- 04-08-2011, 09:22 AM #1Junior Member
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My Palm Centro died, and I purchased a Palm680P. No problems. But I needed to unlock my wife's Centro, and it has been a nightmare. She first took the phone to the local AT&T store where we bought the phones. They said they can't unlock phones, and said to call customer support, which I did. The support technician gave me the unlock code based on the phone number. I tried it, and the phone gave the message that it had been successfully unlocked. But when I then installed a T-Mobile SIM card I bought, the phone gave an error message that the SIM card could not be used. (That same SIM card works fine in my Palm 680P). I then called customer support again, and this time gave them the IMEI number from the Centro. They then gave me a different code. Same result. I then took the phone back to the AT&T store, where the technician tried several times with no success. He got yet a third unlock code when he called tech support. Finally, he said he had done everything he could do. I then called tech support again, and they told me that the phone was now probably locked to AT&T forever, because more than 5 attempts had probably been made.
I think they have now lost me as a forty year customer, but I am still wondering if what they told me is true. Is the phone now locked forever to AT&T? That just doesn't make any sense to me technically.
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- 04-08-2011, 11:00 AM #2
Re: Problems Unlocking AT&T Palm Centro
You get five attempts to unlock the phone. After the five unsuccessful unlock attempts, the phone is permanently locked. The unlock code is based upon the IMEI and not the telephone number. The unlock code you got originally may have been for the incorrect phone.
- 04-08-2011, 01:18 PM #3Junior Member
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Re: Problems Unlocking AT&T Palm Centro
That sucks. Does the rest of the world on GSM have to put up with such nonsense? And is there some technical reason for the permanent lock, or is it just AT&T policy?
I think that is right. The original AT&T customer support guy just asked me for the phone number, and I guess he looked up the IMEI number in their records. But the phone had been replaced by AT&T under warranty, and I suppose they never updated their records.
It's academic now; because of this incident I will be leaving AT&T when my contract ends next month. I will be changing to T-Mobile (at least until they are bought by AT&T). And I am already setup with cable modem and will be swapping my land line to some sort of I.P. phone. One would think they would try to do something to keep a forty-year customer. Maybe $1800 a year just doesn't mean much to Ma Bell.Last edited by FarmerCharlie; 04-08-2011 at 01:20 PM. Reason: typo correction
- 04-08-2011, 07:00 PM #4
Re: Problems Unlocking AT&T Palm Centro
That is the way with all GSM phones. Unlocking of phones is the exclusive domain of the manufacturers of the devices. Carriers request unlocking instruction from the manufacturers. This is either done in advance or upon the requests of subscribers.
- 04-08-2011, 07:24 PM #5Junior Member
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Re: Problems Unlocking AT&T Palm Centro
OK, but in most other countries aren't most phones sold unlocked to begin with?
And in defense of AT&T, I did get a call from Kris in response to a complaint form I filled out on-line. She spent a lot of time going through the entire history, and I think she pretty well diagnosed what happened. Apparently the first customer support guy gave me a code to unlock the SIM--Not the phone. The second one gave me another number that was also not the correct Phone unlock code. The final number that the AT&T store rep got was the correct number. She could not explain why that did not work. She is researching what they can do to resolve my problem. I suggested simply reimbursing me for the cost of the replacement phone I bought on EBay. She is checking to see what she can do. She did say there is a possibility that my bill would automatically change to include the data plan, which I don't have now and don't want. (Our old phones were grandfathered in.)
But to top it off, Kris had actually used an early Palm PDA, so she seemed to understand why an old geezer like me has stuck with PalmOS for 15 years.
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