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.
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.
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.
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.
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I already know OP is talking about carrier unlock and I have also mentioned in my comments above. PIN unlock was just an example.