Nightmare unlocking iPhone

[Neon555]

Hi

its now been 5 weeks off ringing incompetent Vodafone to get my old iPhone 7 unlocked . They keep me on hold for ages - send and email with steps to unlock and verify email & to wait 20 days. Nothing happens . Repeat ! I’ve rang a few days ago and the advisor swore she had put it through as urgent as it was unacceptable I’d been made to go through hell just to get an iPhone unlocked that THEY sent and promised it would be unlocked in 2 days max! Nothing ! 
I am going insane . Please help ! 
vodagone has the worst service ever and this is from a customer of 19 years standing ! Yeh I know I should get the guts and  have left years ago . 

[BandOfBrothers]

I totally understand and appreciate your frustrated with this situation and rightly so @Neon555 

My personal opinion is that phone's should be unlocked out of the box and it's a good sign that Ofcom are looking into this.

IPhone's are unique as in that they are not unlocked via inputting a Nuc but instead are unlocked remotely by Apple themselves which after being asked by Vodafone can take from a few days to up to approximately 20'ish day's. There's not an exact time frame.

Sometimes hooking upto iTunes can complete the process.

Vodafone themselves have no direct access or control of Apples database.

Unfortunately also Apple wouldn't engage with you over a network locked phone in regards to unlocking it.

You could raise a complaint. 

I've come across where a person has as a last resort turned to either reputable online unlocking sites or Highstreet Stores that advertise they unlock phones but this does cone at a cost to the person via an unlocking fee levied by the site or shop.

You could also try the Vodafone Social Media Teams via Contact-us-for-account-specific-queries to see if they can look into your situation.

I wish you all the best with this situation.