so Ive had my iPhone 4 for 8 months now, and my brother broke his phone, so he borrowed my iPhone for a couple of weeks so he could keep in contact with his friends, and 2 weeks ago he lost the phone at his office, which was great and super convenient for me... anyway so after a couple of days of searching i ring Vodafone up and report my iPhone lost, expecting to say "oh yeah,we will replace it for you" but they said they had sorted it out and was sending me a replacement sim (so kind of them) and as i had cancelled the phone insurance (which was £20 extra a month!!!) i wasn't liable for a replacement product. but on Monday he found my phone (yay) but i go to use it and oh, no service, i try and put the new sim in, nothing still, so i googled it and look, they blacklisted it. so i thought yeah thats cool, rang up Vodafone, they referrer me to the insurance company who said i cancelled it so they cant be f**ked, so now im stuck with £500 worth of tech on my desk and 18 months of my £35 a month contract left, ive seen a couple of blacklist hack things floating around but i am a complete novice to be fair so i haven't really any idea, but its worth a shot anyway !

if you could tell us how i can unblock my phone or how to go about doing it because i can find all the things i need to do once you tell me what i should be doing/looking for.

thanks in advance, hopefully you guys would have saved me £600 of wasted contract.

Unfortunately, there is no way to circumvent the block and even if you believe they were incorrect in IMEI blocking the device, attempting to circumvent the block is illegal in every case. Your only recourse is to work with the vendor, and as you've made it apparent that you tried and they were unwilling to assist, your only real recourse would be to contact your credit card company to reverse the charge for the device to see if that would spur Vodafone into working with you on this.

Ultimately, they're doing what the contract says they have the right to do. I'm not supporting their decision, based on the information you've provided, but ultimately the consumer has very little LEGAL recourse in these situations.

Because we do not allow the discussion of IMEI block circumvention techniques on this forum (illegal!), I'm closing this thread.

Sorry we could not be of any help to you, but you need to take this issue to the carrier or the insurance company, they are the only people who can legitimately help you unblock the phone.