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Apple Banned me, because of a very weird problem with my "Factory Unlocked" iphone 4

JorgeLomeli

JorgeLomeli

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 29, 2008
107
0
Monterrey, MEXICO
Hi Everybody! Im having a very weird problem with my unlocked iphone 4.

First of all, i would like to apologize because of my english, is not very good. My native language is Spanish.

Well.. Im from Mexico, and here we can buy the iphone Unlocked on the Apple Online Store.

Here's my problem. Apple has exchanged my iphone 3 times.

I returned the iphone the first time because the screen was totally yellowish, other than that everything was working great!, that was by the end of September.

On October 20th, i recieved my second iphone, and then a bigger problem started :(.

Before i continue, let me give you this information: here in Mexico we have basically 3 cell phone companies

1.- Telcel
2.- Movistar
3.- Unefon

OK, now on october 20th, i recieved my second iphone, and then procced to activate via itunes using my UNEFON sim card (microsim).

And every time i tried to activate it, only got this message onscreen:

Screenshot2010-10-29at24915PM.png


I though somethings wrong with my brand new factory unlocked iphone 4.

I have 4 more simcards from my brothers (they all had iphone 4 too)

I tried telcel sim card, and i could activate my iphone. Then i insterted the Movistar microsim, and it worked too!! But then when i put the Unefon sim, the itunes logo inmediatly appears on the screen asking to activate on itunes, and when i tried that, the only response i got was the image above saying " The Simcard inserted on this iphone does not appear to be supported"

Weird thing here is, that, when i put my Unefon sim card on my brothers iphone 4, it worked great! on all of them, internet 3g, phone, wireless , evrything!

I called apple support, and they exchange the iphone for another one.

I recieved the third iphone on October 29. Last friday. and guess what? SAME PROBLEM! :( different serial number, same week production (week 42) but exactly the same message on itunes.

Very, very frustrated, i called apple again, and after 1 hour with thechnical support, they told me " We are sorry, but we can only offer you, your money back, NO MORE EXCHANGES FOR YOU"

I said why?... i dont want my money back! i want an UNLOCKED iphone!, but they refuse to give me another iphone.

When i asked techincal support, why my unefon sim card worked great on all three of my brothers iphone but not on mine, he just told me, "I really dont know, i guess they just got lucky" damn, this answer put all my trust i had on apple products for years, right on the garbage.

Since they refused to give me another iphone, i accepted my money back, and inmediatly after i finished the call, i asked my brother to buy me one more time an iphone 4 using his name, and his credit card. Now i have to wait until November 8-12 to recieve my new iphone, hoping this time i get a REAL UNLOCKED iphone, and not a partially unlocked iphone.

btw. i even went to Unefon costumer service and bought a new prepiad line, with a new microsim, just to be 100% sure that this problem is not because of the sim. And again didnt worked on my iphone, but it worked on any of my brothers iphone4.

Serial numbers of the 3 iphones:

79039C0U*** (this one worked great with Unefon, only problem was yellow screen)
85042GR4***
81042FJB***

What do you suggest me? any info would be really aprecciated

FYI i also restore 4 times the last iphone and nothing seemed to work, i use 3 different computers, Macbook Pro, iMac, and an Hp with Windows 7, and the same message on all three computers.

Wierd thing also, one of my brothers bougth an iphone 4 this last week too, but he bought the 16Gb not the 32Gb. His iphone production week is 42 also! and when i put my Unefon sim in his iphone works great!

I dont know what else i can do, I just need to have faith that my new iphone coming this november will be real unlocked, but what if i'll recieve an iphone and then the same problem?? time for android? just kidding :) really guys, what can i do? anyone with similar problem like me? i dont wanna use Telcel or Movistar, i wanna use Unefon, and thats why i bought an Unlocked iphone :(

btw: jailbreak is not a solution for me, because i always like to use legal software on all my apple products, and because of the warranty.
 
Not sure if this will help or not, but when you get the latest phone, do not restore from a backup. Set the phone up as new. Sometimes using a backup can trigger issues. I can't think of any reason why it would mess with a factory unlock, but it's worth a try.
 
IrishVixen said:
Not sure if this will help or not, but when you get the latest phone, do not restore from a backup. Set the phone up as new. Sometimes using a backup can trigger issues. I can't think of any reason why it would mess with a factory unlock, but it's worth a try.
Click to expand...

Thx for your help, but that dosent seem an option for me, if i use the Unefon simcard, because it dosent gave the that option, all i got was the message " The sim card inserted bla bla bla"

I restore it using DFU mode but then again, the same message.... If a use Telcel sim card, everything works fine.

