Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
He was an existing customer, adding the iPhone to his line.

Dammit. I have a new SIM card right here because I was told I needed a new this morning from the girl at customer service. I'm strongly considering just activating it as a brand new customer to get this thing working. I don't even care about porting my old number now.
 
Just passing 24 hours for activation

I'm porting, but just passed 24 hours since I activated. This is crazy!! Every time I call I get. "We think that yours should be activated soon."

This is madness :/
 
Going into 25th hour 1 tiny bit of news

I went to the AT&T store where they didn't know anything. Guy made a call was taold activation might take 48 hours from now. I think they were just pick a number out of their a55.

I took teh SIM out of the iPhone and put it in my old phone (a SLVR L2) and it worked fined. Make and receive calls fine.

Does that mean that AT&T has done its part and Apple is the holdup? Since thenew iPhone AT&T SIM card worked fine in another phone, that's what I was thinking.

Meanwhile I've still go the "your activation requires additional time" message and no emails.

Can we sue yet?
 
I am porting my number and haven't received an email that my activiation is complete, but my sprint phone doesn't work at all. I also can't login to my sprint online account, but in my cingular web account and I could see the ported number as a new family talk line.

So I'm SOL until I receive that email. wtf. for the past 4-5 hours, no one can call my cell or I can't make any out going calls.

I thought that I could make calls from my iPhone and receive calls from my original phone for a few hours until the transaction is complete :confused:
 
Anybody know how to restart the activation process?

If I ever get to a rep here I'm going to ask them to delete/cancel the process I have running now. It's ******** that we're still sitting here doing this. I was really patient up until about an hour ago. Now, I'm getting pissed.
 
Here's my theory...

During the frenzy of activations last night, something went very wrong on ATT's end... they were just not at all prepared for this. Some activation attempts made during that time seem to have been lost in a black hole somewhere.... It's like a "luck of the draw" thing, which is why some people have had minimal problems while others - like me - have been waiting for over 18 hours with still nothing.

I don't know what the solution is... most of the phone reps have been completely incompetent and don't even seem to realize there is an issue with iphone activations. Like I said, I'll give it 1 more hour, then I'm headed to the ATT store and force them to do something... either a manual activation or a new SIM card.... whatever it takes.

And btw - my iphone sim works on my old RAZR phone ok.... which jsut adds even more confusion
 
If I ever get to a rep here I'm going to ask them to delete/cancel the process I have running now. It's ******** that we're still sitting here doing this. I was really patient up until about an hour ago. Now, I'm getting pissed.

I've been pissed since I got home with a $600 machine that's as good as D.O.A.

I think it's completely busted that Steve won't let us at least play with the darn thing. Nice going, you smarty-pants. I hope you drop yours in the toilet, Steve.
 
Ps

I'm porting, but just passed 24 hours since I activated. This is crazy!! Every time I call I get. "We think that yours should be activated soon."

This is madness :/



Oh.. I would also like to mention that I've been a Voicestream, T-Mobile customer with absolutely no issues for the last 10 years. This is the worst cell phone issue I've ever dealt with. I hope ATT isn't always like this. It might not be worth the iPhone.
 
credit check code

So if you bought the iphone from att, you get the check code and can input it on itunes when it asks. i bought from apple there is no code on the receipt how do i get it??
 
Ok...the lady I talked to for over an hour (45 minutes of that time I was on hold while she was doing stuff) was able to give me my Web Order #, my new phone number, and she said she fully activated the phone. She said I would be able to call the phone and it should ring but right now it just says, 'the mailbox you have called has not setup voicemail yet, goodbye.'

I'm hoping that she did everything on her end and now I just have to wait for the e-mail with the iTunes link to 'unlock' the phone via iTunes. I just hope it doesn't take forever to get the e-mail.

I think they are confused with this phone because of the whole 'unlocking it via iTunes' piece of the equation.
 
So if you bought the iphone from att, you get the check code and can input it on itunes when it asks. i bought from apple there is no code on the receipt how do i get it??

