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Comment by gotthemwmds | Hacker News Reader

Can you please go with me to the Seattle or Bellevue Apple Store and help me make this transaction? I went to both over the weekend and things did not go well. They didn't seem to understand the basic process you outlined above.

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All phones sold at Apple stores are unlocked, but they come with an unactivated carrier SIM. I purchased an iPhone 7 (t-mobile), then popped out the SIM and put in my old AT&T sim. No problem. I suggest just buying the t-mobile device and doing the same, if you're looking for a GSM device.

I just want a phone that works. All of those words are confusing.

Seriously though I showed up at Apple with a credit card and a SIM card 48 hours ago and they were not able to sell me a phone. To make it even weirder, I had the (unopened) phone I wanted in a bag, but it is a "locked" one from TMobile. I thought that was ancient history.

One day Apple will want my money!

What carrier do you want to use the phone with? If, say, you want to use it with AT&T, just go in and buy an AT&T phone. It will be unlocked. Just swap out the SIM card in the phone with the one you already have if you don't want to activate the provided SIM card for some reason.

I thought I could do that but s/AT&T/TMobile. 3 TMobile retail stores have refused to unlock my phone. It's still unopened in a box. I paid full retail price for it and have never had a TMobile account, which is where they get confused.

Did you buy your phone from Apple or from TMobile? If you bought it from Apple, it should be unlocked already. You should be able to drop in your SIM and go.

In fact, I did this two years ago with the 6 Plus. I bought a T-Mobile phone from Apple because they were unlocked (at the time the others weren't, even if purchased directly from Apple) and used it with my AT&T SIM.

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