I'd like to buy my mother, a T-Mobile customer, an iPhone 15 Plus. I've got a hefty amount of Best Buy gift cards that I was planning to use to pay for the phone, and have it activated on T-Mobile for her in-store.

Much to my dismay, Best Buy and T-Mobile cancelled their partnership the same day the new iPhones were announced. Now, the phone only appears to be sold through AT&T or Verizon activations.

I read online that non-Apple retailers sell Flex Lock iPhones, which are unlocked phones that end up locking to the first carrier the phone is activated on.

I used to be an employee a few years back, and if I remember correctly, scanning any phone's UPC in the point-of-sale system would give you multiple checkbox options, like 'UNACTIVATED UL' or carrier-specific options. If that's true, and the 'Flex Lock' thing is accurate, would it be possible to have an employee sell me an iPhone as an unlocked phone and then I could just personally activate said phone on T-Mobile?

I'm not entirely sure if the phones specifcally come boxed up for AT&T/Verizon or if they're all the same but just end up getting activated on those specific carriers.

Don't want to get anyone in trouble [if this isn't allowed], hence why I'm asking here instead of going in-store immediately. I'd really prefer to buy the phone at Best Buy due to the gift cards, but might ultimately end up just having to buy through Apple themselves. I reckon I'd end up using the gift cards on something eventually, but I've got nothing else in mind so I figured this would be an appropriate time to exhaust them.

Thanks for your time :)

I am looking to buy a unlocked iPhone 15, any suggustion on the best way to get one other than apple?

Are there any programs people could suggust that would work with Visible or something similar to visible?

Edit: Starting October 1st you can get 6% back when you use PayPal with the chase freedom flex master card. The card also has extended warranty protection. You can pay the Apple Store with pay pal on a browser or in store. This seem the best way to get the phone if you don’t need financing.

It seems like all the other options such as iPhone forever, iPhone upgrade plans, iPhone on us, are all gimmicky require you to sign up with a overpriced post pay plan.

It’s also not even possible to buy unlocked new I phone from most places besides apple, you may get lucky but in my experience most other places won’t sell you a phone unless you sign up for a plan.