This is inaccurate. When I was picking up my 6 Plus preorder Friday, I asked if I could also purchase an additional regular 6 for my work if they had stock. They said it wasn't a problem and sold me a Verizon 6 at full off-contract price. If someone told you no it could simply be that they didn't have enough VZW phones to sell you one off contract, or the rep you talked to was misinformed.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
AT&T full-price iphone 6: How long did take you to unlock?
- Thread starter entlassen
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is inaccurate. When I was picking up my 6 Plus preorder Friday, I asked if I could also purchase an additional regular 6 for my work if they had stock. They said it wasn't a problem and sold me a Verizon 6 at full off-contract price. If someone told you no it could simply be that they didn't have enough VZW phones to sell you one off contract, or the rep you talked to was misinformed.
Well the support ticket the twitter rep submitted for me also got denied. The contract and/or not having service for 60 days were the given reasons.
I still fail to understand why a phone which was bought outright with no contract should be bound to the contract I have in place. I know its the "rules" but its a little silly if you ask me.
EDIT: Was told once I am outside the 14 day return period I can try again. Apparently if the phone was unlocked before the return period is up it is considered an altered device and can't be returned or exchanged.
I still fail to understand why a phone which was bought outright with no contract should be bound to the contract I have in place. I know its the "rules" but its a little silly if you ask me.
EDIT: Was told once I am outside the 14 day return period I can try again. Apparently if the phone was unlocked before the return period is up it is considered an altered device and can't be returned or exchanged.
Last edited:
That's good to know. I'm not seeing full-priced/off-contract ATT or Verizon phones on Apple's website at least.
I bought the full price "device only" AT&T iPhone 6 and activated it in store. Submitted unlock request to AT&T immediately after activating and had the approval within 2 minutes. Just finished the unlock procedure with no issues (restore via iTunes). Got the "Congrats your phone is now unlocked" confirmation screen.
ETA: bought from Apple Store, not AT&T store.
Folks, there is no need to restore the phone to finish an unlock anymore. It used to be the way to get the phone to contact the activation servers, but now you can just pop in a SIM and it will check activation automatically.
If all you have are SIMs for the carrier the phone was locked to, you can restore to verify the unlock, but it isn't required to complete the process.
If all you have are SIMs for the carrier the phone was locked to, you can restore to verify the unlock, but it isn't required to complete the process.
Just out of curiousity, how long have you been able to just pop the SIM in instead of doing the restore? I hadn't heard about this until you posted.
I don't know. My first experience was with my 5. I had it unlocked via eBay. Waited 2 days, then put in a tmobile SIM. It worked just fine.
I suspect it was around the time you could activate a phone without iTunes, which was, what, iOS 5? 6? Once the phone could activate on initial setup, it could call the same function to recheck on SIM insert. But I'm just speculating.
I have a feeling a restore has never been needed but I guess it's suggested since the iTunes confirmation is the only way to know the unlock is successful without having another SIM laying around. For those traveling and not having a foreign SIM yet it makes sense.
I was finally able to get AT&T to unlock my 6 Plus with the request I made last night that was originally denied. Not sure what happened there but I am sure the Twitter AT&T rep probably helped out to some extent. Popped in a prepaid T-Mobile SIM to test (has no money on it but has an active number), entered in my iCloud info and got signal and LTE. Browser brought me to a page to add money to my plan. Glad to finally get that out of the way.
I was finally able to get AT&T to unlock my 6 Plus with the request I made last night that was originally denied. Not sure what happened there but I am sure the Twitter AT&T rep probably helped out to some extent. Popped in a prepaid T-Mobile SIM to test (has no money on it but has an active number), entered in my iCloud info and got signal and LTE. Browser brought me to a page to add money to my plan. Glad to finally get that out of the way.
Seems like all the previous posts have been from people who bought the AT&T phone directly from Apple. Is there anybody who actually bought an AT&T full-price phone from AT&T's website or an AT&T store?
In other words:
1) T-mobile full-price phone bought at Apple: Unlocked
2) T-mobile full-priced phone bought at T-mobile: Locked
3) AT&T full-priced phone bought at Apple: Unlocked (according to people in this thread)
4) AT&T full-priced phone bought at AT&T: ???
I'm specifically asking about #4. And yes, I know Verizon phones are unlocked no matter where you buy them.
In other words:
1) T-mobile full-price phone bought at Apple: Unlocked
2) T-mobile full-priced phone bought at T-mobile: Locked
3) AT&T full-priced phone bought at Apple: Unlocked (according to people in this thread)
4) AT&T full-priced phone bought at AT&T: ???
I'm specifically asking about #4. And yes, I know Verizon phones are unlocked no matter where you buy them.
Last edited: