Straght Talk/Walmart Walmart Permanently lock your phone if you change carriers Atlanta Nationwide

I was a straight talk customer for almost one year less 3 days. I had problems with both the phone I purchased from them and the service the entire time. I finally switched carriers in January after having no success with locating a seconds worth of customer service. My screen on my new phone was just shattered when a dog knocked it out of my hand. So I was trying to use my old phone which I paid full price for from straight talk/walmart until I could afford to replace my broken phone. I contacted straight talk and the first person told  me I would lose all of my data and contacts because she would have to reset my phone back to factory settings in order to provide me with a un-lock code to use my phone with my new carrier. I told her I wanted to record my contacts and I would then call back.

 

When I called back of course I got another unpleasant foreign clerk who after taking some information informed me that because I did not have my service with straight talk for a full year ( I was short 3 days) that they would not unlock my phone even though I had never been told of this so called policy before. The lady was very rude and clearly was not happy that I was using another carrier. How is this company allowed to prevent me from ever using my phone again because I cancelled my service with them after 362 days of problems. There needs to be more regulating of these companies and better consumer protection.