Lumia 640: A little snag

This is part three of my Switching from Android to Windows series. You can check out the first one here: Switching from Android to Windows Phone!

When I bought my Lumia 640 it was about $27 from Best Buy with Cricket Wireless. The phone is normally about $200 new (and about $100 used) and I figured that it wouldn’t be too difficult to unlock right? Wrong.

Unlike AT&T, Cricket requires I either be on their $70 plan or be with them for 6 months before they’ll unlock my phone.

I went through the Cellunlocker.net, listing the Nokia Lumia 640 and Cricket as their supported phones, so I paid them $20 (which is less than $70) and gave it a shot… and two days later they refunded my money and apologized for being unable to unlock the phone…

Deciding that $97 is still cheaper than $200, I went to the cricket wireless store, asking them to unlock the phone with my hypothetical $70 plan. There was only one person sitting in here, and her response? “You need to be a cricket customer for 6 months before I unlock your phone.” I showed her on the website where it clearly states:

“The device you want to unlock has been active for at least six (6) months of paid service or you are on a $70 plan”

I pointed to the website on my phone and said “But there’s an ‘or’ here, not an ‘and’. Why would it say ‘or you are on a $70 plan’ instead?” She kept just reiterating, “You have to be here for six months, it doesn’t matter which plan!” and “We just recently changed it, I don’t know why it said that” and then smugly said that I had to call Cricket Care… After that, I asked for her name, which she confidently replied with “Navina” and I left.

Cricket Care was much more helpful!

There we go! I just needed to activate my plan first, then I can unlock the phone. I went ahead and activated the phone (and got my first taste of Windows Phone 8 while I was at it – it looks so different!) and then contacted cricket wireless once again.

Finally, the phone can be unlocked! (well, in 24-72 hours…) I might hang out with cricket wireless for a little bit, or I might just re-image the thing with T-Mobile stuff. Haven’t decided yet, and won’t worry about it right now. The important part is that I actually have a workable windows phone, even if it’s not on my original number. This will give me the opportunity to mess around with the device in my downtime and start transferring the data from the old to new phone.

For Part 4 of this series, click here: Updates, desktops, and windows phones.