Originally Posted by der_saeufer

The SIM not registering properly in Colombia appears to be an issue of compliance with a Colombian legal requirement. It's not realistic to expect the manufacturer to comply with a (rather strange and unique) Colombian legal requirement for a device labelled and intended for sale in the United States and sold through an American retailer. Even countries with very strict registration requirements for mobile plans generally don't care about the IMEI of the device.

Apple has an even more fun issue, where they sell iPhones with the exact same model number with and without CDMA radios. My European iPhone SE is model A1723 just like the one Sprint sells, but it will not work on Sprint because it has no CDMA. At least Motorola has the decency to change the model number.

As for 3rd party sellers, I meant Marketplace sellers on Amazon--while I'd be comfortable ordering the phone "ships from and sold by Amazon.com", I wouldn't order from a Marketplace seller unless the model number was specified. I've had great experiences with B&H as well, so given the choice (and a UPS-deliverable address), I agree with you on buying from them rather than lining Bezos' pockets.