iPhone Activation Issues

[tethead]

i am a current Cingular/AT&T customer. i've got a discount on my account as a business associate, though i have a personal plan, a FamilyTalk 500 with 2 lines. one line, before my purchase of 2 iPhones today, was out of contract, the other had a newer phone about 7 months old, so had a lot left on the contact. both numbers activated on iPhones, one at 7pm EST, the other at around 7:30pm EST. on the second screen of the activation process, it warned me that any discounts on my account would not be applicable, so it said that it would remove any discounts before we could continue. i clicked continue. completed activation, and received a notification as the last step: "Your activation requires additional time to complete. You will receive an email confirmation sent to [your email] once your activation is complete." Received an email a minute later to similar effect. within 2 minutes, my old phones stopped working. i thought i was good to go...

it is now 11:45pm EST and now subsequent email from AT&T nor Apple have been received.

now, i have talked to AT&T about this very issue earlier this week, even today. i explained exactly what my plan was. when i call, i call the 800-331-0500 number and it puts me thru to Business Care once i enter my phone number, so you are right in that they do make your account a business account. fine, i explained that to the rep, they agreed that they believed my account was in the same standing, and i was ASSURED that when i activated thru iTunes today, the system has been programmed to recognize that and will automatically do exactly what it did. it notified me, as i described above, and i thought it would progress as expected.

after calling AT&T about an hour ago, waiting 20 minutes on hold, they immediately say they don't do iPhone support, transferring me to Apple. "hello this is iPod support." "help me." "umm, yeah. we don't do iPhone support, this is the iPod department." transfer to iPhone department. after 15 minutes on hold, after explaining all of the above, and about 10 minutes total on hold, i was eventually told that all was OK, but to expect 1-6 hours to transfer a number. i kept insisting that they understand i am a current AT&T customer and am not needing to transfer my number from anywhere, and that i've heard many reports of people even transferring from another carrier faster than this is taking me. they keep insisting that all will be well within 1-6 hours, that some issues with billing have to be approved by an administrator.

so i wait... i have been on hold with the business iPhone activation for about an hour & 45 minutes. hopefully i get through soon and something can happen tonight, because if i don't have a phone before Monday at 9am EST, some heads are going to fly.

any one have any advice/heavy prescription meds/absynth?

[rcyoung]

From feedback received so far, I'd say things are going as I expected...activation delays, AT&T is overwhelmed, and AT&T did a poor job of making several issues (credit issues, number xfers, etc) really "visible & fully explained" to those going in.

They probably picked late Friday as the roll out just to help smooth out some of the issues like these...people are more likely to tolerate problems on a long (non-work) weekend than in the middle of the business week.

Unfortunately, it will probably drive my Apple stock down on Monday in response to a typical knee jerk reaction

[SpAwN666]

Strange issue here, I tried to plug my iPhone in and it attempted to let me create an new account (Activate Wizard), but I was doing this right when everyone else was and after the first screen it crashed iTunes.

Now, when I plug my phone in, it brings me to the sync screen and lets my sync my contacts, songs, etc.. To me it seems like the iPhone thinks it activated but its not really activated. When I turn on the phone, I can get right to the main screen and use all the apps, I just have no AT&T account. Anyone have this issue and know how to get back to the screen so I can actually activate?

Thanks.

[ceo2025]

I went to the Apple store today with an employees & bought 4 phones for me & my 3 employs. Tried to activate them. iTunes says I can not activate them because I have a business account. So I called AT&T and they said the iPhone will not work with Business accounts. My business pays my phone bill as well as my 3 employees. They told me my employees would either have to create a new account and pay there own bill (why would they want 2 phones) or they could transfer service but would have to be billed to there personal credit card because they would be personal accounts and also would charge me early disconnection fee!!! I can not have my employees pay there own phone bills when a they make business calls all day plus I need it on my company credit card for tax purposes.

Looks like I will have to return the phone.
I bet Apple has a restocking fee!!!:mad:

[TheSlush]

During my iPhone activation, on the "iTunes Account" screen where it asks for my account name and password, it won't let me sign in. Instead it gives me this strange red error message: "This person record requires harvesting."

But when I log in through the iTunes Store (with no problems) it shows that all my information is complete, accurate, and up-to-date.

So what gives?? Anybody?? :confused:

[9th-Elevation-C]

Hey,
Me too! 6 minutes to find out that it will take 24hrs??? Whats up with this?
You're Killing Me! :confused:

[dukeblue91]

only 4 min hold time, ha. he said it's an iTunes problem, passing the buck? also, 24 hour guarantee of service, MAYBE earlier. kept saying unexpected high volume of activations, NO, unprepared for expected high volume of activations. I asked for credit for phone down time as well, we're paying for maybe one full day of phone service that we aren't getting. He put in the request, have to check my next bill.

Ha thats it?
I just got of the phone with a girl from at&t and she was really nice and after I was done bitching for having to wait over 4 hours now I asked if there was anything she could do to compensate me, being a long time customer and all so she took off my next month bill $80 something bucks :D

So I'm willing to wait a little longer.
I also found out that you will get right through if you take a new number, and than you can port the old one later.

[JellyFish]

I couldn't activate my old number so I got a new one. Which is okay because my old one sucked anyway. lol

[kevinwiz]

After nearly 4 hours.

cool. i am at ease now. now i know that all it is is that you have to wait. thats it. nothing else you can do. but i'm not going to bed until its activated :D

[Jsimon9633]

I have been trying since 7pm

Its now midnight here

yay no email but the one that is from itunes saying its now in process :/

[imationx]

Ha thats it?
I just got of the phone with a girl from at&t and she was really nice and after I was done bitching for having to wait over 4 hours now I asked if there was anything she could do to compensate me, being a long time customer and all so she took off my next month bill $80 something bucks :D

So I'm willing to wait a little longer.
I also found out that you will get right through if you take a new number, and than you can port the old one later.

how do you take a new number and then port later?

[Lazernet]

how do you take a new number and then port later?

I don't believe it is the porting that matters/is causing the slowness. I think in general something between Apple and AT&T are bogged down... OR plain AT&T is overloaded with activation requests...

First comes activation... then later, porting (a day or so)...

- Eric

[dusigns]

how do i take out the sim from the iphone?

Take a straightened paper clip to the itty-bitty hole at the top of the iphone near the headphone jack.

It takes more pressure than you think, but it will pop out.

I tried this method of activation after my existing cingular service went awol, nothing was gained.

...still waiting (mostly) patiently for the email :-)

[Jsimon9633]

Take a straightened paper clip to the itty-bitty hole at the top of the iphone near the headphone jack.

It takes more pressure than you think, but it will pop out.

I tried this method of activation after my existing cingular service went awol, nothing was gained.

...still waiting (mostly) patiently for the email :-)

Same just did that and yah didnt do a damn thing

[msizzle64]

Whet i was all finished with my activation, at the very end, itunes said that i needed a pre approval from AT&T. So i went to AT&T and they approved it. so they just said to retry and put in my social security number. but now when i try to transfer my number, itunes says that it cant be transfered.

Please Help!:apple:

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w86/msizzle64/Picture1-24.png

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w86/msizzle64/Picture2-10.png

[bignumbers]

Now got the "needs more time" message. Will try later!

I connected my iPhone about an hour after seeing this message (was still at the mall when attempting the signup, then drove home). Said I was activated. All is working dandy.

Purchase was at 6:30pm ET, signup attempted around 7pm, confirmed complete and working around 8:30pm. Not really bad for their first night.

[saturnino3]

has anyone tried putting their current AT&T SIM card you had from your previous phone into their new iPhone?

[glxyjones]

Ok, I tried this after another user posted it...

Try disconnecting your iPhone and then reconnecting it. After doing this, I received a message like "Congratulations, AT&T is activating your iPhone" in itunes. At which point I thought I was still stuck, but then like 30 seconds later I got the "Your iPhone is activated" message on my iPhone.

Now I'm activated and good to go :)

EDIT: Just a note, I was waiting for 4 hours before I tried this.

[Jsimon9633]

Ok, I tried this after another user posted it...

Try disconnecting your iPhone and then reconnecting it. After doing this, I received a message like "Congratulations, AT&T is activating your iPhone" in itunes. At which point I thought I was still stuck, but then like 30 seconds later I got the "Your iPhone is activated" message on my iPhone.

Now I'm activated and good to go :)


what was your status before?

mine says your activation requires additional time to complete

[HA5TY]

OHH ****!! I just unplugged my iPhone by accident! What do I do!!!:eek:

[jrjazzman]

I got the same message. I ended up creating a new account.

Still waiting for activation after 4 hours. Switching from T-Mobile

During my iPhone activation, on the "iTunes Account" screen where it asks for my account name and password, it won't let me sign in. Instead it gives me this strange red error message: "This person record requires harvesting."

But when I log in through the iTunes Store (with no problems) it shows that all my information is complete, accurate, and up-to-date.

So what gives?? Anybody?? :confused:

[dhowin]

I got the we need more time message too. So, I'm waiting on THE EMAIL so I can finish activation. I did call to ask about how long and they answered in one ring! The woman on the phone didn't know much, but I was quite pleased to not wait on hold. She thinks mine is taking longer because of the number transfer. I've still got one more phone to add on the family plan, which I apparently have to wait on the first one before moving onto the second. Anywone else do a family plan activation yet?

[v-ault]

I'm at the final step of the at&t confirmation. It's been 20 minutes and no email arrived. Is this unusual?

[SteveM8]

I got two phones. One for me and one for my wife. We are transferring from Verizon and I plugged mine in to my macbook pro and fired up Itunes. Went thorugh the screens, chose the family plan and that I wanted to activate more than one phone. After 10 minutes it gave a message that they needed more time. No other options to plug in phone#2 so I plugged it in anyway and went through the same process.

Same thing. 2 hours later the phones are not activated and they are useless. I called AT&T and they said they are getting a ton of complaints but have no idea why this is happening! She also told me I created TWO family plan accts at $100 each!

I told her I wanted one and both phones to be on it. After 90 minutes on the phone (I am still on the phone with her, on hold) she said they can merge it to one acct, but as far as the activation goes, she has no idea. She called Apple and they had no idea. I guess we just have to wait 24 hours!

WHAT A JOKE

[Peel]

As far as I know, I think this applies only to previous AT&T/Cingular customers...

To activate your iPhone you have to do this...

1. Make sure you original phone is off (take the battery out just to make sure). If it's on, then your iPhone will not activate.

2. After the old phone is off, take the SIM card out of the new iPhone and wait one minute before re-inserting.

3. Re-insert SIM back into iPhone, Wait a moment and you should get a free text message indicating activation.

I just activated two iPhones with the above procedure. You also have to make sure you get an email from AT&T saying that you new iPhone is activated.

Good Luck!
Well, I tried your voodoo, but it didn't work for me :( So a-waiting I shall continue.

