iPhone Activation Issues

[pterion]

The first person I spoke to at 8778003701 told me the activation was processed and complete and the phone should work anytime.
It did not (not going on 11 hours) so I called back. The next guy told me there was a problem and the number i was trying to port no , that it was not eligible for transfer. I asked if that was the case why my verizon phone stopped working. He said I had better call verizon because the number has not been ported so it should not have been deactivated. I called verizon and of course they said the phone had been disconnected as part of a successful (as far as they could tell) port of the number to ATT...

back on hold again...

PT

[pterion]

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?



Does your verizon phone still work?

[endlsdremr]

How do you restart the process?

1. Call your AT&T store and have them walk you through
2. Call customer service 877-800-3701
3. Call Apple 800 694 7466

None of these things worked for me, but those are some options that may work for you.

After 12 hours of trying to get my iPhone to activate, I was just told that I need to go back to the store I purchased my iPhone at and that they would help me.

Read all about my iPhone activation experience at my Thread-
"My iPhone nightmare. A $700 paperweight?"

Good luck to you!

[Bradley W]

_

[Jsimon9633]

so the only way to restart it is to go to an ATT store? lol

wtf

[jellomizer]

I would like to thank all the early adopters. All your work and greaf will help us non-early adopters to have an easy seamless experience with the iPhone in one or 2 years (Well that is when my contract expires)

[Jsimon9633]

I would like to thank all the early adopters. All your work and greaf will help us non-early adopters to have an easy seamless experience with the iPhone in one or 2 years (Well that is when my contract expires)

get bent :D

[MBHockey]

I would like to thank all the early adopters. All your work and greaf will help us non-early adopters to have an easy seamless experience with the iPhone in one or 2 years (Well that is when my contract expires)

You're welcome. We'll all be playing with our iPhones in the next 24-48 hours, regardless :p

[Jsimon9633]

You're welcome. We'll all be playing with our iPhones in the next 24-48 hours, regardless :p

or weeks by ATT standards :D

[endlsdremr]

I would like to thank all the early adopters. All your work and greaf will help us non-early adopters to have an easy seamless experience with the iPhone in one or 2 years (Well that is when my contract expires)

Um, yeah....

If you said that out of some weird kind of kindness... You can't know the pain we are in right now.... but thanks?

If you are saying that in order to rub salt in our wounds... I agree with the post above me- "Get bent" about sums it up.

:apple: = :confused:
AT&T = :mad:

[endlsdremr]

or weeks by ATT standards :D

AT&T 'standards'? What standards? Lol :D

The whole world has gone to hell when we have to rely upon AT&T standards...

(eyes closed, big sigh, head in hands, shaking head... )

[macenforcer]

Well its official. The sim cards are hosed.


I took my old sim card out of my phone I was transferring and put it into the iphone and reactivated it and bam. Done in 20 seconds. Got the email and everything.


Funny thing. The sim card that came with my iphone says 3G on the front and back. :rolleyes:


So there you have it folks. If you are still waiting for activation put your old sim card in it. If you don't have a sim card from an old phone, go to ATT store.

[pherplexed]

Does your verizon phone still work?

yeah, my verizon phone is still working...

[Jsimon9633]

Well its official. The sim cards are hosed.


I took my old sim card out of my phone I was transferring and put it into the iphone and reactivated it and bam. Done in 20 seconds. Got the email and everything.


Funny thing. The sim card that came with my iphone says 3G on the front and back. :rolleyes:


So there you have it folks. If you are still waiting for activation put your old sim card in it. If you don't have a sim card from an old phone, go to ATT store.

lol i just switched the sims and got to restart the activation and um yah now i got the same wait more time to activate


same as before but now i may have some problem lol

[PuterSaurus]

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.

Yes. 12 hours waiting now.

[tcharvey]

12 hours and counting and ATT hasn't still been able to activate my iphone. Spoke to two ATT representatives at two different numbers and both were completely useless. That ATT Wireless CEO, who gave his portion of the Keynote Address from index cards, needs to be fired over this.

[miguelq]

Well its official. The sim cards are hosed.


I took my old sim card out of my phone I was transferring and put it into the iphone and reactivated it and bam. Done in 20 seconds. Got the email and everything.


Funny thing. The sim card that came with my iphone says 3G on the front and back. :rolleyes:


So there you have it folks. If you are still waiting for activation put your old sim card in it. If you don't have a sim card from an old phone, go to ATT store.

Putting in the old SIM in your Iphone starts the activation process all over again. Don't know if this really messes it up but it didn't work for me

[Jsimon9633]

Putting in the old SIM in your Iphone starts the activation process all over again. Don't know if this really messes it up but it didn't work for me

yeah i just didthat i may have further hosed my activaction by redoing that process :D

[iarejedi]

Well its official. The sim cards are hosed.


I took my old sim card out of my phone I was transferring and put it into the iphone and reactivated it and bam. Done in 20 seconds. Got the email and everything.


Funny thing. The sim card that came with my iphone says 3G on the front and back. :rolleyes:


So there you have it folks. If you are still waiting for activation put your old sim card in it. If you don't have a sim card from an old phone, go to ATT store.

And I would love to know how you 'reactivate' something that hasen't been activated yet....

Official? Yeah..no.

[aimfire]

They told me to give it more time; they told me 24 hours.
Same here.... was on hold for 30 minutes and they told me 24 hours...
I told the rep that there was bad news about ATT all over the internet now and she laughed... yeah... ha ha

This is BS... It's been 6 hours now for me.

[macenforcer]

Putting in the old SIM in your Iphone starts the activation process all over again. Don't know if this really messes it up but it didn't work for me

I think there might be 2 problems to activation. 1 is that their servers got hosed. 2nd is that your info needs validation for some reason. Thats my guess. Been waiting for 8hrs now and no activation and when I switched the sims and reactivated it went right through. Good luck to everyone. I know this sucks.

[topside]

Here's some hope for you guys... Woke up this morning with an activation complete email. Good luck and here's to seeing all your iPhone's working soon. I made the mistake of thinking it would start working automatically once activated, but instead you must plug it into iTunes when its completed activation.

7:30P CDT: AT&T is now processing your activation.
3:04A CDT:

iTunes Store <do_not_reply@apple.com> 3:04 am (4 hours ago)
reply-to iTunes Store <do_not_reply@apple.com>
to xxxxxx@gmail.com
date Jun 30, 2007 3:04 AM
subject Activation Complete
mailed-by apple.com



Apple
AT&T
Processing Activation



Congratulations, AT&T has successfully activated your iPhone service.


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).

[nt5672]

2 hours in line at Apple Store Schaumburg, IL 60173.
2.1 hours on the phone with AT&T Customer Service, no activation.
1.6 hours on the phone with Apple Customer Service, no activation.

General Consensus - wait 6 hours.

12 hours later (7:21 am CST), no email, no activation and can not even listed to music on iPhone.

Old AT&T plan, prior to Cingular. Will have to go to AT&T Store and upgrade second phone. So far plan costs $5.00 more per month.

TOTAL Abortion.

Good News, Apple had great music on hold, AT&T NOT.
Bad News, AT&T blamed Apple, Apple blamed AT&T. After changing plans with AT&T neither could identify why iPhone would not activate.

[iarejedi]

Here's some hope for you guys... Woke up this morning with an activation complete email. Good luck and here's to seeing all your iPhone's working soon.

7:30P CDT: AT&T is now processing your activation.
3:04A CDT:

iTunes Store <do_not_reply@apple.com> 3:04 am (4 hours ago)
reply-to iTunes Store <do_not_reply@apple.com>
to xxxxxx@gmail.com
date Jun 30, 2007 3:04 AM
subject Activation Complete
mailed-by apple.com



Apple
AT&T
Processing Activation



Congratulations, AT&T has successfully activated your iPhone service.


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).


Thank you for posting this. It's about time someone did so we know what we are waiting for. Thanks.

[dukeblue91]

This is unbelievable I'm going on 13 hrs now and still nothing, not to mention that I'm a current AT&T customer.

[rg3design]

Exactly! I'm very annoyed by this...

[MBHockey]

I called, got my phone activated AND Verizon number ported in less than an hour. Please see my thread relating to possible problems when porting and activating...mine was a brick for 14 hours...maybe it can help you too.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=322518

[Jsimon9633]

I called, got my phone activated AND Verizon number ported in less than an hour. Please see my thread relating to possible problems when porting and activating...mine was a brick for 14 hours...maybe it can help you too.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=322518

what number did you call im on hold with one of the many numbers

[aimfire]

They should at least update the status message in iTunes...

I know it's possible, because I've been launching/re-launching iTunes and I've noticed that the ATT phone number has been removed... :mad:

[BobCatMan]

I am an ATT customer and I am on 8 hours now.

[Bradley W]

_

[Kinetic]

This is ridiculous. I was hoping I'd wake up this morning and this nightmare would be over and I'd be able to enjoy my new toy. No luck. Still waiting. :mad:

[newtxmgf]

Stood in line 4 hours, in the rain and lightening. Once in the store the employee had no idea what they were doing. Once at the desk did my credit check...paid for the 8 gig and deposit..She gave me a Ban number 1 hour after entering the store. Take it home, get activate, get an email that says I need to go pay a deposit...call the number 3 times and get 3 different answers.
1) Activation Takes 24 hours
2) Go back to the store
3) Rep states: " Several hundreded people were given the wrong BAN or incorrect ban numbers and you have to go back to the store"

Ive had my phone for 12 hours and can still do NOTHING with it other than play with the emergency number.

I am bitter.

[JEEPER]

IM COMMING OVER FROM SPRINT.....GOT THE MESSAGE BEEN WAITING 10.5 HOURS...IM FRIKING PISSED I DONT STOP CALLING AND THEY ALL TELL ME THE SAME CRAP....NO ONE KNOWS......:mad:

[dukeblue91]

I wonder what will happen if I put in my old sim card and restart the process again?
Anybody tried this yet?

[dshadownyc]

Still waiting...The biggest frustration is that I am an existing AT&T customer. I have been told to wait 24hrs and if that doesn't work then I can try to wait on hold again with the least helpful AT&T. The problem is I have been given six different explanations as to why it is taking so long. The first was a problem with my existing voice plan. Listen up, if you have an older voice plan that is not being currently offered then the activation will halt (my plan was from 2003). If this is the case with you then I suggest before attaching the iphone and trying to activate, call AT&T and change the plan to a current one. During the activation they will offer you a chance to pay $20 to add the Data plan. The next problem was the woman who setup my plan did port me over to the new "blue system"..I guess the excitement of me being her first iphone customer was too much, so she messed up. I cant help but think that if Apple wasn't so secretive with the release of the phone, then AT&T employees would have had a better understanding of how this should work. I mean to remedy the activation hiccup I was also told to delete my cookies, eject the disc and then unplug the phone. It was obvious that the AT&T call center was very ignorant about the setup process. Between getting bounced around for 3 and a half hours on the phone, and dealing with 2 different supervisors I have nothing to show except for a non functioning $650 device..Oh how I waited for this moment. I'm going to call the apple iphone people today since they were the only people I couldn't reach last night.Hopefully I will have a working phone by this afternoon. If not :mad:

[macenforcer]

I wonder what will happen if I put in my old sim card and restart the process again?
Anybody tried this yet?

