Apple Store selling me a locked (AT&T) iPhone to replace a damaged UNLOCKED iPhone normally located in Norway.

First question - was this phone officially unlocked by AT&T (and note that ONLY AT&T can officially unlock it), or was it purchased directly from Apple as factory unlocked (and only Apple sells phones directly as unlocked in the USA).

I ask because the normal replacement will always be the same model as you originally purchased, and if that was locked, the replacement will be locked. Only if the original was officially unlocked through AT&T would you be given an unlocked replacement phone.

If this phones was "unlocked" by any other means, then it was hacked, not offically unlocked, and Apple will not hack the replacement they give you - they are going to give you what you originally purchased which was an AT&T locked phone.

If yours was officially unlocked by AT&T, and they mistakenly gave you a locked one (it can happen, any mistake can happen) then just go to an Apple Store or call Apple, explain what has happened and they should replace the phone with an unlocked one.

Sorry, your post was confusing to me at first. You are from Norway, correct? Where did you get the originally unlocked iPhone? Apple's online info - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937 - indicates all Norwegian carriers sell locked phones and do not offer unlocking.

In that case, I cannot see why the USA store even offered you a phone - I would not have thought they'd have phones in stock locked to Norwegian carriers. And if yours was officially unlocked, you should have gotten an unlocked one in exchange, so you should call them.

Even if yours was unoffically unlocked, I cannot see how they would have offered you a replacements, as it would have to be one locked to the same carrier, which I just cannot imagine they had sitting in a store in CA?

Because they looked it up on their system and it was originally an iPhone locked to AT&T sold in the US. It was then sold through eBay and unofficially unlocked and the OP used it in Norway. They then correctly did an out-of-warranty replacment with a locked to AT&T iPhone.

Yeah, that sounds logical deggie - just my brain was not able to warp its way around that convolution at the time I guess 😕

Took a couple of readings of the OP and your responses. But if you've been in an Apple Store where they make the swap notice they always go into a computer and enter the model and serial number before they do so. If it came back a Norwegian phone they would have politely handed it back to him and said they could not help him as they don't have any locked Norwegian phones in stock.