Unlocking Blackberry Pearl - For Free!

[broken_legs]

OK

Tomorrow morning I am calling the 'Presidents Office' at Rogers.

I refuse to believe that I am spending 800/year for a phone that I can't affordably use in the US.


Rogers through all levels of support is telling me that they don't have the codes.... Likely Story

The unlocking website I talked to said they get the codes directly from Rogers.... Hmmm thats weird.

RIM supposedly locks the phones before they are sent to rogers... OK

I know that it doesn't matter what GSM phone you have, that once they get the IMEI # it can be unlocked. I'm thinking its just some program that will generate the unlock code based on the IMEI.

Its a big circle fuck of BS and I'm going to get down to the bottom of it. I could* just spend the 30 dollars and get the unlock code online but I am not going to. I would rather spend 3-4 days on hold with people all over trying to get it done for free because of principle.

If anyone has gotten anywhere further with this than I, please share your stories.

I will update this thread when I get my free unlock, I will not rest until I do.
:banghead:


Some useful contacts if you feel like fighting the good fight:


INDUSTRY CANADA:
Online: [email protected]
Telephone: 613-954-5031
Toll-free: 1-800-328-6189 (Canada)
TTY (for hearing-impaired only): 1-866-694-8389 (toll-free)
Fax: 613-954-2340

Business hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), Monday to Friday.

Mailing Address:
Industry Canada Web Service Centre
Industry Canada
C.D. Howe Building
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H5
Canada

Rogers Customer Service:
1-866-727-2141

Research In Motion Technical Support:
1-877-255-2377
2,1, 3 - to talk to a real person or just * backwards through the menus until you get a real person. Works great for support without paying the hourly rate with a credit card.

[brown_guy]

Dude you will never NEVER get rest then....Just dish out the $30 it's less then the time it will take you to talk to them and get a big fat NO.................:nut:

[AllGoNoShow]

You won't make it anywhere, I have tried for my old Pearl. They will just flag your account after the first 2-3 calls and then you won't make it anywhere.

[broken_legs]

Originally posted by AllGoNoShow
You won't make it anywhere, I have tried for my old Pearl. They will just flag your account after the first 2-3 calls and then you won't make it anywhere.

OK, but did you ever call the 'Presidents office'?


Frick I know this is probably going to be a huge waste of time but I am not going to give up.


Some other things I am going to try are:
- Calling RIM... i know i know
- Calling Sprint/AT&T and telling them i will sign up for a plan if they unlock my phone
- I still haven't talked to Customer Care about this yet, they usually help me a little bit more


:guns: I'm not going down without a fight!

[roopi]

And how did you manage to get the president's number? If you can't get in touch with him ask for Ted he's usually free for things like this.

[98type_r]

Just so you know, even if you're calling the "president's office" you'll still be dealing with someone in a call centre. Very likely a team manager or at the highest level a director of a call centre representing "the president."
No matter how hard you try they wont release the lock code to you, save your time and stress.

[AllGoNoShow]

^^ Werd, no one above call center's will answer your call, you will eventually just reach the highest call center level and go no where. The only way to get a hold of someone higher then them is to write a formal lette of complaint asking for someone else, but as soon as they see your demand they will just throw it on the bottom of the pile and loose it.

RIM won't release it.

[Grogador]

You would be better off starting a petition to Industry Canada. Some European carriers are required by law to provide the unlock code for FREE once your contract is over, or for a reasonable fee before then. Fight the power!

Edit: typo :S

[anarchy]

Agreed with everyone, I'm not sure who you are expecting to talk to but you're not going to get any higher than a manager in a Call Centre. That is as high as it goes, you won't get a director or anything like that, let alone the President lol.

I tried getting an unlock code for my Curve before i left to Cali last month but same story you got, they don't have the codes. That's bs but what can you do.

I'd be interested to see where you get with this but I bet you'll end up at square 1.

[NRGie]

google primomobile

they unlock for about $15, if you cant get it through rogers.

[tha_bandit]

CuTi9UZtPbw

[dr_jared88]

How much is your time worth? Think about it. If you spend 5 hours talking and complaining to people to unlock your phone thats worth a whopping $30 dollars its a complete waste. I bet if I asked you to work for me at $6/hr you'd say no. Just pay the $30 and get it done. Simple as that.

