Apple Offers $30 iTunes Store Credit for Activation Delays

[Shasterball]

I swear, Apple/AT&T have really caved to the whiners when it comes to the iPhone. Complain about a price drop? $100! Complain that you had to live up to your contract? OK, price drop for you! Slow activation? $30!

Ummm, I think the take home message is, don't let others roll you over and stand up for what you want -- you may get something in return. It's in our blood -- hell, it's how this country got started.

I really don't have a problem with this. Apple can decide how to spend its money. I would be annoyed if people started to expect compensation for every little issue and then complained if they didn't get it. Those would be spoiled customers...

 

[r88my]

Shame they didn't offer this last year when I waited 4 days to have mine activated

 

[.:R2theT]

I swear, Apple/AT&T have really caved to the whiners when it comes to the iPhone. Complain about a price drop? $100! Complain that you had to live up to your contract? OK, price drop for you! Slow activation? $30!

I was thinking the other day how AT&T and Apple must think iPhone owners are just a bunch of whiners.

But don't think for a second that both companies don't make this money back. Just by signing the 2-year contract I am sure they have at least $100 of play while still making loads of profit. The plans for these phones are very much a premium.

And remember, this is really on about $20 to Apple if you remove its iTunes Store markup.

I would be annoyed if people started to expect compensation for every little issue and then complained if they didn't get it. Those would be spoiled customers...

Isn't that exactly what just happened with the subsidized pricing on the 3GS? People whined when they couldn't have the newest little shiny and AT&T/Apple changed the rules slightly to stifle some of the complainers. Sounds more than a bit spoiled to me.

 

[DELLsFan]

You lucky SOBs, I'm so jealous .

I'm still waiting to receive my income tax refund before I upgrade my gen1 iPhone to an iPhone 3GS.

Still waiting? Taxes were done a long time ago here ... oh ... sorry ... I see you're from CA.



Never Mind. My condolences.

Nice gesture by Apple.

 

[sychee]

First, apology for MobileMe problems, then delay of Push notification service. Now apology for iPhone 3GS activation delay and Push applications delay? I hope Apple can stop apologizing and start making things work for all of us

 

[DJ567]

i was affected my iphone cost £60 more than it does in america and i had to wait 5 mins for the guy in carphone warehouse to stop trying to sell me a contract lol... i wish mine had been delayed lol

 

[Rot'nApple]

Ummm, I think the take home message is, don't let others roll you over and stand up for what you want -- you may get something in return. It's in our blood -- hell, it's how this country got started.

Unless you attended a Tea Party rally. Then this government and most of it's cohorts in the state run media and the Hollywood liberal elite, criticized you for taking a stand against this government, made fun of you by saying you didn't know what your were talking about, were called racists by those who really should not throw stones in glass houses, think you don't deserve to stand up for what you want and you should just let this government roll over you. In other words, bend over!

 

[Eric-PTEK]

I swear, Apple/AT&T have really caved to the whiners when it comes to the iPhone. Complain about a price drop? $100! Complain that you had to live up to your contract? OK, price drop for you! Slow activation? $30!

Maybe they want to keep people's business? My activation went off without a hitch, was in and out of Best Buy in 10 minutes, much to the EXTREME annoyance of the 2 women there who had been waiting for over an hour.

I run my own business, I need my phone. I need to be in and out in a short period of time. We sell and setup a lot of MS Exchange so again to my customers quick turn around and a reliable system is extremely important. I do push a lot of iPhone's for Exchange too and part of the reason is the reliability I've had with mine.

When you get into business bell's, whistles, and the rest of the BS mean nothing if the system is not first reliable, and second you get a reasonable response from the company.

I have AT&T business service for my iPhone and I deal with AT&T business services every day. Don't think AT&T doesn't realize how crappy their customer service is on the consumer side. It sucks...but call the business side and they bend over backwards for you.

A simple phone call over any issue and its instantly resolved, credited, whatever. Its night and day between business and consumer.

A bigger part of the problem is the consumer's are sheep. Time is money and if they are causing a delay because of a lack of preparedness or proper testing then yes I would expect something.

Problems like this are due to a lack of proper planning, program management, or forethought to determine problems, something you should not find in an IT company.

Plus one thing Apple is not, is stupid....They just got themselves an extra 15-30 seconds on every TV new station with this.

 

[DamFu]

I'm guessing it's AT&T's fault unless we start seeing the same thing in the other countries the 3GS went on sale. But good for Apple either way.

And what makes you say that? Because AT&T is an easy punching bag? I hate to sound like an AT&T fanboy because im not. Activation goes through the iTunes servers. Lets not forget also the delays of last year (joint AT&T and Apple problem) as well as the MobileMe launch issues, unless you can find a way to blame AT&T for that one also.

 

[amemoryoncelost]

I'm still waiting for my 3G to work, this sucks. It worked for a good hour or two and then just stopped, it's pretty awesome when you call AT&T and they tell you to call Apple, you call Apple and they tell you to call AT&T. Such a runaround this weekend. Really hoping I can get some answers after work today...

 

[bob vansteel]

....I've been waiting 24+ hours, still not activated, and I never got an email!! does that mean I don't get $30? I'm not being greedy, but come on!

