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Beware of the 'Business Account'

M

miguelq

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
141
0
found out something that may make your activation horrible.

A business account is ANYTHING associated with a business.

-if you have the lines under a business
-if you get a corporate discount
-if you regularly do business on cingular premiere

I just found out that since i get a disount on my bill it is considered a business account and I have to call customer service to change this status. Needless to say I have been on hold for over 40 minutes. My iphone is charging but i can't do anything until i call customer service.

The error is

We're sorry. ATT has determined that your current account cannot be used with the iPhone.

Good luck, I wish i would have checked on this yesterday. :(
 
Wow that sucks I'm sorry to hear that.

A lot of companies aren't supporting the iPhone either because it lacks a lot of security and features crucial for both domestic and international features. Bummer.
 
After standing in line for more than two hours waiting to get an iPhone, I have one but can't activate it.

AT&T Business customers must switch from their current business plan to a "personal" plan before activation. This requires a credit check, and transfer of ownership of each line to a single individual.

It does not matter if your rate plan is the same as the personal plans, nor does it matter if you receive discounts.

You must contact AT&T Business Customer Service, and transfer your lines over.

Of note, the business department is closed until Monday, 8 a.m. :rolleyes:

Check out my [previous post], but you might as well hang up because the AT&T Business Customer Service department is closed until Monday, 8 a.m. CDT.
 
miguelq said:
found out something that may make your activation horrible.

A business account is ANYTHING associated with a business.

-if you have the lines under a business
-if you get a corporate discount
-if you regularly do business on cingular premiere

I just found out that since i get a disount on my bill it is considered a business account and I have to call customer service to change this status. Needless to say I have been on hold for over 40 minutes. My iphone is charging but i can't do anything until i call customer service.

The error is

We're sorry. ATT has determined that your current account cannot be used with the iPhone.

Good luck, I wish i would have checked on this yesterday. :(
Click to expand...

That is strange. I got a pop up stating something to the effect that I have an account with a discount(something about IRU?) but I couldn't get a discount. I pressed continue and it went through. Just waiting to complete activation.
 
chewietobbacca said:
Wow that sucks I'm sorry to hear that.

A lot of companies aren't supporting the iPhone either because it lacks a lot of security and features crucial for both domestic and international features. Bummer.
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with his company not supporting it. Many companies offer a discount as a perk with cell phone companies.

If you take advantage of the discount, the cell phone companies convert your account to a "business" account.
 
mac-er said:
It has nothing to do with his company not supporting it. Many companies offer a discount as a perk with cell phone companies.

If you take advantage of the discount, the cell phone companies convert your account to a "business" account.
Click to expand...

well it sucks ass...i have a 600 buck brick that i can turn on and look at the imei every now and then...great:mad:
 
New information

Called this number

866-907-3484

1 hour hold

they answer the phone, "thank you for calling att business care iphone activation, how can i help you"

got me working


now activating my phone

it works!!!
 
I'm having this problem. I waited in line 7 hours only to be told on iTunes it won't work on my account. I had 3 AT&T employees verify my account for an iPhone prior to my purchase. I've been just sitting here looking at it and I'm anxious to get it started. Anyhow, AT&T told me it should be OK and I should call Apple as iTunes should be accepting it but for wahtever reason isn't.
 
I ended up flip floping my biz line and me personal line so that i could get an iphone. The nice thing about it is only one line could get the upgrade discount. After swapping the lines both lines can be upgraded within a month.
 
Yep.

I cannot activate my iPhone until I change my corp acct to personal liability account even though I was told 2x it would be OK to use last 4 digits of Fed Tax ID.

Oh well, the wait was fun, but I have an iBrick until Monday :(

L1010029.jpg
 
miguelq said:
New information

Called this number

866-907-3484

1 hour hold

they answer the phone, "thank you for calling att business care iphone activation, how can i help you"

got me working


now activating my phone

it works!!!
Click to expand...

i'm on hold right now for this number. if i don't get this resolved i'll probably cry and send many a nasty email.
 
miguelq said:
New information
Called this number
866-907-3484
1 hour hold
they answer the phone, "thank you for calling att business care iphone activation, how can i help you"
got me working
now activating my phone
it works!!!
Click to expand...

Did you still have to change your plan from business to personal? Or just add a data plan?
 
"Due to circumstances beyond our control we are unable to take your call at this time" :rolleyes:

iBrick, I'm loving it! :(
 
miguelq said:
found out something that may make your activation horrible.

A business account is ANYTHING associated with a business.

-if you have the lines under a business
-if you get a corporate discount
-if you regularly do business on cingular premiere

I just found out that since i get a disount on my bill it is considered a business account and I have to call customer service to change this status. Needless to say I have been on hold for over 40 minutes. My iphone is charging but i can't do anything until i call customer service.

The error is

We're sorry. ATT has determined that your current account cannot be used with the iPhone.

Good luck, I wish i would have checked on this yesterday. :(
Click to expand...

I also had some shocking news, I purchased four iPhones for me and my family three hours ago, I have a business account with ATT. During the activation process through Itunes I discovered that iPhone does not work with business accounts, so I have to transfer my whole account to a personal account, only that nobody can do this at ATT until next monday, so for now I have four very expensive and absolutely useless pieces of plastic and metal sitting on my desk.
Bravo ATT and Apple for such warm welcome !!!!
Next time think a little harder about ridiculously obvious consumer situations
like this, you had at least six months to consider this very common scenario.
I can only hope that this problem will be solved on monday......
 
Timbafun said:
I also had some shocking news, I purchased four iPhones for me and my family three hours ago, I have a business account with ATT. During the activation process through Itunes I discovered that iPhone does not work with business accounts, so I have to transfer my whole account to a personal account, only that nobody can do this at ATT until next monday, so for now I have four very expensive and absolutely useless pieces of plastic and metal sitting on my desk.
Bravo ATT and Apple for such warm welcome !!!!
Next time think a little harder about ridiculously obvious consumer situations
like this, you had at least six months to consider this very common scenario.
I can only hope that this problem will be solved on monday......
Click to expand...


Welcome to the club!

Loving my gorgeous iBrick!

My wife is traveling right now and when she returns on Sunday I'll just setup this phone for her, moving from Verizon (finally, not good service here at all). I'll get myself a phone next week once I get the acct switched over from business to my personal liability.
 
jaw04005 said:
Did you still have to change your plan from business to personal? Or just add a data plan?
Click to expand...

I got to keep everything but i lost my discount. in itunes the only thing that i had to do was add the data plan. it recognized it as soon as i was done speaking with the rep.
 
i'm in the similar boat.

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

it is now 10:33pm EST and now subsequent email from AT&T nor Apple have been received.

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

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

so i wait... i have been on hold with the number above for about 30 minutes, thanks for posting that. hopefully i get through soon and something can happen tonight, because if i don't have a phone before Monday at 9am EST, some heads are going to fly.

any one have any advice/heavy prescription meds/absynth?
 
miguelq said:
I got to keep everything but i lost my discount. in itunes the only thing that i had to do was add the data plan. it recognized it as soon as i was done speaking with the rep.
Click to expand...

So, I'm assuming that you didn't actually have a business account---you just received a discount. Therefore, they let you keep your existing plan?

Curious to see if someone *with* an actual business account can activate the iPhone without changing over liability to personal.
 
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