What's wrong with this phone? Region locked?

Hi.

I will try and make a long story short.

I live in Denmark, and I have a russian girlfriend. My girlfriend wanted a new phone, and due to bad luck buying phones in Russia, she figured she'd try and buy a phone in Denmark. We googled back and forth to make sure it would actually work in Russia. We were mainly concerned with the frequency or bandwidth or whatever you call it. We learned it should be fine. Next we wanted to make sure it'd work with her russian carrier. We called both the store where we were going to buy it, and we called Samsung, since it's a Samsung phone. They both said just about the same: Activate it for at at least an hour with a european SIM card, make calls for at least 5 minutes, and it should be fine. And so we did. She used it for about 1-1½ month during her stay here in Denmark. Now she's back in Russia, and have been trying to get it to work. She plugged in her new SIM card, tried to enter PIN code, wrongly apparently, a couple of times and she now gets the following message:

"SIM network PIN blocked. Enter SIM network PUK."

The phone in question is a Samsung A5 2017 model. SM-A520FZDANEE to be specific.

Now we've googled quite a bit. Everything we've read have led us to believe we need a NCK code (Network code) and a MCK code (Master/multiunlock code). These codes come from either Samsung themselves, or whatever company we can find that'll crack the phone for a fee. I should mention she has tried the PUK code she got from her carrier with no luck.
I tried calling my own carrier, which had heard of these codes, but whatever information they could find about it pointed towards Samsung, the creator of the phones since this regional unlock code is tied to the IMEI number.

Now I've also been in contact with Samsung. I've explained in detail our problem. They insist that these codes are NOT regional unlock codes, and the codes we need come from her current russian carrier. Samsung has thus far been very helpful and friendly and explained in detail what these codes are. But everything still points towards Samsung, and so does her carrier.

At this point, we're both fairly confused about all these codes and who we need to contact.

So my very simple questions are: What code(s) do we need? Where can we get them?

Thanks in advance.

Nick.

She locked tge SIM because she gave wrong PIN too many times. She needs PUK code from operator to unlock the SIM. If that doesn't work I think she's likely doing something wrong. She should take her SIM and phone to her carrier and let someone check it out.

Tup3x said:

She locked tge SIM because she gave wrong PIN too many times. She needs PUK code from operator to unlock the SIM. If that doesn't work I think she's likely doing something wrong. She should take her SIM and phone to her carrier and let someone check it out.

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That's been our thought as well. But like I said, she already tried to enter the PUK code with no success. I still believe she could just have gotten the wrong codes. We already do plan to contact them again, maybe their technical department if they have one. Thanks for the reply!

Ayoralyn said:

That's been our thought as well. But like I said, she already tried to enter the PUK code with no success. I still believe she could just have gotten the wrong codes. We already do plan to contact them again, maybe their technical department if they have one. Thanks for the reply!

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Considering how they handle things in our eastern neighbour, I wouldn't be that surprised if they gave her wrong codes.