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How to: AT&T upgrade swap.

Getting my voicemail fixed. The dunce that did the swap for me yesterday deleted my voicemail box. The lady I just talked to turned it back on, but didn't set if up as a visual, so now she is trying to find the right code to do that. She said she will send me an email after it's done since I was juggling my 2 kids while I was on the phone with her.
 
Give them 30 minutes and then call back at some point you will get a Care rep that can follow the Visual Voicemail activation steps correctly.

Please remember AT&T sellls more than just iPhones, yes I know that is crazy but the iPhone is the only device that has Visual Voicemail in the entire AT&T product line. All reps know the basic phone proceedures but not 100% know everything iPhone. :D

Dave
 
What if you have already powered on the phone? Is there a way around? I can't get this phone activated no matter what I do, the wrong number is showing on the activation screen...
 
My experience with moving an upgrade from the line ordered under to a differnt line :

Phone bought from Apple

Having previously read (before finding this thread) that I should go to an AT&T store, I was there as they opened this morning. I brought the unopened iPhone 5 with me, acquired using my sister-in-law's upgrade (who is 800+ miles away). I stressed to the agent that I did NOT want to suffer the wrath of the sister-in-law ;) by deactivating her line, so please make sure we do this right!

I didn't pay close attention to what she did, but whatever it was was without even opening the phone. She then said it was all ready, just plug into iTunes and everything was set. At that point, I realized my current line was deactivated, so she said she could activate the new phone.

She powered it up and got to an activation screen stating that:

Activation
XXX-XXX-XXXX
The phone number should match the one
provided when you purchased you
iPhone. If you want to use a different
number, contact AT&T after activation
(with XXX-XXX-XXXX being the wrong number)

Long story short, at this point, after a 45 minute call to Apple and to AT&T, I know that the IMEI and ICCID of the nano sim is correctly attached to my phone number. (And a very important point, I have been assured that my sister in law's phone service is active and untouched:p). However, my iPhone 5 still shows as being attached to my sister-in-law's number when I go through the activation process, both through iTunes and through just turning the phone on.

So I'm working with an Apple senior rep who has escalated to an "engineer" and I'm waiting for callback.
 
Cyberius11 said:
What if you have already powered on the phone? Is there a way around? I can't get this phone activated no matter what I do, the wrong number is showing on the activation screen...
Click to expand...

Well the activation screen will show the wrong number but I have no way of knowing if the SIM is assigned to the wrong number since you powered it on.

Worst case scenario you try and activate it and it will deactivate the donor line and your iPhone will be activated under their number. A trip to an AT&T store will be able to straighten it out.

----------
blackjackmark said:
My experience with moving an upgrade from the line ordered under to a differnt line :

Phone bought from Apple

Having previously read (before finding this thread) that I should go to an AT&T store, I was there as they opened this morning. I brought the unopened iPhone 5 with me, acquired using my sister-in-law's upgrade (who is 800+ miles away). I stressed to the agent that I did NOT want to suffer the wrath of the sister-in-law ;) by deactivating her line, so please make sure we do this right!

I didn't pay close attention to what she did, but whatever it was was without even opening the phone. She then said it was all ready, just plug into iTunes and everything was set. At that point, I realized my current line was deactivated, so she said she could activate the new phone.

She powered it up and got to an activation screen stating that:

Activation
XXX-XXX-XXXX
The phone number should match the one
provided when you purchased you
iPhone. If you want to use a different
number, contact AT&T after activation
(with XXX-XXX-XXXX being the wrong number)

Long story short, at this point, after a 45 minute call to Apple and to AT&T, I know that the IMEI and ICCID of the nano sim is correctly attached to my phone number. (And a very important point, I have been assured that my sister in law's phone service is active and untouched:p). However, my iPhone 5 still shows as being attached to my sister-in-law's number when I go through the activation process, both through iTunes and through just turning the phone on.

So I'm working with an Apple senior rep who has escalated to an "engineer" and I'm waiting for callback.
Click to expand...

Read the original post.

If done right the activation screen on the phone will still show the wrong number... Once you get past the activation process it will show the correct number. I have no way of knowing if everything was done correctly for you but the fact that its showing your sister's number doesn't mean it isn't working right.

