Sold my Iphone 5. THe person who brought it has an Irish simcard and so it wont accept it. Does anyone know what I need to do to get it open to the Irish simcard?

Question

I purchased and Iphone 5 directly from apple, sim free over 12 months ago now. I have been using the phone on Vodafone with no issues. I have now upgraded to the Iphone 6 and therefore sold on the Iphone to a friend of mine. He lives in Ireland and therefore has a Vodafone Ireland simcard. Given that the phone was brought sim free from Apple directly, we didn't foresee that this would be an issue. However, when he goes to activate the phone, this message appears;
The SIM card inserted in the iPhone does not appear to be supported.
The SIM card that you currently have installed in  this iPhone is from a carrier that is not supported under the activation policy that is currently assigned by the activation server. This is not a hardware issue with the iPhone. Please insert another SIM card from a supported carrier or request that this iPhone be unlocked by your carrier. Please contact Apple for more information.
Does anyone know what I need to do? I have got onto Vodafone, and they have been useless!! Apple say the phone is out of the 12 month warranty and therefore want to charge £25 before they will even speak to me about it. I requested an NUC from Vodafone, however, they are saying they need a proof of purchase from Apple as I did not buy the phone from them. I do not have my receipt anymore as the purchase was over 12 months ago now.
Any advice much appreciated.
Thanks,
Phill

Answer 1

Now you have discovered that a sim free phone and an unlocked phone are NOT the same thing.  Had you purchased an unlocked phone from Apple, then you would not have had problems and as it is, a sim free phone is not the same and sim free will lock to the first sim card that you insert into the phone, so effectively, you phone has been locked to Vodafone and this is why you now have problems.
If your phone is locked to Vodafone, then they are the only ones who can unlock the phone for you - Apple does not and cannot unlock phone - this is the province of the carriers only.
You had the contract with Vodafone when you used the phone and so you need to keep on at them to unlock the phone for you.  If they still require proof of purchase and you cannot give them this and they will not unlock the phone for you, then this phone is useless to the friend that you sold it to - he will never be able to use it and basically, you are looking at giving him a refund for the phone for the amount that he paid you for it.
You need to keep on at Vodafone to unlock the phone for you or give your friend a refund for the phone as it will be useless to him and he will never be able to use the phone.
Hope that you now understand that a SIM Free phone and an Unlocked phone are NOT the same and I hope that when you purchased your iPhone 6, that you bought an unlocked phone?