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PAYG 30 days use?

ItsAndyMel
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Hi I have an Iphone X that is locked to vodafone. I had put a sim in it to see if it was worth swapping from my present supplier but the reception at my desk is terrible. Today, after 30 days and having used the credit i am being told that because i haven't used my phone for the past days it is still not 30 days despite the phone remaining on and sim inserted. Even after twice speaking to agents who struggled to hear me, who appreciated why i did not want to put further credit on the phone, it puts me back to square one! The chat help was no help either - one agent told me to go outside to use the phone, and they also went on to tell me they could process it now but that it was because the imei wasn't registered - but promptly got cut off after i pointed out that this would have been logged with every call that had been made with the handset! How do i progress? I was a contract customer 20 years ago and this experience has left me with no reason to shout the praises!

1 REPLY 1

BandOfBrothers
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Hi @ItsAndyMel 

 

From what we know inserting the Vodafone Payg sim card in the phone for the set criteria of 30 days and then making calls / sending texts etc within those 30 days latches the phone's imei number to the Payg account thus allowing the unlocking process to be completed.

So I'm not sure what's gone wrong.

I'd suggest to speak with an agent on 191 or the Vodafone Social Media Team's via Contact-us-for-account-specific-queries to ask them to check the account and hopefully manually raise an unlocking request.

To add … An iPhone is not unlocked via inputting a Nuc {unlocking code} like other phone models are, but instead is unlocked remotely by Apple themselves and their Database.

So no actual Nuc is sent by Vodafone UK. 
The Vodafone Network lets a person know by email it's unlocking has been requested to Apple after accepting your Nuc online unlock request. (Please Check Spam Inboxes too)

Please Note > The iPhone isn't actually usually unlocked to all networks at this stage when Vodafone email you.

What happens is Apple then process the Networks request and occasionally this can take Apple approximately from a few days upto a further 30+ days sometimes from Vodafone's email to complete an unlock request made by a Network.
To complete the process please periodically insert an active i.e. connects to mobile network data, alternative Networks Sim Card in the iPhone with hooking upto iTunes is only typically needed if its an iPhone 4 or older although it wouldn't harm to do so. 
From the iPhone 5 onwards there's not normally the need to hook up to iTunes to complete the process.
When it's unlocked you should see a pop up message and the alternatives Networks name will show in the iPhone's status bar. 

 

The other avenue is to use a reliable reputable unlocking online site or wait until a Highstreet Store opens that unlocks phone's.

However they would charge a fee for their services. You shouldn't have to go down this route and I'm not saying you should have to but thought that this avenue warranted mentioning.

Current Phone  >

Samsung Galaxy s²³ Ultra 512gb Phantom Black.