The rep you’re talking do doesn’t know what they’re talking about sorry.

I’ve always bought unlocked phones from apple. The ONLY possible answer I can think of is that ever since apple switched to esim only, they may not sell unlocked phones anymore since they don’t have SIM trays. The whole reason they were able to sell unlocked phones was due to the SIM card tray. But that would be a very recent thing like as of the iPhone 14 model because 13s had SIM card trays (I have an unlocked 13 from the Apple Store and just stuck my SIM from my 12 into it)

I wouldn’t know because I got a 14 on a payment plan (locked to Verizon) because it ended up being cheaper with all the plan-specific discounts. My phone only ends up costing me $200 because it’s $5 monthly for 36 months 😅 vs $1,200 upfront for the same configuration. Maybe someone in the thread has an unlocked 14?