bought phone in another country and now its sim locked for some reason?

You bought it used. AT&T won’t unlock it until it meets the requirements. Only the original owner can do that. 

Get a refund this has nothing to do with AT&T. 

Moving to the wireless forum

I have to agree with @Constructive . If you purchase the phone online and it suddenly became locked, it was probably hacked to appear unlocked when you first bought it. Contact the seller. If they can't fix it, then insist on getting your money back.

Dear, @Constructive and @formerlyknownas 

The previous phone carrier this phone was bought from is AT&T, they put a carrier lock on the device and theyre the only ones who can unlock it right now due to the fact that this phone was bought from them, so like if i could talk to an employee and ask them what is needed to be done then maybe something happens. i talked to apple and they told me i need to contact AT&T because theyre the only ones who can fix and remove this, even they can’t do anything until AT&T does something.

and it was unlocked but for some odd reason restoring the software made it “lock” again, which i dont understand how that works, all i know is this phone was bought brand new from AT&T and they put a carrier lock on it and now i can’t return it to the seller because they wont reply to me and im a college student and i spent like 1300 dollars on this and i dont know what to do with this husk of a phone now :(. i just want to talk to a customer representative i know they can fix this problem, idk how to do that they need weird accounts to login from first and whatnot and i can’t get around it, so please help me i genuinely need assistance.

@Constructive What if the original owner wont reply to my msgs now what am i supposed to do….can’t i meet the requirements myself?

The seller not replying to you should give you the answer. You got scammed by the seller. There is not anything AT&T can do. 

Posted by @Constructive:

"You bought it used. AT&T won’t unlock it until it meets the requirements. Only the original owner can do that."

You can request the unlock yourself. As for meeting the unlock requirements, there is nothing you can do about that. The main requirements are that it is paid off, which only the original owner can do and it met the minimum usage on ATT. The seller not responding problem means not paid off.

I assure you we understand the problem. You are not the first person to get scammed by somebody selling a second-hand or new AT&T phone that was stolen, hacked and sold outside the USA to assure you can't do anything.

   But you can if you bought from eBay or swappa.   Both eBay and swappa guarantee your sale. You can open up their help function and get them to advocate for you. They will get your money back from the seller until the seller complies with either a refund and return, or unlocking the phone for you.