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This whole situation sucks. I would not be surprised to see a class action law suite, even though I don't condone it, it sure would wake the tech sector up.

With this amount of waiting and BS, I'd kind of like AT&T to pay for my phone.

EDIT; My old cell phone SIM just died, so maybe my luck may start to change

-mark
 
Apple is going to take a lot of heat for this, and maybe they will breach their contract with AT&T and just start selling the phone SIM free; and letting the other carriers join the fun.

-mark

This might actually be a possibility. I am sure Apple has performance standards in teh contract that allows them to cancel the contract in the case of breach of terms on the part of AT&T.
 
If you have a FAN number (a way for AT&T to associate your personal account with a corporate volume discount) associated with your account, you have to get it removed for activation to go through.
 
has anyone successfully activated the iphone when porting from verizon??

Listen:

I called 1-888-898-7865 which is the port request support line. The lady there talked took my Verizon mobile number that I requested to port 16 hrs ago. She was off and on hold with me, then eventually said they got the port approved and had me readthe IMEI and ICCID numbers off activation screeen on the phone. Then after another 10 minutes of holding she said they were pushing through activation with my port and should sending a message to my phone within the next 30 minutes.

Hasn't happened yet, only be 5 min...I'm praying.

I suggest EVERYONE take this method if you are porting a number and see what happens.
 
i have now hit the 17 hour mark. i would NEVER have expected this from apple. sigh... on the phone for an hour now... can't even recall how many calls this makes. what a complete disaster!
 
I started the process at about 10:30 p.m. PDT. I got the wait up to 6 minutes message, then the message that my activation requires additional time to complete. I am switching from Tmobile. (By the way, in the activation, it asks for my existing phone account password, if any. Is that the same as the password to access the account on the web, or something different? I left it blank.)

I then received an email that says porting may take up to 24 hours. In the meantime, I should receive an email telling me that I can activate my phone. And that in between activating and finishing the porting, I can only make outgoing calls.

It's 9 a.m. PDT and I'm still waiting for that email that I can now activate the phone. (I gather from other messages that the email will have a link of some kind.)

It's a sweet phone and I'm sure it will all work out within the next 12 hours, but I really wish I could start using it.
 
My local AT&T store opens in 1 hour.

Ive been getting the "were sorry, AT&T has determined that your current account cannot be used with the iPhone"

Been on the phone for a total of 7 hours. 4 last night, 3 this morning already. Im currently on hold with Apple support because AT&T transferred me over after the lady couldnt figure things out.

Should I just walk in to my AT&T store when they open and see if they can help me activate? I cant STAND being on hold anymore!
 
I just got off the phone with AT&T after calling the 877-800-3701 and pressing Option 1. Total call time was 26 minutes. Is my phone activated? Hell no. Were the people I spoke to able to help me? Hell no. The second person I spoke to (after getting transfered) initially told me I had to wait up to 24 hours since their system was overloaded. I then stated I had an old AT&T conversion account and I know that was causing problems for people. He then looked at my current plan and verified that had I gotten an activation email it would have stated this account is not compatible and I would have had to call anyway (fantastic!)

He then told me I would have to change the account to one of the new ones, but that he could not do it. He then put me on hold and was going to transfer us to some other division to do that, but alas, they don't open on Saturday until 1pm EST! So now I have to call back at 1pm and pray that I actually speak with someone who can help, get my account converted over to one of the new plans, and hope that maybe, just perhaps, I might get to use my new phone sometime today.

I then got into a discussion with the CSR about how poorly this whole launch has been handled by AT&T. The rep made various excuses and I told him this reflects very poorly upon AT&T and there are tons of pissed off people out there who just spent $500+ on a new phone and even after 16 hours they still cannot use it (and worse, many people are now stuck without a phone because their old phone was deactivated).

AT&T sucks monkey balls.

..Al
 
I just got the "activation requires additional time" message as well. I wonder if one cause of this is former AT&T Wireless customers that never migrated to a new plan after the Cingular acquisition. I remember there being this process of switching from a "blue plan" to an "orange plan" if you got a new phone at the time.
 
I just talked to a rep and he told me that the plan i selected is not compatible for the device that i have. WTF I selected the cheapest plan...and now i got transfered and the lady has no clue whats going on. this is BS. i am going in circles with no answers. verizon said they have not rcvd a port request...
 
