Vodafone Pay as you go sim locking iphone until its topped up by EUR120

sapper

Hi

My wife has an iphone 4S which she got a few years ago on a contract with 3. The contract expired a few weeks ago at which point she wanted to try out going without a smartphone. I got her a EUR10 pay as you go sim from vodafone and a cheap 'burner' phone from Argos, which she tried out for a few weeks.

She didnt last (!) and ended up putting the vodafone sim in her iphone while she organised a new sim-only contract for her iphone (from iD).

She now has signed up for that contract however the iD sim now wont work because Vodafone have locked her iphone - even though she got it from 3!

Vodafone are now refusing to unlock her phone until she tops up by EUR127!!!

How is that fair??? Is it common knowledge that using a pay as you go sim obligates you to spending another EUR117???

ED E

I'm 99% sure they did NOT lock the handset. The lock is only done by the retailing network and once its unlocked its unlocked. Apple do some things weird but I've never seen this.

sapper

Called Apple and they said Vodafone had done it. Then called Vodafone and they confirmed they had locked it and that they can unlock it if the sim is topped up by EUR127 in a 6 month period. Was literally shouting down the phone that the phone was not supplied by Vodafone - the guy was apologetic and said it was in the T&C's.

nava

sapper wrote: »

Called Apple and they said Vodafone had done it. Then called Vodafone and they confirmed they had locked it and that they can unlock it if the sim is topped up by EUR127 in a 6 month period. Was literally shouting down the phone that the phone was not supplied by Vodafone - the guy was apologetic and said it was in the T&C's.

Did you check their T&C's about that, ask them to point them out to you, maybe ask them in the Talk To here in boards. I never heard that before maybe the vodafone rep thought you got the phone from vodafone as PAYG.

You should contact comreg about that.

sapper

Actually when I come to think of it there's no way the Vodafone guy could have checked whether the phone was locked or not. I think he just took it on my wife's say-so (which was what Apple said)

Just tried to use my O2 sim on the phone (because if someone on boards is 99% sure there must be something in it!) It worked fine, so it is actually unlocked after all. Thanks for that

So I think it's back to iD to get them to sort it out with Apple. Must be a problem with Apple not recognising iD sims

nava

sapper wrote: »

Actually when I come to think of it there's no way the Vodafone guy could have checked whether the phone was locked or not. I think he just took it on my wife's say-so (which was what Apple said)

Just tried to use my O2 sim on the phone (because if someone on boards is 99% sure there must be something in it!) It worked fine, so it is actually unlocked after all. Thanks for that

So I think it's back to iD to get them to sort it out with Apple. Must be a problem with Apple not recognising iD sims

There's a thread about ID on the Mobile, section should be on 1st or 2nd page, someone there should be able to let you know if they had similar issues.

What is the error you get when you put the sim card, maybe the sim is not active? Try a restart when the sim is in. Does that sim work in another phone?

As a last option (Do a back up on the PC 1st to make sure you can recover everything) do a reset and setup as a new iphone, if it works ok restore from back-up.

ED E

sapper wrote: »

Actually when I come to think of it there's no way the Vodafone guy could have checked whether the phone was locked or not. I think he just took it on my wife's say-so (which was what Apple said)

Just tried to use my O2 sim on the phone (because if someone on boards is 99% sure there must be something in it!) It worked fine, so it is actually unlocked after all. Thanks for that

So I think it's back to iD to get them to sort it out with Apple. Must be a problem with Apple not recognising iD sims

Could just be a dead ID sim.

I have heard of issues where Tesco SIMs don't work in some iPhones, seems to be ones unlocked by Three actually. The phone is unlocked but put in "test mode". Physical network SIMs work fine but MVNO SIMs don't. I'm not sure what the fix is.

leche solara

In the ID Mobile thread there is something about ID not yet being in contract with Apple and therefore no iPhones should work with ID sims. Seems, however, that some iPhones will work with ID sims.