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US Reseller Flex Policy

Hi there,

I have a very big problem. So I bought an iPhone at Walmart in Miami. I asked for an unblocked iPhone to use it with a foreign carrier and they sold me said phone.

After arriving overseas, I put a SIM card in the phone but the iPhone tells me the SIM Card is not valid.

After some research, I realized that the phone is not activated yet but comes with a "US Reseller Flex Policy". How I understood it, the iPhone needs to see an American SIM card first, then it blocks itself to this provider. I could then go to this provider and get it unlocked for international use.

Walmart is little helpful with this issue and told me that I need to bring the phone back to the store to as they can't do this over the phone. I am already overseas and flying back to the USA is out of question.

Is there anything I can do to get this sorted?

Thanks,

Bernhard

Posted on Feb 10, 2016 12:04 PM

Best reply

JalGroen

Level 1

9 points

Posted on Oct 10, 2017 10:36 AM

Hello,

The same probem just happened to me. I'm from the Netherlands. My girlfriend bought me an Iphone 7 from best buy in Utah and they told her it would work totally fine in the Netherlands. Well, it didn't. I called Apple, Verizon, AT&T and Best Buy multiple times and not anybody was able to help me solve this anoying issue. I've tried everything with the phone like resets, different simcards, etc.. Nothing worked. Until i read somebody ordered an Verizon Sim card from ebay and activated his/her Iphone. So, desperate I was, ordered one as well. Over Ebay. It was, with shipping to the Netherlands, in total: 12€. It took 6 days of waiting and today it reached my doormat and i can tell you it works! I just activated my phone with the Verizon Sim Card, activated the Iphone and inserted my dutch Vodafone Sima Card. If somebody has this problem: order a Verizon Sim Card and you'll be using you phone within a week.

Good luck and enjoy your phone!

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64 replies

Csound1

Level 9

59,985 points

Mar 14, 2016 11:21 AM in response to Bernhard Walzl

Can you not get a wifi signal at all?

Mar 14, 2016 11:20 AM in response to Csound1

No, I personally can't emit WIFI radio waves. It's a birth defect.

But as soon as I get another AT&T Sim card, I will make sure to be somewhere where there is WIFI.

Csound1

Level 9

59,985 points

Mar 14, 2016 11:22 AM in response to Bernhard Walzl

Bernhard Walzl wrote:

No, I personally can't emit WIFI radio waves. It's a birth defect.

But as soon as I get another AT&T Sim card, I will make sure to be somewhere where there is WIFI.

LOL

But is there on wifi available on your island? A library perhaps.

Mar 14, 2016 11:26 AM in response to Csound1

Yes there is WIFI here. But when I did get the AT&T Sim card I was at a hotel and their WIFI was not working on that particular day. Bad luck ey.

I will return back there again and hope to find again some helpful American tourists. (which sin't easy, they all think I am a spy or terrorist etc. My story is a little too quirky for their minds. Or why a stranger wants to put their SIM card in his phone?!?)

Csound1

Level 9

59,985 points

Mar 14, 2016 11:29 AM in response to Bernhard Walzl

Yes I can see strange looks coming in response to that question 🙂

Post back when you have all the components needed (wifi/sim etc)

Apr 13, 2016 6:33 PM in response to Bernhard Walzl

hello, the sim can only be of at & t? or may be Sprint for example .
Thank you

Apr 15, 2016 1:42 PM in response to Bernhard Walzl

The "solution" has been found:

I found and American SIM card and the phone got blocked to the provider as expected. However the provider can't unlock the phone since they don't have it in their database.

I have had a very helpful chat with Apple Support and they can't activate it on their end. This basically means that: An iPhone with a XY Reseller Flex Policy needs to connect to a cell phone tower from XY country in order to get activated.

There is no way around this and the solution is that I can ship my phone back 😟

Chaneyjd

Level 1

4 points

Oct 9, 2016 8:31 AM in response to Bernhard Walzl

This is a little late, I had this problem last night. I am in Afghanistan and when I received my iPhone via USPS. I installed my SIM card and it could not activate due to the "US Reseller Flex Policy". Luckily I found someone with a Verizon SIM card today. I installed the SIM card in my phone activated via wifi, then installed my international SIM card. Verizon doesn't lock their phone to the carrier so it wasn't a problem. Some carriers like AT&T do lock the phones when you activate them. You would still be able to call and have the carrier unlock them for you since it isn't on a plan. I suggest buying from the Apple Store if you want an unlocked phone, but for some reason Apple will not ship to any APO/FPO/DPO address. There are lots of people that would like to buy a quality product from Apple directly and not have to jump through hoops because of the "US Reseller Flex Policy".

Oct 21, 2016 8:04 PM in response to Bernhard Walzl

this phone can't be activated if your are not conneted to one US carrier? cause a relative buy one of those best buy phones, and the guys tell him that the phone was sim unlock and that the phone is going to get lock once one sim card is inserted, so of course he thought the best options was send me the phone so i can use my local carrier, but of course the phone is for one US carrier only, so.. if i managed to get any US sim card (verizon, tmobile, att , etc) and get it into the phone using wifi connection can this work to get activation even if the sim card actually never reach the network? or the phone need to be inside US and get connection from the network to get active? im asking this to see my options here. Regards

Oct 21, 2016 8:07 PM in response to Chaneyjd

and the verizon sim card have international roaming service or something? or the sim card show no service and the phone activate with the internet connection and sim card inside? just wanna know if the verizon sim show you some signal while you inserted on the iphone. Regards

Oct 23, 2016 3:44 PM in response to Chaneyjd

Hi! did you activate the phone with an verizon sim card without signal , just connected to wifi and inserted the sim card and the phone just activate?

Jenseny

Level 1

4 points

Oct 27, 2016 4:46 PM in response to sundayone1

Hey Sundayone1

can you Please help me in that , I have the same exact problem that Bernhard have

I am going to Try A sim roam card , I need help here

Chaneyjd

Level 1

4 points

Nov 2, 2016 11:56 AM in response to phantitox

I was able to activate my phone with no signal. I inserted the Verizon SIM card and activated my phone over wifi. In my room here I have no cellular signal. But I was able to activate the phone.

mi72

Level 1

4 points

Dec 3, 2016 5:01 AM in response to Bernhard Walzl

If there are lots of other American tourists around, why don't you see if one of them will lend you their AT&T card just to try it out?

yonhy

Level 1

4 points

Dec 13, 2016 5:45 PM in response to sundayone1

I have the same problem with an iphone 7. I could not use the phone in Venezuela. please help me

US Reseller Flex Policy