Yup, bought full retail online and no SIM. Had to go to the store AND ask to be provisioned on the LTE plan before LTE would work. Works great now though :S
I got mine and got no SIM either. I had to use the one from my iPhone 4. I called and got the phone switched using that SIM. NO Issues and LTE works great.
I got one too. I'm little annoyed that they opened the box and installed it before shipping. I guess they want to avoid people not being able to figure out how to install a sim.
Not trying to be brick here, but North Americans really do seem to be absolutely clueless about SIM's.
I could not ever see that happening in Europe. Somebody would open a box and install a SIM for you.
It's too bad because it's the unlocked market that drivers the operator competition. There being another option so operators can't example tell you what phones you can buy.