To stop the owner moving to a different network on either a prepaid or contract plan.
It started when mobiles were heavily subsidised by the carriers but it should be banned when customers are paying outright prices for handsets.
2 Likes
Doesnāt answer my question @Fred123. Yes, I can see that if you signed up to a plan with a Telco and the phone was provided as part of the plan, they may lock it onto their network. But if you have a phone you own, and get a $2 sim and pre-pay usage, how can the phone be locked? Never experienced that over the years ever.
1 Like
It is common that prepaid and locked phones are price subsidised by the telcos, as are the phones included on plans. After a certain spend some will unlock it gratis, some for a modest amount.
Buy an outright phone and it is not locked.
6 Likes
Many of the cheaper phones particularly pre-paid deals are networked locked. This is so the provider of the network can keep a customer using that phone on their network thus help their profits. Telstra, Voda and Optus do this a lot. Yes you own the phone as you bought it, but in these cases you bought it as a combined deal. Until you pay the fee to unlock it from that network it will remain locked to that network no matter how long you have owned it. Telstra charge $80 to unlock a new phone until around 3 months (with regular recharges) then if you are lucky they will drop the cost to $25. Often these days if you buy on a contract they are unlocked but the contract means that if you do move providers during the contract you need to pay the phone and contract out, hence a contractual lockout rather than a software/hardware one.
10 Likes
Indeed - hereās how Target include it in their terms for pre-paid handsets from Optus, BOOST, Telstra and Vodafone ā¦ (Target because that was the first clear hit I saw, Iām sure many other purveyors of communications devices have something strangely similar ā¦)
edited to add - example of cheaper locked phone of same make/model:
6 Likes
Maybe Iām just different from most phone users then. I need a new mobile phone, so I go and buy one that has the features and price point that suits. Then I choose a network provider plan that suits and buy a SIM for a few bucks, activate it and away I go. Never experienced any locking.
1 Like
Interesting point - seems there are countries where the legalities are quite different to here.
It is also worth noting that the unlock fee through the carrier the handset is locked to often reduces over time so worth checking with the carrier first ā¦
6 Likes
Perhaps dodgybrothers .com knows precisely what the unlock charge that would be made by the carrier is and then pitches the initial up front disclosed cost at a few dollars below that.
1 Like
So back to the original post. If you buy a phone deal that is networked locked in return for a cheaper handset deal, the way to go is contact the network provider to unlock it. Usually or maybe for a fee.
So, is the consensus that officialsimunlock is a grade A certified scammer that is just out to suck money out of you or do they actually get the phone unlocked?
Read the reviews in the second post? Plenty of bad reviews. Good reviews can of course be faked or otherwise manipulated. @Jas71 wasnāt prepared to throw good money after bad in order to find out and who can blame him?
4 Likes
Agree, and then once someone has paid a significant amount for the unlocking, only to find out one has to pay more, they are likely to pay the extra as they may think that anyone else who will unlock will try on the same scamā¦meaning good money after bad.
1 Like
Hi Jas. Welcome to the community.
Thanks for your warning.
I have moved your post to this existing thread which discusses similar issues to yours.
A final gotcha, I had a locked prepaid phone that the carrier, AT&T tried to unlock. (From memory) The first 3 codes did not work. You only got 5 tries and it was locked forever. They referred me to Nokia (conference call) who tried another code that also failed. I stopped short of going for the 5th just in case. I only ever used it for travelling in the USA so staying locked to AT&T was not a big problem, just a few extra dollars and it prohibited me from using it as a spare here. A few years later 2G was closed so it was not even a capable paperweight.
Sure - except when the phone is heavily subsidised on the assumption that the carrier will recover its costs through your use of their service.
As for going outside of the carrier channels to get the phone unlocked, you may in fact be in breach of the contract you entered into by purchasing the phone in the first place.
1 Like
And I covered the risks if the carrier finds out in an above post:
While the likelihood is low, but you never know (Murphys Law).
4 Likes
Thanks all for the comments.
Hopefully someone will stumble across this and and not use them as a service.
I have escalated the issue with Pay Pal and give you an update on the outcome.
Have a good evening
7 Likes
Yep, I understand that, I understand the reason in that case. There would be other ways of dealing with the contractual obligations, or other ways of creating purchase arrangements that are not outright purchases.
Referring to @draughtriderās link above, locking a phone in this way is actually illegal in some countries. That should at least cause us to ask whether it should be illegal in Australia.
If carriers arenāt prepared to sell subsidised handsets unless they can lock them then no one is forcing carriers to sell subsidised handsets. Perhaps it made sense when a mobile phone would cost you your first born, and weigh about the same. Today you can pick up an entry level Android smartphone for under $100.
As weāve seen with a couple of cases in this forum, this kind of locking, that creates a longer term dependency between the customer and the supplier, can very much not be in the interests of the customer.
1 Like
As it it looks like that their $27 unlock fee is deceptive and misleading and all the back and forth refusing to give you a refund why not lodge a credit card chargeback with your credit card provider. I know itās only a small amount but it doesnāt take much effort to do the chargeback. You have paid for the service and they have not provided the service so you will be successful. All the best 
3 Likes
Hi all,
Well Pay Pal have come to the party, and refunded me.
Whatās interesting is itās the only method of payment from memory. So I wonder if they have had to refund others. I have asked if they are going to investigate them as a seller based on all the complaints on line.
I wanted to do a google review also on these rip off merchants but it seems that the review service isnāt currently available due to Covid restrictions and limited staff to process ? Surely of all the companies in the world, Google would be one of the leaders when it comes to their staff working being able to work from home ! Cheers all !
6 Likes
You can also post a review on Product Review.
1 Like
