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iPhone 3G S Customers Reporting Activation Delays
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If you provided your info in a similar way you write, perhaps apple did the best they could with the jibberish provided.
The serial number or the phone is located on the sim tray as well as in the setting screens.
It's on Apple's end not AT&T. Go into the store and get them to activate it in store -- the reason is that SO many people are trying to activate that the servers are getting destroyed.
Take an hour of your time and go to your nearest AT&T store. I picked mine up yesterday and the guy in store activated it and mine was working before I walked out of the door, AND it was ported from Verizon.
This is what I was told by the AT&T rep as well. I bought the phone under my wife's upgrade and am trying to use it on my line. I'm not saying its 100% true....I'm just saying that this is the answer that they are giving. Its amazing how little they know about the iPhone products. I guess I am going to have to go to an AT&T store and see what they tell me.
I went to an AT&T store only because I saw the line was 2 people instead of the 50 around the corner at Apple.
From the time I got on line, till i got helped and had the purchase was about 10 minutes.
By the time I walked out of the mall my new 3Gs was fully functional.
They were nice and fast and I was impressed
From the time I got on line, till i got helped and had the purchase was about 10 minutes.
By the time I walked out of the mall my new 3Gs was fully functional.
They were nice and fast and I was impressed
Relevant to the above post (I think), I upgraded my wife's line to the 3GS (before AT&T announced the subsidized price for 3Gs) and gave her my 3G. I simply put her new sim in my 3G and it worked for her line immediately. I put my existing 3G sim in the 3GS and the 3GS activated fine (after I used the 866.895.1099 number at least).
Edit: Hmm..thinking about it further, I may have that backwards. It would make no sense that I activated my current SIM on MY line just because it was in the 3GS. Damn phones look exactly alike..haha! Maybe it was indeed the 3G with her new sim that I activated. Either way, the switch worked fine.
I did find those ATT quick start instructions humorous. They apparently feel it is imperative that the phone not be turned on until it is fully charged (saying that turning your phone on before this is achieved could cause activation problems). How do you leave the phone off AND charge it fully? Doesn't it turn on as soon as you plug it into the outlet? Well, both of the phones I have certainly do.
So weird- this was the quickest firmware update and activation experience I've had so far.
30 second activation for me upgrading old iPhone about 10AM EST yesterday.
30 Second activation for a friend transferring number from Verizon about 2PM EST.
30 second activation for me upgrading old iPhone about 10AM EST yesterday.
30 Second activation for a friend transferring number from Verizon about 2PM EST.
Let me get this straight. Those of us who had to switch in our old SIM card to get the new 3gS to work will eventually have to switch to the new card when AT&T gets their act together? If this is true I don't like the fact that I may not be home to switch the SIMs when this happens - unless I carry my new SIM with me at all times just to be prepared 
Can someone confirm this is the case?
Can someone confirm this is the case?
Let me get this straight. Those of us who had to switch in our old SIM card to get the new 3gS to work will eventually have to switch to the new card when AT&T gets their act together? If this is true I don't like the fact that I may not be home to switch the SIMs when this happens - unless I carry my new SIM with me at all times just to be prepared
Can someone confirm this is the case?
This is exactly what happened to me: put in old SIM card last night, woke up this morning and had no service, so I put the new SIM in the phone and it was activated.
Carry the new one and tool with you so when the new card is activated you can switch them out.
Worked for me and I didn't think it would because I:
1. Called ATT and the guy said he manually activated it by updating my IMEI and SIM card information.
2. Verified activation with an Apple tech after talking with the ATT guy.
3. Tried to use att.com/activations but it said everything had already been upgraded.
After all that I was still getting "Waiting to activate" on the phone. So I didn't think that number was going to work for me but it did.
Thanks to all who suggested it!
Just got off the phone with AT&T.
The call took about 15 minutes, the rep was very helpful.
I purchased my phone online through Apple, and apparently AT&T didn't see me with an iPhone. They didn't even sign me up for data.
