VISIBLE not willing to unlock my Iphone

nujrevfvi
Novice

this is absurd..

i have been a visible client since june 2020. 4 months ago my husband wanted to buy me a gift, an iphone 13 pro. so he ordered for me the iphone with the GC promo. 
he saw VISIBLE's terms of unlocking that state that 60 days after activation the phone will unlock automatically, and said no problem. we got the phone and he gave it to me. now since visible iphones dont come with the sim inserted in the phone,  i naturally put MY (visible) sim inside and stated using the phone. 
go forward 3 month, i travel abroad and try to use a local sim, and boom, it locked. i chat, again and again and email. and eventually they tell me a need to activate the iPhone with the SAME sim that it was purchased with, and not just any visible sim. now i tried telling them that is not what the published unlocking policy says, but they wont budge. i even tried a BBB complaint, but they wont unlock the phone.. 

so buyer's beware! IT IS NOT PUBLISHED ANYWERE BUT YOU MUST USE THE SAME SIM. OR IT WILL WONT GET UNLOCKED.

am i wrong in my demand to get my phone unlocked? what do you think?

18 REPLIES 18

phoneman2021
Superuser
Superuser

nujrevfvi The first thing I would've done is look and see if the new iPhone came with a sim card.  If It did I would've chatted in and asked them to transfer my number  to the new sim.  It makes sense that the unlocking is tied to imei and sim.  I guarantee that is what happened.  Sorry to say this is on you.   That being said it is on the account for 2 months.  Request a call back nicely from a supervisor.  Explain the issue calmly to the supervisor state clearly what you want.  My arguement would be " your unlocking policy says after the phone is on the account for 60 days it is unlocked"  This was the case.  You can clearly see that.  Can you please unlock my phone.    Let us know how it goes.

Hjack2111
Novice II

Iโ€™m having this same problem this is crazy I wasted so much money on the phone 

It's crazy because regular when you wanna transfer to a new phone they tell just pop in the SIM in the new phone now they are making problems for the unlocking

You can easily resolve this issue by transferring your service to eSIM and then it will be activated on the IMEI, after 60 days ut should get unlocked 

angryCustomer
Novice

I am having the same issue with a twist. I bought my phone, never activated it, cancelled service and then tried to use it later. They said it had to be on network for 60 days. Nothing about the original SIM which I have no clue where that is (garbage). I contacted the FCC and was contacted by Visible Executive Relations but they wouldn't do anything and kept harping on the 60 day activation to be unlocked. So I opened a new Visible account and hav been using my iPhone13Pro on Visible for 90 days now and still not unlocked. I have filed yet another FCC complaint. I was the biggest Visible champion when I was first using their service as it was amazing and good price. Only problem was domestic only which is why I moved to Google Fi. But am extremely angry that I can't use a device that I paid in full.

Will keep you posted on what the FCC says/does. 

Does Visible monitor these community chats? Can see they see how they are letting their customers down here? 

Any resolution to this? We're having a similar issue getting a phone unlocked that we bought from Visible and had Visible service on for over a year. 

I am also curious if you had any resolution? I have ran into the same issue. I am also go ahead and file a claim with the FCC and BBB. 

mattwags41
Novice

Exact same issue here, my wife used the phone on Visible for 10 months but we swapped when it arrived, she had popped her current SIM in originally... no unlock.  After chatting with customer service I swapped back, putting the original SIM back in the phone, used it for 60 days, still no unlock.  My case has been "escalated" for a week but I can't get any updates or any signs of movement on this issue.  I just want out.

Did it ever get resolved? Did they unlock it?

Yes but after a lot of painful chat sessions and callbacks from managers.  This was also within 5 days of the end of my billing cycle, I had turned off autopay since I was planning on porting out, but the manager told me I should pay for another month so as not to interrupt the unlock process and they would reimburse me.  So this is what I did and of course they did not reimburse me.  Even after more chat sessions and receiving a callback from a manager they explained that I was ineligible for a reimbursement.  Complete pain in the *****, but at least I got the phone unlocked and ported out in the end.

yfc500
Novice

same here. just got "escalated" today. fingers crossed

Did it get resolved?

Jules
Novice II

Is there any update on this? Did they ever unlock your phone? We are experiencing a similar issue. Bought a phone from Visible and have had Visible service on it for more than a year. They won't unlock it because they say the SIM wasn't activated very long ago. The thing is we got a newer phone (also from Visible) and there were problems getting it activated so while Visible worked on the issue, we went back to using the old phone for a couple days. THAT is when they are saying the SIM was activated. I'm ready to file a complaint with the BBB and FCC. We had a buyer for our old phone and lost the sale because it's not unlocked and they won't unlock it despite communicating with them nearly every day for a week.

slancto
Novice

Same issue here. Still working on getting it unlocked! Just did the eSim activation so hoping that it will work then. 

morishart
Novice II

This happened to me too on TWO iPhones and Apple is not willing to help. 

morishart
Novice II

Same thing happened to me, twice with 2 iPhones both new. Please let me know if this happened to you too. Iโ€™m planning on filing a class action lawauit

if you do, count me in!

getting ahold of their customer service is already a PIA. 

we purchased the iphone in full used their service for more than 1 year. why do we have to go through all the hassels! 

hmm, same.