Customer buys an iPhone straight from Apple - ends up tangled in AT&T, Verizon, and H2O mess

Imagine buying a new iPhone straight from the Apple Store, outright. You're excited, and also thrilled you won't have to deal with paying in installments... you're ready to just move on with your life and enjoy your cool new daily driver. Until you realize it's not going to be that easy.

One H2O Wireless customer (an AT&T-based MVNO) has encountered an unfortunate situation with their iPhone and has taken to Reddit to share their story and frustrating experience. The thing is - all of a sudden, their phone stopped working on March 26.

As any of us would do, they immediately called their carrier, to find out it's been reported as lost or stolen. H2O then said they have no ability to blacklist phones, so the customer would have to call AT&T.

Following their direction, the user called AT&T only to find that Verizon Wireless had instead initiated the blocklist. Obviously confused (or at least, I would be), the customer called Verizon.

Verizon reps then told them apparently the phone was reported blacklisted by a "previous carrier" (Verizon didn't give them many details, though), and apparently, the phone was reported blacklisted on March 17.

The customer then had to go down a carrier-customer-service rabbit hole. They note to have called H20 repeatedly, and surprisingly, half of the times they called, H2O said the IMEI of the device was clear and they would be put back in service. Only for service to disappear the next day.

The user says the iPhone is purchased directly from an Apple Store and they also claim to have a copy of the receipt and have been only using H2O Wireless since they got the phone. They even called Apple, but Apple (understandably) could only offer to restore the phone.

The customer went as far as to have both an AT&T rep and a Verizon rep on the same call agreeing to call Apple to figure out who should remove the device from the blacklist.

Unfortunately, when they called together with the AT&T and Verizon rep on the phone, the Apple rep refused to talk to the three of them as it was against the company's policy, costing the customer 5 hours of precious time.

For many days, the customer has been calling different people trying to find someone to help them, unfortunately, unsuccessfully so far.

Redditors are suggesting to the user to file an FCC complaint against Verizon. Meanwhile, AT&T appears to be helpless in fixing the situation, and so does H2O, the MVNO running on AT&T's network. And Apple as well.

It's the kind of situation that makes you feel like you're stuck in a loop, with no one willing - or able - to take responsibility. Hopefully, with enough persistence (and maybe an FCC complaint), this customer will finally get the resolution they deserve.

We have reached out to AT&T for a comment and will update this story when we receive the response.