Verizon refused to unlock my iphone4

Question

Verizon refused to unlock my iphone4 because they thought the iphone was a stolen phone. I bought the phone on ebay and my daughter had used the phone for several months, later on, she gave it to her sister after upgrading it to Iphone 5. But when her sister needed to transfer her old phone to this phone, Verizon couldn't reactivate it, and the reason was they said the phone was a stolen phone. How could Verizon activate it but couldn't re-activate???
With all the power they have to lock, unlock, reset, reboot or whatever, but they couldn't unlock a simple iphone.
I was asking to trade with even a used phone so my other daughter could use one, but Verizon wouldn't even consider it.....it SUCKS!
I have been a Verizon customer for many years and happy, but not until now. I am considering switching provider and telling at least 300+ people
where I work about this.

Answer 1

Person steals phone, posts it on ebay, you get phone, phone activated. Real owner discovers it is stolen, reports it stolen to Verizon. Verizon puts phone on black list. This does not deactivate phone, but cannot be reactivated again on Verizon. You daughter gets new phone, gives it to sister. Cannot reactivate.
The real victim here is the real owner that had his or her phone stolen.