You should read a few pages back. I did that and it worked.

[jlanuez]

IM COMMING OVER FROM SPRINT.....GOT THE MESSAGE BEEN WAITING 10.5 HOURS...IM FRIKING PISSED I DONT STOP CALLING AND THEY ALL TELL ME THE SAME CRAP....NO ONE KNOWS......:mad:

I waited 11 hours yeaterday (#1 in line), than same thing (coming from Sprint and l-o-n-g Porting time) - it took till 5am today but now it is live! Yeah! :D

[rcyoung]

Activation seems to have become the bottleneck for the iPhone rollout...and that is largely out of Apple's control. I can see both sides, and there are several factors that effect things.

If I am an existing AT&T customer, getting a new number, and my current plan has no "special" riders then activation seems to go relatively well considering the number of people trying to activate their phones.

If I an NOT an existing AT&T customer, then a credit check is made (a fairly standard practice), and that throws a delay in. Now AT&T probably uses one of the standard credit reporting agencies for the check, and the problem may be at that end. Remember this crunch is a short lived thing, so Equifax, et al is not going to have added capacity at the cost of several hundred thousand dollars (minimum of you include purchase, installation, setup, testing, etc) for a few days of max capacity.

If you have any AT&T plan that requires a modification, that muddies the water more since that probably requires someone to enter the information by hand.

If you are transferring an existing number, or (heaven forbid) transferring from a different carrier, the delays may well be beyond the control of Apple or AT&T. If one were a conspiracy theorist, one would question if Verizon, etc were really putting in their "all" to help transfer accounts and phone numbers over to a competitor? Some discontent with AT&T certainly would not hurt "their" business...uuhhhmmmmm.

Shall I throw in one more monkey wrench...the long 4th of July Holiday is THIS weekend. Common IT practice is to schedule upgrades, major maintenance, etc for a LONG holiday weekend (we always use XMAS and New Years). Anyone want to take bets that one or more of the applicable interconnect parties in this operation did NOT schedule something for the weekend that is having a detrimental effect on performance? The LEFT hand rarely knows what the RIGHT hand is doing in big IT establishments.

Oh, and let's not forget the current trend of outsourcing a lot of support/maintenance work to foreign countries like India or Pakistan. The people who are handling the updates to your customer records may not even be in this country, or on this time zone (I wonder if that is one reasons they scheduled the rollout for the odd time of 6PM????). This can also throw a snag into the system. The volume of traffic involved in this rollout may be saturating the foreign networks ( and support workers) as well, which are often less '"robust" than those locally in the US. Again, no one is going to have increased capacity ( other than a few temp hires) for a short lived saturation.


I like the TV interview they did with the young video games tester...he wasn't going to get one until V2...AFTER they had worked all the bugs out! Young .....but with several lifetimes of "real world experience" ........

[imagineer2000]

7 hours after I tried to activate, I get my messsage:



Processing Activation


Your current AT&T rate plan is not compatible with the iPhone.


Please contact AT&T at 877-419-4500 to select a new rate plan and complete your activation.

Refer to your Activation ID when calling.
xxxxxx

WTF??? I am a NEW customer and picked the rate plan from iTunes??

Bad ATT, very Bad. After WWDC, I once again was made aware of how sensitive Apple is toward customer perception. Steve Jobs is probably having a stroke over this...

[dukeblue91]

You should read a few pages back. I did that and it worked.

Thank you, I will give this a try.
Have you logged into your account to see that it's alright and you don't have an extra one added?

[SpAwN666]

When I plug my iPhone in, it won't even give me the activation screen. All it does is goes right to the standard "Sync" screen in iTunes. I can push music and videos and use all the functions of my iPhone but can't get it activated. I was on the phone with support 4 hours last night until 3AM EST. Finally, after getting to the highest level of support, they said I have to go to the ATT store today and force activate.

So, I have a fully working "ipod" but no phone services :(

I just want to get the screen to activate and stop having support keep asking for my social security #. I keep saying I didn't even get a chance to activate and all they want is my stupid # to look me up. They beefed up their support for last night, but with idiots.

[SPUY767]

***MODERATOR NEEDS TO PUT THIS COMMENT ON FRONT PAGE***

If you take the sim out of your iPhone and put it in your old phone that is deactivated, you can use your old phone until you get the activation. At that time, you should switch the sims back and plug your iPhone into iTunes to get it activated.

[SPUY767]

I just want to get the screen to activate and stop having support keep asking for my social security #. I keep saying I didn't even get a chance to activate and all they want is my stupid # to look me up. They beefed up their support for last night, but with idiots.

What did you expect them to do, hire highly qualified personnel for temp labor? I'm just happy that the people I spoke with appeared to be familiar with the english language.

[TheScappian]

Woke up like Christmas and I got emails saying mine was activated and the number was transferred!

[newtxmgf]

Stood in line 4 hours, in the rain and lightening. Once in the store the employee had no idea what they were doing. Once at the desk did my credit check...paid for the 8 gig and deposit..She gave me a Ban number 1 hour after entering the store. Take it home, get activate, get an email that says I need to go pay a deposit...call the number 3 times and get 3 different answers.
1) Activation Takes 24 hours
2) Go back to the store
3) Rep states: " Several hundreded people were given the wrong BAN or incorrect ban numbers and you have to go back to the store"

Ive had my phone for 12 hours and can still do NOTHING with it other than play with the emergency number.

I am bitter.


***I am NOT porting a new number...I asked them to just give me a new one***

[aimfire]

Steve Jobs is probably having a stroke over this...
I hope so, I hope he knows about this... I want him to give ATT hell about this - makes iPhone launch look bad.

Going on 7 hours for me now - and I'm an existing ATT customer.

I could understand a 2-3 hour delay, but man... anything more is completely unacceptable!! :mad:

[RichP]

***MODERATOR NEEDS TO PUT THIS COMMENT ON FRONT PAGE***

If you take the sim out of your iPhone and put it in your old phone that is deactivated, you can use your old phone until you get the activation. At that time, you should switch the sims back and plug your iPhone into iTunes to get it activated.

Yes, I can confirm this works (I was on ATT before) at least now I have a damn phone to use.

[Jsimon9633]

This is hilarious so apparently the new SIM does indeed work BUT IN MY OLD PHONE ONLY.

so I guess there is an issue activaing the actual Iphone not the sim card!!! BLAH

[Skiniftz]

I'm not reading through 22 pages of 'WAH!' to find out, but has anyone tried putting in a SIM from another provider? Is it actually SIM locked or not?

[endlsdremr]

How do you restart the process?

1. Call your AT&T store and have them walk you through
2. Call customer service 877-800-3701
3. Call Apple 800 694 7466

None of these things worked for me, but those are some options that may work for you.

After 12 hours of trying to get my iPhone to activate, I was just told that I need to go back to the store I purchased my iPhone at and that they would help me.

Read all about my iPhone activation experience at my Thread-
"My iPhone nightmare. A $700 paperweight?"

Good luck to you!

They say that my SIM card is bad, also. I will post more after returning from the store.

I say we bum rush the AT&T stores... At least lets protest and form picket lines... We have to do something to let out our angst.

[endlsdremr]

I'm not reading through 22 pages of 'WAH!' to find out, but has anyone tried putting in a SIM from another provider? Is it actually SIM locked or not?

Good call Skinz.. How do you open the damn SIM port thingy... I'll try it.

[macenforcer]

Good call Skinz.. How do you open the damn SIM port thingy... I'll try it.

Use a paperclip. It pops right out. I used a sim card from my old phone (cingular) and it allowed me to activate it just fine.

[aimfire]

Just called ATT again, total waste of time...

Got some total stoner dude on the phone and asked him to check all my info, make sure everything was ok... He checked and said it was fine, but just awaiting the activation... within 24 hours.

I mentioned that I had been waiting for 7 hours and he just kinda stuttered, said "Ohhh, like a lot of people are trying to activate these phones".

Idiot... I'm strongly considering unloading all of my T shares on Monday if this mess dosn't clear up soon.

[avkills]

My SIM from my old phone which was AT&T did not work.

-mark

[BwanaZulia]

Called my third AT&T rep (from activation) and got the following:

- Checked everything, twice, thrice
- No problems with account or anything else
- Just a matter of too many people trying to activate

I suggest that NEXT TIME they partner with someone to launch the most eagerly anticipated consumer device EVER that they, you know, TEST THE ****ING SYSTEM UNDER HIGH STREE LOADS!

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

And now.... activation.

BZ

[maveness]

It's 9:30 AM EST, and I'm still waiting.

Wow, this is probably the single worst Apple-related experience I've had in 23 years of Mac ownership.

Way to go AT&T... And I'm stuck with you for 2 years???

[jgurfein]

Sharing everybody's pain here, they deactivated my Pearl BB, but like many of you, I am hanging out in 'more time to activate' land. However, after a detailed conversation with an ATT supervisor, I know my account is now completely accurate for an iPhone account. So no real explanation as to why no activation email yet. I am not sure how it helps, but the new SIM card in the iPhone WILL work in other phones, so it appears at least ATT got the SIM and account stuff right (i.e., they accurately programmed their switch with the new SIM ID and it is a valid, functioning SIM in any other Cingular phone). It seems the problem is in the actual code that itunes needs to unlock the phone itself, which comes from Apple, but undoubtedly is generated as a result of some sort of interaction between the two companies. Hard to tell who dropped the ball here but I was pretty surprised to find out the account and SIM stuff was actually working properly (there were some incorrect account settings they had to correct - perhaps that is what causes the holdup- if an account doesn't get properly set up by the automated system maybe it requires human intervention to signal the 'all clear').

Anyway this is a huge disappointment for Apple. I look forward to hearing their public statements about this. Meantime forwarding calls to my wife's phone until this is resolved.

[univac]

when i put the iphone sim in my old cingular phone it asks for a password...any one know how to get the password?

[mlevack]

I have been waiting like all of you - 13 hours at this point. After 30 minutes on hold, the ATT rep informed me that my porting from Verizon failed (alough I never received any notice as such). The rep was able to cancel out my activation so I could "start over" as I am just going to try and get any phone number working at this point.

I re-entered my information into iTunes, this time without porting and I received a new number within 2 minutes.

[TurboPGT]

What an embarrassing disaster on the part of both Apple & Att.

I got forwarded to a tech support line! grrrrrrr

They apparently can fix this where as the iTunes activation line that I was just on cannot. :(

[iSaint]

I'm up this morning after a 24 hour wait.

[BwanaZulia]

I'm up this morning after a 24 hour wait.

The phone hasn't been on sale for 24 hours. Barely 16 hours.

BZ

[Captain Ken]

Do I have the only iPhone whose speaker doesn't work???
Silence turned off. Check.
Volume at Full. Check.
Reset iPhone. Check.
Sure would be nice to hear the phone ring without having the headset attached.

[NightStorm]

Finally got my account fixed and activated over the phone. It took forever to talk to someone, but she seemed much better prepared than the people last night. Good luck to everyone else!

