iPhone 3GS - Could Not Activate

[Anonymous]

OK.  This is a long story which I will try and keep brief.

Basically my daughters iPhone 3GS will not activate after it was sold and subsequently returned to someone on eBay.

The 2 year iPhone 3GS was working perfectly until xmas. We then gave our daughter an upgrade to an iPhone 4 and decided to sell her old iPhone 3GS over eBay.  We reset the iPhone and a person eventually bought the iPhone from eBay. We then shipped it off and thought that was the end of the matter.

3 weeks later this eBay person came back saying the iPhone was faulty and wanted his money back.  I eventually agreed and thought I could get the iPhone working again on an O2 Pay-As-You-Go and so purchased a new Sim Card, inserted it into the iPhone and no matter what I try I can not get it to activate.  It just keeps saying "Could Not Activate iPhone". 

I have tried activating it through iTunes and WiFi a dozen times but nothing seems to make it activate. 

I have reset it many times and even took it to our local Apple Store who also reset it to factory settings but again the iPhone will not activate.

The Apple Support Specialist said someone may of tried to unlock the iPhone and in the process permanently damaged the firmware but he could not be 100%.  Either way he tried to sell me another iPhone 3GS!

So here I am wondering whether this iPhone is now useless. 

Any body got any suggestions.

Thanks

[MI5]

Firstly are you sure you got the same phone back that you sent out? Someone may have had a busted one and used you to obtain a working one......

[Anonymous]

Thanks.  I did think about that but I took several photos of the iPhone for eBay and I checked the cracks and scratches on the back of the iPhone and they were a perfect match.

I think he did try to unlock it over the 3 weeks he had it but sadly the Apple Engineer said there is no way they can tell.  Problem was I only found this out after I received the iPhone and refunded him the money.

I am just surprised that the iPhone seems to factory reset perfectly and I can go through all the setup screens wihtout an issues but when I try to activate the iPhone, its almost as if its somehow being blocked!

Unfortunately because I can not get into the iPhone itself to look at its settings i.e. IMEI etc.. I can not check the iPhone with an online database to see if its blocked or not.

I suppose I will have to put this one down to experience.

[MI5]

I'm sure there must be someway to read the IMEI off the phone, maybe in iTunes ?

Have you tried other network SIM cards. It's possible that it is locked to a different network.....

[Anonymous]

You would of thought that using iTunes or other 3rd party software that you would be able to read the IMEI or other useful info from the iPhone but apparently there is no way to read this important info from iPhone until its activated. 

I have tried several 3rd party PC applications and none of them display any useful info when you plug the iPhone into your PC.

I have just tried plugging the iPhone into my PC again and the latest iTunes automically tries to activate it and eventually says "We are unable to continue with your activation at this time" and thats it.  No options to interogate the iPhone or tell you what it is. 

There is not even a drive letter for the iPhone so you could use Windows Explorer to have a nose around.

[MI5]

It's not sounding too helpful at all is it....? I'm about at the extent of my iPhone knowledge now but there are others who will be around later who might be able to advise further. Will keep fingers crossed for you....

[adamtemp64]

have you tried restoring the iphone in recovery mode? http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1808

[version7point0 · Accepted solution]

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@MI5 wrote:
I'm sure there must be someway to read the IMEI off the phone, maybe in iTunes ?

Have you tried other network SIM cards. It's possible that it is locked to a different network.....

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On previous iPhones to the 5, the IMEI is also on the side of the sim tray.

[Bambino]

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4061

[Anonymous]

Do you still have a record of the original IMEI?

Hopefully it'll be on your paperwork from 2 years ago.