Screwed by US Reseller Flex Policy

One important party has been left out in this discussion, the company that sold you the iPhone in the first place. If you specifically told them that you wanted an unlocked iPhone that you could use in the US for awhile then in the country where you now reside and they did not tell you about the flex policy then they were wrong. In all of this did you contact them?

You have a second issue: did they also inform you that your warranty would not be valid outside of the US?

There is no reason to buy an Apple product from anyone other than Apple. Certainly not iOS devices. The prices are no better than Apple's, you cannot get unlocked iPhones, the staff don't know anything (and they lie).

Saying that, I bought my last Macbook Pro from Microcenter. The price was the same, but they are in an urban enterprise zone (euphemism for slum), so the sales tax was half what it would have been at the Apple store 😉

I disagree completely. It is Apple's fault. I have the same problem, and it could have been avoided if Apple clearly made these issues known (i.e. perhaps by using different packaging for phones sold by other retailers that are affected by the US Reseller Flex Policy). I got screwed as well by buying an "unlocked" phone at Walmart, which I was told would work overseas. I'm now overseas, and have no way of returning the phone (I cannot even ship it to a friend in the US because it is illegal to ship phones with batteries). I have spent countless hours and days trying to resolve this issue for a month, and still have not been successful (calling customer support at Walmart, Tracfone, T-Mobile, and Apple). So I now have a brand new "unlocked" iPhone 6s that I cannot use! I blame Apple for this, and I will not forget.

Apple has nothing to do with it.

Locking applies to phones from all manufacturers. If bought a phone from someone other than Apple directly like Best Buy, it will lock to the first american carrier used with it.

Apple has no say on how they are locked. They neither invented Flex Policy nor do they actively lock iPhones because of it.

Apple does not care what carrier you use your iPhone.

The only ones here you should be angry at are the carriers. Its their policy, and its their regulations that made Apple and all other phone manufacturers enable locking on the phones. This was done to keep customers from leaving carriers. Apple has no vested interest in locking phone or keeping you with a carrier.

If the carrier won't unlock it, Apple can do nothing about it. Going against regulation means no carrier will want to support Apple's devices and guess what, they won't be able to sell them.

All Apple can do is abide by their rules, if they are to sell devices for use with the carrier network services.

If you buy an iPhone directly from Apple, then it will not lock to any carrier. Buy from somewhere else, and you take your chances.

Next time its important to do research and inform yourself about the potential issues of trying to use a us phone in another country. This would have happened just the same whether you had bought an iPhone, and Samsung Galaxy, or any other phone.

You can ask Apple for this functionality here

apple.com/feedback

however this is not a guarantee Apple will include it at a later date.

This is a volunteer forum. No one from Apple reads or responds to posts made here.

If you want to blame Apple its your prerogative, but this forum is not a platform for debates. Refer to the terms you and everyone else here agreed to when we signed up. You may alert the internet to your umbrage on another website that allows it, this one doesn't.

TOOMuchTV wrote:

I disagree completely. It is Apple's fault. I have the same problem, and it could have been avoided if Apple clearly made these issues known (i.e. perhaps by using different packaging for phones sold by other retailers that are affected by the US Reseller Flex Policy). I got screwed as well by buying an "unlocked" phone at Walmart, which I was told would work overseas. I'm now overseas, and have no way of returning the phone (I cannot even ship it to a friend in the US because it is illegal to ship phones with batteries). I have spent countless hours and days trying to resolve this issue for a month, and still have not been successful (calling customer support at Walmart, Tracfone, T-Mobile, and Apple). So I now have a brand new "unlocked" iPhone 6s that I cannot use! I blame Apple for this, and I will not forget.

Where exactly did you buy this phone?

TOOMuchTV wrote:

I bought the phone at a Walmart in Texas.

Then your beef is with Walmart. They are not an authorized retailer of iPhones, and because of that they have no way of obtaining unlocked phones. If they told you the phone was unlocked, they knowingly lied to you.

I already did take it up with Walmart. And they said that I could return it, yet as I stated earlier, iPhones cannot be posted overseas by consumers, and I currently have no travel plans to be in the US, hence my dilemma which Apple will not help me with. Because, in truth, I have a recently purchased iPhone that does not work... and Apple should replace it with a working phone.

The warranty is in regards for the phone functioning properly or not. What are dealing with is a restriction.

A brand new car that takes several minutes to go from 0-60 when the manufacturer claims it can be done in 6 seconds is warranty issue.

Getting pulled over because were driving 60 through a school zone is a restriction.

Also cellular iOS devices are not warrantied outside of the country you buy them in.

TOOMuchTV wrote:

Yes, but what if the car doesn't start in the first place?

As your phone turns on, that analogy is not applicable.

However, it's pretty clear that you're not going to listen to reason. You didn't do your research and then you got lied to by Walmart. You didn't buy anything from Apple and you don't have a warranty issue. Those are the facts. Nothing anyone says here will change that. You've been told what your options are. What you do next is entirely up to you. No one here has any vested interest in that choice.

Best of luck.

TOOMuchTV wrote:

I already did take it up with Walmart. And they said that I could return it, yet as I stated earlier, iPhones cannot be posted overseas by consumers, and I currently have no travel plans to be in the US, hence my dilemma which Apple will not help me with. Because, in truth, I have a recently purchased iPhone that does not work... and Apple should replace it with a working phone.

The fact that you can't, or don't want to travel back to the US to return it doesn't change anything. That's your problem, not Apple's. The phone works just fine. It was never intended to be activated on a carrier outside of the US. The fact that it won't do so is not relevant. Your issue is with the retailer who sold you the phone, and with yourself for not researching the issue before spending your money.

Walmart is an authorized Apple retailer buy only on the Straight Talk network. I don't believe your iPhone is flexed it is actually locked to Straight Talk. You can call Apple again to test this. If you asked whether your iPhone would work overseas and the salesperson said yes they did not lie to you. You can take a Straight Talk iPhone overseas and use it via roaming. Expensive but it does work. If you asked the clerk could you change carriers and use a SIM from a foreign cell provider with that iPhone and they said yes then they lied to you. You can take that up with Walmart.

Csound1 wrote:

Mainly this seems like a very good reason not to buy an iPhone from Walmart.

I make it a policy not to buy anything from Walmart. The last time I remember going in to Walmart, the line at the photo counter (yes, it was a while back) was so long and they were so understaffed that one of the customer jumped in to help out.

Csound1 wrote:

Mainly this seems like a very good reason not to buy an iPhone from Walmart.

Actually, I would say it is an excellent case for why one should buy an iPhone from Apple or an Authorized reseller in their own home country. None of the OPs issues would exist at all if they had simply purchased it locally.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Saying that, I bought my last Macbook Pro from Microcenter. The price was the same, but they are in an urban enterprise zone (euphemism for slum), so the sales tax was half what it would have been at the Apple store 😉

I bet you didn't ask them to set it up for you.