am i able to factory unlock my iphone when its unactivated?

You cannot activate an iPhone without a sim. The sim does not need to be

associated with an active account; however, if the iPhone is locked to a wireless

provider, the sim must be from that wireless provider.

What happened to the sim that was in the iPhone? Borrow an appropriately

sized sim from a friend/relative/co-worker to activate the iPhone.

The guy who made the unlocking did not unlock your iPhone - he hacked. You may

never be able to activate that iPhone. Google may provide some direction, but Terms

of Use for this forum prevent discussion of hacked iPhones. Good luck.

If the carrier unlocked it, then restoring it in iTunes will complete the unlock and you should be able to activate it with any sim card after that.

If the unlock was made by someone other than the original carrier the iPhone was locked to, then its a gamble on whether it will be unlocked or not.

Also updating the iPhone that was unlocked by someone other than the original carrier, will cause it to re-lock to the carrier as that type of unlocking is a hack and is never permanent.

Then put any appropriately sized sim in the iPhone - if it is truly unlocked, it

should work. 4G/LTE, Visual Voice Mail and some other features may not

be supported by your wireless provider or work correctly - but you should be able

to make calls and use the internet, etc.

Then you can restore it, and activate it with any sim card. and the unlock will be permanent over any updates you perform.