Straight Talk breaks AT&T unlock (according to AT&T)

[jdpruitt]

According to AT&T, they refuse to unlock my iPhone 4S (Early Termination Fee completely paid, account closed) due to "ownership being transferred to Tracfone."

Their logic is the following:

Even though I was a paying customer for years, as soon as you put the magical Straight Talk microsim into your iPhone for 5 seconds it will break the unlock. Therefore, they are not allowed to unlock it. "The ownership shows it is from a reseller."

This is despite a full account history they have in front of them (subsidized through AT&T, purchased through them.)

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[Applejuiced]

Never heard of that before.
The ownership of the phone is yours not straightalks. You're just using a ST sim that's all.
I'd try again and hopefully you get a better rep to work with.
Some of them will give you any BS excuse not to unlock it.

 

[kalex]

According to AT&T, they refuse to unlock my iPhone 4S (Early Termination Fee completely paid, account closed) due to "ownership being transferred to Tracfone."

Their logic is the following:

Even though I was a paying customer for years, as soon as you put the magical Straight Talk microsim into your iPhone for 5 seconds it will break the unlock. Therefore, they are not allowed to unlock it. "The ownership shows it is from a reseller."

This is despite a full account history they have in front of them (subsidized through AT&T, purchased through them.)

Anyone else have this problem?

Complete and utter BS by useless customer service rep. Hang up and redial. Get another rep to do it

 

[jdpruitt]

Update

Just wanted to update anyone who might Google a similar problem and come across this thread:

After speaking to three (yes, three) AT&T supervisors / managers, it popped into my head what the problem was.

I got the iPhone 4S not long after release, and noticed the compass wasn't working. I took the phone to an Apple store and they took a look and gladly replaced it for me.

I hadn't even thought about it since it was so long ago.

This makes it so AT&T is expecting a completely different phone - it doesn't update on their end, and thus they refuse to unlock.

THE PROBLEM WAS, no one at AT&T understood what was happening (not even the three managers / supervisors), and I made the colossal mistake of MENTIONING that I had put a Straight Talk SIM card in the phone.

They didn't understand this. In their mind, another provider's SIM requires an unlock / jailbreak. So they continued to claim that somehow Straight Talk (Tracfone) had caused my phone to "have a different IMEI" which (as far as I know) is technologically impossible.

One of the AT&T managers agreed to do the unlock after I faxed them the repair receipt and after an Apple representative called AT&T with me on the line. (She was awesome, gotta love Apple's support.)

Anyway, good luck everyone.

Straight Talk worked out for me *sometime* but in the end I couldn't get much data in or out and it would frequently drop calls. Going to go with Virgin Mobile next time around.

 

[Applejuiced]

Good job.
Yes, if you replace the phone and AT&T has a different IMEI for you on file they will give you crap. Im also glad I found the applecare replacement receipt for my 3GS cause they wouldnt unlock it for me either.
What a pain that was.
Wasted hours talking to incompetent reps only to get aggrevated.