At the end of the road trying to unlock Nokia Lumia 1020

[NokiaOrNot]

I have bought a Nokia Lumia 1020 on gumtree uk. The phone is Vodafone UK locked and despite ALL my efforts to get Vodafone UK to unlock the device and paying 4 different 3rd party sites to give me an unlock code I am still sitting with an unusable phone 2 months down the line. I am willing to donate the phone to anyone that want to figure out how to unlock the phone in order to help others with this problem. This phone is 100% legitimate NOT stolen and NOT blacklisted yet I can't get it unlocked to use. I have always bought the latest phones and this phone cost me nearly double the amount of money I have ever paid for a phone in the past, turned out to be my biggest mistake. What a disappointment!

 

[N_LaRUE]

What unlocking services did you use and what state is the phone in? I live in the UK and would be happy to give it a go.

You can message me and we can discuss.

 

[samsul]

Buy a Vodafone pay as you go sim and top up with ?20 credit then fill in the form on their website

https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...forms%2Funlock-code-request%2F&token=IPvUkba1

 

[John20212]

And I though only ATT was difficult when it comes to unlocks.

 

[buxz777]

as the other user has pointed out buy a pay and go sim card and fill out that form , top up ?20 1st though

also worth noting if you have put a wrong code in 3 or more times then its about to get even harder to unlock :-/

 

[tweedie]

ah vodafone. man!

I had a lumia 520 that I got from ebay, and paid vodafone ?20 quid after filling in the unlock request form (https://forums.windowscentral.com/e...forms%2Funlock-code-request%2F&token=XQyhw1Gk) to get the unlocking code, after many unlocking services simply could not work out the code. Even when I got the code, it still wouldn't unlock.

In the end I had to post it off to vodafone services and they unlocked it manually.

Have you tried the vodafone unlocking request form?

 

[NokiaOrNot]

Thank you for all the replies I got, sorry for answering only now but it is the first time I noticed all the replies. The phone is still locked and I have not punched in any unlocking codes yet. The phone is still untouched as I received it. I am in South Africa at the moment and will only return to the UK in April 2014 hence the reason why I wanted the phone unlocked to use it while in SA. I therefor can't really buy a Vodafone sim and top it up. As far as the online form is concerned I've tried but when I got stuck I even asked a friend to help with no success, he gave his particulars but Vodafone had another excuse. I've tried their Live online support several times with no luck. Everytime they confirm that the device is legitimate, not stolen and not blacklisted yet they don't want to help and they make you wait for days and days just to send you a message in the end telling you that some given info was wrong and they can't supply an unlock code. I would be more than happy to pay Vodafone to provide me with an unlock code but one never get to the point where you can tell them that.

 

[NokiaOrNot]

Phone is in it's original state no codes or pin numbers have been punched in. Would really appreciate it if you could be of assistance. Thank you. Please bear in mind that I'm in South Africa at the moment till April 2014 and have the phone here with me hence the need to have it unlocked.

 

[tweedie]

Thank you for all the replies I got, sorry for answering only now but it is the first time I noticed all the replies. The phone is still locked and I have not punched in any unlocking codes yet. The phone is still untouched as I received it. I am in South Africa at the moment and will only return to the UK in April 2014 hence the reason why I wanted the phone unlocked to use it while in SA. I therefor can't really buy a Vodafone sim and top it up. As far as the online form is concerned I've tried but when I got stuck I even asked a friend to help with no success, he gave his particulars but Vodafone had another excuse. I've tried their Live online support several times with no luck. Everytime they confirm that the device is legitimate, not stolen and not blacklisted yet they don't want to help and they make you wait for days and days just to send you a message in the end telling you that some given info was wrong and they can't supply an unlock code. I would be more than happy to pay Vodafone to provide me with an unlock code but one never get to the point where you can tell them that.

I had to eventually speak to vodafone support people (via their support forum) after unable to unlock my 520.
unlocking lumia 520 sim error - Vodafone eForum
post 2 - she helped me out and various other tech people helped out other people in the same boat.

 

[NokiaOrNot]

I will try once again thank you, will report as soon as I have any luck.

 

[NokiaOrNot]

I was wondering if a person can't "format" the phone and reinstall everything and have it unlocked in that way, does anybody knows if this would be possible?

 

[Ukyo]

I was wondering if a person can't "format" the phone and reinstall everything and have it unlocked in that way, does anybody knows if this would be possible?

Carrier locks cannot be removed by reformating or resetting back to factory defaults. You can only unlock via the unlock code or a manual hack while physically connected to the phone.

 

[unstoppablekem]

And I though only ATT was difficult when it comes to unlocks.

I think carriers don't like people not on their service to get a phone from them and ask to unlock it. Heck, even AT&T doesn't like its own customers unlocking their phones.

 

[montsa007]

I wish to add some of my tears into the ocean, I am having almost 1.5-2 month locked 1020 on AT&T, nobody can offer the code even at premium prices.

The guy who wants to squeeze code from Voda UK - Was the phone ever used on voda network?
Meaning, if you buy a seal packed phone and expect an unlock code from Voda it won't happen because you neet to put a Voda sim and make atleast 1 call to any number so the phone is registered on their database, without which even God cannot offer the unlock code.

 

[NokiaOrNot]

I bought the phone on Gumtree and never met the seller in person to ask him, he delivered the phone to my friend who brought it to me in South Africa. I understand what you say about at least using it once with a Vodafone Sim, I'll even try that - I will have a Vodafone Sim post to me and try that way as well thank you for the suggestion.

 

[montsa007]

I bought the phone on Gumtree and never met the seller in person to ask him, he delivered the phone to my friend who brought it to me in South Africa. I understand what you say about at least using it once with a Vodafone Sim, I'll even try that - I will have a Vodafone Sim post to me and try that way as well thank you for the suggestion.

It has to be a UK voda sim, I think.

How about ask your friend to purchase a voda sim worth 20 pounds, send it to you, you insert the sim and make any random call and friend asks voda to unlock it for you?

It may sound a bit fussy but it'll clean out everything to a sparkling shine!

Hell, I'll even dig a mountain if my AT&T unlock code is buried there, if its buried there, but I know AT&T has some secret vault which only allows some special people wearing yellow pants to enter it.

 

[tweedie]

I wish to add some of my tears into the ocean, I am having almost 1.5-2 month locked 1020 on AT&T, nobody can offer the code even at premium prices.

The guy who wants to squeeze code from Voda UK - Was the phone ever used on voda network?
Meaning, if you buy a seal packed phone and expect an unlock code from Voda it won't happen because you neet to put a Voda sim and make atleast 1 call to any number so the phone is registered on their database, without which even God cannot offer the unlock code.

Ah yes, he is right. I remembered I tried to unlock my vodafone phone without making any calls. I didn't want to topup and "waste" money on a top-up card, but customer services told me that I need to have credit in my account and make a call. then wait 24 hours after that, before asking for the unlock code again. In the end, didn't waste that money because that money in my account was used to pay for the unlock code.

 

[T1Cybernetic]

Did you ever get your phone unlocked I am about to try getting my phone unlocked too, Lot's of horror stories with 1020's Scary stuff!