[Jsimon9633]

I got the we need more time message too. So, I'm waiting on THE EMAIL so I can finish activation. I did call to ask about how long and they answered in one ring! The woman on the phone didn't know much, but I was quite pleased to not wait on hold. She thinks mine is taking longer because of the number transfer. I've still got one more phone to add on the family plan, which I apparently have to wait on the first one before moving onto the second. Anywone else do a family plan activation yet?


thats the thing

mine is a STRAIGHT up upgrade from my cingular 8125

there is nothing complicated yet this crap is happening

f it imma go to sleep if i get up and it aint activated im going to be real angry

[Lazernet]

Ok, I tried this after another user posted it...

Try disconnecting your iPhone and then reconnecting it. After doing this, I received a message like "Congratulations, AT&T is activating your iPhone" in itunes. At which point I thought I was still stuck, but then like 30 seconds later I got the "Your iPhone is activated" message on my iPhone.

Now I'm activated and good to go :)

EDIT: Just a note, I was waiting for 4 hours before I tried this.

Tried this... I'm hitting the 5 hour mark and didn't do anything for me...

- Eric

[powerbook911]

my phone says it will take extsra time to activate? Anyone else?

[HA5TY]

I got the we need more time message too. So, I'm waiting on THE EMAIL so I can finish activation. I did call to ask about how long and they answered in one ring! The woman on the phone didn't know much, but I was quite pleased to not wait on hold. She thinks mine is taking longer because of the number transfer. I've still got one more phone to add on the family plan, which I apparently have to wait on the first one before moving onto the second. Anywone else do a family plan activation yet?

Shes lieing I've been with Cingular since 1991 and I've been waiting over 5 hours

[refulgentis]

Has anyone from Verizon gotten their iPhone working yet?

[TheSlush]

Re: iTunes "Harvesting" Sign-in Error Message?

I got the same message. I ended up creating a new account.

Idealist that I am, I am resisting the idea of creating a new account. I would prefer to have one, tidy, unified iTunes account with one login name and one password and all the communication comes to the same place.

I'm worried that there's something wrong with my current account (obviously) and I'm afraid of creating multiple accounts and thereby multiplying the problem.

[docal97]

I'm at 3 hours at 7 minutes since i got the original email stating that i needed to wait for the final activation email.

I'm going to bed now. I can't stay up any longer waiting for this thing to turn on.

Really a disappointment to wait all these months for this thing, all the hype, all the excitement leading up to launch day, and VERY FEW people can actually use their devices.

Apple knew generally how many of these things they were releasing. So did AT&T. I'm sure they could have done a test on their system BEFORE tonight so that things went smoothly at launch. I guess that they didn't. Probably more the fault of AT&T than Apple.

What a total disaster for Apple/AT&T tonight.

[bman17]

First I waited at the AT&T store. They ran out. So ran over to Apple and waited for 2 hours and bingo got 2 8g units. Run home to activate and now waiting again. About 3 hours at this point. It would be nice/fun if they had some sort of training game on the unit to play with while I wait. Just keep playing with that same slider. Its been 3 hours so the slider is a bit less impressive now. I'm ready to move on.

[clayk]

Wow!!! Just checked back. I had success so it works for some people. I set up new service transferring and porting a number from Alltel. Total process took 5 minutes. I started a sync and had a message that the port was complete before the sync finished. The phone (So far) work great.

Hope everyone has better luck. There should be a poll on how the process went for everyone

Clay

[Lazernet]

First I waited at the AT&T store. They ran out. So ran over to Apple and waited for 2 hours and bingo got 2 8g units. Run home to activate and now waiting again. About 3 hours at this point. It would be nice/fun if they had some sort of training game on the unit to play with while I wait. Just keep playing with that same slider. Its been 3 hours so the slider is a bit less impressive now. I'm ready to move on.

Actually, the slider is the game. Once you do it about 1000 times you get a Palm-type of easter egg appearing on the screen... I'm just kidding ;-)...

Still anxiously awaiting my phone to work...

- Eric

[pkananen]

i ported a tmobile number. took 30 minutes to get activation complete and new number working. this was about 4 hours ago.

[jameskk]

a little good news to cheer some of you up!!

My phone that I tried activated over 5 hours ago still has not activated, but my wife's phone (same account, same activation process) finally just lit up and said Phone Activated... it is not syncing with itunes. I don't know why mine still hasn't activated but at least I now have some hope!

btw - existing cingular customer on family plan.

[Peace]

Wow!!! Just checked back. I had success so it works for some people. I set up new service transferring and porting a number from Alltel. Total process took 5 minutes. I started a sync and had a message that the port was complete before the sync finished. The phone (So far) work great.

Hope everyone has better luck. There should be a poll on how the process went for everyone

Clay

I dont understand.Are you saying you used a different cell phone number a second time?

[hamedatl]

Alright, I hit the 6 hour mark, and my phone is STILL not activated. I called AT&T and the lady refused to check my account. She said if I got the email then it should be processing and it takes between 2-24 hours. They say it is because they are overloaded, but I'm guessing they have no clue whats going on. They shouldn't sell the phones if they can't handle a stupid activation.

[runninmac]

This worries me! I really want to keep my number, why are a lot of people having to switch numbers? I thought legally telco's had to give you the option of keeping numbers?

[HaroldC]

I know people are having issues with long waiting periods after they sign on. I have a different problem:

iTunes won't even connect to the activation site. It claims the site is too busy and I should try back later

http://members.roadfly.com/haroldc/activation.jpg

Is anyone else having this issue?

[ladeer]

Thankfully my process was a breeze. After hearing all these scary stories, I was expecting the same problem to show up. But no, I upgraded from ATT blackberry plan and it went through without any problem. My original phone was on too, then it got a message saying, "congratulation on getting a blackberry or something like that." Lol, then a minute later it showed "sim card rejected." Then my iPhone also showed up congratulation balahbalah your iphoen is activated...

[xckid87]

Has anyone from Verizon gotten their iPhone working yet?

well im porting my verizon number over but first said i needed a credit check code, then i started over and now i got the e-mail confirmation soon thing...we'll see

[refulgentis]

5 hour 4 min mark, porting from verizon, i still can't sync the phone or anything

should I call? dunno

[kuyu]

ACTIVATED!!!!

It took 3.5 hours....

be patient. it will work.

[beate]

Well I have to wait until tomorrow cuz I have a business account. They're going to make me change to a personal account - my social, etc. I can handle that but really need the bus name to show up on calls...not my name - grrrrrr

ATT rep said no big deal waiting until tomorrow as everyone else has to wait 6 hours anyway - that is the backlog. So congrats to you guys that are completing in less time than that!

[Jsimon9633]

Gluck guys I hope we all wake up and our phones are activated...ridiculous stuff.

[illegalprelude]

ok this is retarded. Im just sitting here. the iPhone is stairing at me and I cant do a damn thing. Im waiting for an email from them to activate my phone and I know its not my freaking credit or money issue.

guh!!!

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Have Verizon - Not activated. Got the "24 Hour" message in my email.

Meh. I should have bought 600 dollars worth of (#*$ing coffee instead. This is what I get for jumping on shiny things.

[refulgentis]

Have Verizon - Not activated. Got the "24 Hour" message in my email.

Meh. I should have bought 600 dollars worth of (#*$ing coffee instead. This is what I get for jumping on shiny things.
how long ago did you get the e-mail?

[fireworks501]

at 3 hours and nothing............... this is frustrating

[PhatBoyG]

I know people are having issues with long waiting periods after they sign on. I have a different problem:

iTunes won't even connect to the activation site. It claims the site is too busy and I should try back later
..snip..
Is anyone else having this issue?

I just got this same error twice and now it seems to be just sitting there. I'm wondering how long I should wait before I try again.

[Roller]

ok this is retarded. Im just sitting here. the iPhone is stairing at me and I cant do a damn thing. Im waiting for an email from them to activate my phone and I know its not my freaking credit or money issue.

guh!!!

Yup, it sure does spoil what was a great experience up to this point. But it's past 11:30 here and I'm about to give up and get some sleep. I'd better have an activation email in my inbox by the morning, though.

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Got the email 30 minutes after initial ATTEMPTED activation. Attempted Around 12am EST.

[dagger55]

Could we maybe create a thread just for Verzion people who are awaiting the confirmation???

This is too confusing people... I would really like to see Verizon people post when they get the activation email

[HaroldC]

While I'm glad I'm not the only one....... it still sucks!

I've been trying for the past hour, and no luck. Anyone else have this issue and successfully activate?

[/dev/toaster]

Yup, I had the same problem. Now, my phone is in a limbo state ... I can't use it until it activates it self, which AT&T and Apple support both said could take up to 48 hours ... needless to say, I am really annoyed. If I could at least use the other features I would be happy ... I can't do anything on it expect call 911.

[SteveM8]

coming from verizon, 4 hours and nothing!

[smccostlin]

I live in Mojave, CA. Near Bakersfield, and I activated my iPhone in 20 minutes. I have no idea why it did not take hours for me, but I had my old phone off before I activated, and then twenty minutes later it just worked... Hang in there guys...

[elliottgray]

guys, keep unplugging and plugging in your iphone so that the whole 3 minute initialization screen keeps popping up. got it to work after an hour and a half like this.

[applehero]

I didn't have any problems at all. I actually activated in the parking lot of at&t over t-mobile hotspot. It took about 7 mins to activate iPhone and turn off my current phone. No hiccups or glitches, it was smooth as could be. Took about 15 mins to sync up contacts, calendars, music, email, and 1 full movie and 3 TV shows. :D :D :D

[MacMan33]

4 hours nothing port from T Mobile.

[imagineer2000]

anyone have a screenshot?

Bummer, I'm waiting too: :mad:

http://web.mac.com/jheld/activationerror.gif

[ShellyFM]

We just talked to AT&T. They are saying that the backed up e-mails are Apple's fault not theirs. Apple needs to generate a code for the iPhone to make it active.

[bman17]

I'm at 3.5 hours and waiting....

[SpyderFCS]

We just talked to AT&T. They are saying that the backed up e-mails are Apple's fault not theirs. Apple needs to generate a code for the iPhone to make it active.

Haha...sure it is...

[ShellyFM]

ACTIVATED!!!!

It took 3.5 hours....

be patient. it will work.

We're at 4+ hours on one of ours.

[bluecluee]

I know people are having issues with long waiting periods after they sign on. I have a different problem:

iTunes won't even connect to the activation site. It claims the site is too busy and I should try back later


Is anyone else having this issue?



I'm having this same issue.PLEASE let me know if you find a solution

[Jayrod]

I got an email from AT&T that says, "Your phone number transfer requires 24 hours to complete". What garbage!! I don't know who to blame - AT&T or Verizon. I wouldn't be surprised if Verizon was just trying to drag their feet on purpose out of spite. I waited all day in line for this thing, and can't use it till tomorrow! I'm switching from Verizon, by the way.

