Verizon won’t unlock SIM card

[epowell2711]

I have an iPhone 11 that was purchased in Nov 2019 from Best Buy. It was paid in full at the time of purchase. I activated it AT at Verizon store a week and a half later in December 2019. Never had an issue until I went to switch carriers in April 2024.

Then this nightmare began and has been going on for almost 4 months now.

My SIM CARD shows as locked and Verizon won’t unlock it saying they can’t because my phone was purchased from a third party (Best Buy). This is a lie they are telling their employees to tell customers.

Resetting the phone completely and switching SIM cards does NOT work. I can see on this forum and others that plenty of other Verizon  clients are having this same issue.

Over the past 4 months, I have had to speak to at least 58+ different Verizon techs and “supervisors” and NOT ONE has been able to help me. They keep submitting the SAME form to their fraud department even though this has nothing to do with fraud. My phone is mine and it was paid for the day it was purchased.

Not that it is any of Verizon’s business but the techs and supervisors keep asking me why I want to switch carriers.

I was diagnosed with cancer in February and had to quit my job in April to go through treatment because of the type of cancer. I wanted to save some money and was able to find a bundle package with Spectrum where I have cable and internet. Spectrum was going to give me a free year of phone service since I have been a client for 30 years and then $29/month after that. I have been paying Verizon $96/month for years. I have had two separate accounts under Verizon for over 20 years and always paid my bills monthly. My current account is over 10 years old.

Verizon’s “fraud” department are the “untouchables” meaning you can’t talk to or communicate with them in any way. They only send automated “no reply” emails saying the request is denied and the reason they give has nothing to do with the form submitted. Their auto reply says my phone isn’t paid off which isn’t true. They think it’s a new phone still under the 60 day “no switch carrier” rule.

Well, SOMEONE at the Verizon store where I activated this phone in Dec 2019 never entered my phone as a new phone in their system so they don’t have record of an “order number”. YET they have all info about my phone in the system including the activation date, type of phone, IMEI # etc and have had no problem billing me monthly for it for years. Figure that one out.

I have offered a hundred times to email or text the receipt to them but they will not give me an email address to do that YET keep saying they need a receipt (order #) for proof of purchase.

One of the Verizon techs even told me to “just go buy a new phone”. Are you kidding me?

In addition to the 58+ Verizon techs I’ve had to deal with, most never follow up so I’ve had to call back and tell this whole story all over again. Each call wasting at least 1-1/2 to 2 hours of my day. Many have told me to go to an Apple Store saying that Apple “locked the phone”. Newsflash Verizon - Apple does NOT lock phones. Early on in this nightmare, I wasted countless hours going back and forth with Apple on the phone and via chats as well as going in person to Best Buy numerous times and talking to them on the phone and via chat. I have also been to three different Verizon stores including the one that activated my phone and put the Verizon SIM card in it only to be told “we don’t do that here” (unlock phones or help in that way).

This time wasted is all because Verizon has taught their employees that they do NOT lock third party phones. That is a lie. Best Buy and Apple don’t lock phones. If you insist on teaching your employees that then you need to give clients a  way to send a proof of purchase receipt.

I have had two different Best Buy techs from their Activation Dept on 3 way calls with Verizon on two occasions lasting well over 2 hours each. Verizon wouldn’t give them an email address for them to send proof of my receipt from 2019. They wouldn’t take their word for it either even though all info on the receipt was relayed over the phone. The reason they won’t take it is because there isn’t an order # on the receipt. That is because it was an in-store purchase and not bought online OR from Verizon. There is only a sales receipt number which, apparently, isn’t acceptable to Verizon.

Back in mid May, one of Verizon’s techs told me he would credit my account for that month and going forward until this was resolved and my phone was unlocked. He got permission from his supervisor to do so. Yet, I never received full credit and keep getting fully charged monthly. I called back a month ago to their billing department to find out why and that was another 3-4 hours of time. They recently credited me $20 the past two bills only because I called to ask why I was not credited in full since May. That same tech had also offered me a USED iPhone 11 but I would have to send my phone to them in the meantime. I don’t have any other phone except this one and can’t be without a phone because of my doctor appts and treatment. So I had to turn that “offer” down.

I have wasted well over 150 hours over the past 4 months dealing with Verizon’s staff and their pat answers.

I am so angry at this point and feel like Verizon owes me a NEW phone if they won’t unlock this one to let me leave. I have enough going on with cancer treatment and don’t need this additional stress when all I want to do is switch carriers to save some money since I am unable to work right now.

For any Verizon tech reading this, please don’t reply and tell me you can “help” unless you can actually unlock my Verizon SIM CARD and phone. I am not wasting another 2 hours going over 4 months of history that SHOULD listed under my account. You can read it for yourself and see that I have gone above and beyond what anyone should have to do to switch carriers.

I have been a good client for over 20 years and the treatment I have received is  despicable and borderline criminal. I am being held hostage by Verizon against my will.

[SynthpopAddict]

Hi, I'm really sorry to hear about all you've been going through and am hoping you will have a complete recovery.  If you haven't tried to file a complaint with the FCC, that would be my suggestion.  While Verizon is supposed to unlock their carrier phones after 60 days of use on Verizon's network, there seems to be an issue concerning Verizon carrier phones purchased at 3rd party retailers.  I've seen several other threads from people having the exact same problem.