[brewser]

Same problem as everyone. Just woke up this morning and everything is activated and number transfered from Verizon. :)
It will happen. It sucks but it will work today.

[BwanaZulia]

Oh... and the ATT rep said that maybe turning off the phone for an hour might work... (worth a shot).

Still no email.

BZ

[nt5672]

2 hours in line at Apple Store Schaumburg, IL 60173.
2.1 hours on the phone with AT&T Customer Service, no activation.
1.6 hours on the phone with Apple Customer Service, no activation.

General Consensus - wait 6 hours.

12 hours later (7:21 am CST), no email, no activation and can not even listed to music on iPhone.

Old AT&T plan, prior to Cingular. Will have to go to AT&T Store and upgrade second phone. So far plan costs $5.00 more per month.

TOTAL Abortion.

Good News, Apple had great music on hold, AT&T NOT.
Bad News, AT&T blamed Apple, Apple blamed AT&T. After changing plans with AT&T neither could identify why iPhone would not activate.

On hold with AT&T again this morning for 98 minutes, then rep opened line and disconnected line without saying anything. I guess this gets their call handling statistics up.

[daveo123]

I see a bunch of people posting about problems with transferring numbers and all, but is anyone a new customer?

Set my up, says on iTunes "Your activation takes additional time to complete" got the first email telling me to wait and nothing more. This was at 10:42 PT last night. It's now 6:43am and still nothing. Tried to call the number listed on here three times....first time after 4 minutes on hold got a ring like I was connecting through and then nothing. Second time same thing after 10 minutes. 3rd got a recording telling me to leave my name and number and they will call back (weird).

Anyone with a similar experience?

[jsneedles91]

It said needs more time after i finished all my info, 7:00 PM last night, same before i went to bed, 1:00 AM, same at 4:00 AM and same now, e-mail says i should reconnect before 7:15 pm tonight for transferring or something any answers

PS Porting number from verizon, signed up on own individual plan

[Troyte83]

i dont know why every one elses are like this. my activation took less than 5 minutes. i was the first person to get it in my store though so maybe i activated it earlier than most. well i think apple did a great job handling the whole purchasing part of a the iPhone, plus its freakin awesome

[avkills]

At least you are getting emails, I'm not getting ****. The next call I make to AT&T had better get this solved.

Can anyone tell if the emails are coming from Apple or AT&T, I think my life might be easier if I was actually getting the ****ing web activation number.

-mark

[Jsimon9633]

At least you are getting emails, I'm not getting ****. The next call I make to AT&T had better get this solved.

Can anyone tell if the emails are coming from Apple or AT&T, I think my life might be easier if I was actually getting the ****ing web activation number.

-mark

Tell me about it, I dont have the number either so I cant do ****

to top it off, which ATT number is the one I should be calling? there is iike 10

[Tazzy531]

It said needs more time after i finished all my info, 7:00 PM last night, same before i went to bed, 1:00 AM, same at 4:00 AM and same now, e-mail says i should reconnect before 7:15 pm tonight for transferring or something any answers

PS Porting number from verizon, signed up on own individual plan

I hope it's going by queue. I signed up at 8pm last night. Hopefully this means another couple of hours.

[sfwalter]

Is there a way to reset and restart the activation process?

[tinman13]

Finally got my account fixed and activated over the phone. It took forever to talk to someone, but she seemed much better prepared than the people last night. Good luck to everyone else!

What was the problem? Can you explain what kicked it past the "additional time to activate" message?

[Kinetic]

I just got off the phone with support. For me, it's been 12+ hours and she is saying to wait 24. Also, I asked her to go through my account again to make sure nothing else would screw it up. She noticed that the unlimited data plan (I'm an existing customer and am just switching phones) wasn't added. She tried to add it and found I had some add-ons that weren't compatible and so the add was rejected. She had to re-add it. So, you might want to call in and check your accounts. I'd be mad if I waited this long and then got a message that my account still had issues. Also, she recommended turning the phone off for a short time and then trying again.

With all this, who knows what'll work. Part of me thinks they're just telling us to do things to give us hope that'll it work. This whole experience has just really taken off the buzz of the iPhone for me. Hopefully that'll change when I can actually use this lovely brick.

[avkills]

I've been nice so far, but I'm done being nice. Someone better get this solved today. I guess I could call my Bank and say not to pay them until it starts working.

It is interesting how they have removed the number from that "please wait until hell freezes; in which case your phone will be activated" page.

Apple iPhone support must be getting slammed, since I've been on hold for about 15 minutes.

-mark

[TurboPGT]

I hope it's going by queue. I signed up at 8pm last night. Hopefully this means another couple of hours.


Dude ive been waiting since 6:45 pm yesterday

[Jsimon9633]

ok you guys that have had sucess calling

what number did you call?!?!!?

[BwanaZulia]

JUST GOT THE EMAIL!

I am activated.

Almost 12 hours.

Hang in there people.

BZ

[Jsimon9633]

JUST GOT THE EMAIL!

I am activated.

Almost 12 hours.

Hang in there people.

BZ


see if i knew it was just a matter of time i wouldnt be as mad

but i am afraid that there is some crap holding it up and who knows when itll be fixed if i cant fix it you know?

[dagger55]

JUST GOT THE EMAIL!

I am activated.

Almost 12 hours.

Hang in there people.

BZ

you come from verizon?

[barnetda]

now after waiting 12 hours for an email i have just receivewd an email asking me to call ATT. What a shambles. I am onto ATT AND HAVE BEEN ON HOLD FOR 30 MINS SO FAR.

[VelvetElegance]

It's been 9 hours for me and I'm not porting from another carrier. :( :mad:

[louden]

Just saw this on Apple's site:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305703

Basically, they're saying they don't support 64-bit Windows - which is a bunch of BS. If Apple supports iTunes on 64-bit Windows, it should also support the iPhone with 64-bit Windows. I think they should test their software and release an update.

Disappointing to say the least.

[oogje]

I hope it's going by queue. I signed up at 8pm last night. Hopefully this means another couple of hours.

It doesn't seem to be a function of any straightforward queuing. I received the "now processing" mail at 7:50 last night and since then, nothing. I see many reports of people being activated since then.

I am trying to activate as a new customer, new number. I've never had wireless service before - and still don't.

[s1zeRo]

i still cant get past the "please wait while att&t verifies your account information. this may take up to 1 minute... more like 14 hours+.

[imationx]

WEll, i just got off the phone with them for the 5th time.. in hope of asking them to activate it over the phone.. he says it says "proccessing and all I can do is wait up to the 24hrs"... When i check the status it says " processing your actication request" does that mean I should be getting a final email sometimes before 7pm which would be 24 hrs ?

[Volcom8190]

Just got off the phone with AT&T after waiting 2 hours.
According to the agent we spoke with, only INDIVIDUAL plans can be activated at this time. They are experiencing technical difficulties with the family plan activation. The family plan is not currently in the system. You will need to call AT&T to clear your family plan if you already attempted to activate your phone on the family plan. Once they clear your account, you can activate your phone as an individual account. If you are activating more than 1 phone, you will have to activate each one as an individual account, then call AT&T's customer care line (800-331-0500) in a few days to change it to the family plan. You can still port over your old phone number.

[Jsimon9633]

considering all the various answers from ATT I am guessing they dont have a godamn clue what is going on


and Apple phone is not even answering :)

[TurboPGT]

OMG!!!!! I just waited an hour for someone to pick up....talked for 3 min, put on hold......they hung up! Are you serious!?

:confused: :confused:

what a disaster

[dagger55]

Ive been waiting 15 hours

[oogje]

Just got off the phone with AT&T after waiting 2 hours.
According to the agent we spoke with, only INDIVIDUAL plans can be activated at this time. They are experiencing technical difficulties with the family plan activation. The family plan is not currently in the system. You will need to call AT&T to clear your family plan if you already attempted to activate your phone on the family plan. Once they clear your account, you can activate your phone as an individual account. If you are activating more than 1 phone, you will have to activate each one as an individual account, then call AT&T's customer care line (800-331-0500) in a few days to change it to the family plan. You can still port over your old phone number.

Thank you. This is very helpful.

brian

[barnetda]

I have now been on hold to ATT for 50 mins . This is a complete shambles.

I want my money back.

[mickeyd26]

my mac is on 10.3, damn iphone requires 10.4. i'm not upgrading to 10.4 when 10.5 is just around the corner... so after HOURS of updating my sister's PC, i plug in the iphone and try to activate. i've been waiting 6 hours for this phone to be activated... and its a new number, NOT ported. not a happy camper. at&t should've been more prepared IMO. :mad:

[DarkRail]

FYI: Mine took 9 hours.

DETAILS:

BRAND NEW ACCOUNT - so none of my delay related to porting.
800 CREDIT SCORE - so none of my delay related to questionable credit.

Plugged in new iPhone at 9pm Pacific.

Hated Cingulat&T passionately until around 2am, then gave up, hugged my $600 brick and went to sleep.

Activation emails came in at 6am (for some reason I got two, first told me my new phone number, second was identical but without the number).

Now I'm all plugged in and syncing, and my baby is a brick no more.

So far, Apple gets an A+ (for the symphony of orchestration at the Apple Store, and for creating an incredible product) and Cingulat&T gets a D for nothing. I sure hope their coverage is better than their activation service....:rolleyes:

[fireworks501]

i could F-ING MURDER SOMEONE.

9pm last night - buy iphone, activate through itunes
918pm - "it will take 24h for you to transfer your number'
924pm - "we are processing your activation"
4am - "we need more information. the address you entered is invalid."
9am - on line with phone support: you have to call billing, the rate plan you picked is not available for your phone. (I PICKED IT THROUGH ITUNES, WTF?!)
1030am - on line with billing: we can't find your account; it may be because you're porting your number. so i can't help you with your billing rate.

WHAT THE HELL AT&T. I HAVE HAD A GORGEOUS SHINY NEW GADGET ON MY DESK FOR 14+H AND I CAN'T ACTIVATE IT OR EVEN USE THE IPOD ON IT! WHAT THE HELL.

[barnetda]

I have now been on hold to ATT for 50 mins . This is a complete shambles.

I want my money back.

my call to ATT rang for a second and now silence. ive been cut off after waiting almost 60 mins.

I am so fed up with apple and ATT i am taking it back .

[runplaysleeprun]

I tried to set it up last night in the apple store after buying it, but got that dreaded AT@T will email you when its ready message. Well, around 11 I got an email saying my current plan wont work with the iPhone. Thats fine, I say. So I call AT@T and get it sorted out, and am told it should only be a few minutes now before it kicked on. 40 minutes later, nothing, so I call back. A lady now tells me it may take even up to an hour. Its 1 am at this point, so I say screw I'm going to bed and surely it will be up and running come the morning.

I wake up and see that my current phone now has a "Unregistered SIM". Good news I thought, progress. But alas, the iPhone still does not work. Connected to iTunes, it says it takes additional time to activate. Aye. So I call again. This time, it may take up to 24-36 hours to activate. I'm certainly not happy, and now I have no cell phone. wtf.

