Samsung Note 8 Unlock from EE hasn't worked - what do I do now?

[The_Mystik]

Hello All

Hope everyone is safe & well. My first post on the Community and I'm hoping there are some deeply technical wizards and gurus who might be able to help me. Apologies for the length of the post - its a complicated situation !

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (GN8) which was purchased from EE 4 years ago. I decided recently to look at other network options and requested the unlock code from EE. EE very quickly (to their credit) provided the unlock code and the process to be followed to unlock my phone.

I followed the process but my initial attempt at unlocking was unsuccessful. My second attempt appeared successful as the phone gave me a message "Unlock Successful"

This is when my trouble started, I inserted the non-EE (Virgn) SIM into the GN8 but the phone will not connect to the Virgin network.

OK - first thoughts were that may be the SIM was faulty - but no, when I tried the SIM in another phone it worked fine. I contacted Virgin and they told me that the phone was probably still locked to EE and I should wait a couple of days.

I waited a couple of days but still no ability to connect to the Virgin network - the phone appeared to be still locked. I also tried a Tesco SIM and same result - no connection to the Tesco network.

So I raised a complaint on my EE account to get the unlocking issue resolved. The Unlock team have contacted me and told me the phone is unlocked. So, I decided to contact Samsung who told me today that the phone was still showing as locked to EE

I am now caught in a very frustrating situation which appears as a vicious circle:

- EE are telling me that the phone is unlocked and there is nothing more they can do

- Samsung are telling me that the phone is still showing as locked to EE

Who should I believe - EE or Samsung? My instinct tells me that Samsung are giving me the correct information and that the unlocking process has failed somewhere - even though the phone gave me a message saying that the Unlock was successful.

Can anyone give me some hints / pointers as to what the issue might be and how I might get my GN8 phone fully unlocked, please? Pretty please.....??? 🙂

Many thanks - TM

[Chris_B]

@The_Mystik  Can you try a O2/Vodaphone sim ?     Samsung phone unlocks are device based so not sure how Samsung would know if the device is lock or not,  only iPhones are server based network locks as Apple control the network lock on iPhones (they don’t use unlock codes) 

[The_Mystik]

Thank for the reply @Chris_B.

The Tesco SIM I tried is an O2 SIM (effectively).

In terms of your comment about how Samsung would know if my GN8 is still locked to EE, then as I understood it from webchats with both Samsung and EE, the unlock status appears to be shared between EE and Samsung periodically (daily, possibly). That would imply that EE do have some kind of "back-end" system status in terms of unlock.

The escalation manager from EE did say that if I can get email confirmation from Samsung that my GN8 is still locked to EE, then EE would investigate further. That would be my next step.

It really is a very bizarre situation. I've even tried a factory reset of the phone after speaking to EE Unlock team but this has been to no avail.

It just seems like my initial unsuccessful attempt at the unlock has somehow prevented the unlock process from fully working.

Surely I can't be the first person to have experienced this..?

Thanks & stay safe

TM

[Chris_B]

@The_Mystik  The sim you tried is from a MVNO network it wound best to use a network sim from a provider that actually has a network and that’s o2 or Vodaphone.   3 have a network but I wouldn’t recommend using a 3 sim as they have their own issues when it comes to stuff like this. 

[Northerner]

Hi @The_Mystik 

Have you tried factory resetting after you have unlocked?

Thanks

[The_Mystik]

Hello @Northerner 

Many thanks for your reply

Yes, I have performed a factory reset - didn't make a difference

Thx & Rgds

[Christopher_G]

Have you been able to try a different network's SIM card (apart from the Tesco one)?

Chris

[The_Mystik]

Hello @Christopher_G Many thanks for your reply

I have tried the following two SIMs in my GN8 : Tesco and Virgin. Neither SIM will connect to the respective network when I insert them into the GN8.

Both of these SIMs work absolutely fine in another device. So I am absolutely sure there is nothing wrong with the two non-EE SIMs. My GN8 is definitely not unlocked fully from EE - despite what the Unlock team are saying.

I'd be very grateful if you could suggest some next steps for me please?

Many thanks again - TM

[Christopher_G]

OK thanks for confirming that, @The_Mystik.

I've sent you a private message to get some information from you.

Please have a look and get back to me.

Thanks

Chris

[XRaySpeX]

You were advised to try non-MVNO SIMs. Have you yet?