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Before You Hit PURCHASE

Choose your carrier.
We’ll work with your current carrier to activate your new iPhone so you can keep your existing number and rate plan. To activate with Verizon, you’ll need your four-digit Verizon account PIN.

Your Didn't have an :
CURRENT CARRIER to ACTIVATE your new iPhone SO you can keep your
EXISTING NUMBER and
RATE PLAN.

So blowing by CURRENT CARRIER, EXISTING NUMBER, RATE PLAN & PIN

It Didn't Work..................DUH

Recourse...........??????

RETURN IT FOR A REFUND.

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Apple receives a carrier upgrade commission that pays in part for IUP.
People are paying monthly installments that cover all the retail cost of the iPhone and apple care+. If apple wants to get commission from carriers and let them have the power to lock iphones, that is on apple.
 
People are paying monthly installments that cover all the retail cost of the iPhone and apple care+. If apple wants to get commission from carriers and let them have the power to lock iphones, that is on apple.

Wrong.

It doesn't pay for the privilege of returning the phone early, nor does it pay for the interest-free loan. Those costs come from selling high-margin AppleCare+ and the carrier activation fee.

Similarly, the iPhone Payment plan (without the upgrade) doesn't require AppleCare+ but still requires activation.

Read the IUP terms and conditions. It explicitly requires you to activate it on a supported carrier.

I'm just explaining how things work. You don't like this model, you take it up with Apple.
 
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Had Apple not lied directly on the order page, I would have known that I was required to do that. However, they did lie, so now I'm at where I'm at. I didn't know that this year's model is all the same. In the past, it was the responsible thing to do to buy the Verizon version so that you would have CDMA capability.

She never put a Verizon sim in. She doesn't even have a Verizon sim. When she put the T-Mobile sim in, it simply said to contact Apple or Verizon. It wouldn't even let her setup the phone. That is hardly "unlocked" - technically or otherwise.

Wish my mom's lies about loving me were as easy to fix as just returning the phone and getting another one.
 
Wrong. It's up to the buyer to do their homework. Verizon changed their policy at the end of July. All Verizon version iPhones, whether through Apple or Verizon are subject to the lockdown. If I'm spending over $1000 on a phone, I am going to check with the carrier, otherwise I buy the unlocked non carrier version. That's called doing your due diligence.

Ok, you may be right about that. HOWEVER, you’re completely leaving the part out about how Apple needs to have 100% correct and up to date information on their website as well. No ifs ands or buts about it. They were wrong also.
 
That is not true.

i bought 2 phones, one in store, one by mail. Both were activated the same way on the same account. The in store phone was unlocked. The one shipped to us was locked.

same model phone

I can confirm here.
Bought my iPhone 11 with Apple Financing at a physical Apple store (Verizon model, because the unlocked one doesn’t come with payments, what a coincidence) and surprisingly it came unlocked. Currently using it abroad. BTW, it was also activated with the Verizon SIM card that came inside it.

It might be just as you are saying techiegirl, the ones being sold in physical Apple Stores might all be unlocked or it can just be a matter of luck.

Nevertheless, I totally agree with TheFish, all the info on Apple’s website is VERY misleading and only presents a part of the situation. I did the exact same buying process as TheFish, and I could have ended with a stupid and frustrating lock on my phone for 60 days, while traveling abroad.

BTW, the idiots at Verizon also charged me with a $40 upgrade fee, even tough all of my phone payments are going to Apple, but hey, if they can do it, why not?

Apple fan boys and sheep, take a break!
 
It might be just as you are saying techiegirl, the ones being sold in physical Apple Stores might all be unlocked or it can just be a matter of luck.BTW, the idiots at Verizon also charged me with a $40 upgrade fee, even tough all of my phone payments are going to Apple, but hey, if they can do it, why not?

Apple fan boys and sheep, take a break!

Are you joking!? What a rip off. Part of the reason I'm out of the phone financing game.
 
I do think Apple needs to warn users about Verizon’s dick policy. What the Verizon guy told you is correct. Their policy is now to lock all their phones for the first 60 days, regardless of how you get them, even if you pay for it in full. It’s a dick move for sure (yet I don’t see people protesting about it though).
Are they allowed to do that? That would be illegal in Europe.
 