 

[Kadman]

I'm guessing it's AT&T's fault unless we start seeing the same thing in the other countries the 3GS went on sale. But good for Apple either way.

Actually, I had to call AT&T because I was doing mine as an upgrade swap. They anticipated the demand and had extra staff ready. My call went through immediately and the rep and I worked through the upgrade swap (was using eligibility from another line on my account). The part that caused things to fail was the iTunes activation. Apple's system could simply not handle the traffic. I called AT&T back (again, got right through) and all of their systems had my information correct.

So, I called Apple to sort through things on their end. I waited for 15 minutes to speak with a first line tech. They didn't even really know what happened on the back end for activations. I then had to wait another 20 minutes (granted, he checked in a few times to be sure I was hanging on) while being passed on to a specialist...who also didn't know how iTunes ultimately interacted with the AT&T databases on the back end. So, I got my phone about 9:50am on Friday, but I didn't get my actual completion notification from Apple until Saturday night about 8:45, at which time it essentially undid everything that the AT&T rep and I did during the upgrade swap.

So yeah, Apple messed this one up pretty bad.

BTW - Should all of us affected have received an email like the one above or did they stop sending those out and opt to just credit our iTunes balance? As noted earlier in this message, mine took a good 30+ hours but I haven't received a note about it beyond the one marking completion of the process.

 

[Avenge85]

O2 - Delays in Uk Activation

I'm in the UK, bought my 3G-S on Friday 19/06/09 at 1pm and I am still awaiting activation.

Is there a similar compensation scheme available to those in the UK?

 

[Rychy]

That's certainly a nice gesture... I wasn't ecstatic when I got the notification that it maybe take up to 48 hours to activate my phone, but I knew why, so I wasn't really mad or anything.

 

[Exegesis48]

Or you could use your old phone for another 48 hours. It's got you this far.

When you activate a new phone with AT&T they "deactivate" your old sim card. So your old phone is effectively useless. I had a delay when i activated my 3GS and I was highly concerned, as I am a trainer for the Air Force. I have lots of troops that potentially need to get a hold of me on a regular basis. Was pretty scary being without my phone for a few hours.

 

[joro]

Somehow I think it'll be an offer from Apple, but paid for by AT&T. Apple may have even put a clause about delays.

This again is a public attack on AT&T and Apple are making it clear who's at fault while keeping their end sweet.

It'd be great if they did the same with O2 etc. The advantages of the phone and network tie-up is rapidly being eroded by the faults within the networks and the monopoly for the consumer.

Yeah, I have the feeling as well even though it’s coming from Apple, AT&T is paying it behind the scenes because after all, Apple doesn’t activate the phones, AT&T does.

 

[charlituna]

Jesus really? Are people really that affected by it?

probably not unless the issue was that their activation started so their existing phone was killed but the new one wasn't working either.

but Apple knows that some folks are going to gripe so even a token gesture is needed (like the token re: upgrade pricing) to stiffle the gripes.

i foresee that next year there will be no online orders and no standing in line outside of stores. you will have to do the web thing and make an appointment a la the personal shopping thing. that way they can meter the number of activations per store and not have this happen yet again.

 

[Drumjim85]

And what makes you say that? Because AT&T is an easy punching bag? I hate to sound like an AT&T fanboy because im not. Activation goes through the iTunes servers. Lets not forget also the delays of last year (joint AT&T and Apple problem) as well as the MobileMe launch issues, unless you can find a way to blame AT&T for that one also.

Ya, when I called ATT to get mine fixed, they said that iTunes didn't accept the terms and conditions correctly, and it was waiting for that.

 

[///M5]

You lucky SOBs, I'm so jealous .

I'm still waiting to receive my income tax refund before I upgrade my gen1 iPhone to an iPhone 3GS.

Geez, chill out dude, it's just 30 bucks.

 

[Col127]

WTG apple. great CS. just another reason why apple's the best!!

 

[jmnikricket]

This isn't Apple giving in to complaints or even apologizing. Apple didn't have to do this at all, and a 2 day delay isn't much. This is a brilliant move to get more people hooked on buying on iTunes/App Store and existing customers purchasing more. $30 can get you some good apps, which will make you want to keep buying other great apps once you see what's out there.

 

[Andrew D.]

And that's why Apple has one of the best Customer Services. They know it's "all about" the customers. Haha!

 

[Chrispy]

It is a very nice gesture on Apple's part Has everyone received this e-mail from Apple stating they were going to do this already? I got the 48 hour wait error but have not heard anything. Just curious.

 

[Drumjim85]

It is a very nice gesture on Apple's part Has everyone received this e-mail from Apple stating they were going to do this already? I got the 48 hour wait error but have not heard anything. Just curious.

i haven't received any kind of email, I'm also waiting.

 

[Parky]

I'm in the UK, bought my 3G-S on Friday 19/06/09 at 1pm and I am still awaiting activation.

Is there a similar compensation scheme available to those in the UK?

Are you getting a new number or are you transferring an existing number from another network?

If you are transferring a number then it is more likely that your existing network are causing the delay not O2.

If it is a new number then make sure you connect the iPhone to iTunes as the activation is done through iTunes and not over the air.