Weird phone lock in EE network

Harald

Hi
Last year I bought second hand phone on Ebay. Phone was used, but price was reflecting overall condition.
Tested phone in various situations and it was just fine, hence was not expecting any problems.
Now I tried to use my company SIM and found it shows "no sim/sim error". After multiple checks found it happens with any Orange/T-Mobile/EE sim inside.
I'm not an EE/T-Mobile/Orange user, so it is possible it was like that from the beginning. Still - not a very big problem for me.

Question is: it looks like it was blocked only in EE network and it looks like has been locked because of unpaid bills (not the lost/stolen phone lock). I'm just wondering if is worthy to waste time contacting EE to provide purchase details and asking them to unlock the phone?

Jon_01

They won't unlock it if it's for unpaid (or fraud). There would be no point in having the system if they did that!

d123

Harald wrote: »

Hi
Last year I bought second hand phone on Ebay. Phone was used, but price was reflecting overall condition.
Tested phone in various situations and it was just fine, hence was not expecting any problems.
Now I tried to use my company SIM and found it shows "no sim/sim error". After multiple checks found it happens with any Orange/T-Mobile/EE sim inside.
I'm not an EE/T-Mobile/Orange user, so it is possible it was like that from the beginning. Still - not a very big problem for me.

Question is: it looks like it was blocked only in EE network and it looks like has been locked because of unpaid bills (not the lost/stolen phone lock). I'm just wondering if is worthy to waste time contacting EE to provide purchase details and asking them to unlock the phone?

It's unlikely to be blocked, as it's been many years since single network IMEI blocking was done.

Have you checked with CheckMend if there is any adverse info on the IMEI.

Harald

I know it's weird, but that's how this phone is behaving.
It is accepting ANY SIM. Tested with various foreign cards and also with UK cards from all networks. Working fine except for ANY EE/Orange/T-Mobile card which causes "SIM error"
It's like reversed sim-lock, no matter how weird it can sounds. And yes, I know there is no such thing.

Just been checking Checkmend as advised - same result. Not blocked as stolen/lost/insurance claim.
The only possibility is lock because of unpaid bills then.

d123

Harald wrote: »

I know it's weird, but that's how this phone is behaving.
It is accepting ANY SIM. Tested with various foreign cards and also with UK cards from all networks. Working fine except for ANY EE/Orange/T-Mobile card which causes "SIM error"
It's like reversed sim-lock, no matter how weird it can sounds. And yes, I know there is no such thing.

Just been checking Checkmend as advised - same result. Not blocked as stolen/lost/insurance claim.
The only possibility is lock because of unpaid bills then.

No, that would show on CheckMend as well.

What phone is it?

Harald

Nokia Lumia 820. Just tested with another EE Sim card - same result. Logging in for a second and then WRONG/MISSING SIM error.
Tested with voice, voice/data and data only sims. And same with any Orange, T-Mobile or EE sim.
ANY other SIM - working perfectly.

The funny thing is, when sim from another country inserted and forced to choose EE network - working fine.
And based on my information (from seller and Nokia based on IMEI) it was sim-free phone, not sold by EE and not branded, which is even more weird. Obviously there is still a chance they had shortage of branded phones and sold unbranded and unlocked.

forgotmyname

Seems orange still supply phones that are locked and even using sims from ee etc wont work.

Dads just had to pay orange for the unlock code on his old S2. I dont know why he sticks with them. Terrible deal.

He pays more for his S4 than i paid for mine last year. He got his just after the S5 was released so i said he should get a good deal. He didnt.

Harald

Locked phone means limited to one network only (sometimes one subnetwork or one country, but it's very rare).
This phone is working with any network but one.

And this is "country variant" version, not EE branded

d123

forgotmyname wrote: »

He pays more for his S4 than i paid for mine last year. He got his just after the S5 was released so i said he should get a good deal. He didnt.

It isn't as simple as that, the price can fluctuate and go up as well as down, things like the currency exchange rate and dealer commission level will affect the price more than a new model coming out (especially as the S4 wasn't discontinued when the S5 launched).