EE/Orange Contract Phone Query

A question about : EE/Orange Contract Phone Query

Hi
At the beginning of January 2015, I renewed my 2 mobile contracts with EE. I also have a 12mth sim only added to 1 of the contracts for use by my daughter.
I was going to give my old phones (Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE i9305) to my mother and mother-in-law. But when I did I found that both were still locked to EE/Orange.
I contacted EE and they informed me, that once I changed my phone (ie renewed my contract) they could not unlock the phones, as they said they do not exist with them anymore and I would have to find an alternative method to unlock them.
Where do I go from here???

Best answers:

• Buy an unlock code from a third party (i.e. eBay)?
• I will try and speak to EE again.
  But to clear something up for me, all EE need is the IMEI and then they could unlock ???
• they do charge a standard fee for unlocking
• My contract is up in April; I've paid them the Ј20 to unlock my phone and it's done it today.
  It rankled (a bit) to pay for them to unlock something which is mine, but I've got it done in advance so I can make a choice at the end date.
  (I'll probably move off Orange now that they're BT!)
• Well it appears that I have resolved the problem myself.
  It involved downgrading the firmware on the phone, which then allowed me to access the service menu. This enabled me to then turn off the sim lock in a roundabout way.
  Both phones are now unlocked and it only cost me my time
  This will make my mum and mother-in-law very happy