EE vs Apple Standoff - Unlocking my Phone

Hi there,
I originally got an iPhone 5 from EE over two years ago. A year later my phone broke and the Apple shop replaced the handset for me at no cost, and I was still under contract with EE during this time.
I have now moved to an iPhone 6, staying with EE but no longer tied under my original contract, moving to a monthly plan.
Now, I want to unlock my old handset, the one that replaced the broken one. EE after 4 separate attempts over 4 months and a catalogue of customer service failures are now telling me they cant unlock that old phone as the IMEI is registered to Apple. However everything I read on the Apple website says its always down to the carrier to do any unlocking. I told EE that the Apple website says its the carriers responsibility, and they say the website is wrong. They even asked their manager on the customer service call to confirm this. He says its down to Apple and that thier website is wrong.
I am totally stuck as to what to do. I don't want to have to pay Apple for a support call to be told again that its the carriers responsibility. Has anyone been in this same situation.
Thank you for your help in advance.
Apple Orchard.

sounds like the phone is locked to EMEA and not EE
I would suggest you pay for an IMEI GSX check. Search the net you can normally get this report for about 2USD
Look for Next Tether Policy, that will tell you who the device is locked to. EMEA is just a Regional lock meaning Europe, Middle East, Asia the device will work on any carrier inside those regions. If you bring it to say the US it will not work. If it is EE only they Not Apple can unlock it.

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