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Carrier Verizon Phone, T-mobile/Activation Help

L

lopexo

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 18, 2009
37
0
Sacramento, CA
So I bought a full priced Verizon iPhone via my parent's account to use with my tmobile number as many have said it is possible.

Opened the phone, took out the sim that came with it, put in my tmobile sim card, connected to wifi to activate and I am getting the following message.


"This phone number should match the one provided when you purchased your iPhone. If you want to use a different number, contact Verizon Wireless after activation.

If this number is different from the one provided when you purchased your iPhone, contact Apple."

What the heck did I do wrong? If I remove the sim, it just tells me that I need to put in a sim card.

Help!!!
 
Honestly, it shouldn't matter where you got it, since all verizon LTE bands are unlocked.
I dunno. Im from Canada, and bought verizon phones for the past 3 years, either from verizon stores or apple stores and never had an issue with my att and rogers sims. Something seems sketch with yours, try activating it with your parents sim, but that shouldn't matter, never had an issue.
I remember a few years ago, verizon phones purchased at verizon had some whitelisting with apples servers.
Wait a day or so see what happens.
 
I *think* that you need to have that number activate it first and then you can swap out sims.

I have mine, Verizon, 7 and it was purchased without carrier financing or anything... it skips to the end without activating the line.

I put in someone else's sim and it works...they got calls on it and everything.

I'm guessing that even though you didn't activate it, you did use her number to purchase and so now it's "tied" to that phone (I guess Verizon's safety measure to ensure that the phone purchased will be used by the purchaser, why I don't know, since you paid full price).

But once it's activated it *shouldn't* (don't quote me on this, you may want to get in touch with Verizon to double check) be locked to that sim and number. You should be able to swap out the sims then...just have to get the phone up and running.
 
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I've bought several iPhones over the last 7-8 years. Most of them were bought with a different number than the one I wanted to use. A quick trip to a local ATT store solved the problem with a new sim card.
 
If I use the SIM that it came with it I know it will deactivate the original number I bought the phone with and given that the parents are 300 miles away that is not going to work (or use their current sim to activate it)

Tied the old way of activating without sim, but that is not working on iOS10.

am I screwed?
 
That's true.. didn't realize your parents are 300 miles away for an easy swap.

I would go into the Verizon store...or call...and see if they can lift this...
 
I'm not sure exactly what you did. I just popped the SIM out of the phone and put the T-Mobile SIM in and voila. No issues at all.

Did you order the phone online and put in some phone number for the phone? Not sure what else you could have done.
 
Spankey said:
I'm not sure exactly what you did. I just popped the SIM out of the phone and put the T-Mobile SIM in and voila. No issues at all.

Did you order the phone online and put in some phone number for the phone? Not sure what else you could have done.
Click to expand...

Right, when I purchased the phone I put my dad's number/ssn/zip as that was the only way to get a Verizon phone, right?
 
lopexo said:
Right, when I purchased the phone I put my dad's number/ssn/zip as that was the only way to get a Verizon phone, right?
Click to expand...

Welllll...I did walk into the Apple store today and got one, but I guess that might have been the only way to do it online.
 
Try turning it off and plugging it into iTunes, then turn it back on.

If that doesn't work you can try recovery mode in iTunes. Shouldn't matter since it's a brand new phone.
 
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Belgarath said:
Try turning it off and plugging it into iTunes, then turn it back on.

If that doesn't work you can try recovery mode in iTunes. Shouldn't matter since it's a brand new phone.
Click to expand...
This.

Unless Verizon's activation lock is anything like apple's activation lock (iCloud), then you'll need to talk to Verizon or ya screwed.
 
OP please post back if you're able to make it work. In a similar situation.

Btw Apple really screwed iPhone upgrade people who are on T-Mobile and considering switching to Verizon within the next year. They're forced to buy the T-Mobile version since they don't have a Verizon account. I mean don't sell the iPhone upgrade program as one where you can "switch to any carrier whenever you want" when you can't actually do it because the phones aren't cross compatible. Last year this wasn't a problem at all since all iPhones sold worked with gsm and cdma
 
I got a T-Mobile phone from apple. I put in the sim from my existing iPhone and it said I needed to use the one that came with my phone. This was not required in years past.
I had to put in the new sim and call T-Mobile to activate it. I then swapped out that new sim for my original sim.
 
coolio93 said:
OP please post back if you're able to make it work. In a similar situation.

Btw Apple really screwed iPhone upgrade people who are on T-Mobile and considering switching to Verizon within the next year. They're forced to buy the T-Mobile version since they don't have a Verizon account. I mean don't sell the iPhone upgrade program as one where you can "switch to any carrier whenever you want" when you can't actually do it because the phones aren't cross compatible. Last year this wasn't a problem at all since all iPhones sold worked with gsm and cdma
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'm sad that the phone isn't completely a world phone, but I'm on Verizon so...

6s is...I understand the price difference for SE, by going forth, why wouldn't they all be?
 
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coolio93 said:
OP please post back if you're able to make it work. In a similar situation.

Btw Apple really screwed iPhone upgrade people who are on T-Mobile and considering switching to Verizon within the next year. They're forced to buy the T-Mobile version since they don't have a Verizon account. I mean don't sell the iPhone upgrade program as one where you can "switch to any carrier whenever you want" when you can't actually do it because the phones aren't cross compatible. Last year this wasn't a problem at all since all iPhones sold worked with gsm and cdma
Click to expand...

This. t-mobile clearly made it difficult to order from Apple and t-mobile does not have stock.
 
I bought the Verizon phone full price. So my guess is that when you use IUP through Verizon, they register the IMEI of the phone with the Verizon account you used. This way they can charge the upgrade fee I've heard, when the phone does the activation handshake with Apple it probably sees that it was linked to a Verizon account which is why you get the error.

Just a wild guess, you're probably gonna have to have your parents speak with Verizon.
 
ApplEngineer said:
I bought the Verizon phone full price. So my guess is that when you use IUP through Verizon, they register the IMEI of the phone with the Verizon account you used. This way they can charge the upgrade fee I've heard, when the phone does the activation handshake with Apple it probably sees that it was linked to a Verizon account which is why you get the error.

Just a wild guess, you're probably gonna have to have your parents speak with Verizon.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a very possible situation. Going to call Apple first and see what they say, otherwise this pos phone is going back. :)
 
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