Updated Mobile Unlocking Article discussion

[Deleted User]

matwetwe wrote: »

Hi,
I have just had an experience with an online service called"directunlock", who initially charged me £12.99 to unlock my Samsung Galaxy A5 from Vodafone. I was then asked for a further £19.40, which I stupidly paid, not suspecting a scam...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5791856/directunlocks-co-uk

Never ever give your details to anyone online without at least doing some basic research.

Mcnotony

Has anybody used ‘netpal’ to unlock their phone? They seem to have good reviews but you never know. Can’t post a link but you can find them in google easy enough. Also does someone have a discount code for them? Thanks

Browntoa

And as people still asking for free codes

codes only available from your network operator or a high post count user on eBay

Do not try free codes posted on the internet

robthebubble

Hi All....just to give you my experience of one of these unlocking companies. I've tried to use iphoneapprovedunlock and although they say is £14.99+VAT to unlock they are rather misleading in telling you that you may be charge more if inside of contract but no mention of this outside of contract.
My phone was outside of contract and I wanted to give it to my wife to use. It was taking a long time to get Vodafone to provide the unlock code so i went to the above to speed up the process. They now want over £70 to fully unlock!
They are clearly misleading people so don't fall for the same mistake as I did! Keep well clear of iphoneapprovedunlock.!!!!

GT60

Any phone purchased from Giffgaf, carphonewarehouse or mobiles .co.uk (carphonewarehouse sister company)
Are already unlocked even though carphonewarehouse try and tell you differently

mobilejunkie

All my phones (apart from one about 10 years ago) from all CPW companies were unlocked. Nowadays I usually sell them immediately in a sealed box, calling the dealer first to confirm it's unlocked. Never had a problem with that, but there are better companies to deal with.

Delbert_Wilkins

My first smartphone was an iPhone 5 locked to EE and the contract obligations were fulfilled by the time I came to sell it. I then requested EE to unlock it with an advertised lead time of one month and three tortuous months later at least one member of EE staff actually woke up and unlocked it.

That was my first and last time of purchasing a locked phone from any mobile company. Since then I only purchase mobiles directly from Apple or John Lewis [JL occasionally for the two year guarantee] and obviously purchase my telecoms tariff separately.

We live and learn.

Eserim

OK - some advice please.

iPhone bought as unlocked from major website (4* rating on TrustPilot)

It is locked to Vodafone. We can either return it or pay for it to be unlocked. Vodafone will only unlock if we put a PAYG SIM in a wait a month (according to their website)

Has anyone else done it this way? If so, is the month delay real, or is there any chance of it working straight away?

Finally - views on DoctorSim as an alternative?

Many thanks

glw75

BEWARE ***.mobileunlocked.com***BEWARE

I paid £42 to unlock an iphone 8 that I owned after completing a 24 month contract with Vodafone. I'm loathed that I have to use a service like this, but Vodafone won't unlock the phone as it was purchased through mobilephones direct. Mobilephonesdirect claim that they are unable to unlock the phone, so I thought this would be my only option.

I submitted the IMEI along with payment, then received confirmation that the unlock process had begun. I then received an e-mail asking about the mobile number used against the IMEI code, I provided this instantly, only for a request for that e-mail to be retracted. I thought this was strange but carried on.

Anyway, several days passed, no change to the status of the unlock, I emailed customer service, a woman called Candice replied, was very pleasant said that she'd do everything she could to chase up the status.

Since there was no update, I e-mailed them again this morning, asking if there was any update. An e-mail arrived stating that the status of my order had been updated, I logged in only to find that the status of the unlock is set to 'Blocked'.

e-mailed Candice several times, asked them if this service is a scam, this is the reply that I received:-

"No we are not a scam. The unlock has been blocked by the carrier, it could be due to the number provided not matching the IMEI or other contract/payment status issues.

In normal cases like this we would have to refer to the terms and conditions that you agreed to at the point of purchase regarding blocked devices and a no refund option would be presented as we have incurred the full cost of the service with our suppliers.

However on this occasion while we aim to help our customers as much as we can, I’ve negotiated a 50% refund on your unlock fee or we can use the unlock fee against an alternative non blocked or non blacklisted device"

I used a free online IMEI checker, this showed the status of the phone to be :- Clean (I'm having to make the assumption that the free IMEI checkers are legitimate). I'd rather expose these lot as scammers than receive the 50% refund.

This is my experience, maybe I've been unlucky but it all seems like a scam to me, so be very wary.