unlock my phone

[Anonymous]

Im looking for some help, i have a galaxy alpha i bought at heathrow (pay as you go, over 2 years) LOCKED to o2, yet when i ask to get it unlocked I cant seem to get any help. I had a previous phone a c3322 which i had registered and i took the sim from that and used it in my alpha, i didnt put the alpha on my account page. Now i have deleted the c3322 hoping to put in my alphas imei etc to register it, but see that if i want to do that it will text me, lol. i lost the sim ages ago, and im now in singapore and wanting to use my alpha. I even went as far as putting an extra £15 on the lost sim so that i can get it unlocked, this is a pretty aggravating circumstance, ive bought a phone and its locked to o2, yet when i last asked i got told as it wasnt an o2 shop they cant unlock it.....WTF, to be honest i dont give a monkeys what shop i bought it in, i was LOCKED in to O2 so O2 should be the ones to deal with it. a sim unlock code isnt a lot to ask for after two years of being locked into your network.

[MI5]

Only iPhones lock to first sim.

[Anonymous]

iPhones do this, yes. But they aren't the only phones to do it unfortunately, especially if a factory reset is done with a SIM in the phone. This poor guy has found this out the hard way.

[MI5]

First I've heard of any of that and I've owned and fixed thousands since smartphones were first invented.
The only way a factory reset will "lock" a phone is a re-lock if it wasn't unlocked properly the first time.

[viridis]

That's a new one on me.

[viridis]

Now, just been speaking to someone about this and confirmed what I thought.
There is no way to re-lock a hard unlocked phone.
A soft unlock (market stall, shop, mate on pc) will remove the piece of software that checks the status of the simlock. Subsequently, updating or resetting can simply replace the missing or modified file and the phone will in fact "lock" again (it was never unlocked, it just didn't have the correct file to activate the simlock)
A hard unlock is just that, the removal of the simlock completely by means of either activated removal (iPhone) or passkey activated removal. Once this is done it cannot be relocked as software updates cannot access the partition the actual simlock is stored in.

[Cleoriff]

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@viridis wrote:
Now, just been speaking to someone about this and confirmed what I thought.
There is no way to re-lock a hard unlocked phone.
A soft unlock (market stall, shop, mate on pc) will remove the piece of software that checks the status of the simlock. Subsequently, updating or resetting can simply replace the missing or modified file and the phone will in fact "lock" again (it was never unlocked, it just didn't have the correct file to activate the simlock)
A hard unlock is just that, the removal of the simlock completely by means of either activated removal (iPhone) or passkey activated removal. Once this is done it cannot be relocked as software updates cannot access the partition the actual simlock is stored in.

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Thanks for this clarification @viridis. Hopefully a lesson for those who think otherwise...

[viridis]

And for undeniable proof that no software can access the simlock, enter the wrong code 5 or ten times and see what the manufacturer says..

#DontDoIt

[jonsie]

Thanks for verifying that @viridis, good to know that it is in fact just as we have been advising over the years. It was Apple who threw a spanner in the works and they should be damned for doing so.

[Anonymous]

Wow, i'm really feeling part of the 'community'. Thanks for attacking the new guy

Back to the original post, anyone know how we can help this guy?

[jonsie]

I'm not altogether clear if the phone has been used in the UK with an o2 sim. If not there is nothing anyone can do to help as it won't show on o2s systems. Using it overseas with an o2 sim won't register either as it will just register on the roaming network. 

A complaint may get a result but I doubt it.