[sixth]

what number are you guys using to call for porting issues? i am going from verizon and still dead in the water...cant get anyone to answer...

[daveo123]

Here's what I did...took out the sim card and put it into my existing pay as you go phone. And it showed me the number and like it was activated. I put the card into the iPhone and almost instantly got the activation email message. It is syncing and now it works.

Note: It is a new account for me and there was no number transferring or anything.

[Jsimon9633]

after about 1 hour wait

they told me that my account is showing the iphone as the device but the PLAN change is backed up on their end and so I wont be able to use it til the Plan is changed to the iphone plan


she said that they are not taking calls and that that department is giving updates to them to let them know status

i am existing att customer and heres the numer i called 877-777-4192

[Peel]

OK, so after an hour and a half on hold with AT&T this morning, I'm finally talking with someone. She's sweet, but clueless. After talking with her for 5 minutes, and explaining that I received an email saying that my current AT&T plan (a blue plan) is incompatable with the iPhone and needs to be upgraded, she asks me three stupid questions:

• Are you trying to port a number? who's your current carrier? You Are!

•Is your iPhone Activated? NO, Duh!

•Oh, then would you like me to activate it?

EDIT: She just came back on the line to say that she can't upgrade my account, and needs to transfer my call to AT&T. Apparently she is with a call center that AT&T rented out for this iPhone launch, and these aren't actual AT&T employees.

EDIT2: She now says that the AT&T center isn't open now and I should call back. After telling her that I have already been on hold for 1.5 hours (which she's shocked to hear), I have been transferred to a supervisor. He is going to try to upgrade my plan, though technically he's not supposed to.

EDIT3: My existing cell phone, which I was talking to AT&T on, suddenly went dead, with a notice that "SIM Card Inactive", and now I just received an email saying that the process has been completes.

It just Activated!!!

Hang in there guys, I hope all of your problems are solved soon!

[hamedatl]

Called AT&T, lady said "oh, I can push thru ur Verizon porting, hold on". 5 minutes later some other rep picked up and I had to start over. She said there's nothing wrong with my account, but I insisted there is. She said I'll transfer you to support. Now, I'm actually on hold with Apple's support line (same as 1-800-MYIPHONE). This whole call has been 45 minutes. I don't even know what to say anymore.

[dagger55]

I've been on the phone for an hour now... talked to three different reps... the last of which didnt even know what an Activation ID number was.... She is now on hold trying to figure out how to use this number to find my account information

[macanudo]

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...

Yeah, so 2 hours + 2 more hours have gone by and still no activation. I was really hoping that the ATT guy that I spoke with at 6AM EST would give me a bit of hope, but it looks like I'm at the 24 hour end of the spectrum. I feel everyone's pain and I only hope they can pump these activations out quickly or else both ATT and Apple will feel the PR backlash. God only knows that it has already started.

[fireworks501]

honestly, this is BS. i even asked her if they are overwhelmed with iphone support calls and she said "honestly, not really. we were expecting a lot more."

THEN WHY DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING YOU IDIOTS?!

[macaddiict]

Started activation at 9:15pm
Got "Processing your activation" email at 12:19am
Got "Activation Complete" at 1:03am
Got "Service Activation Complete" at 4:03am
Now the phone says it is "Waiting for AT&T Activation" .... geez!

[dagger55]

honestly, this is BS. i even asked her if they are overwhelmed with iphone support calls and she said "honestly, not really. we were expecting a lot more."

THEN WHY DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO DO ANYTHING YOU IDIOTS?!

After dealing with these idiots for over 16 hours now, This comment really scares me into thinking i made a bad choice joining ATT just for a phone...


Every person I have talked to is completely clueless, and they just keep transferring me around the ATT call center.

[whickey]

what number are you guys using to call for porting issues? i am going from verizon and still dead in the water...cant get anyone to answer...

1-888-898-7685

[hamedatl]

I'm curious on how many iPhone buyers have this activation problem. 5%? 10%? 50%?

[audiophile74]

If you're having trouble activating and you're porting a number from another carrier, you may way to call at&t's porting and activation center directy:

1-888-898-7685 (9AM - 6PM in your local timezone)

I'm trying to get my number taken over from Verizon. AT&T said they are just waiting for the port to go through but iPhone has been useless since 7PM yesterday and my Verizon phone is still active. I called Verizon and they said there is no sign of any port request anywhere on my account.. WTF!?

[chopperglide]

bought two last night. wifey phone was good in 10 minutes. mine on the other hand took 14 hours to get the email...just got it and all is well. so just be patient if you can, i called several times too, but it seems that att certainly was not prepared for the volume of activations they had to handle. we are a family plan too, saw that there were people saying to change to individual plan to get activated, then back to family in a few days. that is not necessary, what is necessary is to be patient. i say that, know that i was HOT and very impatient too..lol

[fireworks501]

yeah, i am thinking this is a mistake. the mistake was with the carrier. they should have gone with verizon, if you can't even bring this phone overseas (which i thought would be the advantage to having a gsm based service).

honestly, i'm pissed off.

[ShockerMan4x4]

Well after waking up this morning to no email I started investigating.

I decided to sign up for this board and thought it was odd that I didn't recieve the confirmation email that allows me to activate my macrumors account.

After checking, apparently bellsouth has disabled my email account for some reason without any warning to me. This is the same account I should be getting my iPhone email from.

So now I'm on hold with Apple... Been on hold for almost an hour...

[dannysim]

I just got my iphone and i was all ready to set it up.
I synched it, got it ready, everythings going good, and then it asks me to put in a pre-authorized credit approval code becuase, i assume, this is my first time as an ATT costumer. So i went into the store with my credit card which is attached to my familys account, and they said that if i were to open an account I would have to put down FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS (5oo!) so I would be covered, and i would have to wait a YEAR for it to be reimbursed. (I know my family has SPOT ON credit). So, i'm stuck here with an Iphone that i can't play with yet and i'm beginning to get scratch marks on my kneck that i can't remember inflicting on myself, which i'm almost sure that i have.

-Has anyone else had this problem?
:mad: :( :confused:

[avkills]

On hold with AT&T right now, Apple could not help me; and the Apple rep understood my frustrations and I think Apple know they blew it big time by locking the whole damn phone until it is activated; worst decision ever.

This is by far the worst Apple release ever; however, it really is AT&T that is totally screwing the pooch on this one. They process the Web Activation IDs, Apple has nothing to do with it except the front end on iTunes.

Although I will say Apple ****ed us by not letting us enter in a email address where we would like the activation info to go to. I am basically ****ed because of this.

I am on hold with AT&T, yet again.

-mark

[chaseardoin7]

okay i've been waiting for 10 hours now. i am not transferring over an old number. i'm sure this is a sufficient wait time compared to what i've been hearing, but my question is does the phone need to remain docked? i've taken out of the dock already once without thinking. i never saw an alert that told me not to. what have u guys done?

[avkills]

I'm curious on how many iPhone buyers have this activation problem. 5%? 10%? 50%?

Arn should do a poll. I imagine this problem is a lot worse than it seems. This is the first *major* issue I've had with Apple which almost makes me want to return it and say **** off.

-mark

[tinman13]

what number are you guys using to call for porting issues? i am going from verizon and still dead in the water...cant get anyone to answer...

The Port Activation Center # is 888.898.7685

[fireworks501]

god damn, this has KILLED my excitement about this product. sitting here with a $600 paperweight.

[FloridaBill]

The store where I bought my phone yesterday called me and asked if I was having activations problems,....Yep...they say "ok, call 877-800-3701". When I call that number I get a recording saying "technical difficulties, call later".

WHAT COMPLETE BS. In addition to a useless paperweight, I'm going to get hammered on Monday with my 7,000 shares of Apple...

ATT....THANKS

[Kinetic]

This whole waiting thing has totally killed my excitement for the phone. I'm actually just going to give up and check it later tonight. Just not worth the aggravation anymore.

I know everyone blames ATT, but I also blame Apple because they picked ATT and they locked all the features until after activation. At least give me SOMETHING to play with after 13 hours! Why don't they send the Apple folks over to ATT and let them do it right? I wonder if this kind of screw up is enough that Apple could get out of their deal with ATT? Surely they have something in the contract that would allow them an out if ATT performs poorly.

[sixth]

i am on the phone with the port people now..said they have NO ACCOUNT or history of my activation..

great. and i am on verizon porting over..

thanks for the porting phone number whoever posted that..

EDIT - Well the lady said i need to call the other department 18778003701 and clear the account error with is the account number problem...amazing. i try to call them and i get hung up on...freakin sucks!

[dagger55]

Hey ive been passed around to 5 customer service reps now....



Great



I dont even want my iphone anymore.... If i didnt have to pay ATT ANOTHER 60 dollars to take this damn thiing back, i would be on my way to the store right now

[fireworks501]

What The Djfk:lsfjds.

The Support Line Crashed.

S:dklfjdsklfjdklsjfdlksfjdklsfjkldsfjkdlsfjkdsfklds:fdsf.

[macanudo]

okay i've been waiting for 10 hours now. i am not transferring over an old number. i'm sure this is a sufficient wait time compared to what i've been hearing, but my question is does the phone need to remain docked? i've taken out of the dock already once without thinking. i never saw an alert that told me not to. what have u guys done?

I am an existing ATT customer and have tried everything...activating, calling ATT, patiently waited the 2 hours they said that it would be fixed (that was at 6:30AM EST), then tried popping out the iPhone sim card and trying my old SIM , which took me back to the activation process to only go through this whole crap again. I have been leaving in the dock, but reconnecting the USB cable every 20 min or so to see if it magically activates. Very very non-apple like and frustrating to say the least. I am on hour 16 of being disconnected from the world and patiently waiting for activation.

[teragram]

For those who have an existing ATT account but still have the activation message, I was able to remove the SIM from the iphone, put it in the Razr and make a call from the Razr. So atleast I have cellular service.

This is ironic because I had called ATT to cancel the iphone activation, which the rep claims she did, but they were not able to recognize the original SIM from my Razr.

I then called the business line again and was told that everything looked okay except that the BMG field on my account still showed small business. Even though I have and have always had an individual account. This rep removed the small business indicator and said I should try reactivating the iphone. But I can't do that because the iphone doesn't know that I cancelled the activation

I seem to be in an infinite recursive, or is that iterative, loop.

[greenBabe]

Well, AT&T has certainly turned out to be the turd in Apple's punch bowl.

Guess I'll check back tonight and see if my iBrick has morphed into an iPhone.

[EdH]

FWIW- I was an existing Cingular/ATT customer 'upgrading' to iPhone. Attempted activation @ 7:30PM EST last night, got the 'additional time needed' message / email.

Called AT&T around 10PM ET last night, said everything looked ok on the account, it may just need a little more time. Gave up for the night. Check this AM at 6:30, still not working, no email. Called the Activation # again at 7AM when they opened, again said all looks ok, but would have someone call within 30 mins to help sort this out. 2hours pass, so I decide to go to the local company owned (very important, resellers cant help) store.

