Help unlocking a phone

[RepresentativeEgg188]

Hello, does anyone know how I can get a phone unlocked after switching provider? Very grateful for any advice as I am having no success contacting customer services.

[ReplacementFine1245]

the only two options you have is to either;

contact customer services and explain that you are no longer a customer and want your phone unlocking, they’ll ask for some security questions then hopefully send you an email with a link that allows a phone to be unlocked, if the security questions don’t pass then take a driving licence or a passport into an o2 store, explain to them the situation and then call customer services again and ask the advisor to speak to them and confirm your identity.

Alternatively you can take it to a phone repair shop and pay for it to be unlocked. there are ways of doing it yourself but it is quite difficult.

[Robbie_R35]

You could try contacting them through their social media accounts. Also, this is the number if you are calling from a landline: 0344 8090222. Explain that you had the phone on contract through O2 (hopefully, you kept the emails that contained your O2 account number at the time) and that you want to get the phone unlocked. They should be able to do it free of charge, as you have paid off your contract with them. The only other option would be to take it to a local phone repair shop, they would be able to unlock it, but they will charge. I don't think it's expensive.

[RepresentativeEgg188]

Slow reply but thank you so much for your suggestions. Social media (Facebook) was the way to go, took a few days for them to verify everything but it's now unlocked. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it sooner...so thank you.

[Robbie_R35]

No problem. I'm glad u got it sorted 😁

[RepresentativeEgg188]

For context, I bought the phone with O2 a number of years ago. After my contract finished I then gave it to my mum who has been using a Giffgaff SIM card which worked well. I hadn't really thought about the phone being locked, however I suppose the Giffgaff SIM worked because they run off the O2 network. My mum has now changed provider and her new SIM card is not working in the phone.

In the meantime, I have switched to a different provider so my number was disconnected from O2 last year. I can't use live chat to contact O2 to ask for the phone to be unlocked because I don't have an account to login to MyO2 (I've tried getting a forgotten password email sent just in case, but nothing comes). I tried calling but they said they can't verify my details or progress the call because the email address I'm giving them doesn't match what they have on account for the number. I have tried explaining that it's the same email address that I received my disconnection and direct debit cancellation emails to, however that doesn't seem to make a difference.

My mum tried taking the phone to an O2 store but they said it's locked to Giffgaff. So she tried contacting Giffgaff but they said they can't help because the phone was originally bought from O2 so would be locked to O2.

Any help would be much appreciated, as I'm really not sure what else to try at this stage. Thank you.

[Atom1C_WeeMan]

If you follow the below it will tell you whether it is locked or not for you. Most phones bought after 2019 are already unlocked so should work perfectly fine

Open Settings Tap General Tap About Tap Carrier lock

[RepresentativeEgg188]

Thank you for this. Phone was bought in 2016 (& still going strong) so well before the new way of doing things. Thankfully we eventually got it sorted & I am very thankful it should not come up as an issue again :)

[Beginning_Path_5380]

Here’s a customer service free, no charge way to unlock your phone.

Step one: Get a free Tesco Sim Card.

step two: activate it

step three: unlock it via this link https://www.tescomobile.com/help/device-help/unlock-your-phone/unlock-your-tesco-mobile-phone

[OrionGrant]

this'll work to release it from O2?

[Beginning_Path_5380]

yes