Well, here I am at this late date replying to my own message again, and I'm replying on the web since I no longer have the original email I sent, so who knows how it will turn out. But I learned some things that I didn't realize along the way, so I figured I would just, hopefully, finally complete this journey with the phones from Walmart and pass along my experience as well.
Anyway, as I mentioned below in an earlier message, one of the iPhones I purchased on the installment agreement was a 14 Plus. And the more I thought about it over the few months while I was paying on the installment agreement, I decided that since I had already gotten what I really wanted, meaning the $500 Walmart E-gift card, that I would just give the 14 Plus to my sister and think about getting myself another smaller iPhone. Thus, since I had kept the installment agreement more than twice as long as the two months I was required to keep it, and since the AT&T phone unlock policy said in part: "Paid off early: The wireless number assigned to the device must be active for at least 60 days," I thought I could just simply pay off the installment agreement, wait for that payment to post, and then request that AT&T unlock the phone.
Well, was I ever wrong! And to think I had already given my sister the phone! For, when I went to the AT&T unlock portal and gave the phone IMEI and the rest of my information, I was told that they couldn't unlock the phone, saying something like they didn't recognize the IMEI as being on their network. And seeing as the 14 Plus was still in its unsealed box when I gave it to my sister, I guess that makes sense, even if I did kind of assume that the IMEI would've already been associated with AT&T because of the installment agreement for that 14 Plus that I had with them.
Now I didn't know what to do as I certainly didn't want to ask my sister for the phone back and tell her that I would be happy to give it back to her to use on Verizon after I had activated it and used it myself on AT&T for a couple of months. So I finally decided to look around on the web and see what I could find about getting the phone unlocked either by AT&T or a third party. And while I was doing that, I thought to use one or two of the IMEI check sites to see if they would confirm for me that the phone was indeed locked to AT&T.
When I ran a check on the IMEI, it told me, among other things: "Carrier: US Reseller Flex Policy
Next Tether Policy: 4000."
And when I researched that further, it sure looked like to me that it was saying that the phone was shipped to me from Walmart as unlocked, but it was set such that it would lock to the first carrier in which a SIM card was put. Although I didn't call AT&T since I was looking to take the phone away from them, I did call both Walmart and Apple and asked if I gave them the IMEI, could they confirm that the phone was indeed under this US Reseller Flex Policy, but they each said they could not and I didn't press the issue.
I next, although I wasn't quite ready to do so yet but wanted to try and help my sister, got out my 15 Pro and set it up, although I didn't yet opt to transfer my data plan from my 13 Mini to that phone. I then told my sister I set up my phone without a problem and didn't have to change my data plan or anything, so she then set up the 14 Plus, also electing not to set up a data plan on it. It seemed kind of strange to me, though, as when I then checked the IMEI of our respective phones that it showed they were activated and even gave the start and end dates for the limited Apple warranty, even though neither of us at that time had actually activated the phone with a carrier.
Finally, though, since my data is only through my iPhones and I couldn't update my 15 Pro via Personal Hotspot, I had to transfer my physical SIM from my 13 Mini to an E-SIM on my 15 Pro, which was really easy and only took a couple of minutes, and then I could update the 15 Pro to the latest iOS version via the cellular data plan, although I then transferred my E-SIM back to the 13 Mini as I'm not quite ready to make the switch to the 15 Pro quite yet. And then for the much bigger test, I told my sister how easy it was for me to transfer my data plan to the new phone and suggested she might want to try that as well, just to make sure I gave her a phone that she could use in case something happened to her 13 Mini. And, sure enough, she finally did transfer her SIM to the 14 Plus without a problem and it activated on Verizon, even though I had purchased the phone as an upgrade through AT&T for myself. And upon checking the IMEI status for that 14 Plus, it then showed: "Carrier: US Verizon Locked Activation Policy
Next Tether Policy: 2387
Country: United States
Sim-Lock: Locked."
I sure breathed a big sigh of relief that I hadn't given her a paper weight, and I learned a whole lot along the way myself. And I hope this at least made a little sense for you folks.
On Friday, December 15, 2023 at 6:33:15 PM UTC-5 Vicky Collins wrote:
Replying for what I think will be the final time to my own message. I actually did just get both of my Walmart gift cards, so I don't have to fight with Walmart again this year, yay! I did have to wait almost the full 20 days from when the phones were shipped to get the cards, but it was certainly worth it in the end. I didn't actually have to activate the phones since I ordered online, but I of course did have to enter into the installment agreement with my phone carrier to get the cards. I still have the new phones in their shipping boxes right now, in fact, as I am waiting for the batteries on the 12 mini and 13 mini to get below 80% before I start using the new phones.
Sent from my iPhone
Replying to my own message here. And in the end, kind of wanting to take care of everything myself, I took another chance and just made the online purchase of my two upgrade phones on Wednesday night, so I'm hoping I get both gift cards OK this time. I had really only planned to upgrade my 13 mini to a 15 pro and get the $300 gift card for it. But when I saw that there was a $500 gift card to purchase a 14+, even though I'm not crazy about the bigger phones, I wanted that gift card and so upgraded my 12 mini to the 14+ as well. Since my TV watching is done through my phones only as I have no actual television, I figured the 14+ with its bigger speaker than the mini phones I now use would be good for that.
Sent from my iPhone
Are any of you all with AT&T or Verizon taking advantage of the Walmart E gift card deal this year to get a new iPhone? I'm thinking I might do so myself, at least the gift card part but not the trade-in part, as I don't want those bill credits given a little bit at a time over 36 months or whatever it is. True, it does require getting one of the more expensive phones, having one of the pricier data plans, and committing to an installment agreement, at least for a couple of months, but since I do a lot of shopping at Walmart and my internet comes only from my phone data plan, this works for me.
I did this online a couple of years ago, getting two phones with a $300 E gift card coming with each. However, I must've done something wrong along the way because I only got one of my E gift cards emailed to me originally, and then I had to fight for over a month to finally get the second one sent to me. Thus, I was thinking I would see if I could get a family member to take me to Walmart this year, especially since the E gift card is emailed within 24 hours for an in store purchase, but it takes 20 days for an online purchase.
As I had kind of a hard time finding the preview announcement this year, here is the link to it:
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