If you are dealing with a blacklisted phone or are looking towards removing the activation lock from an iPhone, you have probably come across an unlocking service provider called IMEInow. This unlocking tool has available a free network check tool (to know what network the device is locked to), a free IMEI check tool (to know the blacklist status of the phone), a paid iCloud unlock tool (to remove activation lock), and a paid SIM unlock tool (to unlock blacklisted Android and Apple devices).
We’re going to put IMEINow to the test by doing an in-depth analysis of their website and checking the reviews posted by their users, keep reading!
Getting to Know IMEInow’s Online Platform
IMEInow’s website is well organized, on the top of the page you will find a menubar that has all the services they offer, these what you can do with each tool:
- Unlock iPhone: This software is meant to remove the blacklist report from any iPhone or iPad. Unlock’s prices start at £23.99.
- Unlock iCloud: This software is meant to remove the iCloud activation lock. Unlock’s prices start at £19.99.
- Unlock Samsung: This software is meant to remove the blacklist report from any Samsung device. Unlock’s prices start at £23.99.
- Other Manufacturers: This software is meant to remove the blacklist report from any other Android device. Unlock’s prices start at £23.99.
The options located on the right corner of the screen are some more informative tools that users can take advantage of with no charge:
- Network Checker: This software is meant to inform you which carrier or network provider has locked your device. We tried to use this free service with different IMEI numbers, but it was not possible to run the program because on the button to continue it said “Network check not yet available for your device”.
- IMEI Checker: This software is meant to provide information about the Carrier/Network of your device, the SIM-lock status, and the “Find my iPhone” status (this refers to the iCloud status check). Each user is supposed to be able to use this free service once per day (after that you need to get their premium subscription), however, we tried to access this service a lot of times, but when you click on “check my IMEI” the program does nothing.
- Networks: This is more of an informative page full of internal hyperlinks that show the carriers that they unlock in each country (when you click on them you are taken to an unlocking screen with the logo of the chosen carrier). This page is very slow so it is kind of difficult to find the desired carrier — we thought this page was kind of unuseful because anyway when you go to any unlocking tool you need to select the carrier and country —.
How Feasible is it to use IMEInow?
We wouldn’t really recommend that you use IMEInow because of a lot of reasons. For starting, if we tried to use the free services available (Network and IMEI checkers) and it was not possible — as we explained above the system wouldn’t let us continue —, what can one expect from the rest of the services (those that are paid and that can malfunction after you made the payment).
Now, If we talk about the economical aspect — which is pretty important because the idea is not to pay tons of money for an unlock —, we had also a negative experience. When we tried one of the unlocking tools just to test how the system works, we saw that the starting price was £23.99, that’s a big amount taking into account that there are other unlocking services like SafeUnlocks that will remove the same lock for $1.
In addition, it was not possible to change the transaction’s currency, this was weird and made us think twice before inserting any card because any trustworthy business has implemented a good payment gateway that lets the user at least pay in dollars.
As it was highlighted in the screenshot you see above, there is also a message saying that the £23.99 you are paying just covers the “eligibility check” (which is just confirming if they can unlock your device or not). If they can unlock your device, you will be charged other £35, and that’s just too expensive for a device unlock.
What do Customers Complain About in their Reviews?
Checking the customer’s reviews before paying for an online service is the most intelligent thing to do (we recommend you to do it before entering your information in any website). Platforms like TrustPilot allow us to know what did previous users experienced and whether a website offers a good service or not.
When we verified IMEInow’s customer reviews on Trustpilot, we saw that a lot of users have had issues with having their money refunded when the service didn’t work for them.
We also noticed highlighted issues with IMEInow’s customer service, turns out that after you pay for the unlock and something goes wrong, the customer service representatives are irresponsible and you are left alone with the problem. In addition, customers have reported being charged twice for the same service — we think that’s related to the £35 extra that we mentioned earlier — and having to disputed the charge with their financial institution.
Use the best Removal Tool Instead
The best recommendation we can give you is to look up to other unlocking tools on the internet, there are tons of them that offer better conditions with better prices. One of the best unlocking tools is SafeUnlocks, here are the principal benefits of using SafeUnlocks tool to remove blacklist reports or activation locks:
- The unlocking process will take a maximum of 30 minutes.
- The unlocking tool is compatible with any cellular device.
- The full price of the service is $1, there are no hidden charges or “eligibility check” extra costs.
- The unlocking tool is very easy to use.
- You have 24/7 technical support in case you have any questions or issues with the unlock.