Help please on device unlock contingency plan

Pawnless Endgame · 16 Apr 2019 at 14:06

I've sacked off the remaining 2 months of my EE contract and gone onto sim-only with Three starting now. While on the phone to EE, I got given the PAK code immediately. Great stuff I thought.

The Three sim card arrived today with the temporary phone number.

I then visit https://www.three.co.uk/Support/Number_Port and plug in my PAK code. In the new couple of hours, the EE sim card should go dead and the Three sim should do away with the temporary number and go live with my old number that I had since year 2000.

Problem is, my phone is locked to EE! Partially my fault I guess but I thought years ago that locked phones was a thing that was well in the past.

So I visit EE here https://myaccount.ee.co.uk/device-unlock entered in my IMEI number, my old EE number and the temporary Three number and now I got to wait for an email with further instructions which can take up to 72 hours.

What will happen now? I'm probably stuck without a phone now for up to 3 days. The old sim will go dead and the phone is still sim-locked. Will I be locked out of WhatsApp too? (as that is bound to my phone number isn't it?)

P.S. just tried my old Samsung S2 (as per my signature) and that's sim-locked too.

neoboy · 16 Apr 2019 at 15:08

Ring Three and tell them to hold fire on the number transfer if its not too late?

Matteysan · 16 Apr 2019 at 19:16

I've called EE in the past as I have bought some second hand phones that were locked to them.

£8 & they were unlocked to any network pretty much straight away.

Pawnless Endgame · 17 Apr 2019 at 16:10

Thanks guys. It's too late I'm afraid as my sim killed itself a few hours after I started this thread. It's taken WhatsApp with it too, including WhatsApp Web as that relies on my mobile being connected. So I can't call Three or EE now with the phone being a paperweight. I don't have a landline either.

On the 2nd (EE) link in my OP, I filled in the unlock form and says it can take up to 10 days?!

neoboy · 17 Apr 2019 at 16:36

As above, have you called EE? Found in the past they have a decent customer service and might rush it for you if you explain the situation.

Pawnless Endgame · 17 Apr 2019 at 17:58

I can't make calls as my old sim is now dead and my handset is locked with the new one.

I got a friend who has inside tracks apparently so he's currently working on something. Costs £17 and will take between 1 to 5 hours.

Atari · 17 Apr 2019 at 18:55

Could you not buy an unlock code (depending on the device) on eBay? I've done that in the past on some Samsung phones and it's worked a treat.

Pawnless Endgame · 17 Apr 2019 at 19:22

Okies all sorted now. Friend managed to sort it for me. Yes £17 is more than EE's £9 offering but EE were taking too long to respond. Plus, 3-10 days on top is too long without a phone especially when I'm away this weekend. The £17 fix took just over an hour to turn around.

BigBoy · 28 Apr 2019 at 18:27

I'd you had asked we to do it before the number port the it would have gone through in a matter of seconds, I've done this with every EE phone I've had. All EE contract phone are network locked until the end of the contract.