When I activated and everyone else did on this thread they all saw the wrong number in the activation screen.
 
blackjackmark said:
My experience with moving an upgrade from the line ordered under to a differnt line :

Phone bought from Apple

Having previously read (before finding this thread) that I should go to an AT&T store, I was there as they opened this morning. I brought the unopened iPhone 5 with me, acquired using my sister-in-law's upgrade (who is 800+ miles away). I stressed to the agent that I did NOT want to suffer the wrath of the sister-in-law ;) by deactivating her line, so please make sure we do this right!

I didn't pay close attention to what she did, but whatever it was was without even opening the phone. She then said it was all ready, just plug into iTunes and everything was set. At that point, I realized my current line was deactivated, so she said she could activate the new phone.

She powered it up and got to an activation screen stating that:

Activation
XXX-XXX-XXXX
The phone number should match the one
provided when you purchased you
iPhone. If you want to use a different
number, contact AT&T after activation
(with XXX-XXX-XXXX being the wrong number)

Long story short, at this point, after a 45 minute call to Apple and to AT&T, I know that the IMEI and ICCID of the nano sim is correctly attached to my phone number. (And a very important point, I have been assured that my sister in law's phone service is active and untouched:p). However, my iPhone 5 still shows as being attached to my sister-in-law's number when I go through the activation process, both through iTunes and through just turning the phone on.

So I'm working with an Apple senior rep who has escalated to an "engineer" and I'm waiting for callback.
Click to expand...

Sounds correct, and the fact that your phone stopped working is a good sign. If you proceed, when you are logging into iCloud, it should ask where you want to receive iMessages and your number will be there. That was what happened with my swap. After I finished setting it up, the rep called me on my number and it was fine.
 
Captainobvvious said:
Well the activation screen will show the wrong number but I have no way of knowing if the SIM is assigned to the wrong number since you powered it on.

Worst case scenario you try and activate it and it will deactivate the donor line and your iPhone will be activated under their number. A trip to an AT&T store will be able to straighten it out.

----------



Read the original post.

If done right the activation screen on the phone will still show the wrong number... Once you get past the activation process it will show the correct number. I have no way of knowing if everything was done correctly for you but the fact that its showing your sister's number doesn't mean it isn't working right.

When I activated and everyone else did on this thread they all saw the wrong number in the activation screen.
Click to expand...

Mine would never activate even when I went past that screen...but now Apple just aclled me back and the "engineers" pointed my device to my correct phone # and all is working now.

Doesn't make sense though, that Apple ties the device to a specific phone #? I thought that's what the SIM did? Oh well, at this point, the phone is active and I'm not going to question how or why! :rolleyes:
 
Captainobvvious said:
Well the activation screen will show the wrong number but I have no way of knowing if the SIM is assigned to the wrong number since you powered it on.

Worst case scenario you try and activate it and it will deactivate the donor line and your iPhone will be activated under their number. A trip to an AT&T store will be able to straighten it out.
Click to expand...

I ended up spending a couple hours on the phone with AT&T and Apple. Even with the proper SIM in the phone it would NOT activate due to the wrong number showing up during initial activation. Apple said it was AT&T and vice versa. It was quite frustrating. Finally I had to get the guy I bought the phone from on the line and have them activate it under his number, then transfer the phone to me, then I activated it on my account with the new SIM. Never had this problem with any other iPhone during a cross upgrade.

The general consensus from Apple and AT&T is if the original purchaser did not activate it under the line he bought it on the phone was going to be a useless brick, and I could not do the initial activation on my number.
 
Cyberius11 said:
I ended up spending a couple hours on the phone with AT&T and Apple. Even with the proper SIM in the phone it would NOT activate due to the wrong number showing up during initial activation. Apple said it was AT&T and vice versa. It was quite frustrating. Finally I had to get the guy I bought the phone from on the line and have them activate it under his number, then transfer the phone to me, then I activated it on my account with the new SIM. Never had this problem with any other iPhone during a cross upgrade.

