Actually I had a similar experience. I bought an iphone to unlock it, and after the unlocking it would never catch service (on T-mob or AT&T). I restored it, bypassed activation and put my AT&T SIM, and it would catch no service either. I believe there was something wrong with the antenna or something. But when I went to service, they told me it had not been activated properly and that I should try to activate it again (which I didn't want). So I had to return it for a 10% fee too. I am sure it was defective but I had no way to prove it without telling them I had been hacking it...
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Actually I had a similar experience. I bought an iphone to unlock it, and after the unlocking it would never catch service (on T-mob or AT&T). I restored it, bypassed activation and put my AT&T SIM, and it would catch no service either. I believe there was something wrong with the antenna or something. But when I went to service, they told me it had not been activated properly and that I should try to activate it again (which I didn't want). So I had to return it for a 10% fee too. I am sure it was defective but I had no way to prove it without telling them I had been hacking it...