One Unlock request, three different reasons to deny, if I made more calls I will get more reasons :)

[syrajacob]

Yesterday I requested an iPhone unlock request. The phone was brought from best_buy secondary market called cowboom. The rep as well aware of the situation and asked me if I got this from cowboom. She took the request and asked me to fax purchase documents to unlcok team which I did.

In the morning I got a deniel letter saying that the IMEI number given is not a valid AT&T IMEI and advised to call back and provide correct IMEI. Upon calling they referred me to Apple to find out the current carrier which I did and not surprisingly Apple said the Phone is valid with AT&T IMEI number and is currently locked to AT&T. 

Call# 3 to AT&T, this time they changed the version saying that since I brought the phone from cowboom the phone is not eligible to be unlocked, wow if that was the reason they could have told me that at first place. I knew it is not correct and they are missing some peice somewhere. 

Finally I got another email saying that the request has been denied becauase "No valid current or former mobile/account number associated with request" which is absolutely stupid excuse as I have three working numbers under contract from at&t with no account defaults at all.

I am pretty sure if I make another call they will come up with fourth reason!  Well done AT&T you are so close to lose a customer. I am exploring another options and would not mid paying the ETF if necessary to get rid of your lousy customer care.

[FredW]

When you purchase a phone from a non-at&t store, you are often bound by an additional, and sometimes even separate, contract. Strictly speaking, your contract may be with cowboom and not at&t. When you go through a third party seller, you need to read the contract VERY carefully. The terms on some of them are incredibly restrictive.

[syrajacob]

cowboom is not a service provider, they are sister company of best buy selling used (customer returned) items on ebay and their own site. Once you paid phone is yours, no contract what so ever. It is same as you buying a phone from AT&T or Apple store at full price. 

[wingrider01 ACE - Geek]

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syrajacob wrote:

cowboom is not a service provider, they are sister company of best buy selling used (customer returned) items on ebay and their own site. Once you paid phone is yours, no contract what so ever. It is same as you buying a phone from AT&T or Apple store at full price. 

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If they are an apple authorized vendor and you can supplie a valid invoice showing you paid full retail price for the iphone it will qualify, if not it is just like buying it from fleabay, they are not authorized and you did not pay full retail price - this is stated in the requirements for unlock

[syrajacob]

Lets say Ok, I agree with your finding. But if that is the case why 3 different reasons to deny the same request. The first customer care person should have told me this and that would have been end of the conversation. 

[dwill05]

Based off the postings here, AT&T doesn't seem to have the best trained CS reps......

[syrajacob]

I haven't any clue what is going on with AT&T.

Today I got another email saying that my iPhone unlock request has been approved; too late, the phone has already went back to the seller. One lucky fellow will receive an unlocked iPhone 4S pretty soon.

[harrison.cooper]

In my situation, after satisfying all their request, including faxing receipts from Amazon, I received the email saying my request has been aproved. I connected my iphone and went throuth the process and my phone was still locked.  I call AT&T customer service and they said that last minute my request was denied, and I should have received an email.  Besides not receiving any email, ...ARE YOU SERIOUS AT&T?  Last minute... Talk about professional.  WOW.   Then they gave the same wonderful reason that my purchase from Amazon doesn't qualify. Your are about to loose a whole family of customers with that "SMART" move.

[syrajacob]

Oh yeah, I hear ya! They losing my family in less than a month. We are travelling internationally this week for almost a month. As soon as we come back first thing to do is to swich Service Provider, take the ETF and showe it AT&T. As part of the clean up we already switched our Cable internet from U-verse. We will make sure that no one in the family will hear  the name AT&T any time soon now