Will fido unlock a second hand phone?

[weksos]

I bought a used iPhone 4 off kijiji a few months back and now I have signed a contract and picked up the new iphone 4S.

I want to give the iphone 4 to my mother since her current phone is quite ancient and giving her problems. The only problem is that she is with rogers. Will fido unlock this phone even though I am no the original owner? I know they offer it but they need to check your account as if you were the original owner and contract signer , which i am not.

Will fido offer this service to me ? even if I agree to pay the fee's?

Thanks

***Edited to add labels***

[Amanda1 · Accepted solution]

Hey Everyone! 

I just saw this thread and I thought I'd provide some more up-to-date information about the unlocking procedure in case anyone else were to come across this.

- Now, to unlock your device, your account must be in good standing and must satisfy one of the following criteria:

• If you received a rebate associated with a Fido agreement on your Fido device, that device must have been registered in your account more than 90 days ago.
• If you personally purchased your device from Fido and did not receive any rebate on it, then it must be registered in your account.
• If you purchased your device from a third party, it must have been registered in your account more than 90 days ago.

- A $50 fee (plus applicable taxes) applies. It will appear on your next invoice or will be deducted from your Prepaid balance.

- Unlocking your device via Fido will not void your manufacturer’s warranty.

- Only Fido devices can be unlocked by Fido. If you have an unlocked device from another carrier, see how to configure it to work with Fido.

- Unlocking your device will not terminate your Fido service or Fido Agreement, all aspects of your service remain unchanged.

I hope this helps! 

[10yearfido]

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@weksos wrote:

I bought a used iPhone 4 off kijiji a few months back and now I have signed a contract and picked up the new iphone 4S.

I want to give the iphone 4 to my mother since her current phone is quite ancient and giving her problems. The only problem is that she is with rogers. Will fido unlock this phone even though I am no the original owner? I know they offer it but they need to check your account as if you were the original owner and contract signer , which i am not.

Will fido offer this service to me ? even if I agree to pay the fee's?

Thanks

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Fido doesn't care whether you were the original buyer or not. What they will care about is whether the original buyer has completed the contract on which it was purchased. This means that the 3 year contract it was purchased on has expired or, depending on who you talk to, that the original buyer has since upgraded and renewed their contract. What it does not include is the original buyer paying their contract termination fee.

Having said that, it can't hurt to call and ask, as sometimes it depends on the rep you get. Explain the situation and you might find an understanding rep that is willing to do it for you. Another option is to call Rogers directly and ask them to unlock it for your mother since she is a Rogers customer. Fido and Rogers unlock requests all go through the same Rogers office, so no matter which carrier you call, when you get the unlock department it is the same people. 

There is a $50 fee, if they agree to unlock.

[weksos]

Thanks for the tip, Ill try calling fido and rogers later on this week to see if I can solve this situation.

$50 is not too bad to unlock an iphone considering 3rd party websites were charging $175USD for a hardware unlock.

I do have one concern though, since this phone was purchased through kijiji, I can ONLY take the word of the seller saying it was his phone. What would happen in the case if the phone was stolen ? will this have any problems?

From what I understand, if a phone was reported stolen in the first place, fido would blacklist the IMEI preventing it to work with the fido/rogers network? So if the phone works than I should be good right?

[FidoStephane]

Hi everyone, 

We don't 'blacklist' IMEIs, but more importantly, we cannot unlock the phone unless it was purchased via the customer's Fido account, regardless of a contract or not. Yes the term needs to be completed, but if you bought it elsewhere, i'm sorry but we can't unlock it. 

Seach for alternative methods for unlocking your phone. trust me, it's easier than you think. 

[neufsky]

Hi, Stephane, what do you mean by "purchased via customer's Fido account"? Does a 3GS bought in Apple store, activated by apple staff on Fido network, paid partially with Fido dollars falls into this category?

[FidoStephen]

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@neufsky wrote:
Hi, Stephane, what do you mean by "purchased via customer's Fido account"? Does a 3GS bought in Apple store, activated by apple staff on Fido network, paid partially with Fido dollars falls into this category?

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The phone needs to be registered in the equipment history in your account in order to be eligible for an unlock, among other requirements. 

[colinzim]

Fido unlocked a phone I bought from Fleabay 5 mins ago.

I was told no.

Told them Canadian law states they have to unlock it.

Then they went ahead.

Cost $50.00

No confirmation email for anything tho

Just unlocked.

