Help Needed

[Anonymous]

Just spent a really unhelpful hour with the O2 "Gurus" who were no help at all.  I'll not name and shame however.

My problem is this I sent their online unlocking form to them two weeks ago.  No response.  As my new SIM arrived today and my O2 service ceased I went onto LOVE CHAT to try and speed up getting my iphone unlocked .  After all it had been over two weeks.

Eventually I was told their had been a security issue with my original application and I should re-submit "Being more careful with your information" this time.  I sxplained that this was no use to me as my service has ceased and I run my business via the phone.

Turns out the IMEI number on my phone does not match their records to apparently there "is nothing we can do to help"

It may be because my iphone was replaced by my insurer over two years ago.  So the Gurus advice was that I have to contact my insurer to get them to unlock my phone.

So I phoned my insurer who as I suspected said this was not something an insurance company could do.

So here I am stuck in the middle with two large corporations both who have resdily taken my monthly direct debits passing the buck between them.  End result I have no service.

Rightly or wrongly I have since been told that after making paid calls from a new phone to your provider then the IMIE gets changed automatically.  Is this right.

Also any help or suggestions the posters can give me is grwatfully accpeted as the so called O2 Gurs experts are washing their hands.

[Anonymous]

Hi

Live Chat can get things muddled which is the case here !

An insurance company cannot unlock which is right.


You could get a Payg sim, top up with £20 and make several calls to latch the phones imei number to the Payg account and then use the remaining £15 to pay for the unlock.

Or ask a friend who is on O2 pay monthly to insert their sim, make several calls and they request the unlock for free

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

Call CS from a landline and ask for it to be escalated to a manager. After 2 years your IMEI will be on the system.

0844 809 0202

[Anonymous]

Here is the complaint form too http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=Companion,question=ref(User):str(Mobile),C...

No one should change an IMEI number since it is assigned by the manufacturer at the time of manufacture.

[MI5]

I think they mean IMEI changed on the system automatically, which is correct.

[Anonymous]

Was it a 3rd party insurance company then? Or o2's own insurance?

Bit of a tricky one if it's a 3rd party as O2 generally can only unlock handsets they have given out.

[MI5]

Shouldn't make any difference as O2 will just request the unlock from Apple..... I don't understand why they have to make it so difficult.
If what you say is the case they should have a system in place to deal with such circumstances....

[Anonymous]

Don't quote me on this, but I'm 99% sure the unlock isn't actually requested through apple like being believe (being completely honest, I didn't take it in when someone explained it), but IIRC each network is given a tool and a list of IMEI's allocated to them and so long as it's on there then the network can unlock it, but handsets supplied by 3rd parties aren't on there.

I can double check tomorrow.

Also just to nip back on a point. No, the IMEI doesn't get changed on the system. A system used to check handset usage will show a different IMEI, but it wouldn't change on a customers account.

[MI5]

"Fat Benny" needs to be pulled out of the closet
But seriously - How many phones get replaced by Insurance companies every year.....?