After the rep there calling several numbers, and 75 mins, and trying everything they could think of on the phone and in their billing system, they finally asked her to swap the SIM out (had to show her how) and send me home. Fortunately I had brought my laptop and the sync cable, I told her I did not want to leave until I was activated. Got iTunes running, went through the process again, and within 3 mins the phone was working!!

This may not work for everyone, but a SIM swap sure saved the day for me. I'd also bring your laptop if you have one.

Other reps were sending iPhone customers home and telling them to call the activation number - so be firm, and let them you already tried that route.

Hope this may help a few of you..

[kevinwiz]

i'm going to the att store when they open this is BS

[s1zeRo]

on the phone with ATT.

holding for 50 mins
talking for 30 mins
she is now calling apple to see what my problem is.

[appletalk]

i just got mine working. Worth every second I spent waiting. This thing rocks!! I hope everyone gets up and running soon. Oh and the period (.) is a pain to get to quickly.

[hellodon]

So get this ****.
I'm STILL waiting on my phone since 8PM last night

Today, I told them that i havent done anything with my 2nd phone yet, its part of a family plan.

They tell me to start setting that one up, its set up and working within 3 minutes...seriously. NO problems, the second line on my account works. Mine still doesnt.

That doesnt make ANY sense to me....and they just apologize..i dont want an apology..i want my friggin iPhone to work. Why should the second one work and not the one thats been sitting for 15 hours?

[resmae]

I just got my activation complete, took a little over 10 hours but Im finally loving my phone!!!

[nt5672]

On hold with AT&T again this morning for 1.6 (ending 8:32 am cst) hours, then rep opened line and disconnected line without saying anything. I guess this gets their call handling statistics up.

On hold with Apple Customers Service for 1.7 hours (ending 10:21 am cst) then just disconnected. It seems the answer to all problems is for Apple and AT&T to just stick their head in the sand and hope the problems will go away. 10 minutes and Apple who asked for my call back number just in cast has not called back after I was disconnected.

I would doubt that they could legally charge an open box fee for a return if they could NOT deliver the service/product you paid for in a reasonable time in spite of the policy. Something to do with (UCC) uniform commercial code.

They probably did the Friday 6 pm so they would have two days to get things fixed without hurting their stock prices.

Anyone have any better luck by visiting the Apple or AT&T store?

[avkills]

These turd smooches at AT&T just told me there is a activation code on the receipt....yeah, ok. Jackass, the activation is done over the computer, not at the store like other phones.

I'm going to see how far up the chain I can go. Someone needs to get fired over this; somebody big, like the CIO or something.

-mark

[hamedatl]

OMFG, I've been on this call for 90 minutes. Finally talked to an Apple rep, and she told me to change my OS X system time (or Windows) to June 20, Save, then change it back to June 30. Then she said to wait 2 hours. I had to try so hard not to laugh.

She also said, "just unplug your phone and you should be able to make calls". I said "It says Active your phone through itunes". She's like "but can you make calls?" And I say "I can call 911, you want me to call them?"

Still on the phone with her.

[dagger55]

after being on hold and talking to 6 reps over the course of two hours, The lady tells me she has "escalated my request" and to wait 4 hours and see if i get an activation email.


Unacceptable

[sovelocity]

Ok, so i got the message last night (11am PST) that it needs more time to activate. I finally decided to shut of the power completely to the iphone. While it was starting up, I put it in the Dock. Immeadiately afterwards, my phone was activated! I didn't even receive an email with a web order number or anything.


So, - Try Shutting down the phone (hold down the power button and slide to shut down)


I'm hoping this helps more people than just me

[jacinto45]

My activation email just came. This thing is amazing.

[avkills]

Well, he just asked for my iPhone serial number and my SIM serial, so maybe something is actually going to happen.

These idiots should invest in a call center that actually understands how the hell new products work.

Apple is going to take a lot of heat for this, and maybe they will breach their contract with AT&T and just start selling the phone SIM free; and letting the other carriers join the fun.

I've generally liked AT&T (Cingular) (whatever) since they have tended to leave me alone and not bug me all the time about new phones, new services... etc etc. But this is leaving me quite discouraged. As a loyal customer; as I am sure many are who are getting boned; just makes this even worse. I was very excited when Apple released the partnership with AT&T, hell this is going to be easy.

How wrong I was. It seems it is easier if you are not a current customer.

EDIT.... dammit, I was just disconnected.

-mark

[hamedatl]

Haha, so I had called AT&T, who had called Apple. AT&T hung up from there. Now Apple says they have to call AT&T again. This is amazing, they are going back and forth. Oh yeah, I'm up to 15 hours waiting for activation.

[plaine300]

14 hours and still waiting for my email.

[dukrous]

It seems this is all related to portability. According to the rep I talked to (the fourth since 7AM EST this morning), an error appeared during the porting from Verizon that read 'Primary number inactive.' This was revealed only after I asked him to verify my account for errors. If you don't ask for this, it will not be done.

He had me on hold for 20 minutes, coming back occasionally for some piece of information he needs. Finally he got everything set up except the IMEI and ICCID. This was due to some error on Verizon's side that would not let the porting take place. I'm hold with Verizon right now to clear up the block, at which point I need to call back AT&T's iPhone activation line (877-800-3701), explain that Verizon's hold on my number is loosened, and to get the phone activated.

According to the guy I spoke to, if I hadn't called the phone would've been on hold indefinitely. It seems that problem might not be the activation system itself, but the email that is supposed to let you know about a problem or the system that detects errors on their end is malfunctioning.

Hopefully I can get this solved within the hour and finally use my shiny new phone. Man...it's purdy...

[fireworks501]

On hold for 45min - iPhone support line crashes.

Wait 1/2hr. Call back.

On hold for another 20min. THE LINE RINGS AS IF I'M GOING TO A CUSTOMER SERVICE REP, THEN IT DISCONNECTS ME.

I call back -- the iPhone activation support line has crashed AGAIN.

Nick

[gcrowell]

Just got off the phone with AT&T for the fourth time trying to get this thing turned on. (Oh, actually the fifth time- got hung up on a little bit ago).

"Just wait up to 24 hours and all will be OK."

"But what happens in 24 hours of it is not activated?"

"Oh, we will put you over to the Sychronization Dept."

So, the good news is AT&T actually has a plan to do something other than tell us to wait. I had no luck getting over to the Sychronization Dept as of yet, but at least as of 7:14 tonight, I know what to ask for.

[deirdre]

It took 7 hours and 4 minutes to get my activation email.

w00t!

[SixSlinger]

has anyone successfully activated the iphone when porting from verizon??

[avkills]

This whole situation sucks. I would not be surprised to see a class action law suite, even though I don't condone it, it sure would wake the tech sector up.

With this amount of waiting and BS, I'd kind of like AT&T to pay for my phone.

EDIT; My old cell phone SIM just died, so maybe my luck may start to change

-mark

[gcrowell]

Apple is going to take a lot of heat for this, and maybe they will breach their contract with AT&T and just start selling the phone SIM free; and letting the other carriers join the fun.

-mark

This might actually be a possibility. I am sure Apple has performance standards in teh contract that allows them to cancel the contract in the case of breach of terms on the part of AT&T.

[gcrowell]

If you have a FAN number (a way for AT&T to associate your personal account with a corporate volume discount) associated with your account, you have to get it removed for activation to go through.

[schuylerc]

i have now hit the 17 hour mark. i would NEVER have expected this from apple. sigh... on the phone for an hour now... can't even recall how many calls this makes. what a complete disaster!

[TurboPGT]

has anyone successfully activated the iphone when porting from verizon??

Listen:

I called 1-888-898-7865 which is the port request support line. The lady there talked took my Verizon mobile number that I requested to port 16 hrs ago. She was off and on hold with me, then eventually said they got the port approved and had me readthe IMEI and ICCID numbers off activation screeen on the phone. Then after another 10 minutes of holding she said they were pushing through activation with my port and should sending a message to my phone within the next 30 minutes.

Hasn't happened yet, only be 5 min...I'm praying.

I suggest EVERYONE take this method if you are porting a number and see what happens.

[ichris2]

These mother **ckers at ATT and Apple better be working on Sunday.

[Undecided]

I started the process at about 10:30 p.m. PDT. I got the wait up to 6 minutes message, then the message that my activation requires additional time to complete. I am switching from Tmobile. (By the way, in the activation, it asks for my existing phone account password, if any. Is that the same as the password to access the account on the web, or something different? I left it blank.)

I then received an email that says porting may take up to 24 hours. In the meantime, I should receive an email telling me that I can activate my phone. And that in between activating and finishing the porting, I can only make outgoing calls.

It's 9 a.m. PDT and I'm still waiting for that email that I can now activate the phone. (I gather from other messages that the email will have a link of some kind.)

It's a sweet phone and I'm sure it will all work out within the next 12 hours, but I really wish I could start using it.

[M3Jedi77]

My local AT&T store opens in 1 hour.

Ive been getting the "were sorry, AT&T has determined that your current account cannot be used with the iPhone"

Been on the phone for a total of 7 hours. 4 last night, 3 this morning already. Im currently on hold with Apple support because AT&T transferred me over after the lady couldnt figure things out.

Should I just walk in to my AT&T store when they open and see if they can help me activate? I cant STAND being on hold anymore!

[AtariAge]

I just got off the phone with AT&T after calling the 877-800-3701 and pressing Option 1. Total call time was 26 minutes. Is my phone activated? Hell no. Were the people I spoke to able to help me? Hell no. The second person I spoke to (after getting transfered) initially told me I had to wait up to 24 hours since their system was overloaded. I then stated I had an old AT&T conversion account and I know that was causing problems for people. He then looked at my current plan and verified that had I gotten an activation email it would have stated this account is not compatible and I would have had to call anyway (fantastic!)

He then told me I would have to change the account to one of the new ones, but that he could not do it. He then put me on hold and was going to transfer us to some other division to do that, but alas, they don't open on Saturday until 1pm EST! So now I have to call back at 1pm and pray that I actually speak with someone who can help, get my account converted over to one of the new plans, and hope that maybe, just perhaps, I might get to use my new phone sometime today.

I then got into a discussion with the CSR about how poorly this whole launch has been handled by AT&T. The rep made various excuses and I told him this reflects very poorly upon AT&T and there are tons of pissed off people out there who just spent $500+ on a new phone and even after 16 hours they still cannot use it (and worse, many people are now stuck without a phone because their old phone was deactivated).

AT&T sucks monkey balls.

..Al

[Zolk]

I just got the "activation requires additional time" message as well. I wonder if one cause of this is former AT&T Wireless customers that never migrated to a new plan after the Cingular acquisition. I remember there being this process of switching from a "blue plan" to an "orange plan" if you got a new phone at the time.

[sixth]

I just talked to a rep and he told me that the plan i selected is not compatible for the device that i have. WTF I selected the cheapest plan...and now i got transfered and the lady has no clue whats going on. this is BS. i am going in circles with no answers. verizon said they have not rcvd a port request...

[thomasfxlt]

It's unfortunate that many have had activation issues. I had none, but I was activated by 7:30 last nite.

This phone is worth the activation hassles. Keep a cool head. It's worth it.

