Strange IMEI block problem - does Ireland do this to iPhones??

Marcos · 9 Oct 2009 at 18:40

My friend went to Ireland with a 2year old iPhone, came back and now it says No Service.

Did some sort of "CheckMend" phone scan and it reports that "This item is currently blocked on one or more networks". What the...??

Its an original unlocked/jailbroken iPhone 1st gen and she bought it herself, in person, at the 5th Av Apple store, and it hasnt left her sight since. Any idea why a trip to Ireland would make her phone blocked??

kam187 · 9 Oct 2009 at 19:01

Its unlikely it has anything to do with a trip to ireland. Maybe someone reported the wrong IMEI (typo?). I know a lot of CS staff don't use the checkdigit.

Its a pain in the ass to get phones unblocked. Sell it to someone in america

Marcos · 9 Oct 2009 at 20:25

Thats so annoying

, I've tried an Orange SIM in there just now and that works fine. Looks like she'll have to switch to Orange

kam187 · 9 Oct 2009 at 20:41

Hmm, they block all networks in the UK. So Orange will probably block too very soon.

Marcos · 10 Oct 2009 at 21:54

Bu ti dont understand, who do i go to to sort this out? The networks will ignore me because they'll say its a phone problem. So who is actually responsible for these blocks?

squawkBOX · 12 Oct 2009 at 17:55

Well the networks in theory can block any phone by just submitting it to the database. i.e. when I worked for a network, I could in theory blacklist any IMEI I wanted to.

Customer service will have no idea how to resolve this, you'll need to escalate it and get someone that has access to the database (I can't for the life of me remember the exact name of it). However, I feel that a little battle might be on your friends hands...

kam187 · 13 Oct 2009 at 04:08

Its a total nightmare to sort this out. You're own network should be the ones you speak to tho, because theoretically they would be the ones who blocked it.

squawkBOX is right, you'll need to escalate it to get to someone with some level of authority. If you get nowhere just call ofcom (or whatever they're called now) and you'll most likely get a call from the directors office in O2. They should be able to sort it.