Ok, so, this, first of all, is NOT a "cheap upgrade" issue. Let me set up my full story.
First of all, I'm a *very* long term AT&T wireless customer - since early '97, when they were Pac Bell Wireless. I've never particularly liked 'em, but I've never directly butted heads with them and figured nobody else was any better.
Secondly, I bought the original iPhone on launch day. I'm upgrading mostly for the 3G wireless - I use the Internet on my phone, a lot. However, I often do so with no WiFi access, and currently have an AT&T data card for my MacBook Pro and will lug both of those places to get high-speed access.
Anyway, this (Sunday) morning, I figured few people would want to get up at 0800 to grab an iPhone. Since my kids are early risers (not that I am naturaly
, it wasn't too much of a hardship to drive to the Palo Alto store. I got there about 0830, and was happy to see about a dozen people in line outside of it.
Unfortunately, it turned out not many Apple Store employees wanted to get up that early, either, and they were short-staffed. After waiting a little bit more than an hour, I was finally let in and introduced to my handler. I told him I had no discounts on my AT&T plan, it wasn't a business account, etc. He grabbed my black 16GB phone from the back, asked me the last four of my social, my phone number, and my ZIP code. He punched all this into the handheld, and then had me sign it.
When he clicked whatever the "next" button on it was, though, it said "Unable to upgrade account."
It became clear over the next forty-five minutes (!) that he had no clue what he was doing, but he finally managed to figure out how to call AT&T wireless, what the store password was, etc., and got someone on the phone who said that everything was fine with my account and there was nothing she could do. He tried to run it again, with another phone, and it also didn't work.
I then asked to speak with the manager, who told me that, no, he was unable under any circumstances to sell me an iPhone without getting past that screen on the handheld computer, that he understood I was trying to give him hundreds of dollars and that he couldn't accept it. He said that at least one other person had had the same problem, and that they didn't know what was going on or how to fix it. He suggested I go to an AT&T store. Having already spent nearly three hours (including drive time) NOT getting an iPhone, I decided to put that off for another day.
My understanding from what they were saying is not that there was a problem with the "upgrade" pricing, it was that they tried to "upgrade" (*cough* downgrade *cough) my account to the new minutes/SMS plan and that failed for some reason.
Has anyone else had this experience or know what the resolution is? I fear I'm in a Kafkaesque state where I can't get a new iPhone because I'm existing customer and yet can't sign up for a totally new account and get an iPhone because I'm existing customer. Any suggestions? I guess my best bet right now is to go order one from the AT&T store and hope they're able to "upgrade" my account when it comes in...
-TQ
First of all, I'm a *very* long term AT&T wireless customer - since early '97, when they were Pac Bell Wireless. I've never particularly liked 'em, but I've never directly butted heads with them and figured nobody else was any better.
Secondly, I bought the original iPhone on launch day. I'm upgrading mostly for the 3G wireless - I use the Internet on my phone, a lot. However, I often do so with no WiFi access, and currently have an AT&T data card for my MacBook Pro and will lug both of those places to get high-speed access.
Anyway, this (Sunday) morning, I figured few people would want to get up at 0800 to grab an iPhone. Since my kids are early risers (not that I am naturaly
, it wasn't too much of a hardship to drive to the Palo Alto store. I got there about 0830, and was happy to see about a dozen people in line outside of it.Unfortunately, it turned out not many Apple Store employees wanted to get up that early, either, and they were short-staffed. After waiting a little bit more than an hour, I was finally let in and introduced to my handler. I told him I had no discounts on my AT&T plan, it wasn't a business account, etc. He grabbed my black 16GB phone from the back, asked me the last four of my social, my phone number, and my ZIP code. He punched all this into the handheld, and then had me sign it.
When he clicked whatever the "next" button on it was, though, it said "Unable to upgrade account."
It became clear over the next forty-five minutes (!) that he had no clue what he was doing, but he finally managed to figure out how to call AT&T wireless, what the store password was, etc., and got someone on the phone who said that everything was fine with my account and there was nothing she could do. He tried to run it again, with another phone, and it also didn't work.
I then asked to speak with the manager, who told me that, no, he was unable under any circumstances to sell me an iPhone without getting past that screen on the handheld computer, that he understood I was trying to give him hundreds of dollars and that he couldn't accept it. He said that at least one other person had had the same problem, and that they didn't know what was going on or how to fix it. He suggested I go to an AT&T store. Having already spent nearly three hours (including drive time) NOT getting an iPhone, I decided to put that off for another day.
My understanding from what they were saying is not that there was a problem with the "upgrade" pricing, it was that they tried to "upgrade" (*cough* downgrade *cough) my account to the new minutes/SMS plan and that failed for some reason.
Has anyone else had this experience or know what the resolution is? I fear I'm in a Kafkaesque state where I can't get a new iPhone because I'm existing customer and yet can't sign up for a totally new account and get an iPhone because I'm existing customer. Any suggestions? I guess my best bet right now is to go order one from the AT&T store and hope they're able to "upgrade" my account when it comes in...
-TQ