New iPhone 4 bought for full price but locked!

Question

Hi there,
I have a kinda complicated problem.
I bought an iPhone 4 in Mexico from a reseller called iShop. They sold me the phone with a prepaid sim card from Telcel. They told me that the sim included 1 month free internet so I decided to use it there as I had another week before returning to Argentina. I activated the iPhone with the sim, but at the store they told me the iPhone was fully unlocked and I could just change to the Argentine sim when i returned.
So I get back to Argentina and get my new microsim from Personal. Now I have no service and itunes tells me that the sim is incompatible. When I check under settings -> general -> about - it tells me that the carrier is "Telcel 8.3".
So telcel do NOT offer unlocking. They told me to go back to apple (they gave me a generic response which was targeted to any kind of phone unlock request it seems). I called apple US and explained the problem (I even spoke with a Supervisor) but they told me that there is absolutley nothing I can do, and that the phone is locked to Telcel because I activated it with that sim card first. I thought the whole point, was that I could just change SIMs at will with an unlocked iPhone. I assumed there was some activation process involved but not that it would actually lock the phone. Should I actually do something like wiping the phone and trying again?
Following from this I'm not sure what else I can do? Now I have a super expensive ipod and if i'd known that activating that sim would lock the phone I never would have used it.
I read somewhere on the forums that if the store adds the number of the phone to the receipt that is what locks the phone. Is this correct? Is it the fault of the reseller? I'd like to know in case I can take some recourse with them on the problem.
Thanks for any help you can give me!!
Desperately,
Ricky

Answer 1

You were lied to by the reseller, who do not appear to be an authorized vendor for the iPhone in Mexico. Only the Apple Store, Movistar and Telcel are authorized vendors, so unless iShop is an authorized agent for one of the two carriers, you purchased an iPhone whose actual source is unknown. Whether or not iShop is authorized, though, iPhones are not sold unlocked in Mexico and neither Movistar nor Telcel provide unlocking services, so what you were told is untrue.
Sorry, but there's nothing Apple or any of us (your fellow users) here can do to help in this matter. You will need to contact iShop and take this issue up with them.
Good luck.