My phone was locked by O2 even though I was never a customer

[Anonymous]

My iPhone 5 which from the day I got it was using a Giffgaff sim. Now that 4G is pretty much standard and O2 stupidly didnt think about that, I want to leave Giffgaff. I purchased a sim only rolling contract from Three tried to insert it into my phone and discovered it was locked. I contacted Giffgaff they told me that they do not have the power to lock the phones as they use O2's network. So then I contacted O2 via the live chat and over the phone, they then denied that they locked it. I checked with Apple and they confirmed that it was indeed locked by O2. So again I contacted O2 told them what Apple had said and they proceeded to tell me there is nothing they can do unless I have an O2 number, very reluctently (as I know how awful O2 actually are) I bought an O2 pay and go sim. From the very first minute I got the sim O2 shining customer service showed how bad they actually were, by misinforming me with lead to me being under £15 credit which I needed to top up, they denied they made the mistake and told me I HAD to top up another £10. I finanly got through to someone on the phone and they sorted that issue. It took multiple days for my IMEI to register to O2 before I could even begin the unlocking process. Now I'm in the unlocking stage and I expect to be up until the very last minute even though I have informed how urgent this is that I have a phone as I will be leaving home without any means of contact. 

Thanks for forcing me to this brilliant network and your great levels of co operation!

[Anonymous]

Hi

Where did you obtain the iPhone from.

To unlock from O2 a person needs to top up by £20. Make some chargeable calls to latch the imei to a registered O2 payg account and leave £15 on the account for the admin fee.

[Cleoriff]

Hi BoB,

I just can't understand why O2 locked the phone if the OP was never a customer?...

[Anonymous]

Neither can I until we know where the iPhone was sourced from.

I buy mine from Apple Directly and never lock out.

The ones obtained via contract do which is why they ask a person to activate the sim in the iPhone in store so the iPhone locks to the correct network

Ie someone doesn't try another sim in it to see.

[jonsie]

It depends where the phone was bought from originally. If from O2 then it will be locked as normal. If from CPW it will lock to the first network sim that is inserted. Giffgaff runs on O2 so that will be the possible reason.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it was a contract phone (not O2) not bought direct from Apple, so I can acknowledge that it was locked to the first network. However, if O2 locked it without me being a customer why do I have to become one to remove it?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

It should then be locked to the network it was taken out on contract.

I'm not sure why O2 would lock out the phone through a giff gaff sim.

You could get it unlocked via the way your doing now and then fight your case for the money back here http://www.o2.co.uk/how-to-complain/complain

[Anonymous]

That I what I plan on doing, thanks. The phone came sim free with the contract so it wasn't locked to them.

[Anonymous]

That's the first time I've heard of a sim free iPhone on a contract.

Everyday is a learning day.

Apple supply two forms of iPhone.

One for sim free to people who pay the full retail price.

One for Contracts that do lock to the first sim inserted.

[Anonymous]

Oh sorry it was the latter of the 2 but I'm pretty sure it was called sim free