In an effort to increase my privacy, I decided to buy a Pixel phone second hand to use with GrapheneOS. Due to some miscommunications, the phone ended up being carrier locked with T-Mobile. GrapheneOS’s own website advises against buying carrier locked phones in order to avoid the hassle of carrier unlocking it.
I assumed that even if the support staff was unaware about OEM unlocking, I would at least be able to fairly effortlessly get the device carrier unlocked because it was bought second hand. My first call was to the T-Mobile support center, and the representative wanted the phone number of the device in order to unlock it. The device had no phone number, so we instead tried the IMEI. I was told that the IMEI was invalid because it was not the correct number of characters, and was told that there was nothing they could do without physical access to the device. As expected, the representative had never heard of OEM unlocking.
My next stop was at a T-Mobile store, to seek help there. The staff member there was very helpful and, despite not knowing what OEM unlocking was, was very aware of how to handle the situation regardless. He made a call to T-Mobile support (which has a different process if you are a staff member) and explained the situation to them.
Here is where things get interesting: T-Mobile had the ability to carrier unlock the phone, and had enough information to prove the device was mine, but refused to carrier unlock it because it has to be done by the original account holder. They wouldn’t give any information about how to contact the original account holder, which is reasonable.
The in-person representative told me that if I was able to find a phone number linked with the original account holder that they would be able to do more, but after trying for over an hour to find any contact information with the seller, I couldn’t find anything.
The in-person representative decided to try calling support one more time, and even went out of his way to try lying to the support team on my behalf, just to see what could be done.
After hanging up the phone, he told me that T-Mobile gave me 2 options:
- Return the device entirely and buy a different one
- Pay for T-Mobile for an entire year AND pay a $100 service fee
That’s like telling someone they have to pay a year of rent before they can even step foot in a house they already paid for, and then pay $100 to get the doors unlocked. I knew it would be a bit of a process to get it carrier unlocked, but I didn’t realize it would take me four hours to be told I had to pay T-Mobile for a year to be able to access a device I paid for.
I even tried using T-Mobile’s own app to unlock the device, but the app is not functional as many reviewers have also noted.
Thankfully the seller accepted free returns, so the story has a happy ending, but any consideration of buying a carrier locked phone before has since evaporated.
It is truly dystopian how we live in a world where companies are allowed to get away with stuff like that, and yet people still give away their money and freedom to these companies.
I stopped buying phones from carriers 15 years ago for this very reason.
The Nexus series was bangin
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Oh certainly. We’re getting fucked in the ass by telecoms for phones
Getting a second hand phone that’s carrier locked doesn’t make sense to me. The original owner didn’t unlock it? Usually phones are carrier locked because you’re financing the phone through the carrier, but that wouldn’t apply to a used phone.
Sounds like you encountered an anti theft process. What would keep people from just taking a stolen phone to t-mo to have them unlock it without this? Sure you could give them a receipt or print out the eBay listing etc. but those are easily faked. Nothing seems out of the ordinary with regards to what T-mobile did to me. You need to make sure the phone is unlocked before you buy it. It’s been this way since I was selling phones at RadioShack in 2006.
What would keep people from just taking a stolen phone to t-mo to have them unlock it without this?
Phones can be marked as lost/stolen by reporting the device’s IMEI number, but this one was not flagged under any suspicious activity. The owner simply didn’t carrier unlock it, for whatever reason.
You need to make sure the phone is unlocked before you buy it.
The reason I ended up with a carrier locked phone is because of miscommunication that wasn’t on my end. The phone I intended to buy was carrier unlocked.
I understand your frustration, but what they did isn’t evidence of a dystopian situation IMO. I wouldn’t expect a carrier to unlock a phone I didn’t buy from them, and as far as I know it’s always been this way. This also isn’t forced arbitration.
This is not an anti-theft process. This is just way for companies to make more 💰. T-Mobile is allowing him to unlock 🔓 after he pays them some cash. It like company is happy to let anyone steal , as long as they are paid.
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If nobody would do it. Why would company offer it? If it was indeed an anti-theft company should have informed the original owner(in their record) and should have denied any unlocking. If it was real anti-theft why would they provide app to unlock carrier.
Let me give you an example of actual anti-theft feature. Apple will not unlock iPhone, no matter how much money u try to pay. That’s an anti-theft feature. T-MOBILE has history of excess charging customers. This is plain & simple business tactics to earn more money. As OP @[email protected] told T-Mobile’s official app is dysfunctional. That app is dysfunctional, so people can’t unlock themselves.
This isn’t unlock as in PIN unlock. This is a carrier unlock so you can use it on any network.
