Best buy Iphone 5S

[MzDee]

Does the iphone 5S from best buy come unlocked when you purchase it without a contract or can you only get them from the apple store unlocked?

 

[anon6040766]

Does the iphone 5S from best buy come unlocked when you purchase it without a contract or can you only get them from the apple store unlocked?

Supposedly, no store including Apple or Best Buy are allowed to sell an iPhone 5s even at full retail without it being activated on a carrier plan, period.


Sent from my iPhone 5s on Verizon from Philly iMore

 

[MzDee]

Supposedly, no store including Apple or Best Buy are allowed to sell an iPhone 5s even at full retail without it being activated on a carrier plan, period.


Sent from my iPhone 5s on Verizon from Philly iMore

Well that's definitely not true. I just got an iphone 5S last Friday at full retail from best buy and it was not activated on any carrier plan.

 

[ame]

Supposedly, no store including Apple or Best Buy are allowed to sell an iPhone 5s even at full retail without it being activated on a carrier plan, period.

Check your source on that. You can purchase it at full retail from anyone selling it.

 

[aue123]

i attempted to buy it at full price at best buy and the guy told me "No" he was the manager or something.. So I took advantage of the -$100 if you bring in an old phone, activated an additional line Paid $112 and some change out the door, the following day I went to verizon told them I wanted to cancel the line and eat the Early Term fee of $350. you have 3 days to cancel the line and refund the $35-40 activation fee. So all in all i paid $462 and change for brand new 5S

 

[nikkisharif]

My launch day Verizon 5S that I got from Best Buy on contract is unlocked. Not sure if that was something they did at launch or if it's ongoing but my phone is definitely unlocked....I've used it with a few other SIM cards & was able to get LTE too


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MzDee]

For some reason when I tried to request an unlock from AT&T for my phone bought at full retail from best buy a message popped up right after I typed in the IMEI saying "currently this device cannot be unlocked."

 

[EmceeGeek]

Usually Best Buy stores don't let you buy any phones at full retail. I've heard of it happening plenty of times for many phones, not just the iPhone. When I called around release day and asked a store if I could buy it at retail they said no.

I took advantage of the -$100 if you bring in an old phone, activated an additional line Paid $112 and some change out the door, the following day I went to verizon told them I wanted to cancel the line and eat the Early Term fee of $350. you have 3 days to cancel the line and refund the $35-40 activation fee. So all in all i paid $462 and change for brand new 5S

I have done this before with AT&T but I think now they request the phone back. Lol

 

[anon(52425)]

Usually Best Buy stores don't let you buy any phones at full retail. I've heard of it happening plenty of times for many phones, not just the iPhone. When I called around release day and asked a store if I could buy it at retail they said no.



I have done this before with AT&T but I think now they request the phone back. Lol

They have full price amounts on every phone they sell. I have, in the past, bought 2-3 phones off contract from them. Never an issue. One of them was an iPhone and it was still locked to the carrier. Unless it is a T-Mobile/SIM free model (which they do not sell), then it's going to be locked. And if it's an AT&T model then good luck with finding alternate routes to get it unlocked (besides AT&T). AT&T has made it very difficult now for third party unlockers. For the few that claim they can still unlock, charge in excess of 100+ dollars.

 

[MzDee]

If you pay full price you can get it unlocked via ATT, so no need for a third party unlocker.

Do you happen to know if you have to wait a certain number of days from when you purchased it before they will unlock it for you? I got mine last Friday. Went to request an unlock and was told currently it couldn't be unlocked at this time.

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

For some reason when I tried to request an unlock from AT&T for my phone bought at full retail from best buy a message popped up right after I typed in the IMEI saying "currently this device cannot be unlocked."

The phone should already be unlocked when it's purchased at full price. This happens at the Apple Store. Once it's scanned at full retail, connecting to iTunes shows it's unlocked. Whether you buy it with a sim inside or not.

I don't know if this is the case for Best Buy. If I were you, I'd do a quick backup of your phone on iTunes, hit the restore button and see if you get a message that pops up before you restore the backup. It's quite possible it's already unlocked.

 

[anon(3733516)]

i attempted to buy it at full price at best buy and the guy told me "No" he was the manager or something.. So I took advantage of the -$100 if you bring in an old phone, activated an additional line Paid $112 and some change out the door, the following day I went to verizon told them I wanted to cancel the line and eat the Early Term fee of $350. you have 3 days to cancel the line and refund the $35-40 activation fee. So all in all i paid $462 and change for brand new 5S

I used to work at best buy mobile. We had this policy for the iPhone 5 as well. It was simply due to limited stock of the device - we didn't want to sell out to people buying retail when we made more notional margin on the phone if it was activated to an existing or new line.


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[jsntrenkler]

Well that's definitely not true. I just got an iphone 5S last Friday at full retail from best buy and it was not activated on any carrier plan.

Full retail at Best Buy is expensive, how much did you pay for your phone?

 

[jsntrenkler]

Carrier doesn't have to unlock it, entirely up to their policy ... AT&T unlocked mine when I purchased at full retail from them however it took several calls and a online chat to accomplish this.

 

[MzDee]

Full retail at Best Buy is expensive, how much did you pay for your phone?

752 altogether with tax. 16GB. It was a gift from a friend.

 

[MzDee]

Carrier doesn't have to unlock it, entirely up to their policy ... AT&T unlocked mine when I purchased at full retail from them however it took several calls and a online chat to accomplish this.

The AT&T stores around here all told me they don't sell the iphone off contract.

 

[jsntrenkler]

The AT&T stores around here all told me they don't sell the iphone off contract.

Are they corporate stores or authorized retailers? The corporate stores are supposed to sell them at full retail. I bought mine from a corporate store on launch day for full retail.

 

[MzDee]

Are they corporate stores or authorized retailers? The corporate stores are supposed to sell them at full retail. I bought mine from a corporate store on launch day for full retail.

It was a corporate store. Best buy was the only option. They were the only ones who had them in stock and there's no apple store near me.

 

[LordLugard]

My launch day Verizon 5S that I got from Best Buy on contract is unlocked. Not sure if that was something they did at launch or if it's ongoing but my phone is definitely unlocked....I've used it with a few other SIM cards & was able to get LTE too


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All Verizon iPhone 5s are GSM unlocked by default due to a requirement they made with the FCC when they divested spectrum a while back. Anyone looking for an unlocked 5s without any of the grief about hunting for unlocks should just set their sights on the Verizon models.

 

[sunnysideup22125]

For some reason when I tried to request an unlock from AT&T for my phone bought at full retail from best buy a message popped up right after I typed in the IMEI saying "currently this device cannot be unlocked."

Get online and do the online chat. That's how I got my moms iphone 5 unlocked.


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