Lead time to unlock my iPhone4 with Apple's NCK number

Question

Hoping someone here can help me. I bought an iPhone4 32GB in the USA a couple of weeks a go, from an Apple store, which was a "No Commitement" phone but still locked to AT&T! I was told by a friend, that I can get Apple to unlock it and to this end, used a british company (when I returned to the UK) who apparently contact Apple and charge a fee, (as AT&T levy one to terminate their tie to the phone), and who in turn receive a confirmation from Apple. They then are supposed to email me and tell me Apple have said to them OK to proceed. Then, when I next connect to iTunes my phone should be unlocked.
I have already paid this company for the service and as yet have heard nothing from them other than "AT&T take a little longer to process than other carriers". I am beginning to think I may have been duped here. The company is www.iphoneunlockuk.com
Is this possible to do yourself. Ie as a UK resident with a "no commitment iphone4 purchased in the US, can I get Apple to do this if I request it from them directly. I only purchased the phone in the US as it was a much more competitive price than the UK 32GBunlocked phone

Answer 1

The company you refer to jailbreaks the iPhone; they cannot provide an official unlock.
They're actually advertising an "official factory unlock", done via iTunes, not via Jailbreak:
http://www.iphoneunlockuk.com/officialfactoryunlock.php
But I'd be very surprised if this is the case, and unless they've got dodgy contacts within the networks who can send authorisation requests to Apple, I don't see how they can do this.
They also charge £100 to "unlock" an AT&T iPhone, which negates any saving made on buying one from the US!
I've read a lot of negative press about this company, who sell otherwise free software to hack iPhones.