All is fixed now. No more iPod Touch with a contract!
The call took about 15 minutes, the rep was very helpful.
I purchased my phone online through Apple, and apparently AT&T didn't see me with an iPhone. They didn't even sign me up for data.
All is fixed now. No more iPod Touch with a contract!
UPS Screwed Up, and Now I'm Screwed
UPS sent my iPhone 3GS out for delivery at 7:22 AM on Friday. Unfortunately, they put it on the wrong truck. At 9:34 PM they finally declared a delivery exception and rescheduled delivery for Monday. By that time, however, no one was available at the local UPS facility to answer questions. They closed at 7:00 PM. On Monday no one will be home, and where I live you don't dare sign in advance for the delivery as you can't trust the UPS guy to deliver the package ("Of course I delivered it."). I called Apple and they said I can cancel the order, but their system can't release my upgrade with AT&T for 7 days. So, if I want to go buy the phone at an AT&T store, or an Apple store, I can do so, but I have to pay the full price, not the upgrade price.
What is really galling is that the phone came from China, 10,000 miles away and made it to within 15 miles of my house, but it can't get the last 15 miles. The phone was held in Louisville for two days because Apple wanted all the phones delivered on June 19. If they had delivered it when it came into the country, instead of trying to make a big splash, then a rescheduled delivery could have taken place on Friday instead of waiting over the weekend.
The lesson here is don't buy online from Apple. Too many things can go wrong. If I had just gone to the AT&T store two blocks from my house I would have my phone and been happy. Now I'm in the situation where I don't know when, or if, I can get the phone I have already paid for and for which my upgrade with AT&T is locked.
UPS sent my iPhone 3GS out for delivery at 7:22 AM on Friday. Unfortunately, they put it on the wrong truck. At 9:34 PM they finally declared a delivery exception and rescheduled delivery for Monday. By that time, however, no one was available at the local UPS facility to answer questions. They closed at 7:00 PM. On Monday no one will be home, and where I live you don't dare sign in advance for the delivery as you can't trust the UPS guy to deliver the package ("Of course I delivered it."). I called Apple and they said I can cancel the order, but their system can't release my upgrade with AT&T for 7 days. So, if I want to go buy the phone at an AT&T store, or an Apple store, I can do so, but I have to pay the full price, not the upgrade price.
What is really galling is that the phone came from China, 10,000 miles away and made it to within 15 miles of my house, but it can't get the last 15 miles. The phone was held in Louisville for two days because Apple wanted all the phones delivered on June 19. If they had delivered it when it came into the country, instead of trying to make a big splash, then a rescheduled delivery could have taken place on Friday instead of waiting over the weekend.
The lesson here is don't buy online from Apple. Too many things can go wrong. If I had just gone to the AT&T store two blocks from my house I would have my phone and been happy. Now I'm in the situation where I don't know when, or if, I can get the phone I have already paid for and for which my upgrade with AT&T is locked.
I upgraded from a 3G to a 3GS via on-line order from AT&T. I had activation delays, and finally just switched the SIM cards. That was about 16 hours ago. The 3GS seems to be working fine with the old 3G SIM card. Is there any reason I should worry about leaving the old SIM in the new phone? It doesn't seem that there are any functionality issues . . .
I am very interested in the answer to the above question as well.
Furthermore, I cannot receive any incoming calls to my 3GS... texts and data are fine, but anyone who calls me can hear me fine, but I cannot hear them. I went to the ATT store last night, and the guy called his phone and it worked, but as soon as i left the store a friend called me and no sound came through on my end.
So pretty much I call people, tell them what's up, and then if anything changes they have to txt me. Can anyone help me rectify this?
Thanks
EDIT: So the speaker is broken I guess... speakerphone works fine, i can hear people, but no sound comes through the headset speaker!
What do I do?
Just have them hold it at the UPS office, then drive there and pick it up. Simple.
