My unlocked phones are now locked

[Niku-Sama]

i am beyond pissed off at the moment.

I have bought two pixel phones outright and unlocked from google with no contracts or anything and they are now both locked for some reason.
I'm still current on my bill with verizon my current to be ex carrier and the previous phone used to be on verizon as well but has been sitting around for a while.

The reason i found this out was because a very good friend of mine is getting out of an abusive relationship and they are being petty and wanting everything back.
shes content on cutting them out new number and everything so we find a service and i say you can have my pixel 3a since its unlocked.

we try to activate it and it wont activate, get ahold of the new carriers customer service and it says its been locked by verizon.

how is this even ******* possible? i didnt buy it from them and i bought it new. this should be illegal and i am thinking about getting lawyers involved, seriously
so i call verizon and go what the ****?

and in the call i find out my current Pixel 7 IS ALSO currently locked.
the ******* on the phone they should be unlocked now but they are not. as you can imagine with my recent thread in GD i am ******* done with these ******** asap

i'm going to a corporate store and they are doing it today

 

[Zerileous]

wow I never thought about that happening. I thought the carrier lock came with the phone and could be unlocked. I never heard of them putting a carrier lock on the phone that was brought by the customer.

 

[Nebulous]

First time I've heard of this. I know there are phones that are permanently locked like Boost Mobile, and other phones that we can unlock to use on any carrier. But a carrier re-locking an already unlocked phone is a new one on me. That's really messed up.

 

[Niku-Sama]

you guys are telling me.
the corporate verizon store was less than helpful, after antagonizing me and literally saying "its not our problem" they told me i could use their phone to call.

i think it goes without saying they got the double fingers and a big ol eff both of you as i left
the helium people ran both IMEI's and they are showing as both being locked i'm on with mint right now and i am going to ask them the same thing.

something about this feels illegal

i wish there was an easier way to check this other than pose as a potential customer, i dont want to waste any ones time but i would encourage any of you guys to check if you bought any unlocked phone and brought it to a major carrier

edit:

both locked according to mint as well.

i'm thinking i should record the next conversation i have with verizon regarding this, i might want to take it further on

the native app doesnt work any longer to do that does any one else have experience with any apps to do this?
Oregon is a one part state and also they state the call may be recorded on their end as well. I'm not calling a private number any way this is a corporation and i get the feeling what they are doing is illegal

 

[EarthDog]

Seems like it's more in error than malicious???

Benefits and Questions Before Getting an Unlocked Phone

An unlocked phone offers some benefits but may raise some questions for you, too. Learn what you need to know about unlocked phones as you consider one for purchase.

www.verizon.com

Among wireless carriers, Verizon provides an unlocking policy that’s both generous and straightforward. To combat theft and fraud, Verizon locks all prepaid and postpaid devices for 60 days (check out the full Device Unlocking Policies). After that time, Verizon automatically removes the lock and will not lock phones again at any time.

Regardless, what a pita. Maybe it takes 24 hours to show unlocked?? Check again tomorrow and call again.

 

[Niku-Sama]

Seems like it's more in error than malicious???

Benefits and Questions Before Getting an Unlocked Phone

An unlocked phone offers some benefits but may raise some questions for you, too. Learn what you need to know about unlocked phones as you consider one for purchase.

www.verizon.com

Regardless, what a pita. Maybe it takes 24 hours to show unlocked?? Check again tomorrow and call again.

i started this process over a day ago its just been festering

well see thats the kicker to this whole thing.
that applies to phones bought through verizon
also

the pixel 3a, not bought from verizon still, has been off their network for over a year.
both of these came from google directly.
sadly i cant get to the pixel 3a order page because it came from the former spouse's account but i can get to the 7 i am currently using.
every one i've talked to, other than verizon corp that i told to sit and spin, has said the whole idea of buying unlocked is to be able to take it to who ever when ever you wanted and it seems like they are cornering people into sticking with them.

if their service hadnt tanked where i live i would have never noticed this problem. i get the feeling i am not the only one running into this.

also their article is a tad bit lacking on the actual details, this one is the one i keep getting sent to:

Device Unlocking Policies | Verizon

Verizon's device unlocking policy.

www.verizon.com

which is funny because NONE of these devices have been purchased through verizon, and its been longer than 60 days for both of them

 

[EarthDog]

Yeah, saw that too. Sucks, but, keep at it.

