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iPhone 4 replacement unlocked?

3soteric

3soteric

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 28, 2010
97
0
in a pineapple, under the sea
Hi all,

I have an iPhone 4 on 4.1, jailbroken and unlocked to use a different carrier. Now the phone works ok, but the LED backlight has stopped working (not water damaged so I'm not sure what has caused this).

I have spoken with the Apple store and they said if I bob down they will give me a replacment free of charge etc, which is really good, and more than I was expecting tbh.

But! the question is, (as I assume the replacement will be on 4.2.1 firmware), do the refurb phones from the Apple stores come SIM unlocked? as if its on 4.2.1 I'm not going to be able to use my SIM with it....

I would presume that they do, as they probably just have a drawer full of them, purely for replacements but I just wanted to check!

cheers
 
If you're in the U.S., you will not get an unlocked phone. Replacement phone is for AT&T only. (That's why it helps to put your general "Location" in your profile.)
 
Thanks Lucifiel - I intended to ask on the day, but was hoping to gather from others experiences, as if it isn't unlocked I dont want to waste 3 hours driving there and back when I can only swap for a phone I can't use...
 
In a country where there are multiple carriers, it would be pretty silly of apple to lock their phones, that's not to say that they might not, so ask.

But in Australia, i got mine from the genius bar unlocked, so ymmv.
 
Thats good to know - on another forum I frequent, people have stated that they are unlocked when they come from the Apple store as a replacement, so I am very hopeful that this will be the case
 
How would they know which network the phone was originally bought on though? would they really check this before issuing a new one - especially when there are so many carriers in the uk? i.e. T-mobile, O2, Orange, Vodaphone, Tesco etc....who all offer the iPhone. would they have a stock of each branded phone in the Apple store, when they only sell the unlocked ones there?
 
3soteric said:
How would they know which network the phone was originally bought on though? would they really check this before issuing a new one - especially when there are so many carriers in the uk? i.e. T-mobile, O2, Orange, Vodaphone, Tesco etc....who all offer the iPhone. would they have a stock of each branded phone in the Apple store, when they only sell the unlocked ones there?
Click to expand...

well that's kinda my point? so, just make sure youa sk, but the chances are i think good in your favour.
 
3soteric said:
How would they know which network the phone was originally bought on though? would they really check this before issuing a new one - especially when there are so many carriers in the uk? i.e. T-mobile, O2, Orange, Vodaphone, Tesco etc....who all offer the iPhone. would they have a stock of each branded phone in the Apple store, when they only sell the unlocked ones there?
Click to expand...

They check the Serial#. Replacement unit will be 100% locked, just as the original unit was.
 
Stein357 said:
How'd you get it unlocked in the first place?
Click to expand...

Via jailbreak

But if I get a replacement at an apple store, it will be on 4.2 and therefore not unlockable at the moment, leaving me without a phone at all until an unlock becomes available for whatever baseband the phone is on. However at the same time I can't really use the phone without the backlight....
 
If you hurry up and get a replacement, it may still be on 4.1

My GF's sister just got her iPhone 4 replaced and surprisingly it was still running 4.1...

Good Luck to you...
 
1) As someone above said, the phone will definitely be locked to your original network. Apple will have a stock of unlocked replacement iPhones but will proceed to locking it before they actually give it to you. It’s a standard, one minute, procedure.

2) A untethered jailbreak + unlock may take a while to be released; the devs haven’t even made an explicit reference to an ETA so that’s no good. If I were you, I would just hold out because you will most likely get a 4.2 iPhone
 
3soteric said:
Sorry Olga, my bad

I'm based in the UK. The iPhone was originally locked to t-mobile, but my SIM is now with O2.
Click to expand...

They will not give you a factory unlocked iphone for your Tmobile locked phone.
When they do the swap they put in your serial number in the system and the same properties pass on to the replacement refurb iphone.
And most likelly it will come with 4.1 or higher so you wont be able to software unlock it.

smokescreen220 said:
If you hurry up and get a replacement, it may still be on 4.1

My GF's sister just got her iPhone 4 replaced and surprisingly it was still running 4.1...

Good Luck to you...
Click to expand...

4.1 baseband CANNOT be unlocked for the iphone 4.
 
Well I have called t-Mobile twice and been given different advice.

Call 1 - Its not possible for us to unlock the phone at all, even though it says we can on the Apple site. Sorry.

Call 2 - We can do it for £15.00 but only once you have had the phone six months, and provided you are still on the same contract.

The issue with Call 2 is, the iPhone contract has been fully paid off - (I bought myself out of it and moved to O2 after having nothing but problems with T-mobile billing me six times per month for the same account.) - meaning that they are refusing to unlock it. So Now I have an iPhone 4 that has a failed LED, that I cant replace as I will have no way of unlocking it.

Is there any chance of me mentioning this to the Apple store and seeing if they can just unlock it if I go for the sympathy vote?

Failing that the only option I see is restore the phone, exchange it at the Apple store, then sell it and buy an unlocked one or something...which is just far too much flaming hassle
 
You may be able to get lucky, I got a phone with 4.1 loaded on it as a replacement on the 26th (I'm in the US). Also, you could try to explain your case to the Genius, but ymmv with that.
 
It wil be unlocked if they don't activate it before you leave but that relies on them having computer issues.
 
the iPhone will be on 4.1 trust me, there replacement units are still a few weeks old
 
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