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Blacklisted iPhone - mistake by Vodafone?

babyg388
3: Seeker
3: Seeker

Currently in a sim only contract with the carrier Three

iphone 7 Plus purchased simfree from Apple Sept 2016 (have reciepts)

Suddenly a few days after the new year there was no service, on investigation by Three they say that the IMEI has been blacklisted by Vodafone and they cannot help no more.

Contact Vodafone, never been a customer said they can't help

Finally have someone looking into it via Vodafone Twitter customer services

 

Anyone have similar experiences?  what lengths, did you have to go to? what was the outcome?

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

For clarification.

 

Phones brought through apple are sim free and any sim can be used at any time

Phones brought through Carphone Warehouse do NOT lock to the first sim inserted anymore however I cannot recall when this came into effect.

 

As they brought the phone from Apple there is no way this should now be locked so in my opinion an unlock code should be provided for free right away as it looks to be a mistake on Vodafone's part.

View solution in original position

24 REPLIES 24

Fela337
2: Seeker
2: Seeker

Hello, I was wondering how you went about solving this issue. Because it seems the same issue is happening to my phone right now. I bought a sim free phone from Apple at the start of this year and I have used it on the provider 3 up until now, and on the 28th December 2018 my phone was blacklisted by Vodafone, I have spoke to my provider 3 numerous of times and they have said they can’t do anything about it. Only Vodafone who blacklisted my phone can unblacklist my phone. I have called Vodafone and even went to their store and they are saying they are unable to help me, even when it’s quite evident that they mistakenly blacklisted my phone.

Managed to get Vodafone to unlock it, providing all receipts of purchase, all official from Apple.  Had to pester them loads on web chat and twitter. 

 

But managed to smash phone (iPhone 7 Plus) a few weeks ago and upgraded to an XS now

 

I purchased my phone through a third party website - eg eBay, Gumtree etc so I don’t have a proof of purchase? Do you think this will effect it. I’ve never had any contract or sim with Vodafone so I’m very confused as to how they’ve gone about blacklisting it. 

63johnw
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

Are you sure the person who sold it to you hasn’t reported it as lost or stolen? This is a known insurance scam, selling the phone then claiming on insurance. 

I bought the phone exactly 11 months ago today, 31st of Jan. So if they have they’ve waited that long too. I believe the guy had the phone with EE so that still doesn’t relate back to Vodafone blacklisting the phone. Thank you for your help! 

Mark
Community Manager
Community Manager

I'm sorry to hear your phones have been mistakenly blacklisted @Fela337 and @Angure. As we'll need to take some personal information off you to get this sorted, please get in touch by following the link in the private message I've sent.

Hi, I uploaded to this forum on the 1st of Jan about my phone being mistakenly blacklisted, I followed the instructions from the private message and have been emailing customer service. I have been advised as the phone was bought thirty party that the original owner needs to be in contact with a proof of purchase. I have managed to get a hold of the original owner who sold me the device and he’s kindly emailed customer service with his proof of purchase also. He emailed them on the 3rd and 5th of January but hasn’t received any response or acknowledgement of the emails yet I keep receiving emails requesting ‘the original owner is in touch’ although he has been? I’ve even given the email in which he has sent his email from and everyone is telling me the same thing. It has been over a week now and this is becoming more stressful and is even more frustrating as this is clearly a mistake. I seem to receive better service and help here, so can anyone please help and speed up this every so long process! 

TJ
Community Manager (Retired)
Community Manager (Retired)

I'm sorry to hear that you're still having problems getting your phone unblacklisted @Angure. When you got in touch with us, our emails will have a reference number in the subject area - it'll look something like this [#1234567] .

If you've been in contact and we've not got back to you, I'll be happy to chase this up. If you have any further questions, you can also get back to us via email and we'll check for any update. 

Hi TJ, 

I really hope you can help, just to recap:

the phone was bought third party on 31/01/18

the phone was originally on EE and then a sim with 3 was used in it, there has been no contact with Vodafone on this device which is even more confusing as to how Vodafone blacklisted it 

i have been advised the original owner needs to be in contact with proof of purchase to unblacklist the device 

i have luckily been in contact with the owner and he has kindly emailed with proof of purcase 

Please help me get this resolved ASAP!

20189821 is the refence number