Hi there, so I switched SIMs, just to try, and it didn't work for me. It kept saying it was searching for signal.. What are your thoughts?
Using 1st Gen iPhone SIM
Be careful if you popped your old 1st Gen iPhone SIM into your new 3G S in order to make it work. Even though you get an "activated" message, that doesn't mean it switched you over to the new plan. I switched the SIMs last night but my new plan didn't go into effect until today (when I got an email from Apple). Any activity (SMSs and use of the 3G data network) before it truly activated was against the old plan, which didn't have a 3G data plan. If you don't call AT&T about this, you may get charged for that data usage. I called and they assured me they would credit any charges incurred between popping in the new SIM and when their systems were updated.
Be careful if you popped your old 1st Gen iPhone SIM into your new 3G S in order to make it work. Even though you get an "activated" message, that doesn't mean it switched you over to the new plan. I switched the SIMs last night but my new plan didn't go into effect until today (when I got an email from Apple). Any activity (SMSs and use of the 3G data network) before it truly activated was against the old plan, which didn't have a 3G data plan. If you don't call AT&T about this, you may get charged for that data usage. I called and they assured me they would credit any charges incurred between popping in the new SIM and when their systems were updated.
And you are using 3G SIM cards in each right (just asking since the above poster warned against using 1st gen iPhone SIMs)?
The only thing I can suggest is rebooting the phone and then (assuming that didn't work) calling the 866.895.1099 number to activate (assuming you are having issues with the phone that has the new SIM). Does it even say it's trying to activate (the "this may take some time" message)?
No problems here.
It sucks some people had problems but my experience was way better then expected.
My concierge hooked the iPhone up to a Mac to start the activation process. He told me it would be a couple of minutes, possibly 2 hours. He disconnected the phone and told me I should get a text saying the phone is activated. As he was handing me the phone the activation text came through. He hit dismiss and before he gave the phone to me I got a text from my gf. I shook the guys hand and I was on the phone leaving the store.
It sucks some people had problems but my experience was way better then expected.
My concierge hooked the iPhone up to a Mac to start the activation process. He told me it would be a couple of minutes, possibly 2 hours. He disconnected the phone and told me I should get a text saying the phone is activated. As he was handing me the phone the activation text came through. He hit dismiss and before he gave the phone to me I got a text from my gf. I shook the guys hand and I was on the phone leaving the store.
AT&T was at least minimally able to help me
After about an hour of awaiting activation (actually transfer of service from 3G to 3GS), I called AT&T. The AT&T rep was clearly clueless and wanted to blame "iTunes."
I told her I needed her to "push through my activation" and she was able to do something in their system that, after I shut down and restarted my phone, resulted in immediate service activation.
Hope this helps anyone in similar straits.
After about an hour of awaiting activation (actually transfer of service from 3G to 3GS), I called AT&T. The AT&T rep was clearly clueless and wanted to blame "iTunes."
I told her I needed her to "push through my activation" and she was able to do something in their system that, after I shut down and restarted my phone, resulted in immediate service activation.
Hope this helps anyone in similar straits.
it worked!!!
thank you so much, i hardly ever get on this macrumors comment thing but what do you know... there are people on here that can help.
didnt fix the carrier thing but like i said i dont care... and the carrier update probably will..
Thank again!!!
Upgrade
For those of you having activation issues for "Upgrades", this is what worked for me. Go to att.com/Activations and follow the prompts. At the end of the process it asks to switch off your phone for at least 15 mins before starting it up again. Going through this process and then following the 15 mins shutdown process worked immediately. All the other recommendations in this forum nor calling ATT reps worked for me. Hope this helps those who still have activation issues.
For those of you having activation issues for "Upgrades", this is what worked for me. Go to att.com/Activations and follow the prompts. At the end of the process it asks to switch off your phone for at least 15 mins before starting it up again. Going through this process and then following the 15 mins shutdown process worked immediately. All the other recommendations in this forum nor calling ATT reps worked for me. Hope this helps those who still have activation issues.