Just one more thing i remembered. When i was watching my brother activating his iphone 4 week42 on his computer, he got a message on itunes, something like "Congratulations! your iphone is now Unlocked" something like that, i dont remember exactly the words. But on my iphone i didnt recieve that message using Telcel simcard. and using Unefon simcard, all i got was the image on my first post :(
 
You should be able to...

You should be able to activate the phone with your brothers telcel sim, and once activated it should work with any sim if its truly factory unlocked. For instance, I purchased mine in Hong Kong, put my att sim in and activated it and it said congratulations your phone is activated and unlocked. It doesn't matter that ATT has an exclusivity agreement here in the US and only sells locked iphones, the unlocking goes by the serial number of the iphone not the sim. So it really shouldn't matter what sim the phone is activated with.
 
Lastest update:

Long story short..... I recieved my new iphone yesterday, week 45, no yellow screen, as far as i tested no antenna issue. And most important.... REAL UNLOCKED!

Now my phone works with whatever sim card i wanted to use. And thats what i called an UNLOCKED iphone.

I was right, apple support was wrong! :mad:

Now im happy! .... End of story.
 
The real problem that happened to you is that Apple customer service failed to realise you had a factory unlocked iphone and rather than sending you an unlocked iphone they sent you one meant for those 3 companies that sell iphones in Mexico.

(long explanation in Spanish..)

Básicamente cuando alguien cambia un iphone de una compañía que vende el iphone de manera oficial, lo que hace Apple es mandarle un iphone "semibloqueado".¿Qué quiere decir ésto? Pues que ese iphone sólo se puede activar con una SIM de un operador que venda iphones oficialmente. En el caso de méxico se puede activar con una SIM de cualquiera esos tres operadores. Sin embargo, date cuenta de que el iphone no está libre: funciona para esas 3 compañías pero no para las demás.

Apple hace ésto así para ahorrar costes y sólo tener un tipo de iphone de reemplazo.

Ahora bien, en aquellos países donde Apple vende iphones libres en sus tiendas, deben enviarte un iphone completamente libre. Lo que ha pasado es que cuando cambiaste el primer iphone el operador no se dio cuenta de que tú estabas reparando un iphone FACTORY UNLOCKED.

Si te pasa de nuevo, el tener que reparar el iphone, asegúrate (una, dos o las veces que haga falta!!!) de que el operador entiende que tú tienes un iphone LIBRE y que por tanto te han de mandar un iphone de reemplazo también LIBRE.
 
jmmo20 said:
The real problem...
Click to expand...
I don't think so, since they worked w/ 2 dif carrier SIM cards and only the third SIM he had trouble...

Si hubiera estado bloqueado para solo una compañía entonces solo funcionaría con el SIM específico de la compañía pero en su caso le funcionaba con 2 diferentes tarjetas SIM, así que esta raro su caso al menos que este estuviese usando el "backup" del otro teléfono que tenía como base su otro SIM o algo así...

Jorge, siempre que hables con Apple les tienes que decir que tu lo comprasteis directo de la fábrica para que no te manden uno que pueda estar bloqueado para uso específico de una sola compañía! Yo no sabía que ya empezaron a vender el iPhone 4 allá desbloqueado (ya yo sabía del 3GS) , a cuanto sale en dólares americanos uno ya que tengo varias amistades estudiando en MX?
 
Last edited:
Gracias jmm20 y carlanga por sus respuestas, pero pues si esta raro, que solo me funcionara para telcel y movistar y no para unefon.


No del backup no creo que haya sido eso tampoco, les hize restore en al menos 3 diferentes computadoras, y en la mia (Macbook pro) hasta la formatie y le reinstale snow leopard y ni asi! y siempre le daba la opcion de iphone nuevo, nunca usar el backup de nadie.

Ya este ultimo telefono, ahora si me aparecio el mensaje de "su telefono ha sido desbloqueado"

Pero bueno, ya al menos puedo usarlo con unefon, y funciona de maravilla!

Para lo de la pregunta que cuanto cuesta el iphone en Mexico. Pues mira el dia de hoy noviembre 19, el dolar anda a ca en 12.40 pesos por dolar.

Entonces un iphone de 32Gb negro esta en 11,499 entre 12.40 = 927 Us Dlls.

Que es lo que te vendria saliendo a ti por un iphone desbloqueado por Apple.

el de 16GB esta en 8,999 pesos

Saludos a todos
 
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