Oooh. That would explain why the Apple guy who sold me a phone yesterday was confused why there was a pile of phones reserved. He said "I thought we stopped doing reservations"
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"Congratulations your iPhone has been unlocked"
- Thread starter BFW122083
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Oooh. That would explain why the Apple guy who sold me a phone yesterday was confused why there was a pile of phones reserved. He said "I thought we stopped doing reservations"
So now the question is, is the unlock gonna stay? There's no logical reason that they would care, as phones were bought full price, but then AT&T doesn't do things with reasons all the time.
Does everyone have this block of text on their paper/electronic receipt? I did not give them any personal information eg phone number social etc.
(DeviceandService)IhaveagreedtothetermsasstatedintheWirelessCustomerAgreement, whichwasmadeavailableforreviewpriortomyacceptanceandisavailableathttp://att.com/ iphoneterms
UseofiPhoneconstitutesacceptanceoftheiPhonetermsandconditionsandotherthirdparty termsandconditionsfoundintheiPhonebox,orathttp://www.apple.com/legal/sla/ThisiPhone modelisconfiguredtoworkonlywiththewirelessservicesofAT&TWireless.
ThesalestaxforiPhonevariesbystateandmaybebasedontheunbundledpurchasepricerather thantheactualpurchaseprice.
IfyouarenotfullysatisfiedwithyouriPhonepurchase,youcanreturnyourundamagediPhone within30daysofpurchaseforafullrefundwithnorestockingfee.
IfyoudisagreewiththesetermsandconditionsyoucanreturntheiPhoneinaccordancewiththe AppleStore'sreturnpolicyhttp://www.apple.com/legal/sales_policies/retail.html
ForinformationonApple'sprivacypolicyseewww.apple.com/privacy
(DeviceandService)IhaveagreedtothetermsasstatedintheWirelessCustomerAgreement, whichwasmadeavailableforreviewpriortomyacceptanceandisavailableathttp://att.com/ iphoneterms
UseofiPhoneconstitutesacceptanceoftheiPhonetermsandconditionsandotherthirdparty termsandconditionsfoundintheiPhonebox,orathttp://www.apple.com/legal/sla/ThisiPhone modelisconfiguredtoworkonlywiththewirelessservicesofAT&TWireless.
ThesalestaxforiPhonevariesbystateandmaybebasedontheunbundledpurchasepricerather thantheactualpurchaseprice.
IfyouarenotfullysatisfiedwithyouriPhonepurchase,youcanreturnyourundamagediPhone within30daysofpurchaseforafullrefundwithnorestockingfee.
IfyoudisagreewiththesetermsandconditionsyoucanreturntheiPhoneinaccordancewiththe AppleStore'sreturnpolicyhttp://www.apple.com/legal/sales_policies/retail.html
ForinformationonApple'sprivacypolicyseewww.apple.com/privacy
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i don't think it makes sense and would be too much of a hassle for them to lock your phone that was already unlocked as everyone would be returning their phone next month to get an unlocked one
I hope supplies don't run out near me in Washington. My birthday is coming up and I'm using the money to buy one. 
If you paid full price for the phone, I would think AT&T has no say in the matter. It's the same as buying a no-commitment officially unlocked phone from Apple. This is not unintentional; when my friend picked up my last 4S on early upgrade pricing (a fact I was not aware of until recently), the phone was still locked to AT&T.
However, when I walked in today and asked for an off-contract phone in exchange for my early upgrade phone, the store rep actually seemed confused. He even asked if there was any specific reason I wanted to exchange the phone and reiterated to me that the unsubsidized phone would be locked to AT&T. I took the chance and found out that when you buy an off-contract phone directly through Apple (I think this is key; AT&T stores still sell locked phones at full price) it will be unlocked.
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To anybody wondering about this: I went in to an Apple Store today to exchange my phone that was purchased at an early upgrade price for an off-contract phone. They weren't too sure how to "cancel" the contract that was renewed but I just told them I'd take care of that with AT&T.
When I left the store and called AT&T to cancel the new contract started with the previous purchase I was informed that as soon as I returned the phone my contract went back to it's prior status. So basically, if you return your AT&T subsidized phone within the return period, your contract should go back to its previous status automatically.
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Returns/Exchanges
Strumalot, thanks for this info. A question abt payment since I'm thinking of doing same. Do you pretty much pay the difference btwn your early upgrade price and the cost of a no commitment iPhone? Pls let me know. Thanks!
Strumalot, thanks for this info. A question abt payment since I'm thinking of doing same. Do you pretty much pay the difference btwn your early upgrade price and the cost of a no commitment iPhone? Pls let me know. Thanks!
Yup.. My early upgrade cost was refunded to an Apple gift card which the rep then used to pay for part of the no-commitment phone and all I had to do was pay the difference.
Just an FYI. I pre-ordered my 4S for full retail from AT&T's website and I never got the "Your iPhone is Unlocked" message in iTunes. Is it worth returning it to AT&T and buying the same device from Apple directly?
