My 'unlocked' Iphone SE apparantly 'Locked' to O2

elsiemate

Am travelling to NYC for a week and after some research on this site decided to go for the £25, 1-month, Three Sim card deal that has a great data and call allowance for use in the USA.

We purchased 3 x Three cards and my partner put his in his Iphone SE and all is hunky dory. DId the same with my Iphone SE and it says the SIM is unsupported. Both phones were purchased unlocked with the specific intention of not having a phone contract and going onto GIff Gaff which is what happened.

I went to the Apple Shop for them to take a look and their diagnostics revealed it was locked to O2/Tesco network. They seemed to think that this was because it had a Giff Gaff SIM and that GG use the O2 network.? But this didn't happen to my partner's phone so why mine?

I don't seem to be able to 'contact' GG but have posed a question on their forum and the main solution to this seems to be that I need to get O2 to unlock my phone, But the only way to do that is to purchase a £15 02 SIM card, then request O2 to unlock my phone and they will use the £15 'credit' on my phone to pay for this privilege. It would appear that I won't be able to use my phone for calls or texts during this unlock period which could take between 24-72 hours!

I totally begrudge having to sign up to a network I am unwittingly locked into, in order to unlock myself, and pay £15 for the privilege. It was a cost and a faff that I hadn't factored in when I was researching the best way to use my phone in the US. And I'm particularly puzzled because my partner's phone is fine. He bought me my phone for my birthday and can't remember whether he bought it from John Lewis or Carphone Warehouse within PC World but the only reason we purchased them outright, brand new was so that we could go on any SIM deal and we knew we wanted out of our Orange contracts and to go on GIff Gaff. I didn't have to unlock my phone to put the GG SIM in so why am I suddenly locked into O2 now?

I begrudge paying O2 any money!

mrochester

I know that Carphone Warehouse used to sell sim free iPhones that would lock to the network of the first sim you used in the phone. This allowed CPW to use their cheaper iPhone stock to sell for sim free prices and make them a lot more profit than selling proper sim free iPhones. Unfortunately, because they only put this disclaimer as a small bullet point at the bottom of the phone details, a lot of people missed this important detail. It sounds like your partner may have been one of them.

Unfortunately this does mean you will need to get the phone unlocked by the network it is now locked too. You will need to be aware that you may need to be an O2 PAYG customer for a number of months before they will sell you an unlock.

John Lewis may or may not have undertaken the same thing. Someone else would need to confirm that.

pmduk

There's a useful article here about unlocking iphones.

J_B

Other less complicated makes of phone are available!

Frozen_up_north

J_B wrote: »

Other less complicated makes of phone are available!

Or buy direct from Apple (especially an Apple Store) zero hassle and they have lots of time to help you migrate from your old phone. They also do trade ins too.

d123

elsiemate wrote: »

He bought me my phone for my birthday and can't remember whether he bought it from John Lewis or Carphone Warehouse within PC World but the only reason we purchased them outright, brand new was so that we could go on any SIM deal and we knew we wanted out of our Orange contracts and to go on GIff Gaff. I didn't have to unlock my phone to put the GG SIM in so why am I suddenly locked into O2 now?

I begrudge paying O2 any money!

As said, CPW used to have a policy to lock to first sim (which ended in 2016).

If you don't want to go through o2, there are eBay unlockers who can arrange for the process to be done.

They start at £3.75
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FACTORY-UNLOCK-UNLOCKING-SERVICE-FOR-APPLE-IPHONE-SE-FOR-O2/172996503110