Advice / Knowledge on Blocked phones

BuzyB2017

Hi all

Forum Newbie .. read for many years but hope I can contribute something this year. I do have something I need a little help / advice / knowledge with.

Basically, my friend used to work for a company who paid her phone bill (company sim). She had been off sick leave for a long time and recently got her own new payg o2 Sim.

She also got her own handset recently (iPhone). Purchased from a friend who said she got an upgrade. Originally, she put her old company sim into the her new handset.

As she's no real proper knowledge on technology, she asked me to set it up for her with her new payg sim (i.e., take out old company sim and put in new payg sim). Her old company sim was cancelled and therefore she hasn't had any access to calls / texts for a few weeks now - just wifi.

I put the new sim in and activated it with o2 customer service as I couldn't do a sim swap because her old sim was cancelled.

After I activated - it was coming up as no service. So I rang them back and they said it seemed to be activated but they will try again and re-active. That has been done and still it is saying no service. I have rang her new number from my phone and it is sending me to voicemail, making me think the activation of the sim worked fine.

I tested the handset by putting my o2 sim in it (which works in my iPhone) but still it is saying no service.

I concluded that there was a problem with the handset. Done absolutely every reset I could (even backed up and factory restored etc). Still no solution.

I decided to check the IMEI number - paid £1.99 for the report online and it came back to say the device has been blocked (reported lost or stolen to the mobile network operator - o2).

What I'm looking some advice on is whether the following scenario is plausible?

a) Her handset was possibly reported lost / stolen from her friend she bought it off?
b) Her company sim was in the device which they then blocked (the sim) - can the device the sim is registered to also be blocked? The company's phone providers would surely recognise the IMEI as not being part of their handsets (she dealt with all this at the company and knows how the business handsets and tariffs work - the providers know which handsets they have from the IMEIs).

Is b) plausible - as in can the last handset a blocked sim be in also be blocked? Her original handset from the company is not blocked (it is to be returned to the company in the next week or two and I tested the o2 sim and it was not blocked).

Any advice would be great. Based on the report of the IMEI, I'm pretty sure she's at a loss with the phone, but I'm concerned about how she bought it etc.

Not looking advice on what to do, just wondering if that b) is plausible or if it is more likely a) .. as this would obviously cause a bit of a problem between her and her friend.

Many thanks for any insight you can provide.

P.s - sorry it's so long.

Atasas

Once you put hers work SIM that's the network it got locked to.
Nothing to do with new O2 networks, until after unlocking it you'll put it back in.
Get same network SIM

BuzyB2017

Hi
Thanks for your reply.

I understand the phone is locked to o2. But it's not the locking to network I'm worried about.

It's the fact the phone's IMEI is reported as being blocked (reported to a MNO as lost or stolen).

The new sim is exact same network as old one - theoretically it should work all fine. But It's just that now it's being reported as the device is blocked.

redux

If a SIM is reported lost, then just that SIM would be blocked and replacement sent.

However it is possible that the network replacing the SIM also blocks the mobile phone by mistake.

This happened to me with a phone originally on O2, not long after I got home from abroad using a roaming SIM. I sent it as a warranty issue via O2 to Nokia who returned it saying it was b!ocked. I phoned them up for an explanation and they said the same network as did the block can also unblock it. The penny dropped, as I had ordered a replacement SIM from giffgaff. Fortunately they were indeed able to unblock it.

However from your description another poasibility occurs to me. does the employer consider that the phone is not or should not be the property of the employee? Or has the employer given slightly the wrong message to the network and had the phone blocked by mistake?

Whether there is or is not such a dispute, an intentional or accidental phone block is usually done to the last phone that the SIM card was in, even if they intended to block a previous phone.

BuzyB2017

Thank you very much. Your last line has helped clarify and this is what I suspect has happened.

The company handset is to be returned but it's the new handset that's been blocked - like you say the last handset the sim was associated with.

Thanks again. Top notch help.

mobilejunkie

Maybe your friend's "friend" wasn't such a friend. Unless you know the history of the phone you can't be sure it won't be blocked.

BuzyB2017

That was something that seriously crossed my mind. Bit of a history of claiming stuff ... but I checked a IMEI blacklist database last night and it was cut off on the same date the company sim was cut off so I'm assuming it is that ... the company has blocked the sim + the handset the sim was associated with. Would have thought they would associate her original company handset with its original IMEI and notice that it's a different handset she had been using.

mobilejunkie

The company wouldn't know the IMEI number of the other phone and so couldn't block it.

BuzyB2017

Well that was our thinking - but then I was told and read that with her company sim being used in the new handset for a few weeks, that the sim was then recognised with the new IMEI - which when the company blocked the sim, and subsequently also blocked the handset attached to the sim..

mobilejunkie

Sounds like complete rubbish to me. That would also mean that anyone could block any phone it had nothing to do with simply because their sim was used in it for a while.

redux

mobilejunkie wrote: »

Sounds like complete rubbish to me. That would also mean that anyone could block any phone it had nothing to do with simply because their sim was used in it for a while.

Let's not assume my previous post was based on certain knowledge of the way the system always works.

But on the other hand what you describe is exactly what giffgaff mistakenly did to me on a phone originally supplied on an O2 contract, used with giffgaff for a few months, then used abroad with a roaming SIM, then they blocked the phone 3 weeks after the giffgaff SIM had last been used, when I got home and realised I'd misplaced the SIM while away and asked for replacement.

Fortunately for me, Nokia did not give my phone to the police but returned it, then Nokia's advice that the network doing the block could also undo the block turned out to be able to help me persuade giffgaff this was possible.

And to think about it, that is the way it should work - if someone's phone is actually stolen, it should still be blockable even if the SIM is immediately discarded and another used, even if this happens before the stolen report is received.

To go back to the OP's case, if we understand it correctly it does sound rather like the employer's help may be needed to unblock the phone, by talking to the network.