Metro PCS cannot activate my Galaxy (originally Verizon) phone, what could the problem be?

[AC Question]

Metropcs cannot activate my Galaxy (originally verizon) phone

I bought a galaxy S* phone online (verizon unlocked). I had cricket wireless on it for one year. Then I deactivated cricket account about 6 months ago. I took my phone to metropcs store yesterday. They said "your phone is locked". So I called Cricket and they said it was BYOD, so they don't lock it. Then metropcs said prolly verizon locked it (which is unlikely because I was using cricket for 1 year) but i called verizon for grins sake and they said that 4G devices are unlocked and they don't show my phone as locked device (they can unlock only if it is active on their network).
So why was metropcs not able to put their SIM card and "activate" my phone. The phone didn't activate but it didn't necessarily say "device is locked". It was just a conjecture on part of the salesgirl (who appeared to be least interested in her job!!

 

[Rukbat]

You say S* phone. That * is important. If the phone is old enough, it's either CDMA or GSM, it's not both (newer phones are). So if it's an older CDMA phone, Metro can't activate it because it doesn't have the technology to connect to their network. (It's kind of like receiving FM stations on an AM radio - not close, but kinda [sorry, there's no close analogy].) If that's the case, the best you can do is swap it for a GSM version or sell it and buy a GSM version.

(The other possibility is that it was never on MetroPCS. They only allow their phones on their network, as far as I know.)