller and try and get your money back

Have you tried going through O2 website? and getting it done through them its about £15-20 but will be done properly and you don't have to wait that long with O2 they do say upto 30 days but i have had 2 done and waited no where near that it was about a week.

https://www.o2.co.uk/apps/help/help?qid=1&q1=2&route=unlocking&case=Handset%20Unlocking%20Form

Edit: just been on ebay and had a look you can get the iphone 4 unlocked cheap if you look the one in the link sound good
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNLOCK-IPHONE-4-4S-3G-3GS-4G-on-02-O2-or-TESCO-Mobile-in-the-UK-United-Kingdom-/321240932326?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4acb739fe6

Also have a look at the persons feeback when purchasing something off ebay that normally tells you whether they are any good

Buzby

Only Apple can successfully unlock an iPhone - usually arranged by the supplying network and with a fee.

Market stalls may 'jailbreak' an iPhone, which will relock after the next iOS update, but I understand there is currently no JB for iOS (yet).

The supposed 'proper' non-network unlocks invariably require subterfuge and hacking into Apple's database, is certainly isn't worth it.

grumbler

Buzby wrote: »

The supposed 'proper' non-network unlocks invariably require subterfuge and hacking into Apple's database, .

I think 'hacking' is a far too strong word. People working for networks and doing unlocking have families and aren't saint. That's why 'proper' ebay unlockers do unlicking for some specific network(s) only.

choccyface2006

Thank you for your replies.

The phone was bought from my friends work colleague, when we first looked at unlocking it we realised that O2 could have unlocked it for free if the original owner had asked O2 and he then synced it with iTunes but I don't think it’s fair to go back to him two weeks later to see if he can do this for us. My friend is understandably not keen to act as go-between.

sdduk - I have thought of opening a case with Ebay as the sellers says to comply with eBay rules they send the code to the buyer through the post but I haven't received this? I did look at the feed back, it was 97% with lots of recent feedback reporting positively.

The link you posted was pretty much the same as the one I tried which didn’t work.

I have looked at the O2 website but it assumes you have an O2 account, which we don' t

sdduk

choccyface2006 wrote: »

Thank you for your replies.

The phone was bought from my friends work colleague, when we first looked at unlocking it we realised that O2 could have unlocked it for free if the original owner had asked O2 and he then synced it with iTunes but I don't think it’s fair to go back to him two weeks later to see if he can do this for us. My friend is understandably not keen to act as go-between.

sdduk - I have thought of opening a case with Ebay as the sellers says to comply with eBay rules they send the code to the buyer through the post but I haven't received this? I did look at the feed back, it was 97% with lots of recent feedback reporting positively.

The link you posted was pretty much the same as the one I tried which didn’t work.

I have looked at the O2 website but it assumes you have an O2 account, which we don' t

Open a case you have nothing to loose If the seller wins then you don't have to do anything and thats it
If you win then he/she will have to refund you
Tell them you never got a good enough reason why they couldn't unlock the phone and that its not stolen

You don't receive no codes you just have to wait to they tell you its done after that you just go on itunes and it will come up unlocked

Sorry yeah i just remembered i had a O2 pay&go sim and i had to top it up with £15 it all went through ok then
You can get the O2 sims free off there website if you wanted to go that way

Just Had a read again on the ebay link again
it does not mention nothing about Find my iPhone being enabled or disabled
it say as long as the phone is not stolen they can unlock it and does not matter whether its pay&go or contract they can still do it
But i can understand where you are coming from because you have just been stung once already.

choccyface2006

Thanks again sdduk,

the particular seller I bought the unlock from said that to comply with ebay they send the code to your address through the post so I have opened a case as I never received the code and its not marked as dispatched. Hopefully they will refund.

The other link you sent that I said sounded the same, I have had a good look at it and you are right, they don't mention the 'find my iPhone' feature on that one. I have messaged them to see if they can unlock this phone for me despite another seller failing, worth a shot anyway.

So if I buy a PAYG sim I could call O2 to unlock the iPhone because then I would be an O2 customer? That's is worth a go if all else fails, thank you!

Sarah

sdduk

choccyface2006 wrote: »

Thanks again sdduk,

the particular seller I bought the unlock from said that to comply with ebay they send the code to your address through the post so I have opened a case as I never received the code and its not marked as dispatched. Hopefully they will refund.

The other link you sent that I said sounded the same, I have had a good look at it and you are right, they don't mention the 'find my iPhone' feature on that one. I have messaged them to see if they can unlock this phone for me despite another seller failing, worth a shot anyway.

So if I buy a PAYG sim I could call O2 to unlock the iPhone because then I would be an O2 customer? That's is worth a go if all else fails, thank you!

Sarah

Hopefully you get your money back from that cowboy

Hope everything goes alright with the other seller

Just fill in your details and O2 will send you a free sim don't buy one.
https://www.o2.co.uk/freesim/
You can get free sims on most networks EE, O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone they send them to you free just have a look on their websites

choccyface2006

Thanks, I have paid for the unlock from the other seller after they messaged me back to say it work as longer as the phone wasn't blocked.

If that fails I will get a free sim. Thanks for your help!

Im_just_careful

As an alternative (and having suffered T-Mobile/EE for the last 6 months or so), your o2 locked phone will be fine with a giffgaff SIM if you change the settings.


Perhaps the seller of the phone would be prepared to get o2 to unlock it in return for £20 or so for his trouble.