The general consensus from Apple and AT&T is if the original purchaser did not activate it under the line he bought it on the phone was going to be a useless brick, and I could not do the initial activation on my number.
Click to expand...


I think everyone here had the wrong number showing up at the activation screen. I did and it still activated to the right number.
 
Captainobvvious said:
I think everyone here had the wrong number showing up at the activation screen. I did and it still activated to the right number.
Click to expand...

I wish mine did. When you hit next it requested the billing zip code and last 4 of social security. I put mine in, and it rejected it until they put in the other number's info. That may be the difference, and why mine failed.
 
Cyberius11 said:
I wish mine did. When you hit next it requested the billing zip code and last 4 of social security. I put mine in, and it rejected it until they put in the other number's info. That may be the difference, and why mine failed.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what happend to me. I input the zip and ss# and it would still not activate. Once Apple finally did whatever they needed to do, it worked.
 
blackjackmark said:
That's exactly what happend to me. I input the zip and ss# and it would still not activate. Once Apple finally did whatever they needed to do, it worked.
Click to expand...

I'm just glad the guy I got mine from was cool and activated it so I was through with the hassle. Really liking it compared to the 4s- worthy upgrade. Seems apple ordered phones only require the additional verification.
 
Well, I tried.

Did everything right. Called AT&T to do the upgrade swap before I even opened the box. Told them I needed to the new phone activated on my line (using the upgrade from the Missus' line). And they still screwed it up.

The new phone activated on my wife's line, rendering her iP4 deactivated. So, I have to rush home, and drive to the AT&T store to get new SIMs. What a pain.

Well I should have no trouble getting them to waive the $36 activation fee now :)
 
Possible Text Messaging Issues

I'm not sure if this has been covered as I couldn't go through all these 12 pages fast enough before I had to leave.....


When you do the cross upgrade over the phone with AT&T make sure they reactivate text on your line. For whatever reason after they updated and did my cross upgrade I lost or did not have my text feature transferred over. I did not notice right away since most of my friends/family have iPhones anyways but today I did start getting suspicious on why certain ppl weren't texting back :confused: Anyways a quick call back to AT&T resolved that and they knew what was wrong right away since apparently I wasn't the only one complaining. Just wanted to save some possible troubles for you guys!
 
Captainobvvious said:
Well the activation screen will show the wrong number but I have no way of knowing if the SIM is assigned to the wrong number since you powered it on.

Worst case scenario you try and activate it and it will deactivate the donor line and your iPhone will be activated under their number. A trip to an AT&T store will be able to straighten it out.

----------



Read the original post.

If done right the activation screen on the phone will still show the wrong number... Once you get past the activation process it will show the correct number. I have no way of knowing if everything was done correctly for you but the fact that its showing your sister's number doesn't mean it isn't working right.

When I activated and everyone else did on this thread they all saw the wrong number in the activation screen.
Click to expand...

Hmm the lady on the line said that she had my number set up on that line... But after reading that other post I'm worried I'll kill my sister's line... she's in Chicago and I'm in Los Angeles so it'll be a HUGE problem if I kick her off.

If I go to At&t can they just assign me a new SIM and solve all worries?
 
MrXiro said:
Hmm the lady on the line said that she had my number set up on that line... But after reading that other post I'm worried I'll kill my sister's line... she's in Chicago and I'm in Los Angeles so it'll be a HUGE problem if I kick her off.

If I go to At&t can they just assign me a new SIM and solve all worries?
Click to expand...
So are you getting the activation screen with your sister's phone number on it? If so, I know your fears, as it was my sister in law's number, so I REALLY didn't want to mess up her line (she's 800+ miles away :)

In my case, I took the plunge and continued on past that screen . At that point it asks for the billing zip and the last four digits of the SSN. At first that would not work. That is when Apple had to do and something on the line to get it to work. Once they fixed it later that afternoon, and I again preceded past that activation screen (with much trepidation) that the next screen then showed my phone number.

I had called AT&T in the meantime, while I was waiting for Apple, and the rep there said that the IMEI number of the sim in the iPhone 5 was tied to my phone number. She said there was no way that going past the activation screen could screw up my sister-in-law's phone.

