New SIM Card From T-Mobile "Locked" My Nokia 6101b

On August 31, 2011, I visited the Framingham, Massachusetts T-Mobile store to have them make me a new, updated SIM card for my Nokia 6101b cell phone. The same T-Mobile store had done this same task for me years earlier for a different Nokia phone and it had vastly improved phone performance. With an older style SIM card in my phone, it seemed like a good time to have them do it for me again. It turned out to be a very bad idea.

The T-Mobile folks made me the new SIM card as I requested, but instead of it improving performance of my Nokia 6101b, it "locked" the phone. The phone just says "Phone Restricted" now when you turn it on. The T-Mobile folks said "No Problem." They said my Nokia phone was just seeing the new style T-Mobile SIM card as a "foreign" card. They said that all I had to do was call T-Mobile and have them give me the code to unlock my phone.

Suspicious of the need and not wanting to get involved with something way above my pay grade, I asked the T-Mobile representative in the Framingham store to please do it for me... and he reluctantly agreed. Several hours later, despite all efforts he made, my phone was still locked. In fact, it has become "hard locked" since the T-Mobile Rep had tried so many different bad codes. I eventually left the store in total disgust with my no-longer-working "hard locked" Nokia cell phone.

Since that time, I have spent literally hours on the phone with T-Mobile customer support and an equal amount of time with T-Mobile Reps in the Bellingham, MA store. Still, my phone is hard locked and T-Mobile doesn't seem to want to do anything about it. They will not have the phone hardware unlocked (even though they put it in that condition) and they will not give me a replacement phone, new or reconditioned, for the one they accidentally made into a useless, non-functioning paperweight. I have contacted Nokia too, as directed by T-Mobile, but they say there is nothing they can do for me either.

Has anyone else run into this? If so, what did you do to resolve it?

I should add the fact that my new style T-Mobile SIM card works perfectly well in other T-Mobile cell phones *AND* other new style T-Mobile SIM cards work perfectly fine in my otherwise "locked" Nokia 6101b phone. My Nokia 6101b phone is only "locked" when used in conjunction with the new style T-Mobile SIM card they made for me and my T-Mobile account.

Anyone here have any ideas that might help me?

 

Yes, it was bought from T-Mobile and it even says T-Mobile right on it. Worked for years perfectly... right up until the day I had the SIM card "upgraded" to the new design. Now it is a paperweight.

The phone still works with other T-Mobile SIM cards of the new design... just not mine. And my new SIM card works perfectly in other phones. But somehow the "upgrade" locked out use of my SIM card and my account on this phone.

I know this shouldn't be happening, but it is. What a nightmare.

 

Yes. Several times, in fact. Same result. But they are just cloning my SIM card to a new blank SIM card.

One thing I have thought about is having them terminate my existing account and then issue me a brand new account with a new phone number and new SIM card. I see no reason why that wouldn't work. Once established, they could transfer my prepaid $$$ to the new account and eventually transfer my phone number to the new account as well. Whatever strange "bug" is putting my phone in "restricted" mode should go away.

Unfortunately, T-Mobile has refused to jump through these hoops... even though the T-Mobile folks in Framingham are the ones that screwed it up and made the phone useless in the first place.