iPhone 13 says SIM Locked

Yes, that means it's locked to your carrier.

Buying it yourself does not conflict with it being locked.

It's more how it was bought. If you bought it using financing from your carrier for instance it may be locked to them. AT&T is notorious for this.

You would need to contact your carrier and have them unlock it if you qualify for the unlock.

c289user10 wrote:

Hi. Thanks for your reply. So, I bought it myself with no financing or other assistance from anyone- especially not my carrier. How can I go about amending this? Is it appropriate to make a complaint to Apple?

Apple has no control over carrier locks. Complaining to Apple will do nothing.

Where did you buy the iPhone from exactly? What store or vendor?

As mentioned by MrHoffman, purchases from certain vendors like Walmart, Target, BestBuy will sell "unlocked" devices for activation that lock to the carrier of the first SIM card used.

Only the carrier that its locked to can then unlock it

Contact your carrier and request they unlock it.

c289user10 wrote:

Hi. Thanks for your reply. So, I bought it myself with no financing or other assistance from anyone- especially not my carrier. How can I go about amending this? Is it appropriate to make a complaint to Apple?

Who did you buy it from?

In the US, only Apple sells unlocked devices.

Most (all?) other vendors sell a “flex lock” device.

Which locks to the first eSIM or SIM loaded.

So, I bought it myself with no financing or other assistance from anyone- especially not my carrier.

Your carrier may not have told you or you may not remember that there would be a minimum time requirement or agreement to set up service on your phone......a 2 year agreement is common for new service set up, but the length of the agreement can vary.

You "signed" this agreement with your carrier, but few us ever remember the details on things like this.

Regardless of the details of the agreement, it is important to remember that......only your carrier can release the lock on your phone.

Apple has no control over the carrier lock on your phone, so Apple would not be involved in this process in any way.

Contact your carrier to get the ball rolling. If you have met the original terms of your agreement with the carrier, your phone should be unlocked almost immediately after you make the request.

A heads up that your carrier is probably going to be less than thrilled to release the lock on the phone because they realize that they are likely losing a customer to another carrier. It is not unusual for customers to be told that their phone is now unlocked when it really isn't. So, it may take more than one call to your carrier to get things handled.

You will know that your phone is unlocked when the message changes from SIM Locked to No SIM Restrictions.