[TanQboy]

Hello Moderator. I bought an iphone 4 second hand. It's a Fido phone and I have no idea what the history of the phone is other than it's locked onto Fido. I'm happy with my Fido service and don't plan on leaving it. How do I find out if it can be unlocked? I travel a lot out of the country and it's far more economical for me to use a local data plan when I'm out of the country than it is to pay for Fido's expensive roaming charges but when I"m home I'm on Fido all the way.

Would I be able to find out if I can unlock my phone online on the Fido site or over the telephone? I don't mind paying a reasonable amount for this service.

[FidoJudhy]

Hey neufsky!

Yes, it does

@ TanQboy: I invite you to call us at 611 from your Fido device to find out if it is possible for us to have it unlocked

[Anonymous]

Excuse me but it sounds REALLY REDICULOUS for someone who bought a phone second hand, then Fido REFUSE to unlock it becaues the Seller bought it with a 3-year contract and the Buyer did not know.  Its very possible the SELLER did NOT not want to disclose anything about his account to you not even his contract term to the buyer for personal reasons, and guess what, he has every right to NOT want to disclose such info, I would not want to my self.

Once the phone is sold, fido should NOT have anything to do with the original owner anymore, as far as I'm concerned, asking for information from the original owner when they do not own the phone any more is asking for Privacy Troubles.

[10yearfido]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Excuse me but it sounds REALLY REDICULOUS for someone who bought a phone second hand, then Fido REFUSE to unlock it becaues the Seller bought it with a 3-year contract and the Buyer did not know.  Its very possible the SELLER did NOT not want to disclose anything about his account to you not even his contract term to the buyer for personal reasons, and guess what, he has every right to NOT want to disclose such info, I would not want to my self.

Once the phone is sold, fido should NOT have anything to do with the original owner anymore, as far as I'm concerned, asking for information from the original owner when they do not own the phone any more is asking for Privacy Troubles.

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I would agree that Fido should unlock without checking the history of the phone. However to explain their position, their policy is to only unlock phones that were purchased for full price or that have had their contracts completed. I don't agree with that position, but I am one that feels that there should be laws against any carrier locking any cellphone (though it would seem that basic anti-trust laws against restraint of trade should be enough to apply already). But, so long as they are allowed to lock and allowed to decide when and under what conditions they will unlock, verify the status of the contract under which the phone was purchased is all they can do. It isn't a privacy violation as they are not looking up anyone's info. The information is available to them by tracing the IMEI, not the sellers account.

[weksos]

Guess what, I called in today to ask about the 6gb data plan, its available until the end of the month if anyone is wondering.

Anyways I talked to the good guys at customer loyalty, told him that my phone was bought used and asked if I can unlock it.

They checked "MY" account to see that the phone is currently not under a contract under MY account but my iphone 4s was. Anyways with no hesitation they transferred me over to their unlock guys. I was expecting to get shut down but I guess not.

I'd rather pay the $50 than the USD$175 that was going a few months ago from a third party. And if you require a unlock to use your phone I would rather not rely on a jailbreak. It just causes a lot of problems and headaches for me.

Im a happy camper Lets hope its unlocked when the restore is done.

[10yearfido]

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@weksos wrote:
Guess what, I called in today to ask about the 6gb data plan, its available until the end of the month if anyone is wondering.

Anyways I talked to the good guys at customer loyalty, told him that my phone was bought used and asked if I can unlock it.

They checked "MY" account to see that the phone is currently not under a contract under MY account but my iphone 4s was. Anyways with no hesitation they transferred me over to their unlock guys. I was expecting to get shut down but I guess not.

I'd rather pay the $50 than the USD$175 that was going a few months ago from a third party. And if you require a unlock to use your phone I would rather not rely on a jailbreak. It just causes a lot of problems and headaches for me.

Im a happy camper Lets hope its unlocked when the restore is done.

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There seems to be some inconsistency in this regard. I personally had an iPhone 4 unlocked last January using exactly this method, but a friend that bought a used iPhone 4 was denied. At the same time, I had my dad's iP4 unlocked and it was under contract on his account. 

It is definiately a case of Your Milage May Vary.

[weksos]

I totally agree with you, in the end they are STILL charging a premium for the service to be done. Regardless if the phone is out of the contract or not, the contract is tied to a customers account not the phone itself...

hopefully I can get this done in the near future. So far fido has been giving me a hard time now that I signed a contract for their new iphone 4s ... before they were always nice trying to get me to sign one , now I did, im locked in and they could care less.