[thespace12]

Good news for the business accounts, they finally changed the activation process so it allows you to take off your old discount stopping you from activating the phone. So I finally got to the registration screen. So now I'm waiting for the dreaded email. 23 hours to go!!!

Anyway, some feedback for ATT or Apple if they're listening. This whole iTunes activation is somewhat garbage. There are all kinds of configurations going on here that I can't see it simply going through a little iTunes form. ATT needs to have the option of offering activation directly at the store. Activating it from iTunes is poooooooooooooooooooor user experience. My 2 cents, thanks!!!

[geefunk3]

Got my activation email (sent to my JUNK box, as someone else has mentioned earlier) finally after 5 hours of waiting! Oh maannnn....I really want to say that the phone is worth the 18 hours of waiting....but first I need to get some sleep! :D

[skinnylegs]

Color me frustrated.....

I have a business account and I *cannot* transfer my number to the new phone. I'm on hold with at&t but I've been on hold for some time now.

After waiting in line for about 10 hours to be one of the first to get an iPhone, I guess you can say I'm a bit frustrated.

[refulgentis]

Got my activation email (sent to my JUNK box, as someone else has mentioned earlier) finally after 5 hours of waiting! Oh maannnn....I really want to say that the phone is worth the 18 hours of waiting....but first I need to get some sleep! :D
you had verizon?

[macaddiict]

Could someone who has recieved the activation email please post a copy of it (removing your sensitive info, obviously...)

I'm wanting to make sure it doesn't go to my spam folder...

Thanks!

Started activation at 9:15... its now been just shy of 3 hours and no activation yet. Bummer!

[skinnylegs]

Good news for the business accounts, they finally changed the activation process so it allows you to take off your old discount stopping you from activating the phone. ......still isn't working for me.

[refulgentis]

Could someone who has recieved the activation email please post a copy of it (removing your sensitive info, obviously...)

I'm wanting to make sure it doesn't go to my spam folder...

Thanks!

Started activation at 9:15... its now been just shy of 3 hours and no activation yet. Bummer!

i'll be at 6 hours in 25 minutes, ugh

[tethead]

after EXACTLY 2 hours on hold, someone picked up and said exactly what i wanted to hear: "AT&T Business Activation Care"!!!

he sees that the data plan wasn't added properly because i had something called "International Data Roaming" on my account on one line. that held up both lines. i now have 1 active iPhone!!! it is not my line however... mine has been escalated to a high priority IT ticket, because no matter what they tried, they COULD NOT REMOVE THIS FEATURE FROM MY PHONE, and with this feature provisioned on my account, the iPhone data plan could not be added!!!!!

if anyone cannot get through, keep calling tomorrow, as they are getting a lot more working but they just need to talk to you to see if you have an unusual circumstance, like mine. he said there were a lot of issues they expected but didn't have, and a few that they never expected that they have had! so, i'm 1 for 2 so far, and at least i have a single iPhone to play with tonite. YouTube kicks ass on WiFi!

[rek2005]

I'm having major difficulties activating my iPhone.

It tells me the address I'm inputting for my primary place of use isn't the one that I gave when I was pre-approved for credit. The problem is that I didn't give an address at the store. She asked if I was going to use it at home primarily. I said no, and she said that was good because they didn't give service at my house. I told her I was going to use it primarily in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where I'll be going to college in the fall. And she said, "Oh, okay." She never asked for an address.

So I'm stuck in activation limbo. They're telling me I have to go to the store tomorrow. Ugh!

[brewser]

I got the dreaded 24 hour activation when transferring from Verizon. I think they are backloged. Hopefully we will all wake up with activated phones. I sure would like to see some features of this new baby but everything is locked. SOB!!
We will all forget about this later tomorrow. Right? ;-)

[dagger55]

4 and 1/2 hour waiting former verizon customer here...

no dice...


does anyone know a number where i can speak with a HUMAN at verizon???

[TurboPGT]

Going on 6 hrs, nothing :(

[BigPrince]

I was on the phone with ATT Tech support for 3.5 hours. my issue is unresolved & undocumented because there was no number to which it would need to be filed under.

[cdewitt]

anyone with a failure to id existing acount?

[deirdre]

They want both me and my wife to "come in" to an AT&T store because we couldn't get past the check. We have never had to pay deposits or anything, this is BS.

My iPhone is going back tomorrow. Luckily I only had to wait 5 minutes.

FYI, in my case, I had to do this because the name on my credit report isn't my legal name (it's some weird variant that was reported by someone). There wasn't a deposit required.

Now if I could just get the darn activation email (new customer, no transfer or anything).

[xckid87]

still getting the 3 options because i need a credit check pre approved code....ahhhh

[SpyderFCS]

I'm going on 6 hours and I'm not even transferring a number...I just want a new number with a brand new contract (never having been a AT&T customer)...

[Peace]

still getting the 3 options because i need a credit check pre approved code....ahhhh

At what point during "activation" did you get that message?

[iamhammill]

WOW! Never had a thread make it to the front page of Mac Rumors!


I got home from my band's concert tonight to a functional iPhone!


I really wanted to show it off to the crowd though :)

[xckid87]

At what point during "activation" did you get that message?

After the "6 minute" wait

[BurtonCCC]

I feel like such an idiot.

I activated my iPhone first try, no problem.

I noticed that I couldn't drag random song files onto the iPhone. I decided to restore because I do this with most of my brand new Apple products anyway. My iPhone now how to be activated again, but of course now everything's too busy.

Daniel.

[angelbarron]

arrived at the beverly center (in los angeles) 3 hours before iHour, waited in line out on the street, then in/out of the apple store in 10 minutes, got home and started activation using all my existing at&t information, and got that dreaded "wait for activation" email. but after 15 minutes, got the other email, and everything went through...

sorry to all you guys having problems (porting, business accounts, family plans, etc.) but once it's up and running, you'll be as excited as i am!

now i just gotta pick a worthy subset of songs and photos to upload onto my new 8GB iphone! just wondering, did anyone end up with a 4GB after wanting an 8GB? or did anyone intentionally get a 4GB?

[oogje]

Could someone who has recieved the activation email please post a copy of it (removing your sensitive info, obviously...)

I'm wanting to make sure it doesn't go to my spam folder...

Thanks!

...

Agreed. This would be helpful.

Thanks.

[bieser23]

trying to port number from verizon - att screen says unable to port - any ideas?

[Nutzoids]

still getting the 3 options because i need a credit check pre approved code....ahhhh

I'm right there with you... Only my Pre-Approved Code is 14 Digets... iPhone asked for 9, 12, or 13 diget code...

No One Knows What To Do!

:apple:

[killmoms]

I'm with Verizon and am trying to port my number. It's only been two and a half hours since I got the "your activation will take more time" e-mail though, so I'm not freaking out. Figure I'll pack for my flight home tomorrow, and hopefully in the morning I'll have a fully armed and operational battle stati— I mean, iPhone. I know they're overwhelmed with requests, and that the port will take longer than the activation, so.

[TurboPGT]

OMG six hours? are you kidding me.

What is going ON

[MacMan33]

Agreed. This would be helpful.

Thanks.

do you have to hit a link in the email we are all waiting for> thanks

[killmoms]

trying to port number from verizon - att screen says unable to port - any ideas?

If you're trying to port a number that originated from a ZIP code that's different from your current one, you probably need to put the original ZIP code in (even if you're being billed to your new one). That worked for me. Well, it let me continue the process, anyway. I guess I'll find out by tomorrow night if the actual phone number porting process worked.

[illegalprelude]

Yup, it sure does spoil what was a great experience up to this point. But it's past 11:30 here and I'm about to give up and get some sleep. I'd better have an activation email in my inbox by the morning, though.

yea. im just starring at my inbox after sitting in the sun for 3 hours :mad: worst of all, once in the store, it took the dude hour and 15 minutes to get me my damn phone. No exageration. I dunno what he was doing in the back of that AT&T store. Like people behind me got their phone and left and me and my friends were still sitting there

[bieser23]

mine wont let me get past the initial port screen for verizon - any suggestions??

[WillJS]

I got back around 30 minutes after 6PM (CST) and activated in less than 5 minutes. :cool:

Although my texting is the only thing messed up. Nobody can recieve mine and I can't get theirs! :@

[Number41]

I'm going on 6 hours and I'm not even transferring a number...I just want a new number with a brand new contract (never having been a AT&T customer)...

hahaha

poor you...you should an interesting..oh, 2 years. With At&T its more like 20 years.

enjoy the deep pocket search At&T is going to do on you

[bieser23]

"The phone number you entered cannot be transferred." - from verizon - very confused...thoughts?

[/dev/toaster]

"The phone number you entered cannot be transferred." - from verizon - very confused...thoughts?

I ported my number from Verizon ... however, I am stuck on a much later part of the activation process then you.

[mercurious]

I got my iPhone in downtown Brooklyn and started the activation process at around 8:30 pm. I received the "Activation needs more time" email response. At around midnight, I called the support numbers and got to speak with a supervisor fairly easily. They tracked down the problem relating to the conversion of my rate and feature plan. My account was flagged so another department could correct the problem. So, I'm still not activated, but I feel it's worth getting through to the support number to move the process forward. It seems as if the automated conversion process doesn't go as smoothly as hoped. Even if you're an existing Cingular/AT&T customer, it seems as if that doesn't make the process necessarily easy, depending on your existing plan. Perhaps for folks trying to port numbers from other providers are experiencing similar but different delays based on that bureaucracy. Number ports usually take 4 to 24 hours on a usual day, so it's not at all surprising that so many people are having activation issues. It's misleading when Apple makes the user experience so streamlined that it sets up the expectation that everything is going to go smoothly. However, when we've ever dealt with American wireless providers in the past, it's always sucked. I'm just being patient and hope that at some point today the activation will complete and I can get started enjoying this beautiful thing.

My suggestion to all with activation issues is get through to the support numbers and get a supervisor to review your account and flag it for manual conversion, because the automation process was probably too optimistic on the first launch day.

Call 877 800 3701 option 1 and remember you're participating in one of history's most elaborate product launches ever.

American wireless sucks compared to Europe and Asia and hopefully this iPhone thing will help us catch up with the rest of the world in terms of quality and service.

[Tullamore]

I was trying to port from Verizon and now three hours after I got the waiting for activation email I got another email about my number cannot be ported. Now when I try to fill out the form again in iTunes it says I cannot transfer that number.

They must have found a way to tell now which numbers cannot be transferred. Maybe we have to call Verizon to unlock them to be eligible?

[Catgofire]

Just registered for the MacRumors forums. Got the confirmation e-mail in about 5 seconds, and am now happily posting.

My iPhone, however, has been telling me "Activate iPhone - connect to iTunes" for several hours now. I AM CONNECTED TO ITUNES. My activation requires additional time to complete. Every time my e-mail beeps I get so excited. And then :eek: it's not from AT&T or Apple.

