Bought used AT&T iPhone 5, AT&T won't unlock it.

Go to swiftunlocks and pay the $1.99 to have it IMEI unlocked.
It will work fine with any gsm carrier outside the US.

Applejuiced said:

Go to swiftunlocks and pay the $1.99 to have it IMEI unlocked.
It will work fine with any gsm carrier outside the US.

Click to expand...

They use to say on the site that if the phone was reported lost, stolen, etc that it could still be unlocked. It doesn't say that anymore. I wonder if it will still work.

Even if it wasn't stolen, doesn't have phone need to be finished from its 2 year contract for it to be unlockable by at&t?

hexonxonx said:

They use to say on the site that if the phone was reported lost, stolen, etc that it could still be unlocked. It doesn't say that anymore. I wonder if it will still work.

Click to expand...

Yep. They can still unlock it but if its blacklisted it wont get service inside the US.
But it will work fine anywhere outside the US with any other carriers GSM sim.

wowiwo said:

Hey guys,

I bought a used ATT iphone 5 off someone and I have been using it fine with ATT (I'm still under contract).

I need to get it unlocked because I am leaving the States soon and I need to be able to use it in South Korea.

When I called ATT to unlock it they said they were unable to because the iphone 5 has been reported stolen by its original owner.

Am I SOL? Is there any way I can argue with ATT to have them unlock the phone for me? Do I have any other options? Such as ebay?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

That's strange because if it was reported stolen, then the IMEI should be blacklisted. But if your device is still working on AT&T, then it doesn't seem that your IMEI has been blacklisted.

You could contact an eBay seller or SwiftUnlocks.com and see what they can do. Maybe the AT&T tech just didn't know what they were talking about.

----------

Applejuiced said:

Go to swiftunlocks and pay the $1.99 to have it IMEI unlocked.
It will work fine with any gsm carrier outside the US.

Click to expand...

This

wowiwo said:

Thanks for the reply.

Someone from apple told me that if I use a 3rd party service to unlock it, I won't be able to receive future IOS updates. Is that true???

Also, you said I won't be able to use it with GSM carriers in the US. Does that include ATT as well? (which I'm currently using)

Click to expand...

That is false.
The IMEI unlock is permanent and will forever stay unlocked.
Its NOT a hack or a gevey sim adapter.
If it currently works with AT&T then its not blacklisted so it will still work.
If it was blacklisted it wouldn't work with AT&T and would just display no service.

wowiwo said:

Am I SOL? Is there any way I can argue with ATT to have them unlock the phone for me? Do I have any other options? Such as ebay?

Click to expand...

You are in possession of stolen property. Caveat emptor.
AT&T will not help you (nor should they).
Don't dishonestly pawn it off on someone else.

eawmp1 said:

You are in possession of stolen property. Caveat emptor.
AT&T will not help you (nor should they).
Don't dishonestly pawn it off on someone else.

Click to expand...

If the device is still active and working on AT&T, that means that the IMEI has not been blacklisted. Therefor he is not in possession of stolen property. According to the IMEI status.

wowiwo said:

Yeah... the ATT person said it was reported stolen but I figured if it was actually reported stolen, my phone would not work with ATT right now because the IMEI would have been blacklisted.

So for sure my phone won't have trouble receiving future IOS updates if I unlock it through a 3rd party service correct?

Thanks for the reply guys.

Click to expand...

3rd party IMEI unlock service will not affect any future updates Stay away from Gevey.

eawmp1 said:

You are in possession of stolen property. Caveat emptor.
AT&T will not help you (nor should they).
Don't dishonestly pawn it off on someone else.

Click to expand...

It isn't stolen, if it was it wouldn't work.

AT&T is just being a prick

thehustleman said:

It isn't stolen, if it was it wouldn't work.

AT&T is just being a prick

Click to expand...

Oops, tired reading. Mea culpa.

OP, because you are using an under contract, AT&T ail no unlock for you until you've ended whatever term your under contract phone SIM had. They will then unlock. Until then you could third party unlock.

eawmp1 said:

Oops, tired reading. Mea culpa.

OP, because you are using an under contract, AT&T ail no unlock for you until you've ended whatever term your under contract phone SIM had. They will then unlock. Until then you could third party unlock.

Click to expand...

swiftunlocks.com will still unlock it then. They unlocked my AT&T two weeks into contract 4S with no problems. I'm using it on T-Mobile now.

wowiwo said:

So I talked to my friend who works at ATT, and he said that blacklisting a phone actually takes a few weeks to activate so the phone might actually be blacklisted.

My my.. this concerns me. If I go ahead and use swiftunlocks to unlock my phone right now, and then the phone becomes blacklisted afterwards what will happen????

Click to expand...

two separates things, one does not affect the other.
blacklisted then no more at&T access
IMEI unlock= use anywhere else in the world
if not blacklisted and IMEI unlocked then anywhere unlocked

wowiwo said:

Yeah I hate ATT lol

But if I do call them again and say,

" hey if my phone was actually reported as stolen then how come it's still working?"

Is there a chance that they could be real ******s and blacklist my phone?

Is it worth the risk? Or should I just use a 3rd party service to get my phone unlocked...

Thanks again guys!

----------

Click to expand...

You really want to call them and ask them why if its reported stolen it still works?
Is $2 really that much money for you that you would rather risk getting it blacklisted while trying to get it unlocked for free?

Bought used AT&T iPhone 5, AT&T won't unlock it.

I know that a couple months ago i bought a htc One X+ from somebody off of craigslist. It worked fine for me and fine for the person that i sold it to. There was about 2 1/2 months total before the person i sold the phone to decided to sale it. However when he did decide to sale it, the new owner was unable to use it because it was reported stolen. He called att numerous times and was told theres nothing they could do.

From what we gathered from this was that a phone may work if its reported stolen but as soon as you remove your sim and put it back in and/or put a new sim ( new owner ) into the phone, it will not work. At least, thats how our ordeal went.

Luckily, the person i originally got the phone from did get arrested for theft. What the officer told me what happen was that this teenager used his dad credit card w/out permission and ordered the One X+. The dad found out, told the son to return the phone. Instead of placing the One X+ inside the box to be returned, the son placed a different phone inside the box and listed the One X for sale on CL .. Smh

iRepairParts said:

3rd party IMEI unlock service will not affect any future updates Stay away from Gevey.

Click to expand...

is that true, they told me that too.
I wana buy a used at&t iphone 5 locked, to use it with straight talk, and they said I would trouble with it. is that right?? thank k you

Chrismariell said:

is that true, they told me that too.
I wana buy a used at&t iphone 5 locked, to use it with straight talk, and they said I would trouble with it. is that right?? thank k you

Click to expand...

You wouldn't need to unlock it, if you want to use Straight Talk.

If you're not staying in South Korea, you might consider getting a cheap older iPhone to use over there.

wowiwo said:

Thanks for the reply.

Someone from apple told me that if I use a 3rd party service to unlock it, I won't be able to receive future IOS updates. Is that true???

Click to expand...

Up until now yes. But who knows what crap they will put into iOS 7 that might screw it up. And if it ever bricks etc you will likely be screwed because it rarely restores properly.