Is it legal to sell Iphone 5 full price and locked ?

It most certainly is legal for a phone company to sell a locked phone at full price. Why wouldn't it be? If they don't subsidize the phone, why should you get it cheaper? Carriers can subsidize the price of the phone in return for you signing a contract. If you don't sign a contract, why should they lower the price? Furthermore, there is no legal requirement in the US for a carrier to unlock an iPhone, or any other phone for that matter.

The only person you should be angry with is yourself--for not doing due diligence and properly researching a purchase before spending $700.00 on it.

No carrier is ever obligated to subsidize a phone. They can sell them at full price if they choose.

Sure, they could even sell it for $3000 if they wanted to.

Some countries (e.g. Italy and Hong Kong) have laws against locked phones, but not the US (execpt the Verizon iPhone 5 due to special rules on its frequencies).

and cannot unlock phone because they do not have ability to do so.

They could unlock if they wanted to. Many carriers (including some in the US) offer unlocking.

<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1937>

AT&T used to never unlock, but they changed their policy about a year ago. There is no reason Straight Talk couldn't change theirs.

They could also offer a refund for your locked phone so you could buy an unlocked one from Apple.

Continue to be "difficult". Small clams court might help.

" I thought "No contract" supposed to mean that I can leave at any time. But they keep me in by locking my phone."

No contract means that you do not have to sign a two year contract. Tt does not mean unlocked.

Your dismissive attitude is uncalled for in your response. At the time I bought an iPhone 5, I did research and found that Straight Talk was selling the iPhone 5 UNLOCKED. I asked the salesperson if it was unlocked and she said it was. Only when I travelled overseas and wanted to use it there did I discover that this WAS A LIE. It is legal to sell a locked phone at full price but Apple should require FULL disclosure. After all, saying one thing and selling another is FRAUD and is ILLEGAL.

Then your issue is with StraightTalk. Talk to the manager of the store from whom you purchased the phone, or if you purchased from StraightTalk online, call their customer support department. It's probably going to be difficult to prove what you were told, but that's your only recourse. Apple can't monitor and control what every salesperson from every carrier and cellphone store might incorrectly tell you.

did research and found that Straight Talk was selling the iPhone 5 UNLOCKED.

It would seem that your research turned up incorrect information. Apple's own information:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937

clearly shows that StraightTalk does not offer unlocking.

Regards.

ZagrosSadjadi wrote:

Your dismissive attitude is uncalled for in your response. At the time I bought an iPhone 5, I did research and found that Straight Talk was selling the iPhone 5 UNLOCKED. I asked the salesperson if it was unlocked and she said it was. Only when I travelled overseas and wanted to use it there did I discover that this WAS A LIE. It is legal to sell a locked phone at full price but Apple should require FULL disclosure. After all, saying one thing and selling another is FRAUD and is ILLEGAL.

Exactly WHO advertised that the StraightTalk iPhone was "unlocked"? It was not Apple, and it also was not StraightTalk...

You did a shoddy job of researching the issue before you made your purchase and based the decision on unsubstantiated and demonstrably wrong information.

I just got off the phone with Technical Support at Straight Talk and was told that my phone *is* unlocked and that I can take it to any carrier I want, which makes me wonder why my phone is listed online as being a LOCKED phone.

Unofficial online unlock status checkers should not be trusted. As a rule of thumb.

The problem is that I was told that it was the official unlock status checker. When I spoke to Straight Talk the confusion apparently arises that CDMA phones are apparently listed as "locked" even when they are not since they require more steps than GSM phones to allow a hookup to a new carrier. According to Straight Talk, the reason they do not offer "unlocking" is that ALL of their phones are unlocked (so I can take this phone over to Verizon without any issues). CDMA phones CAN be locked but Straight Talk says that none of their phones are locked PRECISELY because they offer no-contract. I just wish that they would make this more explicit so that this confusion would be alleviated.

Once again, however, I was angered by the dismissive attitude by posters on this board. To blame the customer is the height of arrogancy and only causes more bad blood. It is absolutely NOT the fault of the customer to think that a full price phone OUGHT to be unlocked and it certainly should NEVER be the fault of the customer if she or he has specifically ASKED for an unlocked phone. Anyone blaming the customer in such cases is simply being a jerk.

I think that this might have been the same issue that BLUEO had. If posters would ask relevant questions and come across with some sympahty to those of us who have legitimate gripes, asking and answering questions in a thoughtful manner, blood pressures could be reduced and everyone could find answers. It is clear to me now that the problem lies with the fact that unlock status checkers may be incorrectly flagging CDMA phones as "locked" because I note that some people actually THINK that they are locked simply because we do not use SIM cards and thus require access to a computer to reprogram it rather than simply popping a SIM card into it. Thus, I think the confusion in India that I experienced. It could, apparently, have been used with one of India's CDMA providers but the vendor there probably wasn't used to CDMA since India's CDMA carriers only started operating with iPhones a scant 3 months ago.

Geez, are you going to post this everywhere? If you have a Straight Talk iPhone 5 look at it closely and you will find the nanoSIM slot. The 4s and 5 are world phones. The current Verizon iPhone 5 is unlocked on the GSM side due to an agreement with the FCC. The Sprint iPhone 5 is not part of this so the GSM side is locked.

Best way to tell if the Straight Talk phone is locked on the GSM side is to call Apple, give them the serial and model number, and find out. If the GSM side is locked to Straight Talk they will tell you that. If it is unlocked they will say that. Or you can find an AT&T iPhone 5 user and put their nanoSIM in your iPhone. If it works the Straight Talk phone is unlocked. If it says invalid SIM it is locked.