Come on! They had "crowd control" at stores, why not online? Didn't AT&T do this a few years ago with mlife? Where they showed a commercial during the Superbowl that just said "go to mlife.com" and then didn't expect people to actually go to mlife.com and the site was down for hours? Seriously guys... the internet is not a truck. Get with the program.

edit -- NEW E-MAIL! Subject: Welcome to Mac Forums! GOD DAMMIT.

edit 2 -- Oh btw... my screen is already oily as hell, and I can't even do anything on it yet except stare at this goddamn globe.

[bch]

I have loaded the new iTunes and I am running Windows 2000 Service Pack4. When I hook up the iPhone, I get a new hardware found message, and then I am asked where to look for the drivers for the new device. I can never get connected. I have searched the web for drivers but can not find anything.

Has anyone had this issue, any resolutions?

Thanks

[dezeinstein]

After reading this thread I feel less frustrated that my Apple store sold out at 8 pm tonight and I was left empty-handed...

;)

[MacMan33]

nada...come On

[TEG]

I know people are having issues with long waiting periods after they sign on. I have a different problem:

iTunes won't even connect to the activation site. It claims the site is too busy and I should try back later

http://members.roadfly.com/haroldc/activation.jpg

Is anyone else having this issue?

Cancel the activation and start again. I just did it and the activation started instantly.

TEG

[TurboPGT]

on the phone with support.........

[MacMyFast]

I got two phones. One for me and one for my wife. We are transferring from Verizon and I plugged mine in to my macbook pro and fired up Itunes. Went thorugh the screens, chose the family plan and that I wanted to activate more than one phone. After 10 minutes it gave a message that they needed more time. No other options to plug in phone#2 so I plugged it in anyway and went through the same process.

Same thing. 2 hours later the phones are not activated and they are useless. I called AT&T and they said they are getting a ton of complaints but have no idea why this is happening! She also told me I created TWO family plan accts at $100 each!

I told her I wanted one and both phones to be on it. After 90 minutes on the phone (I am still on the phone with her, on hold) she said they can merge it to one acct, but as far as the activation goes, she has no idea. She called Apple and they had no idea. I guess we just have to wait 24 hours!

WHAT A JOKE

Same exact issue over here. 2 new phones, two new plans. Verizon won't port the numbers. This sucks!:mad:

[maveness]

Waiting on my activation email. It's ridiculous that we can't even sync things on our very expensive bricks.

Oh the frustration of delayed gratification.

[Furgster]

coming up on 3 hours here

[Catgofire]

I have loaded the new iTunes and I am running Windows 2000 Service Pack4. When I hook up the iPhone, I get a new hardware found message, and then I am asked where to look for the drivers for the new device. I can never get connected. I have searched the web for drivers but can not find anything.

Has anyone had this issue, any resolutions?

Thanks

Yeah, a Mac Mini costs less than your new iPhone (after an AT&T plan). Buy one of those.

I called customer service. I was like "hey, my dad's phone (the account holder) got activated after he called you guys... can you do that to mine?" and the lady (incredibly nice, could tell she was having such a hell of a day with all these idiots like me calling) was like "nah there's just a queue right now... it'll get there eventually..."

I'm guessing with all of the people with actual problems getting pushed to the front of the line, us people with no problems except lack of patience are just stuck at the end. *sigh*

[refulgentis]

7 hours in 11 minutes
this is a ****ing joke

[edgarj]

I'm still on the old AT&T network, which was merged wit Cingular but has remained separate other than billing. I had to migrate to Cingular and get a "orange" plan (the legacy AT&T is called "blue"), and my phone activated after 4hrs but I still have no phone/data service as of now. The WIFI options exclude LEAP encryption too, so I can't access the wifi at work untill they update that aspect (OSX added it years ago). Hopefully I'll get fully activated soon...

[Jeffrey903]

I called AT&T 3 hours ago (after 4 hours of waiting) and was told to wait until 6 hours and them call back and they could try and do something about it. I called back now (after 7 hours since activation total), and was told by a new person that I had to wait until 24 hours before they could do anything. This is such BS. I even told them that I was seriously considering "just bringing the iPhone back tomorrow" and she didn't really care (she wasn't encouraging me, but I thought it would've provoked a bigger "oh no, don't do that, I'll help you now" response).

Going to try again and hopefully I'll get a more helpful person.

[TEG]

I feel for you guys... I had a problem, so I cancelled and started from scratch. Went through the whole process, like all 3.5 minutes of it. Started the activation process, and within 2 minutes, I had a confimation on my iPhone saying I was activated.

Seriously, if you are having any problems, and have not gotten to the "Please wait while we activate your account" screen, turn off your old phone, cancel the iPhone setup and begin again. You'll be happy you did.

TEG

[TurboPGT]

7 hours in 11 minutes
this is a ****ing joke

Its Verizon...they have canaled us.

[bonehead]

I just opened and activated my iPhone in less than 10 minutes. I'm already an AT&T customer (from Cingular) and I set up my plan yesterday so that all I had to do was to add the iPhone data plan. Sorry to hear that others are having such problems.

[macintel4me]

I'm on the phone (on hold actually) with Verizon now. I called at&t and they said that I should be able to make outgoing calls, but just not receive calls for the first 24 hours (20 hours left).

I'd just be happy if I could use it as a bad iPod. :mad: :p

[refulgentis]

Its Verizon...they have canaled us.

i can't even tell at this point
i called the 877-800-3701 e-mail in the email
Woman #1: there's an error, you selected a feature unavailable for the iphone for your plan, so you have to go to the store and fix that.
Me: What feature?
Woman #1: (reads off some message she clearly doesn't understand herself)

I figure "hey thats useless", I'm pissed and figure that *someone* must be able to do something if there really is a problem...
I call 877-419-4500 (number given in iTunes)
Woman #2 doesn't even look up my account, just tells me to wait, I figure there's no sense in arguing with her
I call back and this time say I was referred by Woman #1 to this number, so Woman #3 looks up my account and says everything looks fine, I just have to give it time

So for now, I guess I'll just wait till morning and see what happens.

[TurboPGT]

This is a hell of an iPod shuffle

[refulgentis]

I'm on the phone (on hold actually) with Verizon now. I called at&t and they said that I should be able to make outgoing calls, but just not receive calls for the first 24 hours (20 hours left).

I'd just be happy if I could use it as a bad iPod. :mad: :p

I can somehow get it to play music...if I mess around with the button on the headphones enough, it will start playing music I've synched to it in alphabetical order. Also, magically at one point it showed the proper phone call screen, but that went away because I was so shocked I pressed the home button, hoping it had somehow been activated.

[brazilsmw]

Does anybody else just feel tired of playing with the "slide for emergency" feature???? I have been an apple fan for a long time but seriously, a big thumbs down for apple/AT&T. Not what i expected after waiting in line for so long.

[Anthony8720]

And it was activated immediately. Tri it out. Disconnect then reconnect.

[macintel4me]

I can somehow get it to play music...if I mess around with the button on the headphones enough, it will start playing music I've synched to it in alphabetical order. Also, magically at one point it showed the proper phone call screen, but that went away because I was so shocked I pressed the home button, hoping it had somehow been activated.

Yeah, I can get a phone screen too, but when I try making any call I get the message "Call Failed".

On hold now on Verizon for 20 minutes. I'm officially irritated. So much for "insanely great" experience. It's just insane.

[elgruga]

..we aint got no iphones at all, and I wish I was in the game, even if its kind of screwed up, its exciting.

Sounds like this is due to the complexity of having TWO systems tracking the phone, Apple and ATT.

In the future, maybe the iPhone needs to be sold UNLOCKED, and then you just get a plan from whoever and thats it.
Too much control causes headaches.

If ATT has 1700 stores and Apple has 170, thats a possible total of 250,000 to 500,000 phones in one evening, given 200 or so phones per store.....
Thats some serious activation action!
Thats like ATT selling 100 million to 200 million new plans and phones every year - which would make them the biggest phone co. in the Universe!

Apple may have sold as much as $200 million worth of phones in one evening! Wow.

[brazilsmw]

This is a hell of an iPod shuffle

HAHAHA i just plugged my headphones in and figured out what you were talking about....

[kpezkpez]

I posted earlier... 2 phones... 1 was business the other was a discount (foundation) account which is treated as business.

I called the number below many times. It would not go through for hours, but eventually it did. They were quite good even by my techie standards.

The number is: 866-907-3484... they close at 4am EST... I was on hold for more than an hour before getting through. Thanks to the poster who tipped me off to the number.

In 15 minutes, for the biz account, they did the following which is required:

1) set up a consumer account;
2) ported my biz account number to the consumer account;
3) sat there while I used the new consumer account (with my same old biz account phone number) to get through the registration process.

For the foundation/discount account, they tweaked that until it work too.

It was painful getting to this point and ATT blamed Apple (I don't buy it), but it was a good save all in all.

Good luck everybody.

[macintel4me]

at&t told be to contact Verizon because "Verizon simply needs to release the phone number to be ported". Verizon just told me that "at&t simply needs to contact us to begin the porting process".

iPhone = $800 embarrasement so far

[imagineer2000]

And it was activated immediately. Tri it out. Disconnect then reconnect.

This didn't work for me... disconnect-reconnect and iTunes gave the same screen as before. I restarted iTunes too. :(

[ryckmonster]

I GOT TWO NEW EMAILS!! BUT MORE PROBLEMS!!!!

"Congratulations, AT&T is now transferring your existing mobile number to this iPhone....."

"
Your iPhone may now make outgoing calls but will be unable to receive calls on your existing mobile number until the transfer is complete.

You will receive an email confirmation once your mobile number transfer is complete. If you have not done so already, please connect your iPhone to your computer now to complete this activation (or click here if your iPhone is already connected)."

********!!!


I'm transferring my number from sprint and haven't gotten ****. I've been on the phone with att several times and my number isn't in the system yet... the after 3 holds and 2 transfers, the lady told me to call the number transferring department when they open at 9:30AM......!!!!!

GRRRR


p.s. if you are bored playing with the emergency slider, play with the vibrate/silence switch on top left of iphone

[nevesis]

<--- Switching from Verizon...still waiting from 9:27pm EST till now 2:49pm EST.

No activation, just playing with the emergency slider.

AT&T should have prepared for the volume.

Dissapointing is an understatement.

[Furgster]

approaching 4 hours here :mad:

[refulgentis]

called both number a couple more times...the e-mail number gave me nothing of value the first call, the second call they told me my number hadn't been released to be ported, and i needed to call verizon. tired of the ******** at this point, i decided to just call and ask to get a new number.

i called the itunes number once, they told me they couldn't look up my account if i didn't have a number (blatant lie), called back a second time they told me it was impossible to cancel a port and just get a new number, called back a third time and an extremely helpful lady said basically they're backed up until early am on july 1st at this point, and i should just call back tomorrow when porting is open and see whats open.