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That's what happens when the head of the FCC is a former Verizon lawyer 🙄

OP since the phone isn't being financed through Verizon like you said, see if you can get the matter escalated and demand the phone be unlocked. To me this is more of a Verizon policy issue.

Or that’s what happens when Verizon is often targeted by fraudsters due to them selling unlocked devices?

Verizon will blacklist the phone if, after 60 days, the account that purchased the device is fraudulent.

If you pay your bill, it becomes unlocked. Simple and pretty fair.
 
Why is buying an iPhone in the USA so complicated?
Makes you wonder. In Finland you can purchase the unlocked phone from an electronics store or from a carrier. At the carrier I can pay in full at time of purchase or spread the payments over 12, 24 or 36 months. The price is the same no matter which option I choose. No interest is charged. My monthly cost for carrier services are the same whether I pay for the phone upfront or monthly. In all cases I am not locked in to a service contract. I can leave at any time. If I leave and still owe money on the phone I then pay the balance
 
Lawyers and paid off legislatures(by companies) is why in the US everything is complicated. Contribute a million to my campaign and I'll make legal anything you want
 
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The only sure fire way to get unlocked is to pay outright.
If I read some of the replies above correctly, that's not a sure fire way either. I understand the carrier is allowed to put a lock on your phone as soon as you stick their SIM card into it. In Europe such a move would violate not just telecommunications regulations, but a number of laws as well, which is why no respectable carrier would even think of doing it. It's like you went with your new car to a gas station to fill it up for the first time, and they remotely programmed your ECU to accept gas exclusively from them for the next two months. How can something like this be legal? I must be missing something.
 
If I read some of the replies above correctly, that's not a sure fire way either. I understand the carrier is allowed to put a lock on your phone as soon as you stick their SIM card into it. In Europe such a move would violate not just telecommunications regulations, but a number of laws as well, which is why no respectable carrier would even think of doing it. It's like you went with your new car to a gas station to fill it up for the first time, and they remotely programmed your ECU to accept gas exclusively from them for the next two months. How can something like this be legal? I must be missing something.

It’s America, anti-consumer practices are quite the norm there. It’s so bizarre to me how these aren’t regulated against.
 
If I read some of the replies above correctly, that's not a sure fire way either. I understand the carrier is allowed to put a lock on your phone as soon as you stick their SIM card into it. In Europe such a move would violate not just telecommunications regulations, but a number of laws as well, which is why no respectable carrier would even think of doing it. It's like you went with your new car to a gas station to fill it up for the first time, and they remotely programmed your ECU to accept gas exclusively from them for the next two months. How can something like this be legal? I must be missing something.

Didn't happen for me as I paid outright and have been running dual sim from day 1.
 
I think anyone who did any investigation about a carrier before signing up would have found out about Verizon's policy especially someone who wanted and unlocked phone
 
If I read some of the replies above correctly, that's not a sure fire way either. I understand the carrier is allowed to put a lock on your phone as soon as you stick their SIM card into it. In Europe such a move would violate not just telecommunications regulations, but a number of laws as well, which is why no respectable carrier would even think of doing it. It's like you went with your new car to a gas station to fill it up for the first time, and they remotely programmed your ECU to accept gas exclusively from them for the next two months. How can something like this be legal? I must be missing something.

There are no respectable carriers in the U.S. Of the Big Three, two are outright evil, and don't try to hide it, while the third markets itself as different, and is slightly friendlier, but business is business.

Locking devices is a legacy of the effed-up U.S. cell phone market, and subsidized purchase/service contract model.

Even though that has largely changed, the U.S. regulatory agency that is charged with oversight of the communications industry does so in the interests of the industry, not the citizenry. The members of the commission are political appointees and it's currently headed by a former counsel for one of the carriers, who is actively trying to undermine the role and power of the agency. To call him a fox guarding the hen house would be an insult to foxes.
 
I’m not sure that it’s quite that bad. It does relate to subsidized phones as @TheIntruder mentioned. Carriers generally speaking, do not lock your phone, but they do lock their phone, which is what yours is until you pay for it. It’s loss prevention related to subsidized phones.

While locking a phone is done for short periods by some carriers to prevent loss/fraud, a phone bought SIM free from Apple will not be, and cannot be (as I understand it), locked to a network.

Buy SIM free from Apple or buy from Verizon and wait 60 days.
 
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