hey guys,

had my iphone for a little while now and i unlocked it and everything was fine.
Then the touchscreen started malfunctioning (i think its a defect - not to do with unlocking)

so i proceeded to restore my iphone so i could take it back to an apple store and claim i opened the box and the screen wasn't working...
problem is i cant get my sim card out of the phone, i've tried everything and really have given up entirely...

so my question is - should i risk taking it to the apple store and just not tell them theres a vodafone sim in it?
surely if i cant get it out the guys in the store wont be able to?

thanks for any advice

EDIT: sorry this is in the wrong section...apologies...any help would still be appreciated

Originally Posted by rohanmalik007

hey guys,

had my iphone for a little while now and i unlocked it and everything was fine.
Then the touchscreen started malfunctioning (i think its a defect - not to do with unlocking)

so i proceeded to restore my iphone so i could take it back to an apple store and claim i opened the box and the screen wasn't working...
problem is i cant get my sim card out of the phone, i've tried everything and really have given up entirely...

so my question is - should i risk taking it to the apple store and just not tell them theres a vodafone sim in it?
surely if i cant get it out the guys in the store wont be able to?

thanks for any advice

EDIT: sorry this is in the wrong section...apologies...any help would still be appreciated

That sounds so familiar...

You've probably screwed your logic board like me.

I couldn't open SIM tray either. But I didn't have any SIM in there.

I live in Australia, so I had to get a friend to go to the Apple store for me.

Apparently what happened was: (Btw, I have already fully restored, and the phone asks me to activate)

She had to book an appointment with the 'Geniuses'.
When she went in, she spoke to them and said 'Our friend told us to bring this in.'
They had a look at it, plugged it into some system, and the system said:
This iPhone had 3rd party programs installed. (Exaggerated much?)
Then he started talking:

'Firstly, there is obvious signs of physical damage. We can fix that under warranty for $250. However, this iPhone has never been activated, and also 3rd party programs were found on the iPhone, therefore, you have already lost your warranty.'

As much as I know, it sounded more like he was just trying to fuck me over. And the stupidest part is, my friend actually admitted to all that, so then, my iPhone is now officially blacklisted.

So yeah, thats just what happened to me, so if you give it a shot, let me know how it goes.

Not just restore, REFURBISH (restore locks)... If you simply restore, your unlock will survive as your baseband doesn't get reflashed. And how long is that "little while" you've been using your phone exactly??... I guess you'll have to come up with a good story about your failure to activate over that "little while"... Tell them you just got it as a gift and the screen acted up on you during activation... Anyway, it's a bit risky to go there with your vodafone sim in it... What if they have some advanced tools for popping sims out?? Who knows...

i suggest you to do anything to make the phone completely dead (so they can't check it or do anything just simple swap it) because i some of the guyz in genius bar told me that "bla...bla Do you know in the US hacking is illegal?" <<f*ck that. Well, you need to be careful and depend on what type of person you meet in apple. If you faced some lazy guyz they just simple swap it for you If you don't then just called it a "bad day".

yeh i was thinking just say i got it as a gift.
actally bought it back in september :s
thanks for your help...
any useful links to refurbish?

You can refurbish with ziphone... However, some claimed it failed for them.., but I don't know of a better way... haven't done that myself. I guess googling for "relock iphone" (w/o quotes) will do the job.. ("refurbish" may bring you lots of "refurbished iphones" links)... September, huh? You might be in a pretty sticky situation explaining how it remained gift-wrapped for more than half a year.....

Just know that as a working Genius, we can check to see if you have an account with ATT active.

good to hear from you Ismaster
thing is the apple warranty is NOT dependant on activation
presuming i have a valid excuse...

admittedly mine is a bit risky but hopefully itll work
ill keep you updated

one more thing, i heard that in store apple replacements require activation straight away. So they don't let you leave the store without activating your replacement iphone

can you confirm this Ismaster, or anyone else?

i'm pretty sure they can't force you there and then to activate it, when u go there just keep lookin at your watch and say your in a hurry and if they ask you to activate tell them you have to go cause your running late.

Originally Posted by rohanmalik007

good to hear from you Ismaster
thing is the apple warranty is NOT dependant on activation
presuming i have a valid excuse...

admittedly mine is a bit risky but hopefully itll work
ill keep you updated

one more thing, i heard that in store apple replacements require activation straight away. So they don't let you leave the store without activating your replacement iphone

can you confirm this Ismaster, or anyone else?

Yes they all require activation before leaving. Which means two things: you must have a valid ATT account and a valid ATT activated number.