8 hours in 20 minutes :golfclap:

[Furgster]

called both number a couple more times...the e-mail number gave me nothing of value the first call, the second call they told me my number hadn't been released to be ported, and i needed to call verizon. tired of the ******** at this point, i decided to just call and ask to get a new number.

i called the itunes number once, they told me they couldn't look up my account if i didn't have a number (blatant lie), called back a second time they told me it was impossible to cancel a port and just get a new number, called back a third time and an extremely helpful lady said basically they're backed up until early am on july 1st at this point, and i should just call back tomorrow when porting is open and see whats open.

8 hours in 20 minutes :golfclap:


JULY 1st!!!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

[ryckmonster]

I can somehow get it to play music...if I mess around with the button on the headphones enough, it will start playing music I've synched to it in alphabetical order. Also, magically at one point it showed the proper phone call screen, but that went away because I was so shocked I pressed the home button, hoping it had somehow been activated.

GOOD CALL, very nice.

Double click goes to next song. Single clicks pause/play. Lol the iBrick Shuffle.

[neolithicvirgo]

How many people hav had luck trying to cancel and retry?

-Andrew

[/dev/toaster]

My girlfriend had a crazy theory ... maybe the AT&T server are doing ok ... but its Verizon's server thats having a heart attack. I thought about it and realized, if that was true they must be ******** them selfs on how many people are bailing up them fast. :D

[refulgentis]

JULY 1st!!!

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

she might have been talking out of her ass, god knows i've heard enough of that today

i couldn't believe the lady who pretended she couldn't look up my account...i had called there 5 other times that night and none of them had trouble, rofl

[elliottgray]

guys, keep unplugging and plugging in your iphone so that the whole 3 minute initialization screen keeps popping up. got it to work after an hour and a half like this.

just reposting my bit of advice. this is what I did when I got the whole "your account needs more time to be verified" thing.

granted, I was not porting my number, so...

[SteveM8]

That all of us verizon switchers will have issues. No one from verizon has successfully activated and switched from what it looks like here. I bet they never get activated because when I call they seem clueless. They told me to reset the phone and they were backed p but it "should of" taken 3 minutes to activate.

If my phones are not activated by tomorrow, they are going back and I will refuse to pay any restock fee as well. This is 100% ridiculous. All of this hype, 9 hour line, and now they are saying 2-3 days for activation?

Give me a break!

[Furgster]

why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

4 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cries.....

:(

:p

[Diode]

Approaching 7 hours ....

No way to contact support either since both phones are "dead"

I'm coming from a business account ... I have a strange feeling I will be without a phone until Monday.

[ryckmonster]

if u drag music from ur itunes library into the iphone, and then use the headphone button to play... go dial an emergency number (which will fail)... (only 911 works)... the music dimms out and u get to another option screen, which only lasts for a second or two.... lol SO SAD.... ACTIVATE ME!!!!!

[Jayrod]

I've just had a breakthrough!!! Like many of you, I have been waiting 6+ hours for activation. I unplugged the iPhone and the dock from my computer, and plugged it in again. This time when I put the iPhone on the dock, I had it in "awake" mode. Before, it had always been asleep. This time, it INSTANTLY activated! This was either brilliant timing, or having the phone awake when plugging in to the computer made a difference. Try it out.

[ryckmonster]

WOAH, i got the music to play out of the speaker!

i kept pushing the mic button as i pulled the headphones out, and got lucky, now i have music playing from my iBrick Shuffle.

[TheAnswer]

People having problems with Verizon...this post is from earlier in the thread, so it might help:

I'm not really patient when I am eager to try something new...Never has that been more true than tonight with the iPhone. Waiting 24 hours for Verizon to cancel my plan wasn't an option. I called AT&T to expedite the process (luckily I got mine fast and called at 6:15 before the insanity). They called Verizon to port the old number to them. Verizon responded that my account number was incorrect and refused to work with them. I called Verizon and discovered that there was a mystery "0" that has never shown up on any statement in front of the account number. I called AT&T and gave them the update. They then quickly activated my phone. I would have never known this if not for calling Verizon. Please call and check for yourself...otherwise it could be more than 24 hours of looking at that brilliantly beautiful iPhone and not using it.

P.S. AT&T has been great thus far and incredibly helpful and professional. Verizon...not so much!!!

Don't know if that will solve everyone's problems, but I figured I'd repost it just in case it helps someone that missed it.

Good Luck!

[Diode]

Just FINALLY GOT MY EMAIL

Seven hours to the dot .... I've got a once AT&T wireless number that was converted to a cingular business account.

Damn finally can play with it ... good luck all.

[RR08EvoX]

Im on a small 4 person business account plan with no added benifts, simply a plan that is exactly the same as a family plan but it is billed through my dads business so he can claim it as an expense. Our plan is considered a "small business" account with ATT.

I bought an iphone today after having been told it would work with our account and now I am totally screwed and have been working for 7 hours on trying to get it activated!

Has anyone figured out what to do about this yet??

[mati]

that verion is giving at&t a hard time to port the numbers. Those who are not taking their old numbers with them do not seem to have any waiting issues. What a weired move of verizon, sprint etc.

[nevesis]

that verion is giving at&t a hard time to port the numbers. Those who are not taking their old numbers with them do not seem to have any waiting issues. What a weired move of verizon, sprint etc.

I agree, and that is ********.

[ostimu]

that verion is giving at&t a hard time to port the numbers. Those who are not taking their old numbers with them do not seem to have any waiting issues. What a weired move of verizon, sprint etc.

You may be right that other carriers are slowing this down, but I'm trying to activate as an existing AT&T customer -- and I've been waiting for over an hour so far, too.

[leefarber]

I have two lines on my account. One of them, my line, is an old AT&T "Blue" (pre-Cingular) charter plan, and the other is my wife's Cingular line that we started a year ago. My account also gets me a business discount of around 20% per month.

I tried to activate mine at around 9pm PST. First I was told I would have to give up my business discount. Fine. Then I was given the "Your activation requires more time to complete" screen and was told to wait for an email. three and a half hours later... nothing.

But when I tried to activate my wife's phone, at 9:10pm PST, it worked almost right away! I'm guessing it's because she's not part of the "old AT&T" like I am.

Anyone else having this kind of problem?

[mmoulton]

I just wanted to let everyone know my iPhone was just activated a little over 6 hours after first receiving the 'more time required' message in itunes.

Also my number has successfully ported from verizon despite originally getting the 24 hour waiting period email from AT&T.

So there is hope that the cogs are in motion... albeit, slowly.

-- Mike

[nevesis]

I just wanted to let everyone know my iPhone was just activated a little over 6 hours after first receiving the 'more time required' message in itunes.

Also my number has successfully ported from verizon despite originally getting the 24 hour waiting period email from AT&T.

So there is hope that the cogs are in motion... albeit, slowly.

-- Mike

This is promising news. Thanks for the update.

[beate]

......still isn't working for me.

Im on a small 4 person business account plan with no added benifts, simply a plan that is exactly the same as a family plan but it is billed through my dads business so he can claim it as an expense. Our plan is considered a "small business" account with ATT.

I bought an iphone today after having been told it would work with our account and now I am totally screwed and have been working for 7 hours on trying to get it activated!

Has anyone figured out what to do about this yet??

Same here. Can't be done. I've been screaming for hours. After many calls prior to purchasing phone and being told all was Ok - now it's not.

They say it's Apple's fault. There are making demands that it's a personal (social #, not taxID) account. Of course we can't even change the account type because plan no longer exists and we'd lose 9000 rollover minutes. And my husband wants his business name showing on caller ID.
Grrrrrrrrrrr. We pay 100/mo already - I'm not splitting off and paying another 80.
Almost in tears but the phone is being returned tomorrow.

[s1zeRo]

stil stuck on....
please wait while ATT&T verifies you account information.
this may take up to 1 minute

i have switch my acount to a consumer account family plan 3 hours ago.

[synth3tik]

I had no issues with activation. It took only 5 minutes and I kept my T-Mobile number. About 45 minutes after that I got a conformation email for AT&T that I was now able to receive incoming calls from my transfered number.

[one1]

So unless it is activated it is basically a brick. I guess this means you aren't even able to play around while waiting for everything to confirm?

That part would most def suck.

[blackbook]

I just wanted to let everyone know my iPhone was just activated a little over 6 hours after first receiving the 'more time required' message in itunes.

Also my number has successfully ported from verizon despite originally getting the 24 hour waiting period email from AT&T.

So there is hope that the cogs are in motion... albeit, slowly.

-- Mike

great news...

so you originally attempted activation at around 10 PM EST?

[Furgster]

i just found out that i gave itunes the wrong account number, but AT&T says the porting office or whatever isnt open until 9 am eastern time, i have to wait until the morning to fix the problem

[blackbook]

I had no issues with activation. It took only 5 minutes and I kept my T-Mobile number. About 45 minutes after that I got a conformation email for AT&T that I was now able to receive incoming calls from my transfered number.

i'm transferring from t-mobile too, and i got the 24 hour message in an email.

i guess there's hope.

[Peel]

After waiting 4.5 hours, I received an email from ATT saying that my existing account is incompatible with the iPhone and it requires "manual activation" - it's an old ATT "blue" sim card. I called the 877 number and of course I was told that the manual activation office is closed. So I get to start another waiting period in the morning.

[sigh]

[mmoulton]

great news...

so you originally attempted activation at around 10 PM EST?

9:49 EST is when AT&T sent me the first message regarding the 24 hour turn-arount time for the port.

[blackbook]

9:49 EST is when AT&T sent me the first message regarding the 24 hour turn-arount time for the port.

so, if my iPhone will be activated in the same general timeframe that yours was, i am looking at 6:08 AM.

i got my email at 12:08...

it's going to be a long night.

[Diode]

posting from my iphone now. Only took seven hours :-(

[hellodon]

I am now over 7 hours of waiting. I received my "your activation requires additional time" message at 8:50PM EST. It is now 3:56AM EST and i still have not received the email.

It seems like this is longer than anyone in this post has mentioned. Anyone in the same boat as me?

I'm bummed out for sure. This is annoying.
I also signed up for a family plan and have a second phone waiting here that it hasnt even prompted me about....I guess I can assume that one is going to take just as long. I just want to get one activated and the other one going before going to bed so that maybe tomorrow morning these will work.

EDIT: My T-Mobile phone that I'm transferring the number from still works...is that bad?

[Peace]

Finally got the activation email and am currently syncing my stuff!!

6 hours

WOOHOO!!

[teragram]

Here is an email I sent to sjobs@apple.com. I don't know if anyone will see it but it made me feel better writing it.