Still, I was hesitant because I wasn't 100% sure if that was true. So, I don't know if the new sim would've solved my dilemma. My issue truly was to be on Apple's end somehow (which I still don't understand, but I have an email from them stating to call them to get it straightened out, so they realize there was some sort of an issue as well).

GOOD LUCK!
 
blackjackmark said:
So are you getting the activation screen with your sister's phone number on it? If so, I know your fears, as it was my sister in law's number, so I REALLY didn't want to mess up her line (she's 800+ miles away :)

In my case, I took the plunge and continued on past that screen . At that point it asks for the billing zip and the last four digits of the SSN. At first that would not work. That is when Apple had to do and something on the line to get it to work. Once they fixed it later that afternoon, and I again preceded past that activation screen (with much trepidation) that the next screen then showed my phone number.

I had called AT&T in the meantime, while I was waiting for Apple, and the rep there said that the IMEI number of the sim in the iPhone 5 was tied to my phone number. She said there was no way that going past the activation screen could screw up my sister-in-law's phone.

Still, I was hesitant because I wasn't 100% sure if that was true. So, I don't know if the new sim would've solved my dilemma. My issue truly was to be on Apple's end somehow (which I still don't understand, but I have an email from them stating to call them to get it straightened out, so they realize there was some sort of an issue as well).

GOOD LUCK!
Click to expand...

hmm... weird. Does this make selling your iPhone 5 a lot more difficult?

----------

I think I'll take my phone to the local At&t anyway... just in case.
 
Just ignore the wrong number. It takes a few days for that to adjust. If she sorted your SIM, all is ok. I had the same issue, but once I activated the sim/phone had the correct number despite what was displayed on the screen.
 
redcupr said:
Well, I tried.

Did everything right. Called AT&T to do the upgrade swap before I even opened the box. Told them I needed to the new phone activated on my line (using the upgrade from the Missus' line). And they still screwed it up.

The new phone activated on my wife's line, rendering her iP4 deactivated. So, I have to rush home, and drive to the AT&T store to get new SIMs. What a pain.

Well I should have no trouble getting them to waive the $36 activation fee now :)
Click to expand...

I had the same exact scenario, ATT rep screwed up the upgrade swap so I had to rush home and take both phones to the nearest ATT store to get it fixed before my wife yelled st me :D

Next time Im just going to the store and requesting a new Sim card
 
I have a question regarding the cross upgrade. My parents, my sister and I are all on one AT&T bill and my parents have upgrades available now. They use flip phones so they have no data plans on their phones. When I go into the Apple Store online it shows up that they need a data plan (obviously) to buy the phone and that would be set up at the time I order the phone.

My question is, can my sister and I use my parent's upgrade, add data to their numbers and cancel their new data plan the next day?
 
SHIPARCH said:
I have a question regarding the cross upgrade. My parents, my sister and I are all on one AT&T bill and my parents have upgrades available now. They use flip phones so they have no data plans on their phones. When I go into the Apple Store online it shows up that they need a data plan (obviously) to buy the phone and that would be set up at the time I order the phone.

My question is, can my sister and I use my parent's upgrade, add data to their numbers and cancel their new data plan the next day?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
Somewhat related, can the AT&T store do this with only the new phone present?

My new phone came today and the wife is in possession of it. The phone is in her number and she is getting my 4s. She's having dinner tonight next door to an AT&T store and I don't get off until after they close. Should she not be able to walk in and do it, as calling AT&T they of course don't have possession of the phones and are doing to it over the air.

Additionally, once getting everything swapped, does it matter which phone I backup and restore first iCloud?

Thanks
 
FortWorthMac said:
Somewhat related, can the AT&T store do this with only the new phone present?

My new phone came today and the wife is in possession of it. The phone is in her number and she is getting my 4s. She's having dinner tonight next door to an AT&T store and I don't get off until after they close. Should she not be able to walk in and do it, as calling AT&T they of course don't have possession of the phones and are doing to it over the air.

Additionally, once getting everything swapped, does it matter which phone I backup and restore first iCloud?

Thanks
Click to expand...

It shouldn't be a problem at all. I was in a similar situation and they did it for me.
 
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