up-dated iphone 3gs and its cleared everything apart from to choose which country im from help..

Got i phone from my frien went to a shop to get it opened to any net work came home and tryed up dating it on itunes and it cleared everthing apart from to choose what country im from and thats it,somone on here said its cause its been blocked cause it could be stolen ,anyway got my friend to go to orange phone shop were he got it he paid £20 to fix it which would take up to 20 days which has well past and i still keep trying and nothing ,manged to get it to go throu the up-date again and again when it got to the last bit it says could not con fig at this time try again later or contact services ,im i doing it wrong is there anything i can do to get my phone to work thank you.