P.S. - While I can certainly understand your wanting to save some money given your current circumstances, as a longtime (24 years and counting) customer of your ISP myself, I personally love their home internet service, but the mobile service...let's just say "not so much" and "you get what you pay for". 😉  A less expensive Verizon alternative would be to switch to prepaid service.  My brother uses and likes a different budget carrier named for a type of candy, and this company consistently gets good ratings from what I've seen.  But Pink Logo Place better have good service in your neighborhood, as Candy Carrier piggybacks off their network.  Hope that helps and best of luck to you.

[epowell2711]

Thank  you for taking time to read my post and offer the FCC option. That has been on my To Do List and I will file with them this Friday if Verizon can’t figure this out. They’ve had more than enough time. Also appreciate the phone service suggestions and kind words. 

[vzw_customer_support]

epowell2711, help is here but we would need you to provide the info we are requesting. Please let us know if you'd like to proceed here. 

-Natasha

[epowell2711]

• You have access to four months of calls and texts in your system plus I wrote a long post detailing it. I am NOT wasting two more hours giving you information that has been provided many times. 

[vzw_customer_support]

Happy Monday! Before anything, thanks for your 20+ years of loyalty to the company, we truly appreciate your business. Our goal is to offer the support you need.

Please tell us more, what exactly happens when you attempt to activate the device with another carrier? What precisely is our Frau Team telling you?

~Gilbert

[SynthpopAddict]

😲

Did you read the OP's post?  It's no wonder why so many customers are frustrated in these forums.  In a nutshell, they bought their iPhone 11 from Best Buy and it's persistently locked because Verizon's system doesn't have the proper records of them being the rightful owner.  They have been going around and around with assorted Verizon agents for months and have even had Best Buy agents talking to Verizon agents in attempts to prove they have legitimately purchased the phone, and their phone is still locked with all SIM lock appeals being denied.

This is something Verizon's IT needs to fix, or else Verizon should just change the unlocking policy to say no Verizon devices bought outside of Verizon can be guaranteed to unlock.

[epowell2711]

Thank you for saying that. I think the main issue with Verizon stems from the person who activates phones. These people are NOT inputting information about third party phones in their system (ie: the order number) which there likely won’t be one of the customer purchased in a third party store rather than online. Regardless, the fraud dept seems to only see black and white so they need to adjust their field to include a sales receipt number or whatever for third party phones so this doesn’t keep happening to customers .

[SynthpopAddict]

I am wondering if the "order number" isn't all that's required in the system before the automatic unlocking kicks in at 60 days like it's supposed to.  When you haven't bought your phone directly through Verizon, it never quite appears like it should in your account.  As an example, you don't see an image of the phone when you're logged in, just a generic "Image Coming Soon" graphic.  My phone is a different carrier's model, but I had it unlocked to switch to Verizon, so my account doesn't have all the bells and whistles details about my phone.  Yours is probably the same way?  But it still beats me why if the IMEI number and other details are in the account, why a real person can't put in a request to unlock the phone and have it work.

Don't quote me on this, but I've heard the Fraud Department is overseas now, as is a good part of the rest of CS, which can't be helping.  How does someone on the other side of the world know what's going on inside of a US company?

[epowell2711]

just about all of the techs were hung up on the order number not being in their system yet wouldnt give me or Best Buy a way to email or text them a copy of the receipt. If there is anything else they needed they didn’t say. I have gone down every path imaginable to get to the bottom of this mess of a system. No one who works there seems to have any power including the supervisors.  The issue definitely stems from Verizon activation staff NOT inputting third party phones in their system properly.  They should be required to ask every customer who is activating a phone where it was purchased and have a functional system in place. They don’t have that though. 

[epowell2711]

this is the message the fraud department has sent me multiple times. They don’t read anything or take time to understand what is going on. They just click an auto reply that doesn’t fit the situation and call it a day. 

“

Hello

Your request to have your device unlocked has been reviewed. Unfortunately, your device is not eligible to be unlocked at this time. Your device is scheduled to automatically unlock 60 days after your purchase/activation date.

For more information about Verizon's Device Locking Policy, please visit the support page on ver​izon​wire​less​.​com.

Keep in mind that your Verizon SIM will work while making calls to or traveling internationally.

For more information about Verizon's international calling plans and TravelPass, visit our International Solutions and Services page.

Thank you Verizon

[vzw_customer_support]

epowell2711, thanks so much for this info. Let's take a deeper look into this. I have sent you a Private Message for further assistance. 

-Natasha

[epowell2711]

your private message wasn’t helpful and no different from your public request . I have provided all information needed. Read the history on my account  please or at the very least read my original post. I am not being rude but I am sick and tired of having to explain the same things over and over again to techs who don’t follow up or pass me off to someone else who can’t help. 

[epowell27111]

Just wanted to give an update to my original post above. As of Thursday, two days ago, Verizon was able to mysteriously UNLOCK my SIM card which they told me for 4 months they couldn’t do because my phone was purchased at a third party store - Best Buy. 

I was able to finally talk to a tech Wednesday night who actually listened to me and filed some report to a “dedicated team” whatever that meant. The next day my SIM card was unlocked. So I am very grateful to her, but the rest of the Verizon employees (all 63+ of you I had to deal with can go kick rocks. Stop lying to customers who buy third party phones. You cannot hold us hostage. That is illegal and there are a lot of other customers having the same issue I had with you. People at the top need to fix this asap.