Having never owned an iPhone how do you know when your phone has been blacklisted? Is there an on-screen message?
Seems odd as you bought this direct from Apple, I've only ever heard of phones being blacklisted if you've bought from a carrier and your account was closed due to something like not paying your bill for several months or you reported it stolen.
Is it possible cutting your SIM might've messed it up? An incorrect cut might work for a bit but if it's not exact then a bump could jar it just out of position enough to make things no longer work or (worse) intermittently work.
I do know there's sites that claim to tell you if your device is actually blacklisted and some that claim they will un-blacklist too but I've never used any of those (never had a phone blacklisted), I only add that for information but I'd be leery of any third-party site where you submit your IMEI.
Can you contact Apple?
Please update this thread as I (and probably others) would find the resolution interesting. 🙂 Good luck!
