New jobs are full of discovery and new situations. I usually enjoy the acclimation process. However, there is one thing that often proves to be a challenge for me. Somehow, my mobile service provider never works in my new employer’s building.

This should be an easy problem to solve in the modern world. My Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is multiple SIM capable. Meaning it can use signals from two different carriers. Great I thought. I’ll just get an eSIM from the carrier that has a signal at work. Problem solved! Of course, there’s a catch. To use another carrier’s SIM, your phone has to be paid off and unlocked.

There’s even a catch to paying the phone off and having it unlocked. The discount I got from my carrier’s trade-in program is paid out as a credit every month. If I pay the phone off early, I lose those two years’ worth of credits, almost $600.00.

I did some research to see if there are workarounds and it turns out there are. There are services that advertise on-line that they can unlock a phone even if it is still under contract. According to the documentation on their sites, the process is legal, quick, and painless. Reviews on independent sites are hard to come by.

Here’s how my IMEI unlock experience went. I gave one of these services my IMEI number and a twenty-five-dollar fee to get started. The fee is for the company to investigate the chances of their ability to unlock my phone. This fee is not the cost of actually unlocking the device. The first round “Investigation fee” is $25 – $45 depending on the phone and the service provider.

There is a second payment required before your phone is unlocked. The unlock fee is $100 to $150 depending on the device and carrier. You’re only offered this second round if their investigation’s results are positive. I used a one-time payment method and continued with the second round after they approved me.

I submitted the IMEI of my Galaxy S24-U on their site. If you are reading this post because you are interested in using a similar service, be warned. Some IT security professionals consider giving your IMEI number to anyone a risk. Please research the consequences of sharing an IMEI before proceeding.

Next, they wanted me to confirm my identity. This step was not mentioned on any of their documentation and made me very uncomfortable. I had to provide them with a bank statement showing the card charges from their company. If I couldn’t do that, they would accept a picture of me holding my driver’s license. As if? I gave them something that convinced them to move forward.

After I finished jumping through their hoops, they agreed to unlock my phone. They sent me an email with a link to my personal unlock tracking page. It showed which stage the unlock process was in along with the percentage of completion.

The dashboard also provided a support chat window. The tracking page listed an estimated completion time based on the investigation results. They thought it would take three days to unlock my phone.

At first the service seemed to be working. Except for the identity verification step, I was comfortable with the transactions. The emails they sent were professional looking and informative. The tracking dashboard was convenient. Everything was great except for one thing.

It didn’t work. They’ve been stringing me along for more than two months now. My status page showed 99% on the second day. On the fifth day I contacted them via the support chat. They let me know it was taking a little longer than usual but to just be patient. They were certain my phone would be unlocked in the next couple of days.

In fact, that is all they ever say. A variation of, “We understand you’re not happy. Just wait a little longer.” At the one-month mark, I asked for a refund. Their reply stated that the unlock process was at 99%. It had not encountered any errors, so I couldn’t be issued a refund.

Today, exactly two months has passed since I decided to burn $130 on the altar of finding out. The company eventually offered to try and unlock another device. I didn’t have one, but I don’t think I would try even if I did.

To this day they swear that my unlock code is just moments away. There have been no errors and the process is still running so they can’t provide a refund. It anything ever changes, I’ll update this post. I’m not holding my breath.