Challenge! Whats wrong..?

[maccedydaddy]

Hi bros. I recently bought an iPhone 4 who just got replaced by the warranty of the previous owner. It's totally new, never been used etc. In order to activate the phone, I needed a SIM from a specific carrier, and I got some dude in a store to do it for me. Since I've heard the phone was supposed to be locked to this same carrier (which I don't have), the first thing I did when I got home after activating it was to jailbreak it and install Cydia. I later found out that since I have the doomed BB 4.11.08, a jailbreak wouldn't do any good.

Here's the weird part. I later bought a sim card with that same carrier the previous owner said it was locked to, and that was used to activate it, but guess what, no signal. The even weirder thing is that the phone now accepts sim cards from two different carriers without stating that these sims aren't accepted. Does this mean that it isn't locked anymore? And why don't I get any signal with any of those two carriers?

At one moment I was wondering if the phone might have been stolen, and therefore IMEI blacklisted, but some dude told me to try this site:

https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

which supposedly tells you if this is the case. Can anyone help?

 

[TriJetHero]

What proof did you get from the seller that this is a brand new phone never used?

 

[maccedydaddy]

None, but it did came in one of those boxes it comes in after repair/replacement. And also it looked 100 % new and needed activation on iTunes before being able to use. Does anyone know if the site I mentioned above really tells you if your iPhone is on the IMEI blacklist?

 

[maccedydaddy]

Bump

 

[normanbates]

The iPhone will still function with the incorrect carrier SIM. It won't allow you to use the phone though and will display "No Service".

If the carrier SIM is also showing "No Service" even after successful activation it appears that the handset is blacklisted.

You say that some guy in a shop activated it, was this a 'proper shop'? Or some 'we unlock phones, repair them and sell you accessories' shop?

Activation doesn't happen over the cellular network, it merely happens when connected to iTunes or over WiFi and the handset can connect to Apple servers to ask 'is this SIM correct for my network lock?' to which Apple servers reply yay or nay.

Due to the fact you're saying it activated but is now showing "No Service" on any network either suggests that the handset is blacklisted or you have a hardware/software failure.

Try restoring the device with the latest iOS and putting the SIM of the 'preferred' carrier in, that may work. Failing that contact the network that it is supposedly locked to and tell them that you purchased it of eBay (or wherever it was) and you suspect that it is blacklisted. They may give you some b0ll0cks about data protection etc etc but tell them all you want to know is if the IMEI is blacklisted and they should be able to help you. If its not and the software restore hasn't worked then its gonna be a hardware problem, Apple may be able to help if it is in warranty but other than that you will need to go back to the seller

 

[maccedydaddy]

Thanks for the response. Before I activated it, it said "incorrect sim", so the phone pretends to accept other carriers only after activation?

No, the shop was definitely a shabby one. After failing to jailbreak it I reactivated it myself after buying a sim with the carrier I was told it supported.

Is there no certain way to confirm that its blacklisted? Some guy told me that the site mentioned earlier could verify this. Thanks again bro.