[broken_legs]

Well my internet connection is slow so I can't see that video but I can see Public Enemy??

Fight the power??

Well thats the plan!

So heres the update (as expected I didn't get the code):

Called Research IN motion. They explained to me that Rogers Locks the phones and ONLY Rogers can provide the Unlock code and the Carrier code which are both required to unlock the phone.

Tried calling a couple US providers and saying that I want to switch to them and see if they would do it, but they say they cannot.

Called Rogers and spoke to the 'Presidents Office' and got the same line as everywhere else. I made sure to explain calmly that Rogers is gouging its customers and that I will be writing a letter to my MP. I went on to say that they have lost me as a customer and that I will be canceling my plan.

So then I called Customer Relations and tried to cancel.

Well its a 500 dollar fee to cancel they say. Apparently I signed a verbal contract. Part of that verbal contract was that I had 30 days to evaluate the telephone with 100% money back no questions asked return policy.

Well from day 1 the phone never worked. I called for technical support and they would not deem the phone defective until i tried a bunch of stuff. Listening to the tech support i ended up installing the firmware for the Chinese version of the phone a few times before I finally called up RIM and got the correct version since Rogers didn't seem to have their own firmware.


Finally they deemed the phone defective but it was outside of the 30 days I had to evaluate the phone, and I am still within 1 month of the time that I got a new phone under warranty.

It was my understanding from this 'verbal contract' i signed that I had 30 days to evaluate the service. Well I never had the service until 28 days ago, and now I want to cancel.

They don't seem to see it the same way a I do. I went back and forth with some lady ont eh phone for 30 minutes and got no where.

Meanwhile I am in the US and paying roaming charges through the nose, but my company will reimburse me for most of it.


So now I will give in and get the stupid code.....

I tried my best, and I lost.... For now. But I will say that I am not done.

That recent petition started by the people complaining about data fees has inspired me to dig a little deeper and perhaps push a little harder.

I will write some letters. I will also talk to lawyer and find out exactly how binding this "verbal contract" is.

I'm already down on this deal. I'm losing time and money worrying about this but it really pisses me off that Rogers and Telus can gouge the market like we do.

We are ranked 27/30 for cell phone affordability. The average cell phone user in Canada pays Rogers $548 dollars per year while in Denmark its about $60 /year.


I am going to try and fight the good fight, in my spare time mind you, but i will fight it!!!





Now whos coming with me? haha

:nut:

[broken_legs]

Also I talked to a guy who runs one of the phone unlocking schemes online. He told me over the phone that they have a server that uses an algorithm to decipher each phones unique code.

Sounds strange that this server would take 24 hours turn around time when I got him on the phone right there.

I wonder if Rogers isn't actually selling the codes to a third party company who then sells them to us.

[analbumcover]

i thought they legally have to give you the unlock code?

thats what my friend told me today

(he used to work in product support for rim in Ontario)

[broken_legs]

Originally posted by analbumcover
i thought they legally have to give you the unlock code?

thats what my friend told me today

(he used to work in product support for rim in Ontario)

I did some research and the only thing I could find was that it is NOT illegal to unlock a phone. But I will find out soon from a lawyer. haha



My argument is simple. It's my phone, and I own it. You have put something on my phone to limit the functionality of it and you have to remove it for free.

Simple right?

[toyboy88]

Originally posted by broken_legs

I wonder if Rogers isn't actually selling the codes to a third party company who then sells them to us.

Rogers used to sell the unlock codes directly for $200-250 a pop...

[broken_legs]

So.......


I finally gave in and paid money for one of those online code unlocking deals.

Paid 17 dollars to a company on Ebay that had 900+ good feedbacks and it was guranteed to work.

They sent me a code the next day, but it didn't work. So I wrote them back again and asked WTF? Here is the reply I got:



I apologize...

351961020097877
Unlock Code: NO CODE FOUND!

The one I sent you before was for a different IMEI by mistake. Please read the email below as this is what I normally send to users who get a "NOT FOUND" result. I normally charge $45 for the service mentioned below, but because of the delay i'll offer you $40. If you don't want to go with the $40 service, then I can ofcourse offer you the full refund. The $40 SERVICE is THE ONLY way to get the unlock code for your imei number


NO UNLOCK CODE is available for the IMEI mentioned above.