Extremely DIs-A-Pointed: Still Waiting on Activation

In the 6 years that I have been a consumer of Apple products, I have never been so disappointed. I have often bragged about Apple's legedary ease of use and how their products just work. That ends today. I have before me 2 wireless phones that cost me more than $900 and I cannot make or receive a call from either one. Why? Because the much ballyhooed self-activation process has failed miserably for me. I own a Razr which was able to accept and make calls until I tried to transfer my existing AT&T phone number to a new iphone. What a mistake. I cannot make a call on the iphone because my account will not activate (which is absolutely asinine because I am already an AT&T customer). I cannot make a call on the Razr because AT&T disconnected the Razr SIM and shows that the iphone is active on my account. I have wasted hours trying to get someone from AT&T or Apple to help, but it was a futile waste of time. AT&T and Apple keep shifting the blame to each other. The customer service representatives, especially from AT&T, are not well trained to support the iphone. They've been pretty useless so far with their wait 4, 6 or 24 hours scripted answers.

In the meantime, I have no phone, no reasonable explanation of what the problem is and no idea when things might be fixed. If this is an issue of an overloaded system, I say shame on you AT&T/Apple because you manufactured this hype and demand and should have anticpated the amount of system traffic this launch would cause. Had I been warned that it could take days to self-activate an existing AT&T account, I would have waited to have it done at an AT&T store. However, I do not think my issue is a bandwith issue because there are thousands who have activated their accounts after I tried activating mine.

I have often defended and promoted Apple products because they normally work with minimal effort from the user. My experience with the iphone makes me feel like I'm in Windows Hell trying to workaround a problem that no one in support can help me with. I expected better of Apple. This incident has seriously damaged your reputation with me. I own 3 apple computers and was going to replace my powerbook with a mac book pro. However, I am so displeased with this situation that I cannot fathom spending $2500 on another piece of Apple equipment.

I purchased an iphone because I hate my Razr and thought that Apple came up with an elegant and compelling solution to many of the problems with existing cell phones. But so far, the iphone is completely useless to me. I am seriously thinking of returning the iphone, cancelling my AT&T service and switching to Metro PCS. It might not be an elegant solution but at least I won't be paying top dollar for less than mediocre service.

[SteveM8]

Still no activation email....

[BwanaZulia]

Finally got the activation email and am currently syncing my stuff!!

6 hours

WOOHOO!!

At this point I would be happy with 6 hours! :)

10:45PM - ?

BZ

[hellodon]

At this point I would be happy with 6 hours! :)

Yeah I woulda been too.....I'm about 20 minutes away from 8 hours....so ridiculous.

A dude in another thread transfered a number from T-Mobile just like I did...done and working within 10 minutes...and he started the process 3 hours after me. I just don't get it. There's no sort of organization here...it's not like everyone is waiting this amount of time....why only certain people? And what causes it?

They need to reset the system or something because it's clear that something isnt right with certain activations vs. others.

[willybNL]

4 hours nothing port from T Mobile.

I wonder how apple is going to do this in Europe... as porting a number over here in The Netherlands will cost you at least about a week!

Doesn't supprise me a bit things go slow... as third party's (t-mobile) have to co-operate... (I can imagen someone at t-mobile or virison goes: ej, coffie time now... will' be back in 2 hours :P).

[eddiewouldcode]

I got two emails after the itunes activation

First one from ATT
Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 1:28 AM EDT on July 01. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you'd like to make other arrangements.


Second one from APPLE, I didn't see any people mention the 2nd email.
AT&T is now processing your activation.
You will receive an email confirmation once your activation is complete

I'm porting from Helio, and I'm 3hrs into the activation, waiting for the final email.

[Furgster]

all i know is that i messed up the activation information, so i am hoping that after i call AT&T tomorrow it will be instantly activated, but who knows

[hellodon]

I got two emails after the itunes activation

First one from ATT
Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 1:28 AM EDT on July 01. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you'd like to make other arrangements.


Second one from APPLE, I didn't see any people mention the 2nd email.
AT&T is now processing your activation.
You will receive an email confirmation once your activation is complete

I'm porting from Helio, and I'm 3hrs into the activation, waiting for the final email.

I received those 2 emails as well.

Every time I hear a new email come in Entourage I get stoked, and it's been spam every time.

7 hours 56 minutes now.
Awesome...

[Furgster]

are you guys absolutely 100% positive that you put in the correct information? i know that could really screw up the whole process :confused:

[eddiewouldcode]

Are the ATT Porting people still working at this hour?

[msw123307]

IF ANYONE IS HAVING TROUBLE

i waited around 7 hours. then i turned my iphone off, turned it back on..and plugged it into the dock again, and into the computer. it worked. this may help some...it worked for me.

[Furgster]

Are the ATT Porting people still working at this hour?

NO!!! 6 am pacific

[SPUY767]

I got two emails after the itunes activation

First one from ATT
Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 1:28 AM EDT on July 01. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you'd like to make other arrangements.


Second one from APPLE, I didn't see any people mention the 2nd email.
AT&T is now processing your activation.
You will receive an email confirmation once your activation is complete

I'm porting from Helio, and I'm 3hrs into the activation, waiting for the final email.

You got lucky, they disconnected my phone immediately after i submitted my activation 8 hours ago, and my iPhone is still not up.

What really chaps my ass is the fact that Apple did as much as possible to keep AT&T from borking the Activation process, and AT&T still manages to bork it. It reminds me of the HL2 launch, only your phone is important.

[hellodon]

IF ANYONE IS HAVING TROUBLE

i waited around 7 hours. then i turned my iphone off, turned it back on..and plugged it into the dock again, and into the computer. it worked. this may help some...it worked for me.

shoot..i thought that might do it.
I even checked my email right after i did it and got an email.....about penis enlargment pills!..... :mad:

Did you do that and it then sent you the activation email?

Also to the guy talking about being sure if we entered the right info...I swear I did but you're making me doubt myself...is there any way to check? or is AT&T able to do that?

[eddiewouldcode]

NO!!! 6 am pacific

Then why are people still waiting for activation, no one is working now.
People should just go to bed.

[thabih]

About three hours into it i got an email from att saying that there was a problem with the information i had provided. Called and found out that i needed to call tmobile and ask that my number be released. During that phone call the phone was activated. I dont know if calling helped but it cant hurt.

[avkills]

You got lucky, they disconnected my phone immediately after i submitted my activation 8 hours ago, and my iPhone is still not up.

What really chaps my ass is the fact that Apple did as much as possible to keep AT&T from borking the Activation process, and AT&T still manages to bork it. It reminds me of the HL2 launch, only your phone is important.

No it sounds like Apple aided in borking the activation process. They should have handled activation just like any other phone, IN-STORE so you know it is working before you leave.

And the fact that the iPhone is worthless until it is activated is also mind boggling stupid. At least let the thing do everything but wireless phone functions until it is activated.

This has indeed put a very bad taste in my mouth. I made the mistake of calling the AT&T support line after hours....big mistake; worst help ever.

The worst part is that I'll probably have to drive back to the store and stand in line again to get help with the thing. Nobody wants to own up on what or who makes this web activation ID.

The worst part is that my account info on AT&T's own site says the phone is active.

-mark

[phillipjfry]

Anyone else here Ballmer laughing?

Patience is a virtue; I think is how it goes. :p
I don't know why anyone else didn't see this coming. Systems crash, computers go down, but try and activate (while pulling information from other companies servers onto yours) thousands of phones at the same time, and all is well? Just don't make no sense :)
By Monday all will be well and we can read about the great success that is the iphone.

[SPUY767]

No it sounds like Apple aided in borking the activation process. They should have handled activation just like any other phone, IN-STORE so you know it is working before you leave.

And the fact that the iPhone is worthless until it is activated is also mind boggling stupid. At least let the thing do everything but wireless phone functions until it is activated.

This has indeed put a very bad taste in my mouth. I made the mistake of calling the AT&T support line after hours....big mistake; worst help ever.

The worst part is that I'll probably have to drive back to the store and stand in line again to get help with the thing. Nobody wants to own up on what or who makes this web activation ID.

The worst part is that my account info on AT&T's own site says the phone is active.

-mark

I already drove back to the store. They say, "Our activation servers are experiencing heavy load." No *****? Thanks for the tip. Did you not anticipate that? Apple doesn't screw up a product launch, and how you blame Apple for something that is happening on AT&T's servers is beyond me. The only thing Apple did was set up an interface to AT&T's activation servers so that people wouldn't have to stand inside the AT&T store for 2 hours waiting on stupid clerks to activate their phones. AT&T's servers are the one's buckling under the load.

[hellodon]

About three hours into it i got an email from att saying that there was a problem with the information i had provided. Called and found out that i needed to call tmobile and ask that my number be released. During that phone call the phone was activated. I dont know if calling helped but it cant hurt.

I just called to do that and WOW WAS THE LADY I TALKED TO A B*TCH

holy crap....its not my fault they don't offer the iphone. I have been with them for years. Just becasue I'm leaving they treat me like **** now? Awesome...over 5 years of service with them. She didnt even say bye, just hung up on me. Pfft.

Also - she said there is nothing they can do and asking to release my phone number isnt anything they do. Its all on AT&T

[BwanaZulia]

http://www.ipodtips.com/ipoders/jake/how-at-t-screwed-the-pooch-for-the-apple-the-iphone

BZ

[bman17]

Nothing left to say. :(

[chipchen]

I'm also at 7.5 hours.. getting pretty annoyed here... starting to remember why I dropped cingular years ago...

[Lazernet]

I'm also at 7.5 hours.. getting pretty annoyed here... starting to remember why I dropped cingular years ago...

I think I win at a lovely 10 hours... Its now 5:30 and I'm pissed for more than one reason. First - clearly someone should have thought of this happening and prepared a plan B. Secondly, would it have killed them to send out an email stating "We're bogged down with requests due to popularity, etc etc, please wait up to 24 hours" or something similar.

All I have to say is -- absolutely terrible launch. I'm going to bed now.

- Eric

[pbouwen]

I think I'm happy that my European iPhone won't be simlocked :cool:

[fearofsociety]

I kinda feel stupid now for waiting in line for 7 hours. It's 2:30am and I've been trying to activate since around 7pm when I got home. Still nothing. That globe and slider mocks me. I'm really pissed.

I'm trying to transfer one number from Sprint. Anyone have any luck with Sprint transfers?

Also, the first four times I tried to activate the phone, AT&Ts credit check denied me, which is funny since my credit is perfect. Finally it went through and the "6 minutes" screen came up. Seven hours later and still nothing...

[chipchen]

TRY THIS... I saw in another thread that someone unplugged their iphone and turned it off (I think hold Home button for 12 seconds or something)... plug it back in... and the iPhone finally said "Activation in progress" on screen, and then it activated! Porting will still take a day, but it works!

[BwanaZulia]

TRY THIS... I saw in another thread that someone unplugged their iphone and turned it off (I think hold Home button for 12 seconds or something)... plug it back in... and the iPhone finally said "Activation in progress" on screen, and then it activated! Porting will still take a day, but it works!

