Unlocked iPhones - excessive prices breaching forum rules?

thesaint

Most people have no idea about unlocking a phone, and will pay extra for convenience.

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or even less since its essentially second hand and you've knackered the warranty...

In what way?

BristolDeal

Apple's statement:

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"Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone's warranty.".

Software updates from Apple tend to knacker unlocked iPhones.

Stelph · *Last edited by Stelph : 11-03-2008 at 08:14.*

thesaint:
Most people have no idea about unlocking a phone, and will pay extra for convenience.

Fair point, hadn't thought about it like that. However even on a conventinal phone like a nokia an unlock costs somewhere in the region of £5, not the £20 or so that people seem to be requesting (especially with a free unlock tool)

Stelph

thesaint:
Most people have no idea about unlocking a phone, and will pay extra for convenience.

Oh, in addition, there are posts where people are offering to sell their 3 month old unlocked iPhone for £280 or so, now thats definalty over the odds taking into account wear and tear etc!

thesaint

Stelph:
Fair point, hadn't thought about it like that. However even on a conventinal phone like a nokia an unlock costs somewhere in the region of £5, not the £20 or so that people seem to be requesting (especially with a free unlock tool)

I bought a W810i the other week from a deal on here the other week, I paid £5 to get it unlocked because the thought of downloading 'stuff' and re applying other 'stuff' left me puzzled. This £5 represented over 15% of the cost of the phone.

If I were to buy a phone for £269, I would gladly pay £20 for it to be unlocked.

Stelph:
Oh, in addition, there are posts where people are offering to sell their 3 month old unlocked iPhone for £280 or so, now thats definalty over the odds taking into account wear and tear etc!

Report them and see what actions the mods take, but the RRP is not a firm rule, and exceptions can be made.

Stelph

Fair point, I suppose it varies between people what they think is good value but you make a good point.

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Report them and see what actions the mods take

I think this kind of thing is a "grey" area of the rules because, like you say, theres no set RRP for an unlocked iPhone because you cant get one in shops!

Proximo

Stelph:
Fair point, hadn't thought about it like that. However even on a conventinal phone like a nokia an unlock costs somewhere in the region of £5, not the £20 or so that people seem to be requesting (especially with a free unlock tool)

the iPhone is a little different and a little tricky to unlock, it depends on what firmware the iphone has etc.

I paid £330 for my unlocked iPhone and was willing to pay extra so I knew I wouldn't end up with a brick!

melu

Actually its pretty easy to unlock if you ask me. Just plug it in, put in recovery mode and run ziphone. Thats it! No need to enter codes like you would for a Nokia for example.

I bought mine online through carphone warehouse - 16gb iphone. I got an amazing £60 cashback through quidco which has been validated! So I got it for the price of the 8gb one! I unlocked it on the first attempt. Only problem I had was the call forwarding message which is common I fixed this with a patch.

I still think most people don't realise that you don't activate the contract in store but when you get home.

bazzaric

melu:
Actually its pretty easy to unlock if you ask me. Just plug it in, put in recovery mode and run ziphone. Thats it! No need to enter codes like you would for a Nokia for example.

I bought mine online through carphone warehouse - 16gb iphone. I got an amazing £60 cashback through quidco which has been validated! So I got it for the price of the 8gb one! I unlocked it on the first attempt. Only problem I had was the call forwarding message which is common I fixed this with a patch.

I still think most people don't realise that you don't activate the contract in store but when you get home.

Already you have stated that you had to use one bit of software, then something wasn't working so you had to 'patch' something else. Most people would have to spend a few hours looking these things up, downloading software and then risk their new iPhone. I think the iPhone unlocked is well worth an extra £20 on RRP (Even though the RRP is for a locked iPhone to O2 contract. It's £500 or so elsewhere in europe).

melu

The phone worked 100%. Just during a call a "call forwarding active" message would pop up. It did not affect the call or workings of the phone in any way. It was just a little annoying as you had to dismiss it everytime.

I've read on forums that this has happened on locked iphones too. (On AT+T anyway don't know about on O2). So you can't really blame it on the unlocking.

I think if you're gonna buy something this expensive you should do a little a research first beforehand anyway..

Stelph

melu:
I bought mine online through carphone warehouse - 16gb iphone. I got an amazing £60 cashback through quidco which has been validated! So I got it for the price of the 8gb one! I unlocked it on the first attempt. Only problem I had was the call forwarding message which is common I fixed this with a patch.

Wow, that £60 cashbacks been validated?! Makes it an even better deal then, so a 6GB one would be £209..

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Most people would have to spend a few hours looking these things up, downloading software and then risk their new iPhone. I think the iPhone unlocked is well worth an extra £20 on RRP (Even though the RRP is for a locked iPhone to O2 contract. It's £500 or so elsewhere in europe).

Thats a fair point, although the counter argument to your comments that the RRP is for the locked phone is that the RRP is even lower in the US! I guess at the end of the day it really depends on what you see as value for money, if you really arent happy with doing it yourself then you may be willing to part with money for someone else to do it for you then fine.

However what I wanted to point out mostly is that it just seems that people are using the confusion that is surrounding the way that apple sell the phone and then overcharge the unlocking fee by up to 4x the usual amount for a phone (£5)

melu · *Last edited by melu : 11-03-2008 at 11:00.*

Yeah I have got £60 cashback from carphone warehouse which has been validated and due for payment in May.

8GB iPhone works out to £209 and 16GB = £269.

I thought I would only get £20 cashback as its not very clear on the quidco carphone warehouse page:

Quidco Carphone Warehouse

jah128

The FS/FT does seem to have become a bit of a glorified mobile-phone street market - there are a lot of members who have sold/listed a number of 'new' phones and I think its fairly clear that some are buying phones to unlock and sell on at a profit - in my eyes this is trading and against the rules of the FS/FT forum but its a pretty grey area and some clarity in the rules would be good.

So yeah, I'm agreeing with the OP on this one, shouldn't be allowed

tay1982

after i watched a video on how to unlock the iphone it really is easy, i think its easier to unlock than any other phone.

i think its a good point about the way people have been pricing them, its getting out of hand now

Unlocked iPhones - excessive prices breaching forum rules?

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