Ask HN: iPhone no service shortly after paying off Sprint lease

A week after paying off Sprint for my iPhone 7 it stopped working, "No Service". I happen to know a repair man at Sprint so I took the phone in and he asked "Did you just pay this off?" which I replied "Yes". He sighed and said this happens all the time only when he sent the phone off to Apple to have it repaired they responded that the phone couldn't be repaired and now Sprint says I have to lease/buy a new iPhone.

I am asking the community because I think there is a larger "scam" going on with the network providers in which they don't want us to pay off our devices.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences? or is this just a device specific issue?

Thanks in advance - erjjones