Carphonewarehouse - PAYG phones network locked?

BaZ87

BaZ87

BaZ87

Don
Joined
9 Jun 2004
Posts
48,316
I need to get my Dad a new phone and he's devided on the HTC Desire 530. CPW have this on PAYG but the price varies depending on the network. He's got a tesco mobile sim and the guy in store said he'd need to buy it on O2 for his sim to work - £20 more than on EE.

I was under the impression that CPW phones were all unlocked and it wouldn't matter which network I bought the phone on. Does anybody know for certain whether their PAYG phones are locked or not?
 
BaZ87 said:
I need to get my Dad a new phone and he's devided on the HTC Desire 530. CPW have this on PAYG but the price varies depending on the network. He's got a tesco mobile sim and the guy in store said he'd need to buy it on O2 for his sim to work - £20 more than on EE.

I was under the impression that CPW phones were all unlocked and it wouldn't matter which network I bought the phone on. Does anybody know for certain whether their PAYG phones are locked or not?
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Took my knowledge contract ones are but only if o2, each time I've done an upgrade on o2 phones always been unlocked but when I did them on ee etc they weren't.
 
CPW phones are unlocked except for iphones which lock to the first sim you put in it.
They sell phones to multiple networks so have unlocked stock to cover all networks.
 
I work at the branch in the Netherlands so things might be different here and don't quote me on anything.

Over here, most phones are SIM-free but a select couple of phones come with a SIM bundled from the carriers (so not CPW made bundles, CPW made bundles are always SIM free as they just take a phone and a sim for their own stock and sell it as a bundle). These tend to have a 'SIM lock' but they are usually a good €20 cheaper than the SIM free variant.

However, not every carrier bothers (or is competent enough) to actually put a SIM lock on the phone which means for instance it'll be sold as a Vodafone bundle. The Vodafone SIM will need to be activated so CPW get the money from Vodafone meaning they can sell you the phone for less than retail price. Most their smartphones aren't actually locked though, but the downside is that you can't really find out without buying it.

As a general rule over here. If the retail box of the actual phone itself has no carrier branding on it, it'll be SIM free.
 
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Cheers. The scenario you've described seems to be the case here. The phone sim-free is more expensive than on PAYG, although different networks are priced differently. It does state on CPW's site that all their handsets are unlocked except iphones though which makes things confusing.
 
A lot of cheap PAYG phones seem to be subsidised if you're willing to be locked to that certain network. Once you're into £100+ territory the saving isn't worth the hassle and lack of choice.
 
PhoenixUK said:
What's the price? It looks like if you order online you get unlocked one - perhaps an option?
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£110 including £10 top-up. I went in store but was told it had to be ordered online and was also told that it would be locked to the network I selected.

I've just phoned up to place the order and the guy confirmed the phone would be unlocked so fingers crossed.
 
That's a decent price then I suppose as it's £129 online without any credit I think.

It's amazing what £100 can get you nowadays, I remember not long ago (6 years or so?) if you hadn't spent £450+ on a smartphone it was garbage and there really wasn't any mid/low market. It was pretty much all HTC and iPhone with no real competition.
 
Yea, I just wanted to get him something with a big screen and fairly easy to use. There's no man on the planet as useless as my Dad with technology.
 
lol :D He'd still struggle with that.

He's had a laptop for years and thinks the google is the internet. The other year he got his first smartphone, I spent 15 minutes showing him how to use it, walked out of the room and within 30 seconds he was calling me saying his laptop wasn't working. He was there pressing the screen with his finger. 15 minutes with a smart phone and he forgot the previous 5 years of using his laptop.
 
BaZ87 said:
£110 including £10 top-up. I went in store but was told it had to be ordered online and was also told that it would be locked to the network I selected.

I've just phoned up to place the order and the guy confirmed the phone would be unlocked so fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

Yeah the fact that they're all different prices makes me suspect they are carrier bundles, however over here that still doesn't mean that they're locked :p

Good news, you bought a non-sim-free one that should be unlocked?
 
Arrived this morning and it's all unlocked. Whether the guy in store wasn't allowed to tell me as the price was cheaper on PAYG than sim free, I'm not sure.
 
I work for CPW. (I haven't read all the comments but anyway)

Phones are sold unlocked, PAYG is cheaper than Sim Free but requires you to buy a topup (sometimes still making it cheaper) if you tell the sales colleague that you are going to put your own sim in anyway they are meant to refuse the sale.
 
They were happy to sell me one but told me I'd have to buy it on o2 (which was £20 more than EE) if I wanted to use a Tesco sim in it. The only reason he didn't sell it to me was because they had no stock in store.
 
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