I got a free Samsung Focus today, thanks to the Microsoft giveaway for TechEd, where the first 50 from TechEd who publish get a free phone. I was told that the phone was carrier unlocked... But since I'm on Verizon, I can't use it anyway. I am probably going to sell it on ebay (although I'm considering loaning it to a couple iPhone friends for a bit, so they can get the full WP7 experience), but I want to make sure it is unlocked before I advertise it as unlocked. How do I know for sure?
Also, if I do loan it out to friends, can an ATT (or T-Mobile since it is supposedly unlocked) customer just pull out their SIM and put it in here, and go with it? Or is there something their carrier needs to do?
Thanks!
hopmedic said:
Also, if I do loan it out to friends, can an ATT (or T-Mobile since it is supposedly unlocked) customer just pull out their SIM and put it in here, and go with it? Or is there something their carrier needs to do?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, you just put in a SIM card and use it. No carrier attention needed. To test if it is unlocked, you need to find a T-Mobile SIM card, or any other non-AT&T SIM card, and put it in. If it is locked, the phone will let you know immediately and you won't be able to use the phone or cell data.
Thanks. I'll have to have one of my iPhone friends try it for me. I don't know if anyone around here is on T-Mobile.
you can usually just go to tmobile and ask for one, sometimes they'll give one to you. and it doesn't have to be activated.
Upgraded my s5 to the s6 edge and i'm trying to get it on the network. The s5 has a large sim and the s6 has the micro sim so i couldn't just swap. Went to verizon. took the phones down and there system would not open up my new s6 phone. i checked online and the esn is not black listed but it also says no results found. the seller is trustworthy and said he unlocked it and used it on t-mobile for years, verizons plan was to have me bring in a phone that had a micro sim and would register. they would make a working sim. then switch them right back out.
What are your thoughts suggestions and ideas, i will be calling verizon again be 100 percent positive that if a friend brings down their verizon phone and does it for me that they wont have any issues at all.
I pay so much for this verizon unlimited that it really is a shame they cant get me fixed up, and switching plans is not an option. thanks everyone
I have an unlocked verizon S7 edge before. I switch to MetroPcs way later. The phone that I bought from metro broke so I wanted to use my unlocked S7 edge. So I called customer service to activate this unlocked phone by adding the new imei to my existing sim. But I get negative response saying that it's not compatible and I can't add it, I try to use the chat to set it up but same answer.
I've seen friends and other people use their verizon phone on MetroPcs successfully without any fuss. So my question is why am I not able to use my unlock phone with the network when I seen it work with other people. Is metro pulling my leg and they want me to waste money on another metropcs phone when I have a perfectly able phone. Does anyone know how to go about this.
I'm heading to Europe in a month and plan on using a European sim as I don't want to deal with Sprints free slow internet and $25 a week is more than I want to spend. Sprint is telling me my phone is unlocked (and I was under that impression years ago) but I want to be absolutely sure before I leave due to issues I've heard people have with Sprint phones. When I do the UICC unlock (with the Sprint sim still in), the phone tells me it can only be used with Sprint and to contact them. I called Sprint and they told me it is saying that because the Sprint sim is in the phone and the phone will work when another sim is added. I want to test my phone with my friend's at&t sim card. I really don't know squat about sim cards considering I've been a Sprint user my entire life. Therefore, I'm wondering:
1. Can I just turn off my phone, put the at&t sim in, reboot, and see if things work to test that the phone is truly unlocked?
2. After I'm done testing, can I put the at&t sim back in my friend's phone, and my Sprint sim back in mine, and have things go back to normal, or will this somehow screw things up with his phone or mine?
Hello,
I owned a Verizon Galaxy Note 20 Ultra that I bought shortly after release. I got bored with it, as often happens, so I paid it off in full and sold it, to someone who uses T-Mobile. They cannot activate the phone, when they put their T-Mobile SIM in it, it gives the message "SIM card is not from Verizon Wireless". The facts:
I owned and used the phone for well over the 60 day automatic unlock period.
It was active on my Verizon account for the entire time until a week before I sold it.
