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FINAL ANSWER: FAN account and Apple Store

L

legaleye3000

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 31, 2007
1,377
33
Can you go to an Apple store and do an upgrade if you have a FAN account? Currently there is no iPhone on the account...

I heard a rumor that with the new iPhone you will get to keep your FAN discount, unlike the first iPhone...


Please someone answer only if you're 100% sure. Thanks
 
No, you can not have a FAN number and activate at an Apple store unfortunately. Myself, and many individuals in line found this out. I called AT&T from the line, and the rep confirmed this. She deactivated my FAN, and told me to call back after i purchase the phone, and it would be re-added. No problem, and everything worked out. The FAN is back on my account as of this morning.
 
legaleye3000 said:
Can you go to an Apple store and do an upgrade if you have a FAN account? Currently there is no iPhone on the account...

I heard a rumor that with the new iPhone you will get to keep your FAN discount, unlike the first iPhone...


Please someone answer only if you're 100% sure. Thanks
Click to expand...

no you can not i had this problem yesterday but was able to get help with it because apple had att reps in the store. so if you have a FAN discount you must go to an att store since the reps were only in apple stores yesterday.
 
Again, this is not a big deal. Call 611 from your phone, Push 1 to confirm your phone number, then keep pressing 0 at every prompt till you speak with a person. Explain the situation, and that you wish to remove the FAN discount and all account links to business care. It should take only a few minutes (I think from when I dialed 611 to when I was done it took 4 minutes). I did this in line at the Madison, WI Apple Store yesterday.

Now, go buy the iPhone.

Then, as soon as you've checked out, stand in front of a computer, go to the at&t business website, punch in your email address and phone number and you are done. Easy as pie.
 
izibo said:
Again, this is not a big deal. Call 611 from your phone, Push 1 to confirm your phone number, then keep pressing 0 at every prompt till you speak with a person. Explain the situation, and that you wish to remove the FAN discount and all account links to business care. It should take only a few minutes (I think from when I dialed 611 to when I was done it took 4 minutes). I did this in line at the Madison, WI Apple Store yesterday.

Now, go buy the iPhone.
.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing. You cannot buy until you remove it.
 
Just a warning, depending on the size of the company you get your FAN through, it might not be canceled immediately. If the company has a very large corporate account (an indicator is a 25% or greater discount) then the removal of the discount takes over 24 hours to propagate through the system. Even though AT&T says it is gone, there's a good chance they'll still deny you at the Apple store. Smaller companies/discounts the change is instantaneous. I know numerous people that ran into this problem yesterday (myself included).
 
I have a FAN account through my university, I have had it for 3 years.

However, I cannot tell any difference in the price I am paying. Is the university FAN a very low discount or do you guys think this is an error I should call about?

Thanks.

(Had iPhone 2G and upgraded to 3G at ATT store btw)
 
izibo said:
Then, as soon as you've checked out, stand in front of a computer, go to the at&t business website, punch in your email address and phone number and you are done. Easy as pie.
Click to expand...

This didn't work for me for some reason. When I tried to re-add my FAN discount it said that I already had on that account and it was in progress or something... (I only added it before I removed it a couple days ago)
 
I called to remove my FAN, but they claimed it would take 24 hours to process the change. They told me this while I was standing inside the Apple Store with a 16G iPhone in front of me that I could not buy.
 
Mercuric Oxide said:
I have a FAN account through my university, I have had it for 3 years.

However, I cannot tell any difference in the price I am paying. Is the university FAN a very low discount or do you guys think this is an error I should call about?

Thanks.

(Had iPhone 2G and upgraded to 3G at ATT store btw)
Click to expand...

there was no discount on the 2G iphone. you will see it on your 3G though
 
I can confirm this does work.

I removed my university FAN account yesterday at 2pm. Walked into the Apple Store today, and got my 16GB with no issues whatsoever.
 
xmatt said:
I called to remove my FAN, but they claimed it would take 24 hours to process the change. They told me this while I was standing inside the Apple Store with a 16G iPhone in front of me that I could not buy.
Click to expand...

The same thing happened to me today. I called AT&T again though, and got another person who was able to change it immediately. I'm not sure why the first person told me the 24 hour thing while the second person was able to change it right there. I was then able to complete the purchase of the iPhone.
 
I called 611 on my way to the Apple store this morning, they disabled my FAN, I bought my iPhone without issue, and I'm turning the FAN back on later today.
 
Waited in line over 7 hours had the 16gb model in my hand when I was told to go to AT&T because of my discount. I was not able to get the phone. The Apple people did not offer to help me resolve the problem. I will never shop at that Apple store again.

