I've got a G5 that was supposed to be unlocked, but actually wasn't because the Orange shop had an clueless clerk.

I put in a new nanoSIM an it asked for a code. I input the PIN of the SIM and it wasn't right. After about 6 retries I called my carrier Vodafone, hey what's going on? They said it's all right if I block the SIM, they'll unblock it, go on.

Except that the phone wasn't asking for the SIM PIN, but for the network unlock code.

I didn't understand that, because I wasn't expecting anything of the sort. I just thought that newer phones have a different word for PIN, whatever. I had a coworker with me when doing this, we both had a brain malfunction and used up all the 10 retries.

Orange Service told me that the baseboard is permanently locked and cannot be reflashed, but must be replaced for $200.

Is that true? Perfectly working hardware has to be replaced because of wrong data input? What kind of colossal paranoid made this design decision? Is it because of the carrier (Orange) or because of LG?