I already know OP is talking about carrier unlock and I have also mentioned in my comments above. PIN unlock was just an example.
I’ve had to carrier unlock two devices from T-Mobile. You’ve already returned it, but if anyone else faces a similar situation: for whatever godforsaken reason, DMing them on Twitter is the way that has always worked for me. There is back and forth, but usually they set you right.
Yeah, for some reason complaining on social media is the best way to actually get useful support.
OEM unlocking is not the same as carrier unlocking
Carrier unlocking is to allow you to use your phone with a different network e.g switching from Verizon to T-Mobile and putting a T-Mobile Sim in the Verizon phone. This can be done with both Android and iOS
OEM unlocking is an Android setting that enables the end user to modify the firmware of the device e.g unlocking the boot loader, installing custom boot images, ROMs and gaining root access.
AFAIK both T-Mobile and Verizon have custom Android settings that completely grey out the OEM unlock option in Android settings. There is no way around this as an end user, even if you had got customer support to carrier unlock your phone it would have made no difference, OEM unlocking would still be disabled.
AFAIK There is no way around this and the only solution is to never buy from either carrier.
I bought a refurbished Pixel a few years ago from the Netherlands and it ended up being originally from Verizon, I found a Verizon system app still preinstalled in settings and it was impossible it enable OEM unlocking.
Either buy directly from Google or buy second hand on the condition that you can check to make sure OEM unlocking is possible before purchase
I’m aware that carrier unlocking and OEM unlocking are two separate things, but apparently I was under the misconception that (since OEM unlocking being disabled is due to a carrier lock) I would be able to OEM unlock after carrier unlocking. Thank you for informing me that that is not the case. Do you know specifically which carriers besides T-Mobile and Verizon disable the setting?
Yeah, carrier unlock and OEM unlock are completely separate and have nothing to do with each other. People will say ‘unlocked’ and mean carrier unlocked because most people don’t know what OEM unlocking is so it can get really confusing when trying to buy second hand and explaining the difference. Its a really common misconception that has been an issue for over a decade that’s why I always try to explain they have nothing to do with each other
I don’t know any other carriers that do this but I wouldn’t be surprised if more did. I never recommend buying from a carrier since most just carrier lock their phones anyway so its just more hassle if you decide to switch carriers.
I find buying from the manufacturer works out cheaper than from any carrier where I am. Its also better for privacy since I don’t have to deal with bill pay and can just pay cash for PAYG without giving any personal information and can switch to whoever has the best deal without faffing about, just get a new Sim card and I’m ready to go
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Aside from this phone locking being complete BS. Wasn’t it possible to pay a third party to unlock it? I did that some years ago though we bought that phone with a huge discount which made it worth it.
They’re scams 80% of the time, 15% of the time they are legit, but can only do older phones, and the remaining 5% are legit and also have an actual connection at the carrier to do current phones (Like an employee with access to an internal tool), consequently these also burn up quickly or regularly have “outages” (when said employee quits or gets fired)
Yea I got it done at this guy with good genuine reviews. So it seemed like legit and the phone is still working perfectly.
I’d looked into third party unlocking services, but I could tell that it was most likely almost never legitimate, and so I never tried any.
On the one hand that’s ridiculous but it’s nice to see that they didn’t throw the prior owner under the bus or give out their info.
I have never had this happen to me thankfully but I absolutely go out of my way to make sure the device is unlocked before I ever lay hands on it and if it’s not for some reason I will absolutely return it because I flash lineage as soon as I get a new device. What I’ve found myself doing is buying new mid-range phones instead of used high-end devices. So I often find myself with like OnePlus Nord or Moto G or Pixel A or something like that.
Moral of the story: carrier locking should be illegal. Eat the rich.
American companies. I doubt this bullshit is allowed in Europe
I wonder if the concern is that unlocking the phone might allow you to run some form of data recovery on it and thus obtain access to some of the previous owner’s info?
Cellular providers don’t want you being able to switch from carrier to carrier, and to prevent this they make sure you can’t change certain settings like OEM unlocking.
P.S. Android allows you to wipe eSIM data, but I’m not sure how securely it does that.
Somebody tried selling me a locked phone on eBay despite listing it as unlocked. The seller refused to be helpful so I filed a claim with eBay, waited the 10 days, eBay sided with me, got a refund and shipped the phone back, waited for the refund to process, then spent $100 more to buy the same device from Amazon.
There are magic unlock codes and there are always people on Craigslist offering to unlock phones for a few but. But yeah, buy unlocked phones. Alternatively maybe you could have used that phone with a T-Mobile mvno sim. Idk if that works with tmo locked phones and have been wondering.