[oogje]

Per a previous post indicating the family plan may be related to my activation delay (been waiting since 7:50EDT last night) I went ahead and activated my 2nd iPhone as a stand-alone. The phone was activated and I got a number within minutes right in iTunes, didn't even have to wait for an email.

Now I want to cancel the pending activation on the 1st phone and do over as a stand-alone plan and sort out the billing later. Is there any way to reset the phone to "factory new" so I can start over? As it is, when I connect it , iTunes goes directly to the "wait for it" message.

By the way, this is an insidiously clever ploy by Apple. After hours of activation and AT&T help line frustrations, when you get the phone to work, you're so happy just to see the home screen you can't help but think it's an amazing phone. Setting the bar beyond low. But it works. I'm thrilled with my working iPhone.

[ehurtley]

Got the waiting game when I tried to activate at 10:45 PM Pacific last night. It finally activated at 7:45 AM Pacific this morning. Yup, 9 hours. Last night, AT&T support had said it should only take 30 minutes to 3 hours (this was when I had already been waiting 3.5 hours,) and to call in the morning if it wasn't active yet.

[iSaint]

The phone hasn't been on sale for 24 hours. Barely 16 hours.

BZ

Doh! 12 hours, sorry! :p



In other news, the AT&T people I have spoken to indicate the server issues are all Apple's, and not AT&T's. I heard that from the AT&T store manager and the support line as well.

[Lazernet]

On the phone holding off and on for an hour now in hopes to get this all sorted out. They told me that my number has now been ported and it is merely an issue of getting the iphone working...

In perusing iTunes, why is there no iTunes Essentials called "iPhone Setup - Music to Hold by..."

I would consider buying it ;-)

- Eric

[SixSlinger]

my verizon phone just stopped working within the past 10 minutes....I hope this is a good sign, as at least SOMETHING is happening!

[hamedatl]

After 2 hour call, I finally got an AT&T lady who checked with the porting department and said it will be active at 1:55ET, and she could tell the exact time. She said the hold up is because of porting issues and with sometimes they are having problems when you cant activate your phone until the number has been ported. Truthfully, I had to tell her that it could be a porting issue from Verizon after reading the posts here. She said to call the porting department (1-866-802-7560) if it isn't activated by 2PM. We'll see!

[tinman13]

BOTTOM LINE ... this is a waiting game. I've done everything suggested in this thread. (After 3 hours) I talked to a very good guy at Apple, and the servers at AT&T simply weren't prepared for the load. The activation e-mail comes from AT&T, not Apple. There is nothing you can do to "force" the activation. The servers will process the requests and fire the e-mails ... Good Luck waiting.

[avkills]

On with rep now... says the phone is activated.... well it sure doesn't seem to be and I did not get the email....FIX IT dammit.

-mark

[paja]

Apple and AT&T, you had 6 frigging months to work this out. You knew the iPhone buying onslaught was coming. You blew it!

I am so pissed. I'm a Cingular customer (not business) and now I have no phone at all since you've deactivated my old one and have SCREWED up the process to activate my new one.

You should have been more up front about the process!

:mad:

[sixth]

they keep telling me no account has been set up....and i cant set up a another account because the phone thinks its being activated. anyone know how to reset it so i can go through the activation again? they keep asking me for my social secuirty # and i refuse to give it over the phone. this is horrible.

[SteveM8]

14 hours after activating MY Iphone (coming from Verizon) it still is not activated. The 2nd phone (my wifes) was activated at 3am.

They turned off my old Verizon acct and my new Iphone is not working. I AM MAD.

My wife's phone, which I did 2nd, is working and it also was a verizon transfer.
Another kicker. They created TWO family plan accts, each with one of the Iphones on it., WHen I call AT&T they claim both phones are activated, but I never got my email for my phone and when I hook it up to Itunes it says more time is needed. 14 hours so far. What a JOKE.

I am now without any phone and anyone who calls me gets a disconnected notice.

[Kinetic]

These mother **ckers at ATT and Apple better be working on Sunday.

That's a good point. When I called the iPhone activation line this morning for help, it was before their hours (they didn't open until 9:00am) but the recording that listed their hours didn't say anything about Sunday hours, only Mon-Friday and Sat. God, they better be open tomorrow if I'm still waiting or I'm going to lose it! I'm assuming going to an actual ATT store wouldn't do any good?

[fireworks501]

...is screwed. I have called 2x in the past 1/2 hr and each time I press 1, then it rings, and then after :30 of silence I get disconnected.

I could murder someone.

Edit: Make that THREE times it has disconnected me.

:mad:

[s1zeRo]

UPDATE:::

well my imei iccid numbers are in the att system but not in thw apple system. can swap sims but cant get the phone to active.

16 hours.. no iphone.

[///M Power]

14+ hours and waiting. Switching over from Verizon and keeping my number. In the last hour or so my old Verizon phone has been cut off.

I can't believe this happening to so many people. SO upsetting.

[imationx]

12th call.. Lady i'm talking to now said she is going to create a "new account" for me and is checking my credit.. Didnd't know they could do that.. hope that doesnt mean I have to wait another 24 hrs. ????????

[SixSlinger]

14+ hours and waiting. Switching over from Verizon and keeping my number. In the last hour or so my old Verizon phone has been cut off.

I can't believe this happening to so many people. SO upsetting.

I am in the exact same boat buddy.....I am on the phone with a pretty helpful (SHOCK) att guy right now....Ill let you know what he says

[M3Jedi77]

Hahaha after waiting 70 minutes just to talk to someone at the iPhone technical support place this lady just picked up and she believes its my operating system. Hahahahahaha. Ive tried it on 4 different computers. 2 Mac's, 1 desktop using Vista, 1 laptop using WindowsXP same error every time that AT&T has deterined that current account cant be used with iPhone. She just put my on hold again..Hopefully she'll be back soon. I wish this damn thing would work. The 5 people I know that have gotten the phone all havnt gotten it activated yet. Fvck

[teragram]

Just called the business support line to check on the FAN number. There isn't one on my account. Now I am being transfered to the Activation Support Team to try to get set up. One thing about business support line is that you don't have to wait on hold too long to speak to a person.

While I'm waiting to get activated, I've been practicing keying in phone number without looking and I'm getting pretty good.

By the way, the activation team is worthless. They can't do or see anything. They just have people giving out scripted answers that it will take more time.

[M3Jedi77]

I am in the exact same boat buddy.....I am on the phone with a pretty helpful (SHOCK) att guy right now....Ill let you know what he says


Not trying to be sexist but out of the 6 people Ive talked to in customer support both at AT&T and Apple only 1 was helpful, and he was the only guy. These women all seem too uninterested and wont stop faking surprise when they hear its not working.

[maxlee]

Well, I'm a very loyal AT&T customer I guess.

So loyal, I had to call AT&T 4 times to get through to their 'Conversions' department to convert my account from an old AT&T account to a Cingular account so that it can be converted to a new AT&T iPhone account.

Lets see. Lined up 2 hours for an iPhone starting 4pm. I was 50th in-line and they had 15 sales persons. Waited 1 hour to buy one because the cash registers were soo slow because of the volume of transactions.

I called twice last night after I recieved the 'Your activation requires additional time to complete'. Was told the department I needed to 'fix' my account is closed, please call back at 7am.

Called back at 8:30am. Oh. That department don't open until 9am. Please call back in another 15 mins.

Call back at 8:55am. Waited on hold for another 5 minutes. Got through! Yeah!!!! I can activate my iPhone. No. You have to wait another 12-24 hours for activation because we did not expect the volume of people buying the iPhone.

Soo. After buying the iPhone looks like I might be waiting 48 hours to actually use it. All I can do is play with the Emergency call screen. Hope I don't get desperate and call 911! lol!!

This is how AT&T treats its very loyal customers.

[avkills]

AT&T says my phone is active but no go so far. No email yet. Hopefully this thing starts working soon. I am getting very giddy.

-mark

[SteveM8]

The lady at AT&T, while nice was clueless. She told me my Iphone was ACTIVE and should be working. Then told me it was Apples problem.

My wifes was activated after 7 hours. Mine is going on 15 hours and nothing but they say it IS activated. SO frustrating.

I can log in to an acct at AT&T online and the funny thing is it shows my wifes phone as a 4GB Iphone and shows my phones as a RAZR, and I never owned a RAZR.

Switching from Verizon and my old phone is now dead. I am without a phone and NO ONE I call can help. What a waste of time and money, plus all of the frustration. Im sitting here in my PJ's still when I should have been showered and out the door by now.

In another 2 hours I will be going to apple for a refund. My 1st bad Apple experience and it reminds me of something Microsoft would do.

Horrible.

[neolithicvirgo]

Has anyone tried going into a cingular/att store yet for service?

-Andrew

PS: Bought mine at Lenox Mall in GA

[BwanaZulia]

you come from verizon?

From ATT.

BZ

[kop]

Called AT&T port department, which said that my port was confirmed, but my number hadn't been released yet. They said if there was an actual problem with my porting, they could try to manually override it with the help of T-Mobile, but since this was "approved" all I could do was wait until midnight tonight.

This is F%$@d!

[M3Jedi77]

Has anyone tried going into a cingular/att store yet for service?

-Andrew

PS: Bought mine at Lenox Mall in GA

Im going in 20 minutes. I plan on them telling me they cant help and to call support line but Im going to throw a god damn fit if they dont fix it for me. Ive been up all night trying to get this up and running

[tortfeasor]

Called AT&T port department, which said that my port was confirmed, but my number hadn't been released yet. They said if there was an actual problem with my porting, they could try to manually override it with the help of T-Mobile, but since this was "approved" all I could do was wait until midnight tonight.

This is F%$@d!

And what is the # for the ATT port dept? I need to give them a call myself!

[boeingair]

I'm not porting, but I've been stuck since 12:30am. I just called the iPhone line, and someone answered within 2 minutes. She took a look at my account and said she would have to remove the FAN number and then could activate the device.

I've got my fingers crossed.

[PuterSaurus]

Well, AT&T has certainly turned out to be the turd in Apple's punch bowl.

Guess I'll check back tonight and see if my iBrick has morphed into an iPhone.

By far the best comment I've seen in days! Thanks I needed it after 16 hours of waiting.

If you're having trouble activating and you're porting a number from another carrier, you may way to call at&t's porting and activation center directy:

1-888-898-7685 (9AM - 6PM in your local timezone)


This is the key. Call this number.

Purchased: 601pm CT
OTD: 625pm CT (checking out when ATT computers crashed
Activation started: 720pm CT
24 hour email: 728pm CT
Activation process email: 734pm CT
Call to 877-907-3484: 855am CT on hold for 1hr 43 mins
Transfered to PAC (port & act ctr) a few mins later
On phone with PAC for 50mins
Activation email arrived 11:27am while on the phone with PAC

Total 16 hours 7 mins since activation started

Now just waiting on Sprint to port the number over. Can't use the iPhone still but it is activated and I can sync. The wait continues.

[Oglikn]

I am an existing customer, but my voice plan was over three years old. I think that might be my problem. I went through the process last night at 10:50p.m. and it is now 11:34 a.m. I called this morning about 4:00 and had them update my voice plan.

