so, long story short: i bought a Pixel 6a to replace my broken 5a. i bought said phone from Amazon, “refurbished and UNLOCKED,” needless to say: it was not unlocked; in fact, it was locked by VERIZON.

i call Verizon, hoping for a miracle, wondering if they’ll unlock it: they won’t.

i start #googling and find a few “unlock” sites; all of which seem very shady, so i look at reviews, forum posts, etc. and finally come acorss one that, according to #SOME people “had good luck with”; the site is “The Unlocking Company.”

i give this “company” my imei number, make/model/carrier, and $27: they say they’ll have an “unlock code” and “instructions” to me within the next 72 hours.

so the burning question for this community is:

WILL THEY UNLOCK THE PHONE?

i am strongly inclined to think they will either 1) never get back to me or 2) say they can’t unlock the phone and give me a partial refund

bets? and has anyone ever tried this before, any luck?

  • nodsocket@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Sounds like a scam to me. If there was a method to unlock then it would probably be known to the public.

    Maybe this company is just selling instructions for known unlocking methods? But if that’s the case you could’ve done some searching and found those instructions for free.

    • buru@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      the only “known” unlocking method i’ve heard of is getting the code from the cellular provider’s “database” then using this code “somewhere” things like rooting, “jailbreaking” etc don’t work to “unlock” the phones as, as far as i’m aware, it’s hardbaked into the phone’s bios (or something equivalent)