EE Customer Services won't unlock a network locked phone

[jguiii]

Hi everyone.

I am in the process of trying to have an old, EE network locked phone unlocked. The phone is a Motorola Moto G 5G plus and was purchased on contract from EE about 4 years ago.

When using the online form, the device wasn't detected and I had to request further contact from EE. After waiting for communications, I received the following email from EE:

Hi There

We are unable to unlock this device as it is not locked to the EE network we can only unlock devices that are locked to EE

Many Thanks

This concerns me as the device is definetely network locked. When putting a Vodafone sim in the phone, the device asks for a sim network unlock code, like a locked device would, and I cannot get around this and use the sim without the code. This is also incredibly frustrating as I know that the device is locked to EE because the EE network is the only network the device has ever successfully connected to.

Any help here would be appreciated.

[Chris_B]

@jguiii  If it stating isn’t not recognise as locked to EE then it’s  locked to a MVNO network that uses EE to provide their customers a signal.

 All the networks listed HERE are MVNO networks and all use EE.    

If the device has ever been replaced via insurance ( not EEs insurance)  then where are they got the device from has nothing to do with EE. 

[Peter_W · Accepted solution]

Good afternoon @jguiii, thanks for reaching out to us about this. 

It's definitely worth considering what @Chris_B mentioned about insurance replacements; if this came from a third party then the IMEI may not match what we have logged in our system. 
If you're confident that this is still the same phone that you purchased on contract though, I'd definitely get back in touch, as your details including the phone number and IMEI should still be logged in our system. 
Peter

[jguiii]

Hi everyone.

Thanks for your help. The phone was ddfinetley purchased directly from the EE store as it was purchased as part of an upgrade from a previous phone contract with EE, so it should be in EE's system and not locked to an MVNO. In the about this phone section of settings, you can even see that it is on the "eegb" version of the Motorola firmware.

The phone was never replaced or even repaired through EE or a third party so it should not have changed IMEI for any reason.

I got back in touch with EE CS and they have informed me that they will now need to contact Motorola directly to request the unlock code. I will update and/or close this when I recieve a response. Thanks again for your help.

[Chris_B]

@jguiii  You can’t go directly to moto yourself they’ll not help you they don’t know where you or how you got the device. EE should be able to help you.    Have you tried the online request form?i it’s HERE  when you put the IMEI number on it make sure there are no spaces and don’t copy and paste it in there.   And make sure your using the IMEI from sim slot 1  if you use sim slot 2 it’ll not work.     It’s IMEI 1 that’s registered to your account and using IMEI from slot1 will unlock both sim slots for any network 

[jguiii]

Yes, I am aware that I cannot go to Moto myself. That's why I stated that EE would be contacting them.

The phone is not dual sim, it only has 1 sim card slot and 1 IMEI, and also just to mention, it is not under contract with EE and hasn't been for around 2 years.

Yes, I am aware of the online form, that is how I got into this position in the first place, as stated in my original post. The online form does not recognise the IMEI correctly, listing it as an unknown device.

Upon requesting an unlock, I received an email from EE yesterday morning informing that the device isn't locked to their network, to which I responded requesting reverification of this as the device is locked to EE having been purchased through the EE store. They responded to this informing me that as they don't have the codes, they would need to request them from Motorola and would be in contact in with me in up to 10 days once they recieve the code, allowing me to unlock the device. Not pleased about this, but I guess I will have to wait, and it's a good example of the reasons why locking phones has been illegal since 2021 and should have been in the first place.

Thanks for your help.

[Peter_W]

Thanks for the update here, @jguiii.

I'm glad to hear our team are on the case with this 😊

Please let us know how you get on!

Peter

[jguiii]

So I got a response with a code, but it doesn't work. I emailed EE back and got no response  other than "the code is correct", and have had no other reply since even clarifying next steps or anything. The code won't unlock the phone and just ends up saying "SIM network unlock request unsuccessful" so it obviously isn't correct.

This is an issue that I only seem to be having with EE, not with any other network, I've unlocked 10 year old phones without any problem from Vodafone but I can't unlock a 3-4 year old phone on EE?

[Ali_A]

Hi @jguiii 

What make/model phone are you trying to unlock? It's best not to try the code multiple times as this may permanently lock the device. 

You can also check if your device is unlocked online. 

Ali 

[Matt_124]

How many digits does the code have? If it is 16 digits, try typing in the last 8 digits followed by the first 8 digits.