I went to ATT and placed an order for one... Ah well. :(
 
The Answer I Wish I Had Known On Launch Day:
Yes, the FAN must be removed, but it can be easily reapplied after activation (mine is already back on).

How I Found Out...
I got to the Mall of America Apple store at 5:30am and was about 50th in the line. After an hour of waiting, the Apple employees tell me that because of my FAN, I'll have to go to the AT&T store (in the same mall). Instead, I call AT&T to remove to FAN so I can stay at Apple, but they tell me that the removal would be permanent. Not Cool.

So, make my way up to AT&T around 7:00am and I am 20th in line. All seems good... except I later learn that this flagship AT&T store (in the most well known mall in North America) only has 40 iPhones. Only 10 of the 16gb in black. The person ahead of me gets the last one. I'm pissed and end up going back to Apple after waiting at AT&T for an hour.

I'm back at Apple, the time is 9:00am, and now the line has grown to about 200 people. The iTunes servers have just crashed, so we all wait patiently while the employees try to troubleshoot for the next hour, blaming AT&T for the mishap. They finally announce activations will be done at home and the line goes from a stand-still to a sluggish crawl.

Thankfully, they guaranteed everyone in line the iPhone of their choice. I left around 1:00pm after 8 hours of waiting. VERY POORLY PLANNED.

If I didn't worship Steve Jobs, I probably would have been more angry. I had the day off.... so it was a fun adventure for me. Still, lots of misinformation, unecessary secrecy regarding stock, and overall just insane.
 
haved them remove the Business Marketing Group flag as well

I had the same problem where I removed my FAN but couldn't buy a phone because it got stuck on the IRU error screen. I called AT&T this morning after reading a posting about also removing a Business Marketing Group flag on the account. The rep I spoke to said that they knew how to handle it now and that yes, on friday reps where removing the iphone discount but missing the second flag (BMG flag I'm assuming). She said my account should be fine now, but I won't know for sure until Monday where I have 2 phones on hold at the store.

Hope that helps someone. Friday really sucked for sure for those of us that camped out early.
 
stlwx21 said:
I can confirm this does work.

I removed my university FAN account yesterday at 2pm. Walked into the Apple Store today, and got my 16GB with no issues whatsoever.
Click to expand...

I called AT&T to remove my FAN yesterday around 10am EST. By the time, I was activated after standing in line for the six hours (got my phone at approx 11pm last night) I was activated with no problems. HOwever, a girl I stood in line with removed her FAN at around 530pm and did have some issues once we made it up together to get our phones.

Both of us had FANS from large companies-- the Apple folks had told us that it seemed to work for some who removed FANS earlier in the day and not so much for those that evening. While sitting to get my phone I saw 3 people leave with no phone due to issues. :(
 
I had a FAN w/ a very large company and even though I called to remove FAN, it did not go through immediately (like 3-5 minutes later).

I did not ask to remove all business links. Should I do that as well?

Hopefully Monday everything will work.

Would rather have no iPhone 3G than buy an iPhone from the AT&T store.
 
Just an FYI, I finally got through to someone who knew what they were talking about at AT&T and I wanted to share my info with all of you. Here is the deal: If you have or had a FAN on your account it means that AT&T Business is handling your billing. Even if the FAN is removed the Apple store still sometimes cannot process the transaction because, as mentioned earlier in the thread, there is a flag on your account. However, in my case the flag was called "Business Indicator".

In order to remove it the AT&T person must fill out a special request to have your account transferred from AT&T Business back to regular AT&T wireless accounts. This transaction can take up to 10 days (!) but the rep told me it would more likely only take a few hours to be processed. I was told I would receive an email when the flag was finally removed so I'll write back when that happens to let you all know how long it takes. I will also report back if / when I am finally able to buy one from an Apple store (I have an apple gift certificate so I do not want to buy from AT&T).

EDIT - Well, that didn't take long. I just got an email back from AT&T... took about 2 hours. Now I just have to find an Apple store with iPhones in stock!
 
I just called at&t regarding my FAN and they confirmed that I can call to have it taken off but that when I go to reapply it after I get my iPhone at the Apple store it can take one to two billing cycles to be active on my account. So I could potentially go two months without a discount. I'm hoping this was just an instance of the service rep being overly cautious.

I know some people have confirmed that they have the FAN back on their account as soon as they went to reapply it after the iPhone purchase, but does that guarantee that the next bill you receive will factor in the discount? I guess I'm wondering if having the discount appear on your account is different from having it actually active again. I'm hoping it's not.
 
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