Forum Discussion
The T-Mobile unlock lie
Here is my story as of 8/15/23:
I’m a T-Mobile prepaid customer for several years and was happy with the company so far.
I lost my phone on 7/15/23 (ouch) and bought a new Motorola razr+ from T-Mobile on 7/16/23 for $999. Since I knew that I will be abroad for several months, it was important to me that I can also use the phone with a non T-Mobile operator. Thus at the shop the salesperson and me carefully read T-Mobile's "Unlock your mobile device" page (https://www.t-mobile.com/responsibility/consumer-info/policies/sim-unlock-policy).
It says:
- Si el dispositivo se activó hace menos de 365 días, la cuenta de servicio prepagado asociada al dispositivo debe haber tenido más de $100 en recargas durante ese período por cada línea activa en la cuenta. Además, deben haber pasado más de 14 días desde que se compró el dispositivo.
I refilled my account with two payments ($100 and $20), left the US on 28/7/23 and expected to unlock my device 14 days after purchase.
Which didn’t work.
After hours with T-Mobile customer care, my understanding is that the “We're committed to providing you with clear information about unlocking your mobile device.” (cited from the aforementioned web page) is not clear enough for the team who implemented the unlocking system. As far as I can tell, unlocking is based on days activo on the network and has nothing to do with the date of comprar of the device whatsoever.
Hence the last sentence should read as “In addition, the device must be active for more than 14 days on the T-Mobile network” instead of “Además, more than 14 days must have passed since the device was purchased.”
"Purchased" vs. "activated" - why does it matter you may ask? Well, it does in my case. I'm abroad (not on the T-Mobile network) and won't return to the US for several months. I can't unlock my $999 phone and most likely must buy a second phone to use here. Needless to say that I wouldn't have bought the phone in the first place if T-Mobile would have been honest about their unlocking policy.
Thank you, T-Mobile for lying to me and all the time, material and money wasted.
The Motorola Razr+ is a great phone. I have one myself and it has been great to travel with because it folds small enough to fit securely in my pocket, so I don't have to worry about it falling out and getting lost. Unlocking devices nowadays is supposed to be super easy because the whole thing is automated. That means you should not have to have anyone approve the unlock once it is eligible. I saw your other post that provided some screenshots of your purchase and account payments. I removed the post because it did show your account number and this is a public site so we want to keep that stuff under wraps. When you meet the unlock eligibility requirements, you can go directly to Settings and tap on About Phone. There is an option there that says Device lock. When you tap on that it does an automatic check and shows the current lock status and whether or not you met the requirements. You will want to make sure your T-Mobile SIM is install or eSIM is activated and connect to Wi-Fi. Have you gone to that screen on your phone? What information does it say there? That information is going to be the best indicator for what steps come next for getting your device fully unlocked.
Whatever happend on the T-Mobile side, on 1/21/2024, after almost six month, my device got unlocked. No communication from them. Just out of nowhere I found my device being unlocked. I'm still waiting for an offical response regarding my FCC complaint. Since I can finally use my device as intended, I will no longer post here.
Thanks for your reply. I'm aware of the settings page to unlock the device. The issue is that T-Mobile did not implement the eligibility requirements the way they are stated on the web page. That's why I call it a "lie". For whatever technical reason, the 14 day period (since the purchase, as stated on the page) is implemented as the device being active on the network for 14 days. In most cases that's the same, since most users will use their phone after the purchase on the T-Mobile network. However, in my case, I left the US within the 14 days. While I fulfill the requirements regarding the purchase (as stated on the web page), it seems that T-Mobile can't unlock my device because it was not activo for 14 days (only 12 days I've been told by customer service). I would appreciate if they can come up with a creative solution (e.g. add more temporary unlocks) until I'm back in the US (and on their network, I keep paying my bills). or simply unlock my device. The page suggests that they can make exceptions (as under "Military and other exceptions").
You still have to meet the on network usage requirements as outlined in T-Mobile's SIM Unlock Policy. In a lot of cases, your device must be connected to the T-Mobile USA network to process the SIM unlock when you meet the requirements.
Elegibilidad para desbloqueo para dispositivos móviles con planes prepagados
- Deben haber pasado al menos 365 días desde la activación del dispositivo en la red T-Mobile.
- Si el dispositivo se activó hace menos de 365 días, entonces la cuenta prepagada asociada al dispositivo debe haber tenido más de $100 en recargas durante ese período por cada línea activa en la cuenta. Además, deben haber pasado más de 14 días desde que se compró el dispositivo.
- No se deben haber completado más de 2 desbloqueos de dispositivos por línea de servicio en los últimos 12 meses.
- T-Mobile puede solicitar el comprobante de compra o información adicional a su criterio y es posible que se apliquen otras excepciones.
Política de desbloqueo de SIM | Desbloquea tu dispositivo móvil | T-Mobile
As mentioned in my post, the requirements stated are not the ones implemented in the (unlocking) system:
- Si el dispositivo se activó hace menos de 365 días, entonces la cuenta prepagada asociada al dispositivo debe haber tenido más de $100 en recargas durante ese período por cada línea activa en la cuenta. In addition, more than 14 days must have passed since the device was purchased.
El bold part is wrong. According to customer support, the system requires the device to be activo for more than 14 days. Hence they should either fix their system (take into account the purchase date instead of number of days active) or change their web page (probably easier for them to do). The requirements as stated on the web page are simply not true.
BTW, temporary unlock works from abroad. It's really an issue with their system counting the wrong days.
The way I read that. It seems pretty clear. Condition one and two as well as the rest of them are cumulative, not independent. In the first point, it mentioned the device must be activated, which implies use. Also, the first full day the device is used on the network is the first day. Not half a day or whatever to the next half a day.
The device was activated on 7/17/2023. The device was active (I made and received calls with T-Mobile, sent and received text messages) for 12 days (confirmed by customer support). So the first condition (If the device was activated less than 365 days ago) is fulfilled.
Device purchase:
Refill:
A few days of call / message log:
I really can't see which requirement I'm not fulfilling. I'm still convinced that their unlocking system is not implemented according to the terms stated on the web page.
From the screenshots you shared and the information from the terms, it does seem like the device is eligible for unlocking. You mentioned that you are familiar with the unlocking screen in the settings. Can you share a screenshot of the unlocking screen when you attempt to unlock the device in settings? That is going to give us a giant clue to what link in the chain is missing.
¡Gracias!
Here we go:
