Before we left the US, I had AT&T unlock my iPhone 5, thinking I might use it here. Forgot all about it when I went to Claro to pay for internet - our phones from last time were still working, we just added minutes.
Soooooo....next time I went to a Claro booth [Plaza Lama in SD] I brought both old and new iPhones and said I needed a new micro sim for the 5. Was told they can't do that there. Yesterday we were in SD with our multitude of things to do, and we passed the Claro headquarters, and stopped in. Fast service. Guy wanted to know if I was sure that the phone was unlocked. I said I was pretty sure, at least they'd told me it was. Mr. AE asks if they can unlock it if it's not, and he emphatically said no, which surprised me, because they'd unlocked one for me a few years ago. Turns out it was unlocked, he activated a new sim, and that was that. All done free.
So, is it that the little local kiosks/offices do it unofficially??