iPhone 7 purchase, why carrier info?

[wonko33]

Why does Apple ask for carrier info when I buy a phone with an Apple Upgrade program or even when I pay full price.

I have no contract, this is an unlocked phone, the carrier I am currently with is irrelevant. I could buy the phone and be on a different carrier before it even gets here.

All I need is the phone, I can just put the sim card in and be done, is it just so verizon can charge me an upgrade fee of 20$? Upgrade what? They had nothing to do with it and had nothing to do.

I thought we were finally out from under the thumb of the carriers and their ridiculous upgrade procedures.

On top of it they won't ship it to me because my Verizon billing address is a PO box. That is the stupidest part of it, I pay them with a credit card under my name, use an apple account under my name (that account is as old as 2008 I believe) I want it shipped to an address in that account, same address that they shipped other merchandise to me for years! This is like buying a TV but Panasonic won't ship it because my Comcast billing address is a Po box, who cares? The whole thing is just ridiculous....

 

[IGotOne]

Because they want to minimize overseas scalping. If you could buy an unlocked iPhone for $799 US when it's effectively $849 due to exchange rates (or more) in the country of the end user, they want that extra money.

If you are a customer of one of the major 4, you face no problem but the minor inconvenience of putting in your information.

If you're not, they have decided they don't want to sell to you. You can buy directly from your carrier, or buy secondhand unlocked, and no extra information is needed.

But directly from Apple? They want to know you're not abusing their overseas pricing model(s)
[doublepost=1507161999][/doublepost]Oh, and the PO box thing is common among MANY retailers for higher priced goods.

They want a physical address to confirm this isn't fraud, and also to enhance their signature delivery required protections. PO boxes are the most common method used for mail fraud, because they cant catch the thief unless the thief comes to the box... at a physical address it's obviously different.