^ I'm correct.
Maybe I don't shop the old fashioned way, because I'm younger but literally it is not on their website or app. Geniuses will also turn you down. And if somebody bought me an "unlocked" iPhone 5s bought from AT&T or Verizon for Christmas, I would take it back and get the Sim-Free version. I will never walk into a carrier store, and come out with an iPhone. It's simply from Apple or nothing. My way or the highway.
I'm not sure why "unlocked" is in quotations, as I'm sure if someone
did buy you an AT&T iPhone 5S, that AT&T has unlocked, and they threw away the AT&T SIM card... you would not even be able to tell it was an AT&T phone to start with, unless they told you it was.
As I've said multiple times, the only difference between a SIM-Free unlocked iPhone and a carrier unlocked iPhone is that the carrier iPhone originally came with a carrier SIM.
Geniuses will "turn you down" because they do not have the ability to lock or unlock a phone. The carriers hold that power. If the carrier refused to unlock an iPhone you paid full price for, you have 30-days to return it for a full refund.
Also, no one has told you to go to a carrier store.
Everyone is entitled to go about their purchase of their own iPhone the way they see fit. But don't complain that you couldn't get an unlocked iPhone 5S when you clearly could. The only person keeping you from getting one, was you. Not Apple. Your need for it to be labeled and sold as "SIM-Free" is the only hurdle you had to overcome... and as anyone on this forum will tell you, that actually
owns an unlocked iPhone 5S, SIM Free or otherwise, carrier unlocked is as unlocked as unlocked can be.
Explain how a SIM-Free unlocked iPhone 5S differs from a carrier unlocked 5S in construction or function in any way shape or form. They are the exact same model, as I've shown in another thread in regards to this same subject.
Going to a carrier store with the intention of getting an unlocked phone is not proper. You would either by unlocked, like a regular person would. Or deal with carriers, and I'm not dealing with them, I don't have time for it...
...Actually, Apple associates are not even permitted to sell you a carrier phone device only.
Again, no one said to go to a carrier store. Go to the Apple store... and people here, from experience, certainly have gone to the Apple store and purchased a carrier phone full price.
But I really don't have time to talk on the phone all day with AT&T customer support. I would just buy unlocked from Apple like a regular person
You don't have to be on the phone all day with a carriers customer service.
You guys are living in another world, unavailable for store pick up on their app. Apple geniuses telling you that there is no unlocked version on launch day. 2 to 3 weeks shipping dates which are not set in stone. Walking into a carrier store to get an unlocked phone. And you still say it's widely available? No.
They certainly are available for in-store pickup. But when they are, people buy them. You have to be quick.
Apple Geniuses are telling you there is no unlocked version because it is not up to them, or Apple to unlock a carrier phone. It is the carrier that does the unlocking. Which SeanHRCC has provided a link to the form to get a carrier locked iPhone unlocked in 30 minutes.
Probably 10 million people around the world have an iPhone 5S, within a month of release. I'd call that pretty widely available.
I don't know what you guys are talking about.
That much is obvious.