Its a shame this had to happen.
Good to know about the lockout for other users though, if they are planning to upgrade.
Unfortunately, this isnt the first time that I have seen/heard this, discrepancies between the stores and online.
Sometimes, only one has access to one thing and not the other.
And like you experienced, with a non corporate store, there can be even more sometimes.
Unfortunately, this can also be the case with BELL. Happened to me, mind you this was like 10+ years ago, but same sort of thing.. promised one thing on the phone, which the smaller non corporate store could not do.
If you do happen to switch, I would recommend going specifically to a corporate bell store, just to be sure/safest.