iPhone 7 Unlock Issue

I bought an iPhone 7 recently from a third party store called BestBuy. Sold new in an Apple sealed box. I purchased it at full price under the presumption that it could be or was unlocked.

When purchasing through BestBuy they asked what carrier I have, I didn't have one at the time so the cashier selected T-Mobile. I now wonder if she skipped some prompts that would link it to a specific T-Mobile account; here's what has happened.

After purchase I went to a T-Mobile store and got a SIM. Everything worked as expected. I flew to Nicaragua bought a local SIM and installed it in the phone. The phone fails to activate letting me know the carrier needs to unlock the iPhone.

First, I reached out to T-Mobile and they attempted to unlock it but found this particular iPhone does not have an IMEI that brings up the records that would allow them to unlock it. I've reached out to them on several occasions and many of their employees are perplexed saying it must already be unlocked for them to not be able to find a record to display an unlock code. They recommend I contact Apple or BestBuy.

Second, I reach out to Apple. They sternly point me to their published online unlock procedure saying only your carrier can unlock your iPhone. [Later an internal memo is released in Apple saying they can or are willing to unlock iPhones purchased in Apple Stores.] After a few different attempts I was finally able to articulate that something might be wrong with apples activation servers. That perhaps my iPhone is not correctly linked and in so T-Mobiles interfaces with Apples activation servers doesn't seam to give them the ability to unlock the phone. They message that department and get a response back right away, nothing is wrong with apple services. Apple maintains that T-Mobile is the only one that can unlock the iPhone. We even had a three way conversation with a T-Mobile representative that clearly said, I want to unlock your iPhone but we can't find it in our system. Somehow that response from T-Mobile didn't merit Apple doing anything about it.

Third, I see no reason to attempt resolution through BestBuy. They are neither the carrier, the manufacture, or the maintainers of the activation servers. If anything they would simply speak on my behalf to either Apple or T-Mobile so I haven't bothered reaching out to them.

T-Mobile has an open support ticket for this issue but weeks have gone by without any update and I'm losing faith that it will be resolved. It seams Apple, carriers, and third party sellers of apple products are modivated to play hot potato with us consumers.

Discouraged Customer,

Eric Madden