Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Hello,
I bought an iphone 7 sim free with full price from bestbuy and i'm not able to activate it in Romania. I have already spent additional 100$ to activate using **** but they told be the phone is not locked on ATT as bestbuy told me on the phone but on 'US flexy policy'.
How can I solve this without sending back the phone to US? The type of phone is iphone 7 128GB code A1660.
Thank you,
Alexandru
Bestbuy does NOT sell unlocked iPhones. SIM free does NOT mean unlocked. Return it and get your money back.
I do see some unlocked iPhone on best buy website but they're not iPhone 7. The unlocked ones are certified pre-owned iPhone 6 or older.
If they advertise iPhone 7 as an unlocked device but it isn't, they only way to resolve it is to return the device. The problem with devices purchased in another country is warranty and usability. As you've found out yourself, you're stuck with a device you can't use and you're thousands of miles away from the US.
I wonder who BestBuy is having "certify" those "certified preowned" phones... it's certainly not Apple...
I'm sure Best Buy certify them. Don't know if they work with another company to certify used phones.
There are only 14 days to return the phone to bestbuy but this time has passed and also I'm thousand miles from us at this moment.
I paid the full price at bestbuy in ny 870$ and the phone is a brick ... bestbuy send me to apple, apple send me to bestbuy... I understand there is only a check in the apple activation server which should be done.. but no one seems to be authorised to do this.
very sad situation.
Apple does not have the legal right to remove the carrier lock from a phone. the lock is owned by the carrier. Only the carrier it's locked to can remove the lock. Contact Best Buy. You were lied to by the sales person if you were told it was unlocked. Note that if they told you it was "SIM free", they did not necessarily lie, they simply failed to give you complete information regarding the status of the phone.
The BestBuy didn't told me that the phone is unlocked they told me that the phone is universal and can be used on any US carrier, so it is not locked to any US carrier in particular but is still locked and to something 'US reseller flexy policy'.
Now I have opened an ticket at apple and waiting for response to see who is responsible and who I have ask for letting me to activate and use the phone in another country (my case Romania).
So they told you the entire truth. It can be used on any US carrier. You are not trying to use it on a US carrier... Phones sold under a flex policy by resellers such as best buy must be activated on a supported carrier in the country where they are originally sold. After activation, it should be possible to use it on carriers outside the US or, if it locks to the carrier first used, you can ask that carrier to remove the lock.
There is nothing anyone here can do about this.
The individual responsible for this problem is, not to put too fine a point on it, you.
Ok, I understand but since this is just a configuration matter Apple should help me even if somehow I made the mistake to think that the retail full price (even more that apple store price) should get me the phone usable in Romania.
Apple just asked me the receipt from bestbuy so let's see if they will manage to help or direct me to somebody authorised to help. I will even pay extra to that someone authorised if is needed.
ixandu wrote:
The BestBuy didn't told me that the phone is unlocked they told me that the phone is universal and can be used on any US carrier, so it is not locked to any US carrier in particular but is still locked and to something 'US reseller flexy policy'.
Technically they did not lie to you. This is a tough case to win. I'm afraid you're stuck with a unusable device. I did a quick search and I found that most third party resellers have Reseller Flex Policy on the iPhone. It is a bad idea to purchase a phone from 3rd party resellers to use in a different country unless you have it activated and unlocked in the US.
Let us know the outcome. Good luck.
Maybe they can help you. If so, great. If not, sorry, but there is nothing anyone here can do about it. Next time, pay attention to what you're being told when you buy something.
It will be so sad if apple will let me down on this. Anyhow is very strange that they even allow this to happen, a phone which is under no contract and for which the full price was paid cannot be activated in other country than US.
I will be happy even if Apple will lock the phone on ATT or Sprint because they told me that if the phone is under no contract then is eligible for unlock. In current situation the main issue is that nobody seems to authorised to do anything.. strange, this situation should be avoided by apple...by issuing a general solution for this flexy reseller policy.
I will update the thread as soon as Apple come back with an answer, they told me that even if they cannot do the unlock will point me in the right direction.
Apple has very little choice in the matter. The same situation exists in countries like the UK. In both of those examples, the ONLY source for unlocked iPhones is directly from Apple. 3rd party retailers are not authorized to sell unlocked iPhones.
ixandu wrote:
I will update the thread as soon as Apple come back with an answer, they told me that even if they cannot do the unlock will point me in the right direction.
I'll be interested to know how this ends. Keep us updated and I wish you nothing but the best outcome.
Great news. It worked.
This is the response from apple:
"Hello Alexandru,
My engineering team advises that they found an issue with the activation profile that they were able to resolve. In order for the changes to take effect the device has to be restored via a computer that has iTunes.
1. The device has to be connected to a computer
2. Both the home and power buttons need to be held down until an iTunes logo with a plug appears on the phone
3. In iTunes on the computer the option to restore needs to be selected
4. Once iTunes downloads the latest update and restores the device, the changes will take effect"
To summarise (long story short):
1. the phone was paid in full at bestbuy with 870$ (iphone 7 128GB black) -- on the bestbuy product description -- unlock=false (i didn;t saw that when buyed)
2. the phone was sent abroad to Romania and tried to activate on Orange carrier -- and failed with message
"the sim card that you currently have installed in this iphone is from a carrier that is not supported under the activation policy that is currently assigned by activation server"
3. I called apple and they directed me to bestbuy
4. I called bestbuy and they told me that iphone was locked on att, because of that I paid 100$ on iphoeimei to do the unlock from att, of course they didn't manage because iphone was not locked on att, they come back to me that the iphone is locked to 'us reseller flexy policy' and it cannot be unlocked at current moment
The att have on their site a form which need to be completed and if phone is eligible it will be unlocked. (it was not my case because the iphone was not locked to att)
5. i called again bestbuy and they told me that iphone might be locked to sprint, sprint somehow gave me some information about the phone (it is not blacklisted and it might appear in their db) but it cannot be unlocked, not without me having an postpaid account at sprint, which I don't.
I found someone in us which have sprint account and they didn't manage to do the unlock because of unknown reasons.
6. I called again bestbuy and this time they told me that the phone is universal and is not locked to any carrier and they cannot do anything and I should call apple
7. I called again apple and fortunately I was directed to advance customer support which opened a ticket and they did it -- I managed to activate the phone on Romanian Orange network --
even if the procedure from above mail didn't work (the phone didn't reset after I pushed both home and power buttons), probably they did some changes on activation server.
Thanks Apple 🙂, Good job.
Sim free Iphone 7
