119 replies to this topic

[DiablikoO]

could anyone send me addresses of vodafone stores where did you get unlocks, cuz I went to 2 stores and they told me 15 quids for unlock.

[Coleman997]

They want 20 quids at Ealing Broadway, London for unlock.
Steal!

[Bouncer5]

Wanted £25 in a vodafone store in Glasgow.

[RussellS]

DiablikoO, on 11 May 2012 - 01:42 PM, said:

could anyone send me addresses of vodafone stores where did you get unlocks, cuz I went to 2 stores and they told me 15 quids for unlock.

Why don't you just go to one of the guys already mentioned on eBay. For between £5 - £8 you'll get the unlock code the next day. Job done.

Unless, of course, you don't have an eBay or Paypal account, in which case I understand.

[SteveNotts]

Went to a local store today and is was £100 plus £10 topup (wouldn't budge) and if i wanted to unlock £25.00!!!

Walked out and ordered online for £94.95 after cashback and will unlock on ebay.

Strange how stores differ!

Cheers

Steve

[nikopol1]

19 pounds in Braehead with the added bonus that unlocking it elsewhere than Vodaphone voids the warranty.
Didn't care and went online and got one for a little over 5 pounds from Cellunlockerpro (another bulgarian
unlocker it would seem) - rapid turnaround and no mistakes. Worked perfectly.

[Frankish]

That's bull. Unlocking doesn't void your warranty in the Uk at least.

[nikopol1]

Frankish, on 13 May 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

That's bull. Unlocking doesn't void your warranty in the Uk at least.

I thought as much but wasn't sure about it enough to argue with them. Not like that would stop me from rooting it within 2 hours of exiting the store either

[dragpyre]

Frankish, on 13 May 2012 - 09:23 PM, said:

That's bull. Unlocking doesn't void your warranty in the Uk at least.

nikopol1, on 13 May 2012 - 09:29 PM, said:

I thought as much but wasn't sure about it enough to argue with them. Not like that would stop me from rooting it within 2 hours of exiting the store either

A phone company that specifies that unlocking voids your warranty or have intentionally prevented consumers from unlocking is breaking the law and should be sued and find. That is an anti-competition move.

[Frankish]

I remember some people with the Zte Blade in a certain country voided their warranty by unlocking though. Think it was Hungary or something.

[FrankieADZ]

dragpyre, on 13 May 2012 - 09:38 PM, said:

A phone company that specifies that unlocking voids your warranty or have intentionally prevented consumers from unlocking is breaking the law and should be sued and find. That is an anti-competition move.

I thought that, wish someone would tell the salespeople this when they say it, clearly sending out misleading and wrong information

[pelago]

I have a Vodafone contract SIM and am interested in buying the £100 G300 for use on another network. Do you think having the VF contract SIM will increase my chances of being able to get a free unlock and not have to pay for the £10 top-up?

[Frankish]

Yes depending on the person serving you but shows a good chance.

[Davidoff59]

Its a bit like buying a car, if they know your interested,  they wont let you haggle as much.
Ask about a free unlock as you are a contract customer.  If they say no, then leave and go elsewhere. Don't be forced into buying if your not happy with the deal. They have and they will provide a free unlock. They did with me and I haven't used Vodafone for years. I never paid a £10 top up and I didn't pay for the unlock.

I doubt the phone is subsidised anyway as Huawei are relative newcomers to smartphones and want to gain market share so I reckon Vodafone still make a small bit of money on the phone sale anyway as the phone would be offered cheap to Vodafone to tap into the budget consumer section of society and gain a brand name

[anything-but]

Got mine tonight @ Bluewater vodaphone. £10 top-up and best bit, free unlocking! Really helpful Guy did everything, unlocked it while I waited.

[t-bon3]

Just picked up a G300 from Vodafone store in Manchester.

Total price £106.40 unlocked. Sales manager told me thier 'policy' was to unlock in store for 'free' with purchase of any case.  No need to get the £10 top-up as I was unlocking the phone.

Apologies for double posting this in another thread.

[tsutton]

Looks like most of you had success... I didn't!

I went to TWO stores in Norwich.

Both of them said NO to free unlocking (£20 required)
Both of them said that I will need to get the £10 SIM card as mine expired, which is very annoying!
However both of them did say ICS will be coming "very, very soon" but no dates...

So... I either may go to another store outside Norwich or give up, order the phone online and pay the £10 top up and the ebay unlock code...

Bah!

[Hans Gruber]

Glad I just ordered mine online without trying the Norwich Vodafone stores. I didn't have to pay for a topup when ordering on the website and then it was just the ebay unlock.

[tsutton]

Hans Gruber, on 18 May 2012 - 01:02 PM, said:

Glad I just ordered mine online without trying the Norwich Vodafone stores. I didn't have to pay for a topup when ordering on the website and then it was just the ebay unlock.

That's good to know, thanks will give it a go.

BTW hey local!

[pelago]

I've just bought a G300 from a Vodafone store in Oxford (in the Clarendon Centre) for £100, with free unlock and no compulsory £10 top-up and no need to buy a leather case, although it did take two visits to get this.

On my first visit, they were OK with the free unlock (I said I had a Vodafone contract SIM, although I'm not sure if that had anything to do with them saying OK), but because I didn't have a PAYG Vodafone SIM they didn't want to budge on the £10 top-up.

So I went away and ordered a free Vodafone PAYG SIM from https://freesim.vodafone.co.uk/ which arrived a few days later. I activated it by dialling 17298 (automated system), as mentioned in FrownBreaker's post. I didn't top-up the SIM or do anything else with it.

I then revisited the shop and managed to get the G300 with free unlock and no £10 top-up. They wanted to know the phone number for the Vodafone PAYG SIM. They noticed that although the SIM was activated it was not "registered" (i.e. associated with a person), which they did in the shop. So if anyone else is doing this, you might save a little time in the shop by registering the SIM online beforehand.

Overall I'm very happy.

EDIT: Now I've got home and tried my Giffgaff SIM in it, expecting to have to type in the unlock code that the Vodafone shop printed out for me, I found that it was unlocked already! They must have given me a contract G300 rather than a PAYG one. Glad I didn't pay for an unlock code.

Edited by pelago, 21 May 2012 - 09:45 PM.