Guest FrankieADZ Posted May 14, 2012 Report Share Posted May 14, 2012 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelago Posted May 14, 2012 Report Share Posted May 14, 2012 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Frankish Posted May 14, 2012 Report Share Posted May 14, 2012 Yes depending on the person serving you but shows a good chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Davidoff59 Posted May 14, 2012 Report Share Posted May 14, 2012 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest anything-but Posted May 17, 2012 Report Share Posted May 17, 2012 Got mine tonight @ Bluewater vodaphone. £10 top-up and best bit, free unlocking! Really helpful Guy did everything, unlocked it while I waited. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest t-bon3 Posted May 18, 2012 Report Share Posted May 18, 2012 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsutton Posted May 18, 2012 Report Share Posted May 18, 2012 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! :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hans Gruber Posted May 18, 2012 Report Share Posted May 18, 2012 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsutton Posted May 18, 2012 Report Share Posted May 18, 2012 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! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelago Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 (edited) 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 May 21, 2012 by pelago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest timfimjim Posted May 21, 2012 Report Share Posted May 21, 2012 I was told £10 top up and £20 for unlocking. No budging. Ordered online for £100, no need for a top up. For collect in store so I'll try again when I go to get it... Otherwise £5 on ebay isn't that bad anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tawke Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 I ordered mine from Vodafone yesterday and it arrived today. I tried my T-Mobile sim in it just to see and it worked fine. Are they now sim free ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsutton Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Very interesting! I should be getting my phone tomorrow (ordered via web so did not have to pay the £10 top up) so shall find out & report back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tawke Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) Thanks, I hope you confirm that at least some are now Sim free. The phone is telling me about the firmware update. Would installing this perhaps enable a carrier lock if I install it? Edited May 22, 2012 by tawke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsutton Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 I don't think so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tawke Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 I don't think so. You were correct. Updated and still unlocked and still rooted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hyperfighting Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Ordered mine from vodaphone online, installed custom recovery and flashed pauls rom onto it... next step was to unlock it, thought i`d try a non voda sim before i purchased an unlock code, to my surprise it was unlocked ! The phone packaging had a vodaphone pay as u go sticker so i was fairly sure it would be locked. Strange that some are locked and others are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsutton Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Strange that some are locked and others are not. Unless they assumed it would be locked... however would be interested to know if they did check first before buying these unlock codes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Davidoff59 Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Contract phones unlocked. PayG phones locked. This has been covered before but if they have no path phones left, they sometimes give out contract phones which are unlocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsutton Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Contract phones unlocked. PayG phones locked. This has been covered before but if they have no path phones left, they sometimes give out contract phones which are unlocked. Thanks. I assume it's in stores? What about Vodafone website? Or it's mixed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Davidoff59 Posted May 22, 2012 Report Share Posted May 22, 2012 Sorry, My answer above doesn't quite fit as it was bought online. I am seeing a few reporting this for phones bought online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsutton Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 OK, have got the phone today. And it's locked! :( It has also confirmed that all contract phone are unlocked while PAYG phone are locked. £19.99 to unlock it. Off to ebay... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sharaf Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 Ordered from Vodafone website but it came locked, bought an unlock code on the bay today, still waiting.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest striker81 Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 Lost my first g300 last week. Ordered a replacement off the Vodafone website and the phone arrived today. The box had a Vodafone pay as you go sticker on the front but the phone was unlocked! :) The box I got with the phone a couple of weeks ago didn't have the Vodafone pay as you go sticker on the front Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tsutton Posted May 23, 2012 Report Share Posted May 23, 2012 Lost my first g300 last week. Ordered a replacement off the Vodafone website and the phone arrived today. The box had a Vodafone pay as you go sticker on the front but the phone was unlocked! :) Lucky you. My box did not have any PAYG sticker at all, but it was still locked. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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