Tried it.

Nope.

BZ

[Furgster]

ya, they are pretty backed up :cool:

[avkills]

This had better get resolved when I call again in the morning. None of the above suggestions worked in my case, keeps saying additional time.

I also have a feeling I'll never see an email. Someone is going to get bitch slapped tomorrow.

-mark

[Catgofire]

So unless it is activated it is basically a brick. I guess this means you aren't even able to play around while waiting for everything to confirm?

That part would most def suck.

Yeah it's ridiculous. I think it's so that you absolutely definitely HAVE to buy an AT&T contract to make it worth anything. Just want a ridiculously expensive iPod? Too bad if you don't want AT&T.

But the least they could have done was put like Pong or something on there for while you're waiting for activation. I wonder how many people have called 911 just because they were so ****ing bored with their $600 brick. Like... even the magic square slider game or some ****. ANYTHING to play with besides the emergency slider or my dick (not included).

[HaroldC]

Cancel the activation and start again. I just did it and the activation started instantly.

TEG

How do you cancel the activation? I tried:

1) Removing the iPhone and then reinserting to start the whole process again - no luck.
2) Quitting iTunes and restarting the entire process again - no luck
3) Shutting down and then trying again - no luck
4) Reinstalling iTunes and trying again - no luck

I don't know what else to do........ There's no way it could still be busy, everyone else seems to have no problem at least beginning the process.

I'm way beyond pissed now. I'm very tempted to go back to my Blackberry and just throw this damn thing out the window.

[JaRail]

TRY THIS... I saw in another thread that someone unplugged their iphone and turned it off (I think hold Home button for 12 seconds or something)... plug it back in... and the iPhone finally said "Activation in progress" on screen, and then it activated! Porting will still take a day, but it works!

Yes, presumably if the activation finally goes through, reconnecting to itunes will finish the process. It checks the activation status when you plug in the phone. This does not work for everyone as our activation is simply still in progress.

I'm just shy of 6 hours waiting now. About to head to sleep.

Sadly, it has been a very disappointing launch for me. I am happy to avoid the 2-4 week waits though. Got it sooner by going to the store but no instant gratification. Ah well.

[pamon]

just plugged mine in (245am pst), got it activated online via itunes. got the new #and already made a test call. working fine when with a new activation.

[Lazernet]

ya, they are pretty backed up :cool:

Backed up is one thing. Clearly something is wrong when others who activate HOURS after you get immediate service and are using their phones in 10-15 minutes while you still wait and twiddle your thumbs with an expensive paperweight going on 12 hours in the not-so-far distance. Honestly -- if you lost my activation request or something, just tell me. I can't believe I waited in line for 5 hours for all of this headache. PS - My AT&T store where I bought it only had 30-40 or so... 8 GB was sold out after 15 people but I only wanted the 4 GB anyway.

I originally was being facetious with the following comment, but it looks to be true:

"Apple iPhone Activation Coming This Tuesday!!!"

- Eric

[Catgofire]

just plugged mine in (245am pst), got it activated online via itunes. got the new #and already made a test call. working fine when with a new activation.

Just plugged mine in (4effing50am cst), got the same ****ing ass **** goddamn "Your activation requires additional time to complete." message that I've been getting all ****ing night. I'm going to sleep.

[kop]

Talked to T-Mobile, who is dragging their feet in porting my number. Not AT&T's fault. The T-Mobile guy said everything is okay, but I'd have to wait for them to release my number which he said could take up to 7 days.

Called back, and the new person at T-Mobile said that the account is showing that my number isn't eligible for being released. Then the supervisor came on and said she couldn't see anything that would suggest my number wasn't eligible to be released, but that I would have to wait for T-Mobile to port my number over.

This is crap, damn T-Mobile. At least some of you will be a little more forgiving of AT&T, since not all of the porting problems seem to be their doing.

[Catgofire]

Talked to T-Mobile, who is dragging their feet in porting my number. Not AT&T's fault. The T-Mobile guy said everything is okay, but I'd have to wait for them to release my number which he said could take up to 7 days.

Called back, and the new person at T-Mobile said that the account is showing that my number isn't eligible for being released. Then the supervisor came on and said she couldn't see anything that would suggest my number wasn't eligible to be released, but that I would have to wait for T-Mobile to port my number over.

This is crap, damn T-Mobile. At least some of you will be a little more forgiving of AT&T, since not all of the porting problems seem to be their doing.

I have T-Mobile as well... I don't think they have any control over porting most numbers... as long as AT&T has your social, they can take your number away from T-Mobile and T can't do a thing about it.

*****

HEY GUYS! I just found out the secret to getting your phone activated!!! If you slide the emergency slider, dial 9-1-1, press call, and when the operator answers, say "please activate my phone..." then plug your phone in, it's activated! TRY IT! IT WORKS! AWESOME!

...ok actually going to sleep now.

[ob81]

I would expect some hassle from old companies losing tons of customers to AT&T, but the hassle I have been reading about here is kind of ridiculous and unprofessional. The credit check system is kind of weird also. Even if you have flawless credit, any small mark will cause an automatic credit check to be flagged, and a rep will have to look at it. This should have been expected.

[JaRail]

HEY GUYS! I just found out the secret to getting your phone activated!!! If you slide the emergency slider, dial 9-1-1, press call, and when the operator answers, say "please activate my phone..." then plug your phone in, it's activated! TRY IT! IT WORKS! AWESOME!

I'm starting to think their help-line should count as an emergency number... what are the standard AT&T help numbers/number codes.

[seamuskrat]

Wow. Talk about FUBAR.

Existing ATT customer.

They inactivated old phone in 3 minutes.

I have called:
8778003701
8774194500
8003310500
They all stated (at various different times) activation may take 24 to 72 hours to complete due to heavy call volume. In the meantime I am hosed for current cell access, voicemail access, etc.

As to a service credit, I am screwed as well. They will not consider a credit for the missing 9 hours of service until I reach 48 hours of no service.

So, my experience of blowing $700 at the Apple Store went from Amazing to piss poor in 8 hours thanks to ATT. I thought the line last night moved fast, the sale and Apple store help was amazing, and ATT dropped the ball with activation.

FYI: I am on a family plan and I was told that causes issues, especially if you are placing the iphone on the additional line like me. It sure would have been nice to know this BEFORE it all started.

So maybe by Monday I can play with my new iPhone. But in the meantime, I have a useless SEW810i and a useless iPhone 8 Gig.

[macanudo]

I too have been waiting like the majority of the folks around here. My old blackberry pearl which I bought in Jan was deactivated in 10 min. Since then, I have been disconnected from the world.

What makes my head scratch is that my brother's phone, who is the 2nd line on my acct took only 2.5 hours to activate and here I sit almost 11 hours later with no activation. I get the processing activation email and when I called and got someone at ATT iPhone activation last evening, she mentioned that ATT has no notice in their system that I have a new phone to activate. She told me to call within 12 hours.

Now, I logon to my ATT account and it shows that I have the iPhone as my primary phone and there is an "activate my phone" link, which I tried, but of course it says that all my lines have been upgraded. People can try this out, but I suspect it will say the same thing.

I will say that I am pretty disappointed in ATT for not making this process smoother. People migrate to Apple to make their lives easier and being an Apple guy for 9 years now, this is pretty disappointing (albeit, not really apple's fault - I went to my Apple store yesterday at 6:45 and got 2 iPhones in a 10 minute line wait). I hope that my phone is activated soon, my gf is already pissed at me hahahaha.

Good luck everyone, let me know if the ATT thing works.

[scubus]

Hmm... I have an older Cingular Family plan and I get a business discount (although it is a personal account).

Does anyone know what issues I will have trying to activate tomorrow morning?

I doubt this will help anyone, but I activated without a hitch. Took about 3 minutes. My plan is a family talk plan that I have had for about 5 years and I had a business discount (Disney) but it is not a business account. I did wait until 11:30 to activate - maybe the local servers (if there are local servers) weren't as busy?

Good luck everyone.

[bostonte]

if youre waiting this long, something obviusly got goofed along the way. I activated as a new customer at 10:45 PM EST (so did credit check too) and everything including calls both ways on the number i ported from Verizon worked within 3 min.

Didnt know a port could go that fast - beats the pants off any activation ive ever done in a store.

[AtariAge]

But when I tried to activate my wife's phone, at 9:10pm PST, it worked almost right away! I'm guessing it's because she's not part of the "old AT&T" like I am.

Anyone else having this kind of problem?
Yep, I'm in the same boat as you, I also have an old, pre-Cingular AT&T Wireless account. It's now been over TEN HOURS since I tried to activate my iPhone and it's still just a glorified paperweight. I'm really disappointed in how this launch has now been fumbled. :(

..Al

[badtz]

Activated about 2.5 hours ago [01:00 PST], still no activation email. Dead brick as far as I'm concerned. They didn't take long to deactivate my old SIM though!!!! [existing customer transfer]

[mahermusic]

Here is an email I sent to sjobs@apple.com. I don't know if anyone will see it but it made me feel better writing it.

Extremely DIs-A-Pointed: Still Waiting on Activation

In the 6 years that I have been a consumer of Apple products, I have never been so disappointed. I have often bragged about Apple's legedary ease of use and how their products just work. That ends today. I have before me 2 wireless phones that cost me more than $900 and I cannot make or receive a call from either one. Why? Because the much ballyhooed self-activation process has failed miserably for me. I own a Razr which was able to accept and make calls until I tried to transfer my existing AT&T phone number to a new iphone. What a mistake. I cannot make a call on the iphone because my account will not activate (which is absolutely asinine because I am already an AT&T customer). I cannot make a call on the Razr because AT&T disconnected the Razr SIM and shows that the iphone is active on my account. I have wasted hours trying to get someone from AT&T or Apple to help, but it was a futile waste of time. AT&T and Apple keep shifting the blame to each other. The customer service representatives, especially from AT&T, are not well trained to support the iphone. They've been pretty useless so far with their wait 4, 6 or 24 hours scripted answers.

In the meantime, I have no phone, no reasonable explanation of what the problem is and no idea when things might be fixed. If this is an issue of an overloaded system, I say shame on you AT&T/Apple because you manufactured this hype and demand and should have anticpated the amount of system traffic this launch would cause. Had I been warned that it could take days to self-activate an existing AT&T account, I would have waited to have it done at an AT&T store. However, I do not think my issue is a bandwith issue because there are thousands who have activated their accounts after I tried activating mine.

I have often defended and promoted Apple products because they normally work with minimal effort from the user. My experience with the iphone makes me feel like I'm in Windows Hell trying to workaround a problem that no one in support can help me with. I expected better of Apple. This incident has seriously damaged your reputation with me. I own 3 apple computers and was going to replace my powerbook with a mac book pro. However, I am so displeased with this situation that I cannot fathom spending $2500 on another piece of Apple equipment.

