Verizon admits the “pain” caused by its new unlock policy, indicating a change may be on the way

“Concerning the timing of the website update, the new device unlocking policy took effect on January 27th,” the Verizon statement said. “Customers purchasing or upgrading from that date have been (and are being) shown the full terms of the new policy at their point of sale. We’ll make sure all our public-facing info is also clear and consistent across channels.”

Incorrect terms still shown to phone purchasers

However, information remains not “clear and consistent across channels,” even for terms shown directly to phone buyers. For example, the version of the device unlocking policy on Verizon’s webpage for ordering an iPhone 17 states the 35-day delay only applies when a customer uses a Verizon gift card to buy a phone or pay off the remaining balance. We observed the same wording today in Verizon’s listings for other iPhones and devices from Google, Samsung, and Motorola.

That version of the policy presented to buyers could lead a consumer to conclude that a phone will be unlocked automatically once the device financing agreement balance is paid in full, provided a gift card isn’t used. That is inaccurate, as we explained in this article and in our piece last week.

After this article published we discovered another development: Verizon modified its device unlocking policy again today and set the effective date to February 18. The updated policy resembles an earlier version; it specifies the 35-day unlocking delay following gift card payments but removes the section that applied the 35-day delay to payments made online or in the Verizon app. That omission is notable because Verizon’s comments to other media outlets indicate the 35-day delay still applies to online payments.

The omission is apparently addressed by new language in the policy that states, “A secure payment method is required to unlock a device immediately when paying the full device balance.” But to our knowledge, the only “secure payment methods” that currently trigger an immediate unlock require completing payment in a Verizon corporate store. While a separate Verizon FAQ continues to describe the in-store restriction, a user reading the policy after today’s update might be misled into thinking that paying off a device on Verizon’s website will result in an immediate unlock.

The Verizon unlocking policy discussed above applies to postpaid customers. Verizon’s policy for prepaid customers keeps phones locked to its network “until the completion of 365 days of paid and active service.”

AT&T’s unlocking policy states postpaid phones purchased at least 60 days earlier can be unlocked once the device is paid in full. The T-Mobile policy requires postpaid phones to be active on the T-Mobile network for at least 40 days before they can be unlocked after being paid in full. AT&T enforces a six-month wait for unlocking prepaid phones, while T-Mobile imposes a 365-day waiting period for prepaid devices.

This article was updated to include another change to Verizon’s unlocking policy and a statement reported by PCMag.