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iPhone 3G S Customers Reporting Activation Delays

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Mine activated in 10 seconds upon plugging it into iTunes.
 
Took me 3 hours and 5 calls to AT&T to finally get mine activated. Originally, my phone wasn't even showing up in the system.
 
Have you guys tried activating via the automated phone line (866.895.1099)?

I got that same message on my iphone about activation taking awhile, so I tried that number and it activated immediately after entering all the usual confirmation info.

Is that not working for anyone else??
 
HouseofG said:
Have you guys tried activating via the automated phone line (866.895.1099)?

I got that same message on my iphone about activation taking awhile, so I tried that number and it activated immediately after enter all the usual confirmation info.

Is that not working for anyone else??
Click to expand...

I tried that and it sent me over to a "specialist" who could not help me. Granted this was at about 3:30 pm today. Hopefully that has changed now.
 
After the activation stayed unchanged for about 5 minutes, I unplugged the phone from my Mac, turned it off, and plugged it back in and it worked. Hope this helps.
 
bah, stop hyping the negative

I had a great experience this morning. My iPhone arrived at 10 am via UPS and I was set up in 20 minutes. Why does the media insist of hyping up the negative? How many customers were able to activate their accounts without any trouble vs how many customers had trouble? The only way you could write a fair article would be if you could present me with the % of folks who had trouble vs the % of folks that did not.
 
Received my iphone 3G S this morning from UPS. Set it up by 10:30, but got the 48 hr. activation message. Put my old iphone sim in and used the phone all day I got an email about 9:30 tonight that said my iphone was now activated. I put the new sim in and it is working fine.

rtfulk
 
redvolvodavid said:
Well, after about 3 hours of checking every so often between breaks at work, I finally read the instruction book that came with the phone...

At first, I plugged the phone up to my mac and got everything syncing over, but no activation. I removed the sim and put it back in-no go. Got a message saying it may take a bit... Even called ATT/Apple support and the guy said the servers were getting hung up with so many activations.

Well, read the little book saying to call ATT or go online to activate. I called, punched in my numbers, it said to turn off for 5 minutes then turn back on...I did this and it worked within seconds...

I'm like many of us-ready to get the darn thing going with excitement running through me, but taking time to read the included booklet (it was on the front page) worked like a charm! If you guys haven't done so, try it!
Click to expand...


Ok, Now that scared me.... I just went through everything I received again just to make sure I didn't miss it. My phone came in a brown box with 3 printed labels inside (all attached in a row): A return label (Ah yeah right), an order confirmation label, and gibberish label with bar codes and location codes. So nothing real informative there.

In the actual IPhone box there was: The Phone, Cable, Plug, and Head phones. SIM Tool, Apple Stickers and 2 documents:
Finger Tips - and
Important Product Information Guide - With text so small.... Oh never mind

I'm too lazy to actually read both documents in their entirety but neither have anything pointing me to an AT&T upgrade site during a quick look. The Finger Tips guide does have some info about setup on the first page but it doesn't reference AT&T at all. Quite frankly I wouldn't have looked here for AT&T stuff anyway seeing as this is a global product (Although they could have product runs for specific regions - but I doubt it)

I guess they "dropped" the upgrade book that was supposed to go in my box. At least they didn't drop my phone...... uuuhhhhh I hope

Of course I would have felt real silly if the AT&T rep at the store had looked at me with disdain and said RTFM while flipping to the exact page in the little booklet with the upgrade instructions. Lucky for me that didn't happen.
 
Can someone help with my problem?

I bought and installed 3.0 BETA a while back. I woke up today and my iPhone 3G had a purple screen that said connect to iTunes. I connected to iTunes and nothing seems to work. When I click restore is says

"There was a problem downloading the software for the iPhone. "iPhone". The requested resource was not found"

You can click ok and nothing happens or click "more information" and it takes you to an apple faq page.

Since I didn't buy the 3GS is there something else I can try to get my phone working again? This is kind of messed up being that I'm not a new activation...ughhhhh
 
seanmacdhai said:
I had a great experience this morning. My iPhone arrived at 10 am via UPS and I was set up in 20 minutes. Why does the media insist of hyping up the negative? How many customers were able to activate their accounts without any trouble vs how many customers had trouble? The only way you could write a fair article would be if you could present me with the % of folks who had trouble vs the % of folks that did not.
Click to expand...

The media ... this is a forum ... look I like apple ... but they messed up my shipping order when I ordered the 9th ... that equals me not happy.
 
