18 replies to this topic

[Rednose01]

Yes i kid you not.

To cut a long story short, i asked my Mrs to pick a G300 for me last Wednesday, as i heard some of you guys saying they were sold out in a number of stores, i was unable to because of work commitments.

Anyway i wrote down the name of the phone and that i would also need a £10 top up. When she went in in they tried to get her to buy a contract, she said i was with Virgin and didnt need the £10 really, so they sold her the Phone without the TopUp for £100.
The box was sealed with the security lable and i only  took it out yesterday to charge it up.
I did not boot the phone up, because i new there was no point untili got itunlocked. So yesterday afternoon i took it to another Vodafone store and asked the Guy if he could get it unlocked for me. He said he could do it for £20.

He took the phone and asked for my Vigin Sim, so when he put it in he started asking questions as to where and when i got it,  without doing anything at all he made an outgoing call, then said the phone was in fact unlocked. He showed it to me and carrier showed up as Vigin.

I took it from the store and started making calls on it straight away. So it only cost me £100 in total.

Now if your anything like me, it might be worth your while checking your own Sim before purchasing an unlock code, or puting your own Sim in before the Vodafone top Up Sim.

Now to start modding!

Carl..






I

[Frankish]

I got away with no topup cos i knew the guy in the shop. Mine was definitely locked though!

[trueno2k]

Most likely that he got a refurbished one that was unlocked and returned due to the low speaker volume, other than that I can't see how he got it unlocked without needed to pay for an unlock code... thats just my 2 cents worth of guess would be

[Rednose01]

trueno2k, on 22 April 2012 - 10:54 AM, said:

Most likely that he got a refurbished one that was unlocked and returned due to the low speaker volume, other than that I can't see how he got it unlocked without needed to pay for an unlock code... thats just my 2 cents worth of guess would be

Yeh I can see why that might be a possibility, but the phone had been out 3 days when i got it, and it was security sealed, this thing had never been out the box.

On a side note, heres a thing. I just powered down the phone to transfer my contacts to the Sim, when i re inserted it and Re Booted it said no carrier. i pressed all sorts of options, but nothing in the way of a Network would come up! Bolox i thought!
I am thinking the unlock was an anomoly.

So out of desperation i made an  outgoing call to Virgin for my ballance "789", well it took a while, but it connected eventually and locked on to the Virgin Network.

Might be worth while some of you trying this! You never Know, could save yourself a few pounds!

Carl..

[trueno2k]

Rednose01, on 22 April 2012 - 11:15 AM, said:

...
Might be worth while some of you trying this! You never Know, could save yourself a few pounds!
...

I agree it sure won't hurt to try it though... Happy days if this public wide bug, if not then you're just one lucky jammy dodger

[Davidoff59]

mine was definitely locked. are you positive that he didn't actually unlock it,  and just let on that it was unlocked when he infact unlocked it.
In other words he gave you a free unlock but incase any colleagues were listening, he made it sound like it was already unlocked.

[putbinoot]

I bought 2 first was locked but the second was not, unfortunately I only discovered this when I went to input the unlock code I had already bought.

[trueno2k]

putbinoot, on 22 April 2012 - 01:49 PM, said:

I bought 2 first was locked but the second was not, unfortunately I only discovered this when I went to input the unlock code I had already bought.

Well, there is a lesson to be learned here be wise or cautious and check the handset is definitely locked to a particular network before going off to purchase an unlock code... Not really a common sense thing that I would think, but maybe a suspicious feel thing, if you get me drift

[Chazmeister]

When I bought mine in store I told the guy I was with O2 and he just said he wouldn't bother giving me the £10 top up then if I didn't want it. So I don't think you have to have the £10 top up if you don't want it basically, don't just assume it's mandatory. The phone however was sim locked out the box.

[FlatPackPete]

Having been on contract with Vodafone longer then most people are married nowadays (god, I sound old ) their PAYG phones are always locked but the contract phones are usually unlocked.
I think what has happened to a few lucky people out there is the store has ran out of PAYG phones and started giving out the contract versions, just to make the sale.

[Davidoff59]

That's likely Pete, mine had pay g wrote in pen on the label

[Davidoff59]

That's likely Pete, mine had pay g wrote in pen on the label

[putbinoot]

FlatPackPete, on 22 April 2012 - 07:51 PM, said:

Having been on contract with Vodafone longer then most people are married nowadays (god, I sound old ) their PAYG phones are always locked but the contract phones are usually unlocked.
I think what has happened to a few lucky people out there is the store has ran out of PAYG phones and started giving out the contract versions, just to make the sale.

That could be it because when I bought the second the guy looked in a cupboard and said he had none left, he went and spoke to someone through the back came out and went into a different cupboard and pulled out what turned out to be an unlocked phone.

[tilal6991]

That explanation makes a lot of sense.

[trueno2k]

putbinoot, on 22 April 2012 - 10:15 PM, said:

That could be it because when I bought the second the guy looked in a cupboard and said he had none left, he went and spoke to someone through the back came out and went into a different cupboard and pulled out what turned out to be an unlocked phone.

I didn't realise Vodafone contract handset were normally unlocked, that also explains how my friend was able to do a straight handset swap+cash with one of his work colleagues handset who is also on Vodafone contract...

As I said before Putbinoot, you're just one lucky jammy dodger! ... Not all Vodafone stores are gonna be so kind to let go of a contract handset when they run out of the same handset on payg though, just for sake of making a sale...

Good luck to you other new G300 buyers, hope you get the same kind of luck that Putbinoot got

[Rednose01]

OK i have investigated further and found the following.

When i said in my original post, the Vodafone guy tried to get my Mrs to buy a contract, it was indeed a Contract phone he sold her, they had no PAYG ones left, he apparently rooted around in all the cupboards, until he said there were only 2 phones left, both were contract.
He told her it was exactly the same as a PAYG version, but failed to metion that it was Unlocked, but let her have it anyway.

As hinted in previous posts, It must be their Contract phones are indeed Unlocked!

So yes, No Top Up and Unlocked for £100.

Think i'll send my Mrs to pick up all my tech

Carl..

[billybiro]

Davidoff59, on 22 April 2012 - 01:37 PM, said:

mine was definitely locked. are you positive that he didn't actually unlock it,  and just let on that it was unlocked when he infact unlocked it.
In other words he gave you a free unlock but incase any colleagues were listening, he made it sound like it was already unlocked.

A free unlock when he can legitimately charge £20 for one?

If what you say is true, I want this guy's name and the address of the shop he works in.   I'll take in my old San Fran and see if he'll do a "free" upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy S2 !!?!!?!  

[Davidoff59]

Lol, they can legitimately charge a compulsory £10 top up but as can be seen, they often waive it as they did with me.

The bit you quoted  was a question to another member who wondered why his phone was unlocked.  turns out he gave him a contract phone on pay as you go as the shop had sold out of pay as you go phones.

[nobbys piles]

Wish I'd read this yesterday. Bought a second G300 yesterday, and bought the unlock code from eBay. Waited all day for it to arrive, then when it did at 3.30 I put the giffgaff sim in only to find it was already unlocked. Wasted £8.50