I upgraded to the 6 on Friday and now have an old iPhone 6 on AT&T. I bought it used last year on CL and the 2 year contract obligation is fulfilled. Can I submit the phone for an unlock request or will AT&T refuse since according to their records, I am technically not the owner of the phone?
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Bought used iPhone 5 on CL, I can't unlock it?
- Thread starter Kendo
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How are you technically not the owner of the phone? Did you have the 5 from CL and put it on AT&T? If so, then you're the owner of that phone. Call AT&T and ask. Your thread title suggests that you cannot unlock it when in fact, you don't quite know. Just ask them because if there is no contract and you have the phone, it is yours.
Your post is a little confusing. You bought an iPhone 5 on CL, and you wish to unlock it. Why are you now no longer the owner? If you are the owner on record with ATT, put the request it in.
I bought the phone from a guy on Craigslist in October 2013. The phone is now mine in the sense that I have paid him for it and he never reported it lost or stolen - aka a good CL transaction. I have been using the iPhone 5 for a year up until Friday when I upgraded to the iPhone 6.
I put in an unlock request on AT&T and it got rejected because "the information on the phone does not match the information on the account." I am wondering if the phone "technically" belongs to the guy on CL?
The reason I want to unlock it is because I upgraded to the iPhone 6 and wish to hand down my 5 to my mom because I am a good son.
She has a T-Mobile prepaid and is currently using an unlocked iPhone 4s (which I also handed to her a year ago).
I am not sure how that works if the guy sold you a phone that was still under contract. I would call AT&T and explain the situation, if you have not already. If you have, then can you reach out to the guy on CL? I wonder if he did sell the phone while on contract to upgrade to another and if he did, I wonder if there is some kind of issue if the guy didn't pay AT&T whatever was owed on the account. It is hard to say. You are the rightful owner if you purchased it outright from a third party BUT if AT&T didn't get their money then they're going to want that.
Another thought is this guy's contract should be done as well as it is a 2-year contract on a 2-year old phone. The assumption being that he bought it on or near launch day.
Best you can do is continue to work with AT&T, escalate to someone who has a decision making bone in their body and get your CL transaction info together. Also, for future reference, when buying something like this on CL, always print out the CL ad (to PDF on your computer) and have that combined with e-mails. I don't do it for furniture and junk like that, but I do it if I buy/sell any iDevice or similar.
Hope it works out for you.
Another thought is this guy's contract should be done as well as it is a 2-year contract on a 2-year old phone. The assumption being that he bought it on or near launch day.
Best you can do is continue to work with AT&T, escalate to someone who has a decision making bone in their body and get your CL transaction info together. Also, for future reference, when buying something like this on CL, always print out the CL ad (to PDF on your computer) and have that combined with e-mails. I don't do it for furniture and junk like that, but I do it if I buy/sell any iDevice or similar.
Hope it works out for you.
AT&T will tell you to shove it until the contract on that specific phone has been reached. You can ask for a date, and they will give it to you though. (Personal experience talking)
I realize that is possible which is what I was saying in the full content of my text. My point was he needs to talk to a physical person who isn't just reading a script and looking for the right answers to points a, b, and c.
I was just adding to the discourse, not trying to diminish anything you said. I tried all of that. I even had customer retentions call me back. Spun them a story about going out of the country and everything. They told me to shove it up my a$$ lol.
He may get lucky. But probably not. It's very easy for ATT to see exactly when a contract is up on a subsidized phone. They have zero insentive to unlock for the "second owner" due to the fact that this would be the very definition of a loophole.