Mobile Phone unlocking....

[Fab Foodie]

My daughter just bought a mobile phone from Argos (with their 30 day return exemption so we can't take it back).
It's a pressie for Mrs FF who is on O2 and the new phone is Virgin, meaning that she'll have to get all her contacts to change numbers which is a PIT.
What are the options, can we get the new phone (Samsung SGH C300) unlocked and how much does it cost?

Cheers
FF.

 

[tyred]

I don't know about where you live but around here there a loads of shops and even market stalls which offer unlocking. They generally charge around a tenner. If there is a market or car boot sale around where you live and there is a regular there selling phone accessories, I would ask them first.

 

[oxbob]

Couple of shops on cowley rd up by tesco way might be able to, will cost £10/20

 

[mondobongo]

Get the new phone unlocked, then you can transfer all contacts on the old phone to the O2 sim card, stick the sim into the new phone and all contacts can be transferred to phone if you wish or just kept on sim card. More importantly your missus does not have to tell everyone she has changed her no.

 

[stephec]

Google for the unlock codes. With a lot of phones you can do it just by punching some numbers in.

Snap!

I did the same with a Nokia that was locked to Vodafone, search using words like free+Samsung+unlock+code and you should find a lot of choices.

I had that many different codes show up that it took half an hour of trying some before I found one that worked, still better than paying a tenner though.

 

[Ivan Ardon]

****TAKE CARE*****

One of the simple keypad unlocks for Samsung does a factory reset which resets the IMEI to all zeros.

O2 don't allow phones with the IMEI set to all zeros to connect to their network, and there's no keypad sequence to fix it.

Been there etc ....

 

[gratts]

For 99p it's worth a go

Had a look round google, nothing useful, no unlock codes posted/listed or anything

 

[Soltydog]

Some phones aren't actually locked until you put the first sim card in. Try it first with the O2 card

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Have a look on Ebay by doing a search for the model and unlock. It will probably be cheap and save you the hassle of google etc, and you can check their feedback. I have unlocked several different phones this way.

 

[Fab Foodie]

It's a thread from the dead!

 

[ColinJ]

It's a thread from the dead!

True! But while we are at it ...

I may well be buying a used Samsung soon (probably a Galaxy Ace 2 or Galaxy S Plus) and might need to unlock it. I don't mind paying a small fee for an unlock code, but I don't want to pay £10+ which I consider to be a rip-off for what should be a very simple operation. Can anybody suggest a cheap, safe, reliable method?

 

[PaulSB]

Well just be aware of my experience...................my wife decided to use my old iPhone 3GS and had it unlocked from Orange. Later when she plugged into iTunes she selected the option to upgrade the iOS. Upgrading from the iOS which existed at the time of unlocking results in the phone failing to recognise the sim card and needing all sorts of help from Orange!

I don't know if the same applies to other smart phones but we won't be unlocking an iPhone again!