It's unfortunate that many have had activation issues. I had none, but I was activated by 7:30 last nite.

This phone is worth the activation hassles. Keep a cool head. It's worth it.
 
One down, one to go

Per a previous post indicating the family plan may be related to my activation delay (been waiting since 7:50EDT last night) I went ahead and activated my 2nd iPhone as a stand-alone. The phone was activated and I got a number within minutes right in iTunes, didn't even have to wait for an email.

Now I want to cancel the pending activation on the 1st phone and do over as a stand-alone plan and sort out the billing later. Is there any way to reset the phone to "factory new" so I can start over? As it is, when I connect it , iTunes goes directly to the "wait for it" message.

By the way, this is an insidiously clever ploy by Apple. After hours of activation and AT&T help line frustrations, when you get the phone to work, you're so happy just to see the home screen you can't help but think it's an amazing phone. Setting the bar beyond low. But it works. I'm thrilled with my working iPhone.
 
Got the waiting game when I tried to activate at 10:45 PM Pacific last night. It finally activated at 7:45 AM Pacific this morning. Yup, 9 hours. Last night, AT&T support had said it should only take 30 minutes to 3 hours (this was when I had already been waiting 3.5 hours,) and to call in the morning if it wasn't active yet.
 
On the phone holding off and on for an hour now in hopes to get this all sorted out. They told me that my number has now been ported and it is merely an issue of getting the iphone working...

In perusing iTunes, why is there no iTunes Essentials called "iPhone Setup - Music to Hold by..."

I would consider buying it ;-)

- Eric
 
my verizon phone just stopped working within the past 10 minutes....I hope this is a good sign, as at least SOMETHING is happening!
 
After 2 hour call, I finally got an AT&T lady who checked with the porting department and said it will be active at 1:55ET, and she could tell the exact time. She said the hold up is because of porting issues and with sometimes they are having problems when you cant activate your phone until the number has been ported. Truthfully, I had to tell her that it could be a porting issue from Verizon after reading the posts here. She said to call the porting department (1-866-802-7560) if it isn't activated by 2PM. We'll see!
 
BOTTOM LINE ... this is a waiting game. I've done everything suggested in this thread. (After 3 hours) I talked to a very good guy at Apple, and the servers at AT&T simply weren't prepared for the load. The activation e-mail comes from AT&T, not Apple. There is nothing you can do to "force" the activation. The servers will process the requests and fire the e-mails ... Good Luck waiting.
 
On with rep now... says the phone is activated.... well it sure doesn't seem to be and I did not get the email....FIX IT dammit.

-mark
 
Total AT&T and Apple incompetence

Apple and AT&T, you had 6 frigging months to work this out. You knew the iPhone buying onslaught was coming. You blew it!

I am so pissed. I'm a Cingular customer (not business) and now I have no phone at all since you've deactivated my old one and have SCREWED up the process to activate my new one.

You should have been more up front about the process!

:mad:
 
they keep telling me no account has been set up....and i cant set up a another account because the phone thinks its being activated. anyone know how to reset it so i can go through the activation again? they keep asking me for my social secuirty # and i refuse to give it over the phone. this is horrible.
 
14 hours and waiting

14 hours after activating MY Iphone (coming from Verizon) it still is not activated. The 2nd phone (my wifes) was activated at 3am.

They turned off my old Verizon acct and my new Iphone is not working. I AM MAD.

My wife's phone, which I did 2nd, is working and it also was a verizon transfer.
Another kicker. They created TWO family plan accts, each with one of the Iphones on it., WHen I call AT&T they claim both phones are activated, but I never got my email for my phone and when I hook it up to Itunes it says more time is needed. 14 hours so far. What a JOKE.

I am now without any phone and anyone who calls me gets a disconnected notice.
 
Working on Sunday?

These mother **ckers at ATT and Apple better be working on Sunday.

That's a good point. When I called the iPhone activation line this morning for help, it was before their hours (they didn't open until 9:00am) but the recording that listed their hours didn't say anything about Sunday hours, only Mon-Friday and Sat. God, they better be open tomorrow if I'm still waiting or I'm going to lose it! I'm assuming going to an actual ATT store wouldn't do any good?
 
877-800-3701

...is screwed. I have called 2x in the past 1/2 hr and each time I press 1, then it rings, and then after :30 of silence I get disconnected.

I could murder someone.

Edit: Make that THREE times it has disconnected me.

:mad:
 
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