Is my iphone 4 stolen? or just a tw@t?

[MoNkFiSh]

Ok bit of a long story here but I'll try and get through it fast..
Bought an iphone 4 off a guy on gumtree picked it up from his house he seemed a nice guy etc showed me it working etc etc it was locked on t-mobile (Im on 3).
Rang tmobile when I got the phone off him and asked for an unlock code, they said fine and promptly charged me £15 for it after taking my details, imei etc. then told me it could take up to 28 days to arrive but its usually within 2 weeks .."fine" I said...

Jump forward 1 month later -still no unlock code I call them and explain ..they keep asking for my t mobile customer number I explain Im not a t-mobile user - they say they dont deal with non tmobile users - I say "well you did last month when you took £15 off me for the unlock code" they then say they did that in error and shouldnt have done it I say fine I'll have my £15 back then - unbelievably they say no even though its there fault I cant have my money back! I kick off they hang up

So Im left with an unusable iphone 4still - till i see these gevey turbosim unlock things on ebay for a fiver, guaranteed to unlock all iphones so i give it a bash buy one put my 3 microsim on top of the turbosim and go through the process to unlock it it and presto it works a charm! so Im reasonably happy the phone worked fine all night yesterday I left it on overnight and then this morning at around 11am it dropped to "no service" I redid the unlock procedure over and over again allways getting "no service" instead of "3" now Im starting to wonder has the guy I bought it off pulled a fast one and reported it lost or stolen? I rang 3 to ask if they could check for me but they said they cant as its not a 3 phone and they wont be able to tell, I rang T Mobile and they were just in there usual mode of telling me Im not one of there customers so they wont speak to me (@rseholes)

So has anyone any ideas ? like I said the phone worked fine for almost a full day b4 dropping to no service which makes me thing it maybe wasnt blocked (as Ive had it for over a month now and its a bit of a coincidence if he reported it lost that very day) or can it take a while to become blocked?

The guy who i bought it from lives about an hours drive from me so I want to make sure its deffo blocked b4 i go and boot his front door down.

[maltloaf]

those turbo sim things aren't the most reliable tools. I'd find someone with a tmobile sim, or pick one up at the store and try that to see for sure. Otherwise it does sound like it's been barred.

Just been told you can get an imei check for free here...

+44 7953 968002

[neilb]

Or for a couple of quid online here.

[liveseytowers]

If you go on mazuma it asks you for the imei number. If they won't take it you know its been blacklisted.

[TAR]

I had the same prob, I just got a payg sim and used that number, I then credited the phone with £15 (for the unlock) and I got a letter bout 3 weeks later telling me to connect to iTunes. Unlocked it straight away.

[evilsatan]

As above, why not buy a T mobile PAYG sim, use that number when you call them and get it unlocked that way? If you get an official unlock from them then you will never have to worry about updating the iOS.

[MoNkFiSh]

Ive just been on to T mobile who actually tried to be helpful - ish they eventually gave me my £15 back and I used my girlfriends t mobile number (payg) to ask about an unlock but they now say they wont let me unlock it as the previous owner has an outstanding bill with them - so on a good point its not blocked (they checked) but I'm still stuck with a phone locked on a network i cant use (i cant change over as my van etc has my 3 number on it and to be honest I wouldn't want to use T mobile anyway).
the girl at T mobile said there were numerous places that would unlock it though (she said carphone warehouse) so I might have to have a trip down the metrocentre first thing tomorrow to see if they can help - Im more pissed off really as I have now given my iphone 3gs away as i thought the iphone 4 was working so Im actually without a working phone at the moment.

[Mobileman]

factory unlock code for iphone 4 is about £50-60 not ordered any for a while, cpw will be a waste of time

[Clubber Lang]

Just jailbreak it and install ultrasnow

[hotentot]

Swifty who has recently joined DF can do official unlocks via iTunes, give him a try

[MoNkFiSh]

lol well just as I've slagged T-Mobile off so much in this thread they just rang me and apologised for there mistake etc and some of there staff not being as helpful as they could and they have just done the factory unlock over itunes for me as I was on the phone to them and they are letting me have my money back as well so its been done for free so hats off to them in the end and thanks to all who have given advice etc on here as well!

[Mystical_2K]

lol well just as I've slagged T-Mobile off so much in this thread they just rang me and apologised for there mistake etc and some of there staff not being as helpful as they could and they have just done the factory unlock over itunes for me as I was on the phone to them and they are letting me have my money back as well so its been done for free so hats off to them in the end and thanks to all who have given advice etc on here as well!

well you cant fault them for that, shame you had a bit of a run around tho