It was paid off IN FULL, and my account said the line was paid in full and ready for an upgrade.
My Verizon account is never behind or not paid on time (Auto-Pay)
Is there something I needed to do to the phone besides factory reset it? Is there anything that can be done? Should I call Verizon customer service? To further complicate matters, the person I sold it to lives in another state. I may need to have them send me the phone back and refund them their money if I can't figure this out.
Thank you so much for any help that can be provided.
Are you sure you used the device for 60 days?
Rtiberius said:
Hello,
I owned a Verizon Galaxy Note 20 Ultra that I bought shortly after release. I got bored with it, as often happens, so I paid it off in full and sold it, to someone who uses T-Mobile. They cannot activate the phone, when they put their T-Mobile SIM in it, it gives the message "SIM card is not from Verizon Wireless". The facts:
I owned and used the phone for well over the 60 day automatic unlock period.
It was active on my Verizon account for the entire time until a week before I sold it.
It was paid off IN FULL, and my account said the line was paid in full and ready for an upgrade.
My Verizon account is never behind or not paid on time (Auto-Pay)
Is there something I needed to do to the phone besides factory reset it? Is there anything that can be done? Should I call Verizon customer service? To further complicate matters, the person I sold it to lives in another state. I may need to have them send me the phone back and refund them their money if I can't figure this out.
Thank you so much for any help that can be provided.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure you used the device for 60 days? Did you check with another carrier sim before you sold the device?
SIM card is not from Verizon Wireless is a common message for all Verizon branded phones. May be buyer is confused with this message.
dadmi said:
Are you sure you used the device for 60 days?
Are you sure you used the device for 60 days? Did you check with another carrier sim before you sold the device?
SIM card is not from Verizon Wireless is a common message for all Verizon branded phones. May be buyer is confused with this message.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, it was activated in late August 2020 and was active up until the end of December 2020. No, I didn't realize I should try a different carrier's SIM first.
I asked them if they are able to call or text despite the SIM card message and they said no.
You need(ed) to request VZW to carrier (SIM) unlock the device prior to selling it.
cam30era said:
You need(ed) to request VZW to carrier (SIM) unlock the device prior to selling it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm so confused, Verizon says devices are automatically unlocked in their policies listed here: https://www.verizon.com/support/device-unlocking-policy/
I'm going to call Verizon, and see if there's anything they can do.
Update: Called Verizon tech support, and the agent confirmed that the device IS unlocked. He said I should have the buyer contact T-Mobile customer service and add the device to their database. Hopefully that works.
Rtiberius said:
Update: Called Verizon tech support, and the agent confirmed that the device IS unlocked. He said I should have the buyer contact T-Mobile customer service and add the device to their database. Hopefully that works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Adding to database is a Verizon thing, Tmobile is gsm. There is no way to sim unlock it if you don't do it on your phone line and request the unlock as if you're using the phone yourself.
Verizon will not unlock it unless it's currently on the line and met the other criteria you already have. For some reason verizon can't read if its really unlocked unless it's on their network, I went through it with an iphone earlier this year. They're a mess.
damn, i thought me getting a new phone annually is bad. you get a new phone every quarter? lol, actually i was thinking about trading mine for a fold 2 but no s-pen, no exp storage and a step down camera array, i decided to keep my note and see if they fix the fold 2's shortcomings.
what's in your pocket now?
It is quite possible that the buyer was not using an existing active sim. He was probably trying to activate a new sim which failed. I had the same issue with AT&T when activating a new sim. AT&T was not recognizing Unlocked model imei and I had to use a very old phone imei for activating sim after which I was able to use the same sim with with AT&T.
It also possible the buyer is lying to you. Either way it looks like the deal is going tits up for you. Perhaps next time check with a T-Mobile SIM before selling it or sell it as verizon locked. Feel for you.
Hello, i know this is a old thread but did you find the solution? i bought a verizon note 20 ultra and it doesnt work on any carrier, just work for a minute and it stops.
You guys found a way to unlock this? I just got the same phone and its a very expensive paperweight atm