Is this violating public accomondation codes?

[Cynthia]

Person A, a Chinese citizen in the United States on  F-1 visa, attempted to purchase an AT&T prepaid sim card.
Person B, the salesperson at the AT&T store, refused to sell to person A a prepaid sim card.
Person B cited the reason for refusing service as "the phone was purchased in China".

This happened in New York state around my local community. At first I thought this is a discrimination based on person A's national origin, but I might have touched upon a gray area that whether the phone's origin is an implication of the person's national origin or such implication does not exist.

Me personally think it does, but I want your opinions.

Edit: It's an unlocked phone certified for usage in the USA and there is no observable difference between the same model of the phone purchased in China and USA.

[pbrower2a]

No. A company has a right to refuse to service grey-market items. A cell phone sold in China may not be licensed for use outside of China, so an American tourist who bought the phone in China would have the same problem in the USA.

The purpose may be to ensure that people in the USA pay above-world-market prices for what they get in America even if it was manufactured elsewhere, but that is the new model of American capitalism (especially in pharmaceuticals).  Pay the price or do without even if it kills you.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

While it may be the same phone physically on the outside, it probably can't use AT&T's frequency bands. Indeed that would be true for any Chinese phone on any U.S. (or European) carrier unless it was a more expensive global phone able to support the networks in multiple regions.

[Koharu]

Violating accommodation codes would be refusing to use an interpreter to speak with her, or not having wheelchair accessible entrances if she were in a wheelchair. In this situation, there are generally actual physical differences in electronics bought in different countries, and the store employee was actually trying to save her money. If the employee had allowed her to buy the sim card, she would have found that it didn't work and likely wouldn't have been able to return it, either.

[Cynthia]

Edit: It's a phone purchased in China, not a phone made by a Chinese company. It's the exact same model of the same phone sold in the USA.

[Indy Texas]

They wouldn't sell the SIM card because the phone was purchased in China.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the national origin or visa status of the customer.

If I went to China, bought a phone and then came back here and tried to do that, they'd tell me the same thing.

[Devout Centrist]

No

[Badger]

No

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Edit: It's a phone purchased in China, not a phone made by a Chinese company. It's the exact same model of the same phone sold in the USA.

Just because it's the same model doesn't mean it can access the same frequency bands. China, North America, and Europe all use different frequency bands.