I just got a call from the sales associate at the AT&T store from whom I purchased the phone. He was calling everyone to make sure they activated alright. He told me there were problems other than mine and the corporate office told him 24 to 48 hours to resolve.

I'm being pretty patient about this. I know it is frustrating, but it will work out in the end. I really appreciate my local AT&T store following up like they are. That along with the smooth process of purchase yesterday (in and out in less than 5 minutes) says a lot about them (not AT&T the company, just the store).

[kop]

And what is the # for the ATT port dept? I need to give them a call myself!

888-898-7685

[scoobierules]

I just got off the phone with verizon. ATT DID NOT SUBMIT THE PORT REQUEST!

Call them if you are having issues. 1-888-898-7685

[tasslehawf]

I was able to get my phone up and running pretty quickly. My number transfer even went through in 20 minutes or so. When I did my gfs phone, I got pretty frustrated on how to do the setup (it's not that straitforward for family plans). Well it's been much longer than 6 hours now and the number still hasn't gone through. Oh well, she has a purse so she can carry both phones.

Mine on the otherhand is find except for one problem. When I plugged it into my PC laptop the first time it was fine; now everytime I do, plug-and-play recognizes it as digital camera and then I get a bluescreen error. :mad:

[Jeffrey903]

I just came back to the AT&T store in White Plains (in the Galleria). I had the guy (Jerome, who is awesome) give me a new SIM card, and I went down to the food court, paid the $3 for wifi (there wasn't any wifi in the AT&T store), and it activated instantly! Thanks so much Jerome!

BTW - I had a transfer from Verizon.

[Zolk]

I just got off the phone with AT&T after calling the 877-800-3701 and pressing Option 1. Total call time was 26 minutes. Is my phone activated? Hell no. Were the people I spoke to able to help me? Hell no. The second person I spoke to (after getting transfered) initially told me I had to wait up to 24 hours since their system was overloaded. I then stated I had an old AT&T conversion account and I know that was causing problems for people. He then looked at my current plan and verified that had I gotten an activation email it would have stated this account is not compatible and I would have had to call anyway (fantastic!)

I just called the same number. Told the guy I had an old AT&T account from prior to the Cingular acquisition. After putting me on hold for a minute, he told me they were have issues and to wait 24 hours. :(

[SNF Mixer]

I moved the iPhone SIM card to my old Blackjack, and the Blackjack worked fine. I called a friend and called my Blackjack.

When I put the Blackjack SIM card in the iPhone, iTunes wanted to restart the registration process. I didn't go through with it, because I didn't want to end up paying for two phones. (And as well as this is going, that's a good probability)

Since the SIM card is working in the Blackjack, it looks like AT&T has done its job. The missing link is that iTunes hasn't been updated to see that my iPhone is ready to go.

I am in hour 15 of waiting for this thing to light up. I have wasted half a Saturday on the phone with idiots. I am going to pop the working SIM into my Blackjack and go get some things done.

Hopefully the situation will clear up by tonight, or I might eat the $60 restocking fee and take the thing back to the Apple Store.

Just my two cents.

[Kinetic]

Well, my iBrick is like Paris Hilton...pretty, but useless. :p

(PS...love whoever came up with the iBrick name!)

[macanudo]

OK, I got it to work

1. Went to ATT store and got a new programmed SIM card
2. Went to the Apple store and they popped the new sim card for me and they said go home and try syncing it with iTunes again, buddy. We just make the hardware
3. Entered all the info, gone through the steps, everything works!!!!!!

18 hours later. After 5 phone calls to useless ATT reps, and I had to take care of it myself, what a joke. Make sure you use good wireless, we tried doing it last night at the starbucks and their wireless signal blew.

Good luck!!!!

[DreaminDirector]

Well, this isn't good news but it isn't bad news either.

I'm porting over my number from T-Mobile. I took hamedatl's suggestion to call (1-866-802-7560) and I was through in only a few minutes.

Good news, they said it will be activated. Tonight. At 11:30pm. 27 hours after I sent my activation request through itunes. Which doesn't give me much confidence in AT&T, since they've royally screwed the iPhone's successful launch.

What I'm afraid of is when 11:30pm rolls around, the iBrick isn't going to turn into a cinderella.

Glass slipper anyone? Please if you find it, let me know!

[kop]

So trying to take the squeaky wheel approach. After being told that problem ports being pushed through with occasional success, I told them I wanted them to call T-Mobile and try it. The manager said the original rep would help me do that. After a couple minutes on hold, the rep said that it would be best to wait for it to go through automatically that I might screw things up if I tried to push anything through.

I said, that her manager had said she would help me contact T-Mobile, and that's what I wanted to do. After a little back and forth she put me back to her manager who started backpedaling and said I should just wait, but I told her I would take my chances. She said it might push me back a day, and I said if it did, I would just take my phone back, so I would push it.

THEN, interestingly, I was transferred over to some other AT&T department, where this guy said they had received my number from T-Mobile, but the APPLE server was backed up and had not finished processing all of my information to send back to AT&T and have them activate my iphone and disconnect my old service.

He said that trying to do anything else (add another number, and port over my number later) could lose my original number, and back me up as long as a week.

I then confirmed that he was waiting on Apple, which I find it hard to believe, and he said yes, so now I'm on hold with Apple waiting to see what the hell they have to say.

And the saga continues...

[schofield]

Bottom Line, drove out to the Walnut Creek Apple Store, around 8:00. Three or four people in line, yes they had 8gb phones. Before I stopped at the AT&T store no 8gb, and they confirmed I could not activate my Premier account thru iTunes. Ended up buying one, but did not open it. This AM I checked the Premier website and it says this


# iPhone and associated wireless service are not eligible for corporate discounts
# Not available to Corporate Responsibility Users or other corporate-liable users, or to Individual Responsibility Users participating in Split Liability Billing

A line to an FAQ basicly says you can either set up a new IRU account, or de-enroll our exisiting account. Either way you lose the premier account discount. For me that is about $20 per month. I guess my iPhone will remain unopened, and maybe will go back to the Apple store.. Maybe I will have to wait until AT&T makes their billing system compatable, and maybe by then they will have 16gb iPhones…
:(

[/dev/toaster]

I just got off the phone with verizon. ATT DID NOT SUBMIT THE PORT REQUEST!

Call them if you are having issues. 1-888-898-7685

Trying that now ... I woke up this morning hoping it was resolved over night. 14 hours later, I have moved from annoyed to pissed off. Verizon said that the ports department is really busy so my hold times are gonna be long ... I find it funny, because I really wonder how many people are bailing from other providers.

[teragram]

You won't believe it but I finally got the darn thing to activate. I happen to have a second, unopened iphone. I took the SIM from it, put it in my iphone and hooked it up to my mac. I finally got the screen to start the activation process. I removed that SIM, replaced it with my original iphone SIM and went through the activation screens. Got the 3 minute activation screen and the phone activated within 2 minutes.

I think the BMG code was an issue. Removing that code, cancelling the initial activation and reactivating seems to work. I'm going to let the dimwits at ATT know about this.

ETA:
Spoke too soon. Looks like the new SIM was activated and works great. I'm headed to take the second one back. Those who have business accounts that are having problems activating may want to try getting another SIM from ATT

[SixSlinger]

The port dept. told me that my number will be transferred from Verizon at 1:03 PM, and I would receive a text message on my iPhone....I told him that MY iPHONE ISNT ACTIVATED!!! and he was really nice and transferred me to a knowledgeable guy who was able to check out my account, tell me that everything is perfectly fine, and I should just wait on the email.

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! This is insane!!!!!

[/dev/toaster]

Trying that now ... I woke up this morning hoping it was resolved over night. 14 hours later, I have moved from annoyed to pissed off. Verizon said that the ports department is really busy so my hold times are gonna be long ... I find it funny, because I really wonder how many people are bailing from other providers.

Joy ... so, Verizon is claiming that AT&T hasn't sent the request yet. So, now I am on hold with AT&T ... I have a feeling this is gonna take a while. Wish this phone had speaker phone ... gah.

[plumbingandtech]

14 hrs so far. No activation.

Called the 877 #.

Got thru quickly.

Script dude went over the info (just talking points.)

But then I have him check my tmobile account # (i am switching from them.)

He did double check so at least I know it is in the system with the correct port information. Said 250k activations since last night... I've got work to do no..

HOLY MOLY! Just got the email from ATT... will post in a bit.

[Kinetic]

I then confirmed that he was waiting on Apple, which I find it hard to believe, and he said yes, so now I'm on hold with Apple waiting to see what the hell they have to say.

And the saga continues...

Please let us know what Apple says. I received the same line from ATT, but thought they were just passing the blame. Now I'm wondering who really is the hold up.

[avkills]

This is so ****ed up it is not even funny. Apple I hope you learn your god damn lesson from this; and that is let the ****ing cell carrier activate the phone on site; at their store. Sure you can still sell them in your store, but then tell the people to go to a AT&T store to activate.

This is such a back and forth pointing game; I am starting to get really ****ing pissed off.

All I can say is Apple, welcome to the wonderful world of ****ed up cell phone business, and just when I thought no one could screw it up worse than it already is.

-mark

[plumbingandtech]

ok. Itunes says Congrats...

Now going to start the sync.

Syncd

Now putting some music on. You need to use the music tab?

Can't drag and drop yet.

[schalkse]

Well, my iBrick is like Paris Hilton...pretty, but useless. :p

(PS...love whoever came up with the iBrick name!)

Whaahaahaaahahaha, good one.

Btw, if it's giving any comfort in knowing. 2 years back, my brother bought a phone and he had to wait 1,5 day before his sim was activated. Even then, during the normal days of selling phones it took some time. Just a new sim and new number. Those that have problems, i can understand it...but you can never prepare for such a massive activation and porting of numbers. I hope Apple and AT&T will tell later during the week how many they sold and activated.

I hope both companies learn from this so that the launch in Europe and elsewhere would go smoother. Atleast you guys have an iPhone, although with activation problems. Am from Belgium, and we, together with the rest of Europe are still praying that it would come soon over here. Hell they even have no partner yet. There are 5 months left, no deal. It's becoming obvious that if work on visual voicemail needs to start an who knows what else is needed for the iPhone to work over here, that time is becoming extremely short. Best guess, early spring 2008.

So, to those with problems, don't loose it. In a few days...after playing with it, it will all be a fading memory and you'll be happy.

[Zolk]

Just called AT&T again. This guy seemed more helpful than the last and looked up my account. Apparently there were errors when trying to push the activation through automatically, so someone is supposed to call me back in around 2 hours.

[avkills]

I'd be enjoying my phone (which AT&T says is activated) if I could just get this ****ing Web ID code to unlock my damn phone.

-mark

[docal97]

i'm waiting 16 hours so far, and i have an att&t account. Called multiple times, MULTIPLE, spoke to both at&t reps and apple tech support, they said everything is fine and their is nothing that can be done except wait.

What a complete joke, don't create the hype if you're not prepared to live up to it!

