AT&T Activations Servers Overloaded with iPhone 4S Launch

[millk18]

FOLLOW UP:

I just got off the phone with Apple. The Apple tech was in communication with ATT whilst I was on hold. She said ATT told her that NO SIM card would work in my new 4S at this point. She said it was a communication error between the two companies. She is trying to contact a nearby Apple store for me so I can exchange.

An answer and resolution is at hand. Finally. Thank you!

LAST NOTE ON THIS ISSUE:
Julie at Apple made an appointment for me at one of the Apple stores here in St. Louis. They had ATT reps in the store. An ATT rep and an Apple tech there worked on the problem at length. In the end they activated the phone that was linked to the 4S when I purchased it on apple.com with a new SIM card then activated it in the 4S. Lastly, they switched the SIM cards with the iPhone 4 that had my old SIM card. At that point I had my new 4S and my wife inherited a very fine 4, replacing the 3GS she had.

So... if your iPhone was bricked with a call to ATT to switch phone numbers before activating, (although my 4S would not activate, hence my call to ATT) then go to an Apple or ATT store to have it worked on. After watching the ATT tech work for resolution, I can say with 100% certainty that there is nothing you can do at home to fix the problem. It was very involved.

I hope both Apple and ATT communicate with one another and with the public about the proper procedure to take advantage of eligible lines of upgrade for iPhones before the next roll out.

Good luck to all and have a groovylicious Apple experience!

 

[Digipimp]

Got my not matching sim issue taken care of today at an AT&T company store. The guy tried to give me the BS lines about Apple being the problem and Apples activation servers and all that ********. I cut him off and told him could we just activate a new sim with the number my iPhone was sent to me for and then give it a try. First time it failed when he did it ( Im not sure he actually did it or was just trying to cover his ass.) Second time I tried it myself while standing at the counter and it worked.

Then switched my the sim that came with the 4S out of my 4 and put it into the 4S now that its activated and it works great.

 

[munkees]

[After watching the ATT tech work for resolution, I can say with 100% certainty that there is nothing you can do at home to fix the problem.

I fixed mine at home, via calls to att, and swapping sims and sim assignments.

Glad you are up and running

 

[kddpop]

got the "well send you an email when it's ready" message.
it was a confusing message in that it said failed to activate, but we'll activate the phone so you can play with it and send you an email when we can activate it. so i guess they activated the phone but not the sim.
still no email.
no way to manually retry to activate since the "activated" my phone.
anyone know how i can manually retry the activation of the phone part of my phone.
can make no calls on my new phone. my old 3gs still works.
just stinks. oh well.

followup: i got the email instructing me call. it was an email from apple and the number connected me with att.
the guy was confused and confusing.
ended up eventually activating my phone. hurrah!
but i have since found out that when he activated my phone, he removed my text messaging plan. i don't text a lot. but i do want the ability to text my non-iphone using friends. looks like i have to call att back. grrrr.