 

[Niku-Sama]

cross post from GD and my service using thread:

I finally dove in after a bunch of back and forth with verizon i went and bought a burner SIM for boost mobile, one of the ones where you can activate it from within the phone its plugged into so its connected to a tower but its got a gatekeeper so you just get activation until you pay and it popped up on my pixel 7 and worked with out saying anything about the phone being locked or not being able to recognize the sim

so i thought that this was strange so i popped it into the other phone, same thing. So i had them run the IMEIs with the other sim in and they came back as unlocked now.
this is super strange and its very fishy still but i am so over these *** holes that i am just gonna send it.

worse that will happen is that i'll have to buy another phone, of which i am considering because this one feels tainted and unclean now

 

[EarthDog]

Glitch in the matrix.... you hate to see it.

 

[Niku-Sama]

in the midst of the transfer they mentioned something about a port protection that was keeping the transfer from happening and i hopped on their chat at work and they pointed me to a setting, in my own verizon acct that i had not set. it of course was enabled by default. I'm wondering if that had something to do with why it kept showing as locked. seems like a sneaky underhanded way to do things. settings on by default and dont tell your customers about it..

anyway, would it be unreasonable to replace my phone because it feels tainted and unclean after all this?

pixel 8's went on sale again and for some reason the trade in value for my 7 went from $180 to $320 making an 8 about $230 and a 8Pro about $450
i'm seriously considering this, some things associate in my mind and i cant help it and honestly the 7 is fine but i had problems getting it because of a glitch in googles system as well as this verizon BS

 

[EarthDog]

settings on by default and dont tell your customers about it..

Wouldn't that be there to protect the owner from theft? I'd hope that would be on by default.

anyway, would it be unreasonable to replace my phone because it feels tainted and unclean after all this?

I mean, I don't see why. But if you feel dirty having it, cleanse yourself of it.

 

[rainless]

anyway, would it be unreasonable to replace my phone because it feels tainted and unclean after all this?

Reasonable an Unreasonable are in the eye of the beholder... I've tried my best to ruin certain people's careers for less than this. I refused to go back to the last mechanic I took my moto to... even to get them to do something they would've probably done for free. I went around time and space and visited a corner store right next to them without ever speaking to them again and suffered an additional 48 hours just out of spite... not that I'm one to hold grudges.

pixel 8's went on sale again and for some reason the trade in value for my 7 went from $180 to $320 making an 8 about $230 and a 8Pro about $450
i'm seriously considering this, some things associate in my mind and i cant help it and honestly the 7 is fine but i had problems getting it because of a glitch in googles system as well as this verizon BS

This could easily, actually, be a Google Pixel PROBLEM.

I was just talking about this over dinner with a visiting friend last night... EVERY Pixel I've ever owned has had some weird technical problem (I made the "I'm never buying PIxel again thread... I need to update it).

My visiting friend just got a Pixel 7 Pro. He got this because his 6a motherboard just STOPPED working and the estimated repair time was four months.

My 4a had a problem (that I wrote about from the time I got it) where it would constantly unlock itself. People here laughed about it and made jokes ("Oh MINE never did that...) but it was part of a pattern. My Pixel 6a will just randomly lose vibration and capacitive touch until I do a hard reboot.

And my friend's BRAND NEW Pixel 7 Pro? The one he JUST got to replace his non-functional 6a?

The USB port is finicky.

Now... He could've returned that and exchanged it for another one... just like I could've returned my 6a and gotten another... but who knows what problem the REPLACEMENT phones would have.

Compared to the "Screen unlocked... WHOOPS!... you just accidentally spent $200..." problem that I had with my old phone... losing vibration temporarily, sometimes, felt like a deal to me.

So I wouldn't be shocked, AT ALL, if it was some weird Pixel quirk that was locking your phones.

 

[MisterEd]

Did these phones come with SIM cards? If they were factory unlocked they shouldn't have come with SIM cards. Does Verizon use SIM cards?

I bought two factory unlocked Samsung phones a S7 and a S21 5G. Neither came with a SIM. Factory unlocked means that either phone will work with any phone carrier in North America. They had hardware for GSM and CDMA. GSM for AT&T, T-Mobile, and compatible and CDMA for Verizon and compatible.

When I took the S21 to the Metro phone store they gave me a SIM. What was locked was my phone number for the previous phone. A call to AT&T unlocked the number so it could be used with the new phone. Note the phone store people were perplexed that these phone didn't have SIMs or a previous carrier. I guess they had never seen a factory unlocked phone before.

BTW, I had another Samsung S7 that I bought from AT&T. It came with the SIM for AT&T. When I changed to Metro they replaced the SIM with their own SIM and called AT&T to unlock the phone number.

A friend bought a Samsung S53 from Boost Mobile. He had to insert the SIM that came with it. He tried but couldn't activate the phone himself. He had to call support to help him activate the phone.

 

[unsafesteagle]

Have you made certain your on the new carriers network when activating?
I recently had this a similar problem that required a factory default reset and the carriers network to complete activation. Failed attempt required a factory reset and try again.