The Bad Side Of Unlocking

We all like getting something for nothing. If one service online charges for their service and the next site offers the service free, you're going to use the free service, right? In certain circumstances this may be true, however in the world of unlocking a free ride may cost you more than you think!

Before I continue with this post I need to make something clear - all Nokia phones will allow only 5 attempts at code entry. In simple terms, once 5 codes have been entered into a Nokia phone, the phone cannot be unlocked by code. This would mean you taking the phone to a phone shop to be unlocked, and this could cost you anything between £10-£20. There are a number of sites and forums online that offer free unlock codes for Nokia phones, and I explain for each below why you should not use these free services:

• FREE UNLOCKING SITES - Take a close look at the list of supported phones and networks on most of these free sites, you will notice that the majority haven't updated these lists in a long time. This usually indicates that the code calculation methods used by these sites is not up-to-date either. The people running these free services really don't care if the codes they supply work or not, at the end of the day you can't really ask for a refund can you? Recently I obtained codes for a Nokia phone from one of these free sites as a test. The Nokia phone in question is quite a new model, and I had a feeling I would be supplied incorrect codes. I was right, the codes supplied were calculated using a very old method which does not work with newer handsets. I contacted the site explaining that the codes did not work and asking if they could help. Two days later I received a response 'You get what you pay for' - I couldn't have said it better myself!
• FREE UNLOCKING FORUMS - These in my opinion are the worst offenders because many of them are using people as the proverbial 'Guinea Pig'. You will find many of the people supplying free codes on these forums are actually people who have sites selling unlocking codes. But look closely at the posts on these forums - people post their phone information requesting unlock codes, someone replies with two codes, the phone owner responds with 'sorry, these codes didn't work', someone then replies with another two codes, the phone owner then responds again with 'sorry, these codes didn't work either', someone then responds with yet another two codes, the phone owner then responds with 'sorry, these codes didn't work either' - problem here is that the phone owner has now entered more than 5 codes meaning the phone can no longer be unlocked by code! Some of the people on these forums are posting unlock codes calculated using different methods in the hope of finding the correct solution for a specific phone!

Many of the people who use these free services end up contacting me asking if I can supply the correct codes. In the majority of cases I have to say no simply because they have already tried more than 5 codes. If these people had come to a service like mine in the first place, it would have cost them £4.50 and their phone would be unlocked. Because they wanted something for nothing, it's ended up costing them £10-£20 at a phone shop!

These free services cause people like me serious headaches - not because they are stealing business from me, that couldn't be further from the truth, but simply because many of the people using my service are people who have already tried 5 or more codes from a free service. They order codes from me and they obviously don't work.

Now I will explain the benefits of buying codes from a service like mine in the first place:

1. I will not supply codes for any phone unless I am 100% sure that the codes I am supplying will work.
2. Phone are not added to my supported phones list until I am 100% sure that I can supply the correct codes for any specific phone.
3. I spend 7 days a week improving my service to ensure that I can offer codes for the latest phones and networks.
4. I spend 7 days a week ensuring the codes I supply are calculated using the correct method (some phones require a different code calculation method to others).
5. If I ever come across a situation where the codes I supply are incorrect, the customer is refunded and I will remove the phone in question from my supported phones list until I know why the codes I supplied failed.
6. I have supplied codes for over 17,000 Nokia phones in the two years I have been running - out of 17,000 I have had to refund only 36 customers!
7. I am very prompt in responding to customer support requests. I will usually respond to customer support requests immediately. There are times when this is not possible, however I will always respond within 24 hours!
8. Many customers have praised my service and customer service skills - you can read some of my customers comments in my Guestbook.

In summary, the choice is yours. This post may look like an attempt to get people to stop using free services so I can make financial gain, that couldn't be further from the truth. The simple fact is that using these free services may end up costing you more than you thought, I'm simply trying to prevent you making that mistake in the first place!