I have been waiting for over 3 months to get my iphone unlocked by Orange, is this usual?
iPhone 4, iOS 7.0.4
Orange .....yes
they are under no obligation to unlock ,it is in their "gift"
They probably just ignored your request
So even if you fill out the form requesting the unlock as well as paying the £20.47p fee, they can ignore the request?
Cell carriers have no incentive to unlock a phone, so such requests are often given low priority and not uncommonly just forgotten. You'll need to contact Orange and ask them about the delay. Ask to talk with a supervisor if the standard agent can't give you a satisfactory answer, and don't accept being foisted off with a vague response.
Note that this presumes you submitted the request and fee directly to Orange. If you went through some "unlocking" service, those are a scam, delivering either a hack or unauthorized unlock by bribing an employee of the cell company to unlock without authorization, and such a case Orange will have no responsibility in the matter.
Regards.
Ask Orange
Apple's only involvement is as follows
The carrier sends details to Apple electronically to update the master database showing the iphone as unlocked
Apple provides the DB only ,no involvement in the process other than maintaining the DB on behalf of Carriers worlwide
This is the process
All submitted the correct way via EE form and fee paid. Although they have since refunded the fee due to the long time scale. Orange obviously blame Apple that it has taken so long and today said that Apple are not unlocking Orange phones until Jan 17th, and have not been unlocking phones for the past 2-3 weeks. It beggars belief.
Unfortunately thats is EE not very user friendly ,these forums are littered with complaints about EE group unlocking or rather not unlocking
O2 by comparison can do it in 72 hours and without any rancour
Problem solved.
Called 08000790134 and unlock email received 14 hours later.
I was asked where i got the number as it takes you through to head office customer support and they have the clout to get things done very quickly.
Does the carrier get in touch with Apple to unlock the phone?