Please re-check the IMEI. If the IMEI is correct then no unlock code is currently available.
Please let me know if you have another phone that you need unlocked or if you would like the refund.

BLACKBERRY NO CODES: Please note if this is a BLACKBERRY there is another way of getting a guaranteed code. Unfortunately the process takes 2-3 weeks and the cost is $45. Please note, if we can't get the code the cheaper way, then nobody else can either, therefore the only way to get the code is with a $45 service. Let me know if you want this service and you can pay the difference.




So I called BS and wrote them back explaining quite simply that I want a code for the price advertised or my money back.




will refund your money immediately. ..... The simple fact is it doesn't matter who you buy the unlock code the result will come back as NOT FOUND. This USUALLY happens on phone that are refurbished or marked stolen in the Missing in the Rogers database. Did you recently purchase this phone? I have also noticed this on phones that are sold sometimes without the original box etc.

In any case, for me to get this CODE I have to directly get it from RIM, this process takes 2 weeks FOR ME TO GET, so there is no way of me providing you the code before hand. It costs ME $35 to get the code, therefore I can't get it to you for $17.

......




I got my money back.


So Rogers has screwed me three ways now. This gets better and better. I will try some of the other unlocking places online and see what happens.


I am also going to call RIM again armed with my new information about the phone being refurbished and see what happens.

[A790]

Originally posted by broken_legs
So.......


I finally gave in and paid money for one of those online code unlocking deals.

Paid 17 dollars to a company on Ebay that had 900+ good feedbacks and it was guranteed to work.

They sent me a code the next day, but it didn't work. So I wrote them back again and asked WTF? Here is the reply I got:




So I called BS and wrote them back explaining quite simply that I want a code for the price advertised or my money back.






I got my money back.


So Rogers has screwed me three ways now. This gets better and better. I will try some of the other unlocking places online and see what happens.


I am also going to call RIM again armed with my new information about the phone being refurbished and see what happens.

What's the possiblity that homeboy from eBay is outright lying to you and simply trying to get you to pay $40 instead of $17?

[toyboy88]

Nope, what the guy told you is true....

There are 2 unlocking methods, the "cheaper" one is normally anywhere from $15-30 depending on the phone. And this method is not a scam, I have unlocked multiple phones (including Blackberries - Curve/Pearl/etc.) for various Beyonders this way before (no problems, code within 24 hours, see feedback for proof).

When that does NOT work, then for Blackberries there is the RIM "direct" method, which is from RIM itself, and does take 2-3 weeks, because RIM only accepts these unlock orders on the 1st and 16th of every month. Also it costs more (because RIM charges more), so usually around $40-55 for this method.

Hope that helps... :)

So yeah in short, the guy was telling you the right "info" from what you wrote.

[broken_legs]

Originally posted by toyboy88
Nope, what the guy told you is true....

There are 2 unlocking methods, the "cheaper" one is normally anywhere from $15-30 depending on the phone. And this method is not a scam, I have unlocked multiple phones (including Blackberries - Curve/Pearl/etc.) for various Beyonders this way before (no problems, code within 24 hours, see feedback for proof).

When that does NOT work, then for Blackberries there is the RIM "direct" method, which is from RIM itself, and does take 2-3 weeks, because RIM only accepts these unlock orders on the 1st and 16th of every month. Also it costs more (because RIM charges more), so usually around $40-55 for this method.

Hope that helps... :)

So yeah in short, the guy was telling you the right "info" from what you wrote.


Well if this IS the case, then RIM is breaching the contract they have with Rogers.


If they are going to breach it for this guy on Ebay, WTF can't they breach it for me?


I'll update after I have spoken with someone at RIM again...

[A790]

Originally posted by broken_legs



Well if this IS the case, then RIM is breaching the contract they have with Rogers.


If they are going to breach it for this guy on Ebay, WTF can't they breach it for me?


I'll update after I have spoken with someone at RIM again...
Good luck dude. I'm genuinely interested in seeing how this turns out, only because I wouldn't mind unlocking my phone myself and if I don't have to pay for it that's even better.