Buying Mobiles on Ebay

Well Christmas is only a few weeks away and the mad rush is on to buy that new mobile phone you have wanted. Christmas tends to be a VERY busy period for us and we will be open throughout the holidays.

Christmas is also the time when unscrupulous people try to sell off "dodgy" phones on Ebay. Last Christmas we had 7 customers who bought handsets on Ebay that when they received it, it turned out to be a stolen phone. We had a further 10 who bought mobile phones advertised as "Unlocked" only to find that they were not.

Now we are not saying that all mobile phones sold on Ebay are dodgy, what we are saying is please take adequate precautions before ordering. Verify with the seller that the handset is indeed unlocked or not, if it is not, then ask if there has been any previous unlock attempts. As for stolen phones, there are a couple of things you can do to call the sellers bluff:

1. Ask if they can provide photographic proof of purchase i.e. a receipt.
2. Ask if the handset will come in its original box
3. Ask if they will provide you with the IMEI so you can check with the "stolen Handset Database" to see that it is legit
4. Ask Where the phone came from

The answers to the above will normally set off any alarm bells depending on what the answers are. So please don't let the minority of "Dodgy Dealers" spoil your Christmas, handsets are expensive enough without buying one that is only going to be useful as a "Paper Weight".

3G sim card into 2G/2.5G handsets

Every now and again we will have a customer contact us to tell us that the unlock procedure has not worked. On receiving contact we will endeavour to find out why! Normally it is resolved fairly quickly as the customer has either entered the unlock code incorrectly or provided incorrect details.

Every now and again we will get a customer who has a normal 2G/2.5G handset and they are trying to use a 3G sim card in it, this of course is not possible. Without boring you with all the technical details, a 3G sim card interacts with the handset in a different way to that of a 2G/2.5G. Putting a 2G/2.5G sim card into a 3G handset will work however; this is because the 3G handset is backward compatible.

Some of the newer handsets that are coming out are “Dual Mode”. This means that they can use cards of both types. As a rule of thumb, if the handset is not a 3G handset you will not be able to use a 3G sim card in it.

Christmas and the mobile phone rush!

I often get inquired of “I bet you have got the best phone there is haven’t you”. Well the answer is no not really. My own phone is a Nokia 6310i that I have had for the last 2 years. You see I am not into all these new fangled things that have 3g, gps, gprs, Bluetooth and make you a cup of tea in the morning. I want my phone to work and I want it to work wherever I am in the world.

Christmas is nearing now and of course my daughter is after a new phone, she wants the camera, video and mp3 player type of phone, this despite the fact that she has a perfectly good mp3 player and the use of my £700 digital camera. I just can’t figure it out, it seems that mobile phones have become this “Status Symbol” of power, the more features you have the better you as a person are. Thing is we bought her an all singing all dancing phone last year for £275 and now she wants a new one, I just can’t weigh her up.

My advice to people is simple and an old saying, “if it isn’t broke why fix it” that’s why my mobile phone is actually a mobile phone that I use to call people.

With all the latest phones that have been released it looks like I am going to have a busy Christmas yet again, don’t get me wrong I am not complaining, but my heart does go out to all the parents being pestered by their kids for a new phone. Whatever happened to the kids that would open their expensive gift, ignore it, and then play with the box?

Nokia BB5 Handset Update

Nokia 6630, Nokia 6680, Nokia e60, Nokia e61, Nokia e70, Nokia n70, Nokia n90, Nokia n91

As of today "10th November 2005" there is still NO remote unlock codes for the above handsets. There are still many rumours circulating that certain unlockers can unlock these handsets.... THEY CANT.

The networks are currently the only people that can unlock these particular handsets and the cost varies widely. We will of course publish on this website and www.unlox.co.uk when remote codes are available.

To be added to our mailing list when remote codes are available for these models please CLICK HERE.

Nokia Codes - To Pay or Not To Pay

We had an interesting discussion today via email with a gentleman in Spain. He was telling us that he had tried Nokia codes from some of the free websites that you can find on the internet and that the codes he was given had not worked. He wanted to know why our codes would be different and how we could be sure that they would work. We told him that since he had already entered 5 codes prior to contacting us that remote codes would no longer work and that the only solution to him was to have the phone "Cable Unlocked". He went away a little frustrated with the prospect of having to spend MORE money having it cable unlocked than he would have if he had come to us straight away.

It still amazes me how many times we hear this story, I mean I understand that people will always try to get something for nothing, its human nature, but there is that famous saying here in the UK and no doubt other parts of the world "You get what you pay for"! At unlox.co.uk we are constantly striving to improve the service levels we provide and part of that is the research that goes into unlocking methods. Over recent months the methods used to unlock a mobile phone have changed significantly so too has the support we have to give to customers to help them enter the codes. If you choose to try the unlock codes from some of the free sites out there then you also choose to make what could end up been an expensive decision. We are not telling you not to try the codes from these sites we are just saying be careful and make an educated decision on which direction you go.

Its also worth pointing out that our site as do many others will not guarantee success on your handset if it has had prior unlock attempts nor will we offer refunds where it becomes clear that previous unlock attempts have taken place. I know that I personally will always look at a paid option first because I have more confidence of success, but then again I would say that wouldn’t I.

"Cannot Undo Restriction" / "Not Allowed"

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of times in any given week we get customers email us saying after they entered our Nokia Codes their phone said "Cannot Undo Restriction" or "Not Allowed". It seems some people just refuse to read the instructions on our website and just go ahead and order anyway.

I mean we make it VERY clear:

You are advised that you should NOT order unlocking codes if the
target handset has been subject to a previous unlocking attempt!
Refunds will NOT be given in such circumstances.

The above actually appears on ALL order pages so it is pretty clear. Just to clear things up "Cannot Undo Restriction" or "Not Allowed" means that the handset has had at least 5 previous unlock attempts and the handset can now only be unlocked by "Cable Method". You can normally get this done at your local mobile phone repair shop.

My other favourite is when we receive email saying that the phone unlocked but when they put their new sim card in it says "Sim Card Rejected". On further questioning it normally turns out that they are trying to use a 3G sim card in a non-3G handset. You can't do that since they are completely different cards, it's like trying to put 35mm film into a digital camera. Anyway that's my rant over for today.