Is it legal to sell Iphone 5 full price and locked ?

Question

I've bought Iphone 5 from Straight Talk. Paid full price at the register and later I've learn that my phone is locked to ST. Is it legal for them to do so? There is no contract and I paid full price. If I knew that I would've bought one from Apple Store, unlocked. After HOURS of talking with ST support, they said, there is nothing they can do, and cannot unlock phone because they do not have ability to do so. And suggested for me to buy a new(!) phone that is unlocked. Unfortunately for me I do not like to be taking advantage of and do not have an extra $700. Plus I do have a new phone. They even called me difficult. I've just wanted an explanation why my phone is locked, or why I was not told about it upfront, before I've bought it. Or why it is a full price then.

Answer 1

The problem is that I was told that it was the official unlock status checker.  When I spoke to Straight Talk the confusion apparently arises that CDMA phones are apparently listed as "locked" even when they are not since they require more steps than GSM phones to allow a hookup to a new carrier.  According to Straight Talk, the reason they do not offer "unlocking" is that ALL of their phones are unlocked (so I can take this phone over to Verizon without any issues).  CDMA phones CAN be locked but Straight Talk says that none of their phones are locked PRECISELY because they offer no-contract.  I just wish that they would make this more explicit so that this confusion would be alleviated.
Once again, however, I was angered by the dismissive attitude by posters on this board. To blame the customer is the height of arrogancy and only causes more bad blood.  It is absolutely NOT the fault of the customer to think that a full price phone OUGHT to be unlocked and it certainly should NEVER be the fault of the customer if she or he has specifically ASKED for an unlocked phone.  Anyone blaming the customer in such cases is simply being a jerk.
I think that this might have been the same issue that BLUEO had. If posters would ask relevant questions and come across with some sympahty to those of us who have legitimate gripes, asking and answering questions in a thoughtful manner, blood pressures could be reduced and everyone could find answers.  It is clear to me now that the problem lies with the fact that unlock status checkers may be incorrectly flagging CDMA phones as "locked" because I note that some people actually THINK that they are locked simply because we do not use SIM cards and thus require access to a computer to reprogram it rather than simply popping a SIM card into it.  Thus, I think the confusion in India that I experienced. It could, apparently, have been used with one of India's CDMA providers but the vendor there probably wasn't used to CDMA since India's CDMA carriers only started operating with iPhones a scant 3 months ago.