[thecityatnight]

has anyone successfully activated the iphone when porting from verizon??

yeah, i did, i got the email this morning, in total it took about 10 hours, then the email came. the only bad news is that i can only make calls out, and those calls out are from my old verizon number, but calls coming in go to my old phone, im sure its no big deal(they said this may happen) but just so you know there is hope for you verizon people, mine is all good now.

[Bradley W]

_

[AtariAge]

I just called AT&T again and the rep I spoke to this time seemed more knowledgeable. She asked me for the ICCID and IMEI numbers and then said she changed my plan from my old, legacy "blue system" account over to one of the new iPhone plans. She then said it would take anywhere from 2 - 4 hours to get the activation email and that everything should be okay now.

At this point I don't have faith that it will happen without additional intervention on my part, but we'll see.

..Al

EDIT: My old phone now says "Inactive SIM", only a few minutes after the call. Progress! Now, of course, I am without a cell phone!!

[boeingair]

Well, the lady who said she was removing the FAN number just added an additional line to my account, separate from the three familytalk lines, and the one line I wanted to upgrade.

This is bad--I don't want to have to pay for an additional line.

[avkills]

Well, on with Apple again, let's see if they ass rape me again and cry that it is AT&T's fault, even though AT&T shows the phone to be active.

-mark

[sdotbailey]

well, i found out the deal with my phone: when the visual voicemail was added something went wrong and threw the whole thing into error. something about the system not correctly recognizing that i had an iphone. so the girl on the phone took my imei and serial number to manually push things through. turns out the sim needs to be replaced (i read about this this morning) and then things will be ok. i still won't have my number ported until tonight so i can't receive calls on the phone, but i can make them and everything will work as well, so it's a start.

this kind of sucks, but i'm not overly impatient and i can understand that even with a good amount of planning and upgrading, the system was going to get blown up yesterday so, we shouldn't be all the pissed, but we can certainly be upset.

hope this works for me and hope everyone else gets there's up and running too.

[Jsimon9633]

ATT said everything is fine on their end

now APPLE is the hold up according to them.

My plan is changed, my device is now the iphone.

But I still have not gotten that magical email!

[Freakk123]

Here's my personal anecdote:

I stood in line from 12 pm till about 625, when I got my iPhone, yesterday. I came home, went through the syncing process, got the wonderful "Your Activation Requires Additional Time To Complete" message at about 7:20 last night. I've been waiting for my effing number to transfer from Verizon since then.

My stepmom bought my dad an iPhone this morning for his birthday. She walked in and out of the 5th Avenue store in 5 minutes. She came home. We activated his phone in all of 15 minutes. His number transferred from Nextel/Sprint, and he has a fully working iPhone. It showed me how easy and painless the iTunes activation process could be, since I did it all for him. But here I have my non-activated iPhone next to me.

I want to strangle someone.

[Stewie]

Started my activation last night at 7:22pm and finally completed today at 11am. So about 16 hours give or take. That is not good. I hope everyone else has better luck then me.

[Furgster]

ahhhh!!!! 14.5 hours!

still waiting

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

2 more phones to go!

[dusigns]

Started activation around 2100 yesterday night and around 5 minutes ago (1325) I finally received the final "activation" email!

Exisiting Cingular (AT&T) customer transferring to a new phone.

There's hope for us all - good luck everyone! :-)

[radiantm3]

This is so ****ed up it is not even funny. Apple I hope you learn your god damn lesson from this; and that is let the ****ing cell carrier activate the phone on site; at their store. Sure you can still sell them in your store, but then tell the people to go to a AT&T store to activate.

This is such a back and forth pointing game; I am starting to get really ****ing pissed off.

All I can say is Apple, welcome to the wonderful world of ****ed up cell phone business, and just when I thought no one could screw it up worse than it already is.

-mark

Do you realize you'd be waiting a whole lot longer (not to mention outside in a 3 mile line) if everyone had to activate in an AT&T store? Imagine waiting in a huge line where activation would take 10-30 minutes per customer. I'm sorry, but I'll take waiting a day or so in the comfort of my own home any day.

[phigment]

Atariage - Same exact issue. I was a legacy "Blue" ATT customer. Tried to activate yesterday, got an email last night saying that I had to call at&t and switch my rate plans, but "that department" was closed. So I had to call this morning. They got my EMEI number and Sim Card number and activated my account, told me 2 hours everything would be fine. 2 hours later...nothing. Called back, they said could be up to 48 hours. I am without a working phone.

[Kinetic]

Started my activation last night at 7:22pm and finally completed today at 11am. So about 16 hours give or take. That is not good. I hope everyone else has better luck then me.

I started mine about the same time, so maybe there's hope for me.

[SixSlinger]

19 hours to the minute since I started activation:mad:

[vi2867]

My activation was somewhat smooth. I added a new line to my current AT&T account, so I had to call. I spoke to a representative and they walk me through the activation on iTunes. This was about 11pm pst. I'm actually posting via my iPhone.

[Bradley W]

_

[avkills]

Does the magical email link flag iTunes to do something? Apple seems stumped. This is ****ed.

-mark

[Flowbee]

I started the process at midnight (PST) and received my activation mail at 9:55 this morning. (Of course, I've been up since 6:30 pressing 'check mail' every 5 minutes)

I guess I should add:

SF Bay Area
Brand New AT&T account (individual, not family)
New phone number (no porting)
$60/month plan

[tranced25]

18 hours and counting. Porting from T-Mobile. Phone is absolutely useless without activation.

[kop]

Woman wasn't the sharpest, said it could be the servers, but there was no way to know for sure, or to expedite. Told her that I could see how others would be unprepared, but wasn't expecting Apple to be unprepared, considering that they indicated in their press release that they were expecting to sell 3,000,000 phones this weekend.

Being escalated to advanced help, but the woman said they only trouble shoot the iphone, not activation, so I'm not too optimistic.

But there you have it, it "may" be because of Apple's servers, that we are waiting so damn long, but I don't understand how some people are getting their phones activated significantly faster, and we're still waiting, in my case 15+ hours.

[Lazernet]

Verizon folks -- my number wasn't porting until I physically turned off my Verizon phone. Within 5 minutes of doing so, its dead... not sure, but I figured this might help others out in the long agonizing process.

Also... I then called to find out more information and it seems that (according to them), all orders that added the 1500 text messages to the plan are being held up because the 1500 text messages is coming up as an invalid option/conflict. If I had just picked a plan it would have gone right through. Has everyone else experiencing hold ups added that 1500 txting package? Lets see if we can figure this out!

- Eric

[jmacdonagh]

For those of you who had to put in an old / invalid zip code into the port number request wizard:

Apparently this is a problem with AT&T's activation. The billing zip code of my current Verizion bill is in Arizona, but my billing address is in Idaho. iTunes wouldn't take the Arizona zip code but did take my current Idaho one. However, 8 hours later it failed with a "Wrong Market" or "Bad Zip Code" error (that's what AT&T told me, the e-mails were never that helpful).

If you thought you got through by entering in an invalid zip into the transfer wizard, then you might want to call

1-877-800-3701

and see if you can fix it. I'm currently on hold trying to get it taken care of.

[Fair Witness]

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

I had this problem too, make sure you use the zip code that you had when you originally obtained that number. I've moved locations like 3 times since I got my original number, so I had to dig up the old zip code and it worked. (I was with T-Mobile)

[boeingair]

Also... I then called to find out more information and it seems that (according to them), all orders that added the 1500 text messages to the plan are being held up because the 1500 text messages is coming up as an invalid option/conflict. If I had just picked a plan it would have gone right through. Has everyone else experiencing hold ups added that 1500 txting package? Lets see if we can figure this out!


I added the 1500 texts, and I'm stuck.

[plumbingandtech]

Almost 15 later am now synced and listening to songs off the GREAT speaker (geez i did not expect much) and using safari with my wifi (no edge yet, phone still needs ATT activation. whatever.)

Photos are amazing! (screen rez of iphone makes a big diff)

watching Jack Bauer now...

just checked google traffic maps! zoomed into my house

NICE!

Gents (and ladies.)

THIS THING IS AMAZING!!!!!!

[plumbingandtech]

18 hours and counting. Porting from T-Mobile. Phone is absolutely useless without activation.

Call the 877#.

You will get the script boy. Listen nicely. Then ask if we can double check the tmobile account # for the transfer..

tell him you want to make sure You(you) did not make a mistake.

Maybe it was coincidence but 1 minute after hanging up with him (nice guy) i got the email....

[TurboPGT]

Almost 15 later am now synced and listening to songs off the GREAT speaker (geez i did not expect much) and using safari with my wifi (no edge yet, phone still needs ATT activation. whatever.)

Photos are amazing! (screen rez of iphone makes a big diff)

watching Jack Bauer now...

just checked google traffic maps! zoomed into my house

NICE!

Gents (and ladies.)

THIS THING IS AMAZING!!!!!!

really not the thread for these comments.

[SteveM8]

I did not add any text, just the 1400 minute fam plan. My wifes Iphone activated at 3am, and AT&T tells me mine did at 5am but no, it did not. I got the email for my wifes at 3am, but no email for mine. I am without a phone as my old verizon has been shut off.

Odd thing is that if I call my # (which was to be ported from verizon) I get a message saying the user has not recorded their voice mail massage yet. So it appears the account IS active but the Iphone is not activating so I can use my acct.

It appears to be APPLES fault here as they send out the final activate message, and I did not get this message.

[Freakk123]

Yep, I added the 1500 texts as well, and I'm at 18.5 hours waiting. I seriously wanna break something.

[avkills]

Almost 15 later am now synced and listening to songs off the GREAT speaker (geez i did not expect much) and using safari with my wifi (no edge yet, phone still needs ATT activation. whatever.)

Photos are amazing! (screen rez of iphone makes a big diff)

watching Jack Bauer now...

just checked google traffic maps! zoomed into my house

NICE!

Gents (and ladies.)

THIS THING IS AMAZING!!!!!!

How are you using it w/o activation.

-mark

[The Man]

Ok, I get that some people are annoyed, but people also have to get some perspective on things. It's a very big rollout for AT&T and Apple. You can expect things to go bad for some people on the first evening of sale. And if it were me, I would probably be frustrated too, but I would have enough patients to give Apple and AT&T at least 24 hours. I think it's fare to give Apple and AT&T a little time to correct things. Ok, it's difficult to be patient when you have this beautiful device in front of you that you are aching to use. (Or maybe when this is your only phone.) But people get pissed way too easily. If people get pissed for having to wait a day for a problem to be corrected, then I don't know where the world is going.

[Lazernet]

Yep, I added the 1500 texts as well, and I'm at 18.5 hours waiting. I seriously wanna break something.

Well, I think the problem may be in the 1500 texts upgrade. Also, family plans are having major issues right now as well... Are we all in one of those boats? Folks?

- Eric

[SteveM8]

Its been 16 hours and while AT&T says Im activated my Iphone begs to differ. They have 8 hours left in that 24 and I guarantee yu it will not be activated. SOmething screwed up cuz my wife's Iphone, which I activated 2nd, has been working since 3am.

After numerous calls, NO ONE knows what is happening. One girl told me wait, one told me it should be working, one told me you can not disconnect the phone from the computer for 24 hours, one told me she had no idea.

WTF??