Switch the SIM Card with my iPhone 2G got the phone instantly activated.

However, put the new SIM card (the one shipped with 3GS) in and it says "No Service".

I will just use my old SIM for now. Hopefully there is no side effect.
 
cable said:
Can someone help with my problem?

I bought and installed 3.0 BETA a while back. I woke up today and my iPhone 3G had a purple screen that said connect to iTunes. I connected to iTunes and nothing seems to work. When I click restore is says

"There was a problem downloading the software for the iPhone. "iPhone". The requested resource was not found"

You can click ok and nothing happens or click "more information" and it takes you to an apple faq page.

Since I didn't buy the 3GS is there something else I can try to get my phone working again? This is kind of messed up being that I'm not a new activation...ughhhhh
Click to expand...

Google for "DFU mode iPhone". You can always restore the system with DFU.
 
hyllus said:
For what it's worth, I activated a new line today with an iPhone 3G S in an AT&T store in a matter of a few minutes. A friend of mine did the same.
Click to expand...

I've gota agree...I got 2 at the Houston Memorial City Apple Store and had a great experience. They had their stuff together and handled my Family plan activation with zero issues.
 
I received mine around 1:30 PM.
Plugged it into itunes.
Watched my old iphone automatically say "No Service"
Waited about 10 minutes, and the new one was still not active.
I rebooted the phone, and it came back on saying it was activated.

Not too bad.

Popped my girlfriends SIM in the old one so she can start using it.
She receives a picture message. I was pissed. LOL.
 
iSee said:
Oh, AT&T. Another nail in the coffin we're preparing for your use on the day your exclusive deal with Apple expires.
Click to expand...

Okay let's get one thing straight. Apple WILL NOT go with Verizon OR T-Mobile in the US when the exclusivity deal expires. AT&T has a fast 3G network and the phone can be used worldwide. Go with Verizon and you will have an UGLY VZW VCAST OS and will only be available to use in the US. love it or hate it, AT&T will always have the iPhone. If it's that big of an issue, move to Canada and use Rogers or the UK and use O2.
 
has this happned to anyone...
i had a jailbroken 2.2.1 3G
backed it up
i had games in a folder from categories (from cydia of course) and used a MIM thing for the carried
after i updated my 3G S it still somehow has the custrom carrier which i guess doesnt bother me.. although it will if i get a new gf but my games dont show up!!!!
somehow something from the old hacked software caught on to my new 3.0 clean software.. what do i do now??
 
bbrosemer said:
Ok ... umm no ... what i said is the serial # is attached to the phone # ... not the sim ... the sim is independent ... Yeah I know the sim doesn't matter as when I bought by first 3g contract free... This one though I bought with a contract and apple apparently sends the phone serial # attached to a phone # ... NOT SIM ... serial # attached to phone # ... Is what I said therefore if you have a phone come to you that does not have your number and apparently is pre something or anothered by apple then it will not work ... No matter what sim ...
Click to expand...

You need to learn how to type/write. You make no sense when you talk.

As I believe you mention, the serial # is attached to the phone number. So therefore, it should not matter what SIM I use. Either it be the "unactivated" NEW one that came with my 3GS or my OLD 3G sim (which is already 'activated' to my number). Mine is working with my old 3G sim, so why are you still arguing. You're wrong.
 
My activation took literally less than 5 seconds when iTunes opened. This was at 9:30 am PST. On the other hand, my brothers phone is still in activation mode since noon.
 
Wehrwolf said:
Waited nearly 5 hours for activation & tried reseating SIM/restarting before I finally broke down and called ATT. Hold time was surprisingly short, and to their credit, support was very helpful. Took about 30 minutes overall, but as soon as I hung up, I power cycled the phone and it was activated. All seems to be well so far.
Click to expand...
Same here, except I had to wait around 40-50 minutes after hanging up, before my phone activated (the rep said, "10 minutes", heh).
 
I called AT&T and there immediate response was bring it in to a store. Um, you're not going to try and help me? What a joke! The rep told me I had to activate the new SIM card. When I use the old one, everything works just fine except it keeps telling me I don't have a data plan. AT&T is such a joke. I think it's becoming more and more obvious. It took me 3 hours to order my damn iPhone because I had to remove the unlimited family text plan before I could order on Apple's website. Unbelievable. Apple is lucky they have a great product because customer's are "putting up" with AT&T for it.

Can anyone help? I'm sitting here with no service. I'm so pissed.
 
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