[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] vindy1099:
Thank for replying shadow. The phone is renewed (which I take to mean it was factory reset). You are right in that it may not have been the unlocking of the previous phone that caused me problems but what I did afterwards when trying to root it, and likely flashing the wrong ROM to it. The command "fastboot getvar all" when executed on the phone I am now using yields the following:

(bootloader) version: 0.5

(bootloader) version-bootloader: moto-msm8920-B9.4A

(bootloader) product: james

(bootloader) board: james

(bootloader) secure: yes

(bootloader) hwrev: P3

(bootloader) radio: 9

(bootloader) storage-type: emmc

(bootloader) emmc: 16GB SAMSUNG QE63MB RV=08 PV=03 FV=0000000000000003

(bootloader) ram: 2GB SAMSUNG LP3 DIE=8Gb M5=01 M6=06 M7=00 M8=1F

(bootloader) cpu: MSM8920

(bootloader) serialno: ZY323GTQV8

(bootloader) cid: 0x0001

(bootloader) channelid: 0x84

(bootloader) uid: 854514E600000000000000000000

(bootloader) securestate: oem_locked

(bootloader) iswarrantyvoid: no

(bootloader) max-download-size: 535822336

(bootloader) reason: Reboot mode set to fastboot

(bootloader) imei: 359542090844190

(bootloader) meid:

(bootloader) date: 11-23-2018

(bootloader) sku: XT1921-2

(bootloader) carrier_sku: 6798BB

(bootloader) battid:

(bootloader) iccid: 89014103271819071604

(bootloader) cust_md5:

(bootloader) max-sparse-size: 268435456

(bootloader) current-time:

(bootloader) ro.build.fingerprint[0]: motorola/james_a/james:8.0.0/OCPS2

(bootloader) ro.build.fingerprint[1]: 7.91-157-15/16:user/release-keys

(bootloader) poweroffalarm: 0

(bootloader) ro.build.version.full[0]: Blur_Version.27.301.16.james_a.a.

(bootloader) ro.build.version.full[1]: en.US

(bootloader) ro.build.version.qcom: LA.UM.6.6.r1-04400-89xx.0

(bootloader) version-baseband: M8920_21.11.11.63.02R JAMES_NA_ATT_CUST

(bootloader) kernel.version[0]: Linux version 3.18.71-perf-gb838762-0007

(bootloader) kernel.version[1]: 1-g3aa9cf9 (hudsoncm@ilclbld70) (gcc ver

(bootloader) kernel.version[2]: sion 4.8 (GCC) ) #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jul

(bootloader) kernel.version[3]: 12 02:30:49 CDT 2019

(bootloader) sbl1.git: git=MBM-NG-VB9.4A-0-g8ffb6ee

(bootloader) rpm.git: git=02a0726-dirty

(bootloader) tz.git: git=083cf5f-dirty

(bootloader) devcfg.git: git=083cf5f-dirty

(bootloader) keymaster.git: git=083cf5f

(bootloader) cmnlib.git: git=083cf5f

(bootloader) cmnlib64.git: git=083cf5f

(bootloader) prov.git: git=083cf5f-dirty

(bootloader) aboot.git: git=MBM-NG-VB9.4A-0-g4e376e8

(bootloader) frp-state: no protection (77)

(bootloader) ro.carrier: att

(bootloader) current-slot:

(bootloader) slot-suffixes: _a

(bootloader) slot-count: 1

(bootloader) slot-successful:_a: INVALID

(bootloader) slot-successful:_b: INVALID

(bootloader) slot-bootable:_a: INVALID

(bootloader) slot-bootable:_b: INVALID

(bootloader) slot-retry-count:_a: unknown

(bootloader) slot-retry-count:_b: unknown

all: listed above

finished. total time: 0.396s

Any advice you may have would be good. I don't want to make another attempt at rooting until I am confident I have instructions I can follow to the letter and that I am highly confident are correct for my model phone (carrier issues considered). I will try to get this thread where you pointed me to in the xda fourms. I know reposting questions is frowned upon and I have never moved a thread before, but I should be able to figure it out. Thank you for your suggestions.