No, currently only Apple retail store purchases of AT&T iPhones at full retail without a contract are seeing this Unlocked status.
Don't expect it to work at AT&T or any other seller but Apple.
You don't have this option online at Apple until next month when they sell the Unlocked GSM phone.
Dave
it would not hurt IF YOU PAID FULL price, return to ATT and buy from Apple store.
OR
you can still wait till November to get the official unlocked iPhone 4S for the FULL PRICE.
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Agreed, BUY FROM APPLE not from att.
So I went and purchased an off contract iPhone 4s today. I told them I will not give my info (SSN, phone number, etc...), I just want to pay for the phone and walk out. At first they said it was impossible and then somebody came along who knew what the deal was and sold me it.
Here is the deal. I plugged it in and I never got a screen that says the phone has been unlocked. However, I did go down to the t-mobile store and asked if they had a microsim I could test. I put it in and I got a signal. It wasn't an activated sim as in no number or data connection but was capable of getting a signal. There was no invalid sim error message.
To verify, I put the t-mobile sim in my contract/carrier locked iPhone 4s that I preordered and it restarted my phone and gave me the invalid sim message and I never received any signal, unlike the contract free phone I had just purchased.
Does this mean it's unlocked even though I did not get that iTunes message? You can see the screenshot below from the off contract phone; it has signal and says the network is t-mobile.
Am I good to return my contract iPhone 4s now? By the way, I swapped the sim that came with my preactivated iPhone 4s with the one that came in the off contract one. I hope that doesn't relock it somehow.
Here is the deal. I plugged it in and I never got a screen that says the phone has been unlocked. However, I did go down to the t-mobile store and asked if they had a microsim I could test. I put it in and I got a signal. It wasn't an activated sim as in no number or data connection but was capable of getting a signal. There was no invalid sim error message.
To verify, I put the t-mobile sim in my contract/carrier locked iPhone 4s that I preordered and it restarted my phone and gave me the invalid sim message and I never received any signal, unlike the contract free phone I had just purchased.
Does this mean it's unlocked even though I did not get that iTunes message? You can see the screenshot below from the off contract phone; it has signal and says the network is t-mobile.
Am I good to return my contract iPhone 4s now? By the way, I swapped the sim that came with my preactivated iPhone 4s with the one that came in the off contract one. I hope that doesn't relock it somehow.
Attachments
Same. I was wondering about that too. Still, if it wasn't going to let me use a different sim, I imagine it would have done the same thing and given me an error like my other phone did.
Here's my lot:
Just ran down and bought a 4S 64GB off-contract, came home, took out the AT&T sim (paranoid) and plugged it into iTunes. iTunes replied that I had to plug in a sim, so I plugged in a Rogers sim I have from when I was in Canada. It gives me the standard "Register your iPhone" screen.
At this point I got worried. Though the phone was connected to T-Mobile, so I immediately thought something might be up.
I did the restore and BOOM up comes the "Your iPhone is unlocked" screen! It works on both the Rogers sim and the AT&T sim from my iPhone 4. Oh happy day!
Just ran down and bought a 4S 64GB off-contract, came home, took out the AT&T sim (paranoid) and plugged it into iTunes. iTunes replied that I had to plug in a sim, so I plugged in a Rogers sim I have from when I was in Canada. It gives me the standard "Register your iPhone" screen.
At this point I got worried. Though the phone was connected to T-Mobile, so I immediately thought something might be up.
I did the restore and BOOM up comes the "Your iPhone is unlocked" screen! It works on both the Rogers sim and the AT&T sim from my iPhone 4. Oh happy day!
What is the model number on your phone?
I never restored my phone until AFTER I tried the t-mobile stuff and had put back in my AT&T sim. Maybe that could be why I didn't get that screen; I had an AT&T sim in when I restored.
So, are you guys saying when I buy mine, there is a certain step-by-step I should do to ensure it'll be unlocked? Of course, buy it from Apple under AT&T with the full price no-contract and don't give them details.
I'm trying to figure it out myself. I have now restored my phone but never got the unlocked screen. I'll go test another t-mobile sim tomorrow and see if it still works.
There's no special step. Just open the box, connect to your PC, start iTunes, BOOM -- the screen pops up. You can even leave the AT&T sim in there, it doesn't matter.
If you never got the screen, try setting the phone back to factory state through settings menu and then just connecting to iTunes.
Just make sure when they are ringing it up that they select "Device Only" when they get to the appropriate screen. Device only doesn't require any contact info in regards to AT&T account info. There are options such as upgrade/new, etc if my eyes serve correctly. I know they scanned it first and went through a few pages before they got to the device only step. That's what the general consensus is on what triggers the Apple servers to "unlock" it when you connect to iTunes.
I could have sworn I tried that and I never got it. I will try again. Does it matter if I use the activated AT&T sim I already have or should I use the blank one that came with it?
Yep, that's about it. Turn it on, plug it into computer, iTunes said unlocked. I did remove the SIM first as I waited for it to boot up because I eventually would put in a real SIM. I put the SIM in after I restored my backup from iTunes.