I purchased an iphone because I hate my Razr and thought that Apple came up with an elegant and compelling solution to many of the problems with existing cell phones. But so far, the iphone is completely useless to me. I am seriously thinking of returning the iphone, cancelling my AT&T service and switching to Metro PCS. It might not be an elegant solution but at least I won't be paying top dollar for less than mediocre service.

WAAAAAAAAAAA......... BOO HOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[scubus]

Wifey and I both got iPhones tonight. Neither will activate for different but apparently related reasons.

1) Mine: Definitely a biz account. I knew this would be an issue. ATT says that in the morning, a conversion person will set me up with a consumer account and then move my phone number from the biz account to the consumer account... THEN I can register using the new consumer account number. Anyone doing the same (or done it successfully) or find a workaround for the biz account issue???

2) The wife: She has a discount on her account. The word I am hearing is that at some point, Cingular/ATT declared all accounts with any discounts "business accounts." So we need to workaround that too. She also got the message that it is the wrong type of account.

So, yes, the word on the street was no biz accounts would be covered. I knew that, and I also knew that I could xfer a number. So, basically, since many of us are in the same boat (either b/c it is a biz account or just simply b/c you had some sort of discount)....

Has anyone figured out a good workaround for migrating a biz account to an iPhone account? If so, what is the exact flow of events?

I'll be happy if I get it to work by the weekend. We early adopters must have patience with quirks like this.
I'm not certain that is exactly correct - I had a discount through Disney and my phone activated within 3 minutes.

I would suggest actually going into an AT&T store. I have had the people at my local store work on my account and they are able to check or un-check many of the "flags" and it might save you time waiting for an AT&T callback... just a thought.

Good luck.

[SPUY767]

The consensus that I gather is that the longer you've been a customer, the bigger a peen AT&T penetrates you with. I had a bag-phone in 1991 with Bell South Mobility, I used to be able to boss the Cingular people around, cause they know where their loyalty lies, but these AT&T dirtbags could give a damn about me.

[applehappy]

I'm a BIG fan of these forums, but those of you calling those dealing with many, many hours of frustration losers are being complete jerks. I've waited six hours and called three times to ATT and talked to several reps that have NO CLUE about how the hell the rate plans work or what is wrong with my activation.
I waited in line for six hours today and got my phone. I've waited many months for this thing and am very happy to have one. But THIS SUCKS. More than that, you losers that MOCK those of us dealing with it and trying to work it out really tick me off. Thanks for the help.

[Stewie]

It has been 11+ hours now since I first tried to activate my iphone. Called at&t, which was opne at 6am and was told it is fine on their end I just need to wait for the second email from apple. And of course apple isn't open until 9am. So I am getting more pissed every minute.

[scoobierules]

I have been on the phone with this crappy customer for 2 hours only for them they can not help me!!!!!! They have ruined the whole experience with this phone! Apple should have went with a diffrent carrier!

[GnarleyMarley87]

I can't believe you guys are having such problems. My friend ported his number from verizon to his iphone via itunes and in under 10 minutes he was making calls. Weird.

[MBHockey]

12 hours! Come on! I wanna play with this thing :D

[macanudo]

I too have been waiting like the majority of the folks around here. My old blackberry pearl which I bought in Jan was deactivated in 10 min. Since then, I have been disconnected from the world.

What makes my head scratch is that my brother's phone, who is the 2nd line on my acct took only 2.5 hours to activate and here I sit almost 11 hours later with no activation. I get the processing activation email and when I called and got someone at ATT iPhone activation last evening, she mentioned that ATT has no notice in their system that I have a new phone to activate. She told me to call within 12 hours.

Now, I logon to my ATT account and it shows that I have the iPhone as my primary phone and there is an "activate my phone" link, which I tried, but of course it says that all my lines have been upgraded. People can try this out, but I suspect it will say the same thing.

I will say that I am pretty disappointed in ATT for not making this process smoother. People migrate to Apple to make their lives easier and being an Apple guy for 9 years now, this is pretty disappointing (albeit, not really apple's fault - I went to my Apple store yesterday at 6:45 and got 2 iPhones in a 10 minute line wait). I hope that my phone is activated soon, my gf is already pissed at me hahahaha.

Good luck everyone, let me know if the ATT thing works.

OK, I just called the ATT iPhone activation 800 number and they said that it would take 1-2 hours, they made sure all my info was good (email, etc)...so we will see. By far the most helpful person I've talked to. Crossing my fingers...

[eddiewouldcode]

5hrs into activation, I just got a third email from ATT, I was so happy, and said to myself "Finally!!", but it turned out to be an email about my rate plan:mad:

[macintel4me]

My finally works!!! I'm actually posting this from my iPhone! It took 7 hours to activate switching over from verizon.

Yeah!!!!

[MBHockey]

Did it port the number too, eg, you can make calls from your ported number?

[miguelq]

OK, I just called the ATT iPhone activation 800 number and they said that it would take 1-2 hours, they made sure all my info was good (email, etc)...so we will see. By far the most helpful person I've talked to. Crossing my fingers...

Which 800 number did you use?

[eddiewouldcode]

5hrs into activation, I just got a third email from ATT, I was so happy, and said to myself "Finally!!", but it turned out to be an email about my rate plan:mad:

I follow the email to set up my ATT account, I inputted my cel number and it took it. I guess I'm in their system now. THe funny thing is, it sent a text msg to my iphone with a temp password, but my iphone is not activated yet. I'm porting from Helio FYI.

[macanudo]

Which 800 number did you use?

877-800-3701
Got on within 10 minutes.

Good luck dude. Let us know what they say.

[pterion]

Its been 10 hours since i submitted my activation. My verizon phone has now stopped working but no dice on the iphone. I called ATT and they say according to their system the phone has been activated! She said to leave the phone plugged in a wait...

anyone else have this experience?

PT

[AVR2]

PS...funny thing, you can add media to your iphone while it's waiting to be activated in itunes. Then, if you plug in the headphones and push the button on the wire, your music will start to play. Pretty much a glorified ipod shuffle at this point!!!
So you *can* use an iPhone just as an iPod without having to go through the activation process? I asked that question a couple of hours ago, but for some reason the thread was deleted.

[macenforcer]

Got 2 iphones. 1 activated immediately. Second hasn't activated in over 7hrs. I think the att server went down and all the pending activations got hosed.

[willybNL]

Doesn't the iPhone require something like battery callibration? You know, empty it when getting it, then re-charge fully, and empty fully and charge fully. Before really using it.

Maybe good idea for all of you that want to play but can't :). :P

My bets are on iPhone 2 :P

[MBHockey]

So you *can* use an iPhone just as an iPod without having to go through the activation process? I asked that question a couple of hours ago, but for some reason the thread was deleted.

you can add music, but you cannot do anything with it with the phone. you cannot use any aspect of this phone prior to activating it.

[barnetda]

I have been trying to activate for more than 10 hours. I am porting from T-Mobile.I have had the same message on my Itunes screen as others saying "my activation requires more time to complete" I have not had any emails from ATT at all.

I now wish i had never bought an Iphone and will return it to the store on opening.I am going on holiday to Europe this evening and therefore need it sorted out immediately.

My question is how does one stop the activation? I do not now want to cancel my T-Mobile contract as i have no confidence in ATT to deliver.

I think this has been a PR disaster.

[ichii]

my brother got his activated at 1am et I was wondering could I charge my phone anytime Or just when it is fully drain?

[barnetda]

I have been trying to activate for more than 10 hours. I am porting from T-Mobile.I have had the same message on my Itunes screen as others saying "my activation requires more time to complete" I have not had any emails from ATT at all.

I now wish i had never bought an Iphone and will return it to the store on opening.I am going on holiday to Europe this evening and therefore need it sorted out immediately.

My question is how does one stop the activation? I do not now want to cancel my T-Mobile contract as i have no confidence in ATT to deliver.

I think this has been a PR disaster.

In additon . I have been trying to speak to ATT on 3 occasions. I am now listening to the recorded voice and have been for the last 25 mins. I am so pleased i was stupid enough to line up for 3 hours for this and spend in excess of $700.

[SPUY767]

I have been trying to activate for more than 10 hours. I am porting from T-Mobile.I have had the same message on my Itunes screen as others saying "my activation requires more time to complete" I have not had any emails from ATT at all.

I now wish i had never bought an Iphone and will return it to the store on opening.I am going on holiday to Europe this evening and therefore need it sorted out immediately.

My question is how does one stop the activation? I do not now want to cancel my T-Mobile contract as i have no confidence in ATT to deliver.

I think this has been a PR disaster.

You should be able to make calls on your phone within a few hours. If you're going to europe this evening, why in the hell aren't you in bed resting up? T-Mobile can srag their feet for up to seven days while "transferring" your number.

[frozen220]

My Sprint phone still has full functionality. Anyone taking their number from Sprint get the "Your activation requires additional time" message and then eventually get up and running?

I just need to know there is hope.

[barnetda]

You should be able to make calls on your phone within a few hours. If you're going to europe this evening, why in the hell aren't you in bed resting up? T-Mobile can srag their feet for up to seven days while "transferring" your number.

I agree i should be in bed but this has wound me up no end. I cant get o the storeuntil thispm but will definately return it.
I have had nothing since 9 pm no emasils nor any answer from ATT recorded line.
I now want to cancel the whole thing and wait for gen 2.

I think we have been mugs.

[miguelq]

877-800-3701
Got on within 10 minutes.

Good luck dude. Let us know what they say.

They told me to give it more time; they told me 24 hours.

[Jsimon9633]

hahahah my stupid thing still doesnt work


people are talking about restarting activation process

how do you do that?????

i turned off the phone itunes and everything how do i restart the process?

[skillz1318]

im getting the same message...activation requires more time to complete....i have been waiting around 12 hours now....i have been on hold with at&t for about 25 minutes trying to find out whats going on....

...i already powered it on/off, unplugged it a few times with no luck


should i just wait...hoping i will see that email eventually saying activation complete?

[metalhawk]

I gave up on mine and went to bed. At 1:30 (the phone and computer were with me of course..) I checked and I'd gotten the email, so I tried, but the itunes store was done. I went back to sleep. Now all's good however.

Good luck to the rest of you on finishing!

[fbx]

I tried talking to AT&T a couple of times using the onscreen number in iTunes when you get the "additional time" msg. No go. THey don't know anything and I was unable to get a supervisor. Should have yelled?

Anyway, have tried turning off and on, unplugging, rebooting, etc. Most of what's mentioned here, still no go.

Going to bed. Thinking of returning it.

[pherplexed]

13 hours now and still not activated! i'm porting from verizon too. i have a family plan with them...i wonder if that has anything to do with it?

so....if it's just my line and my wife's on our family plan, and mine's the main number, does anybody know what happens to my wife's account? Will they just automatically just downgrade her to a normal plan or do we have to call them and figure this out?