Unlocking Iphone 12

I have an iPhone 12 that I have been attempting to unlock for a week now. I submitted an unlock request which was approved by AT & T and I received a confirmation email that my phone was able to be unlocked and next steps to setting up my new SIM. My phone however, was not unlocked. I restarted it, synced to iCloud and reloaded, as well as did a system reset. Still nothing. I tried to submit another request several times over the past several days and each time it tells me I have tried too many times to unlock the device in the last 24 hours and will not let be start an unlock request, despite having submitted only one request almost a week ago. There is nothing wrong with the account or info, and I am unable to reach any kind of customer support to help this.  Can someone from AT & T help me with this? How this ok to happen to a phone that was purchased and the account was paid off etc. etc., for me to not be able to even get it unlocked?