The credit check is done during the activation in iTunes.
 
Ok...the lady I talked to for over an hour (45 minutes of that time I was on hold while she was doing stuff) was able to give me my Web Order #, my new phone number, and she said she fully activated the phone. She said I would be able to call the phone and it should ring but right now it just says, 'the mailbox you have called has not setup voicemail yet, goodbye.'

I'm hoping that she did everything on her end and now I just have to wait for the e-mail with the iTunes link to 'unlock' the phone via iTunes. I just hope it doesn't take forever to get the e-mail.

I think they are confused with this phone because of the whole 'unlocking it via iTunes' piece of the equation.

The unlocking issue is the entire problem here. It's not about porting numbers.
 
Like another user I also fell asleep for a couple hours to get my mind off of this. My roommates both got their phones up in minutes - one was an existing customer, the other activated it as a new customer. Combined time took about 10 minutes I think. I'm on hour 21

I'm on the phone with the 877.3701 (ohhh, I'm talking to Geoffrey in India)

Will update this post as the conversation as it proceeds...

Telling me the same thing as earlier - account is on hold because of the Visual Voicemail error that occurred last night.

Oh hold.

And now I got hung up on. Cool. (5:19 PM)

Calling back. Chose Option 3, entered Activation Code - "Need more information, will transfer" Waiting. "Your call for the next agent will be processed as soon as possible. Please continue to hold and your call be answered in the order it was received." Every 12 seconds.

(guy that disconnected me called back. Gave me a new number to call 800-331-0500)

Seriously considering cancelling the account that is in progress right now and signing up as a brand new customer. Roommate's great experience is making me consider.

5:49 now.

"Everything was so secret. We didn't get any information until you received your phone yesterday. We're learning as we go just like you."

Wow.

Another hour of my life wasted. Calling 800-694-7466
 
Mine Got Fixed!!!!!!

You guys I had the same issue for the last 20 Hours. I called and called and called, both AT&T's main number and the local att shop. Nobody could help me, everyone told me something different. Some of the excuses were:

Wait 2 hours
wait 4 hours,
wait 48 hours,
It'll be activated today at 9:30pm
we don't know what's wrong...
Be patient...

I was going insane playing with that emergency call slider... My friend that got his number ported from verizon and bought his AFTER me got his activated way sooner and I am a legacy AT&T customer. What Gives!!!!

Finally I called 877-800-3701 and got someone that kinda knew what she was talking about. She said mine was stuck because it orignally had an issue with the rate plan, it should have been fixed since I changed it...but it was still stuck. She told me she would cancel the entire thing, I'd have to reactivate through itunes. Well I did it, and within 30 seconds I was activated, kept my old number too. Don't let the idiots over there tell you they don't know, or you should wait...get someone on the phone to cancel you activation if it's stuck and redo it...everything should go smoothley.
 
okay.... here is my issue.. long story but do read if u've been waiting for 15+ hours like I have.

So I got the email that said:

We are currently processing your order. Your order number is XXXXXX
You will receive an additional e-mail when your order is complete that will provide further instructions to activate your iPhone.

So I waited for few more hours, went to a movie (Die-Hard), etc. Came home, nothing. So browsing through these posts, i find the #: 877-800-3710 and option 3 to check status. So I called to check my status and it told me that AT&T needed additional info to complete my activation.

Now i'm fuming :mad: cause if they needed more info, they should of sent communication earlier rather than me stumbling on some # through a random internet post and happen to take the initiative to call them. I talked to the guy, he said whoever handled my account yesterday completed butchered it and his going to need about 30 minutes to fix it. Turns out the rep that messed with my account yesterday put it on "hold".
 
Dammit. I have a new SIM card right here because I was told I needed a new this morning from the girl at customer service. I'm strongly considering just activating it as a brand new customer to get this thing working. I don't even care about porting my old number now.

On that note, Could you, say, activate the phone, then put another sim in it after the phone has unlocked itself because it sees itself as activated as long as the sim is compatible?
 
One Activation Mystery Solved

I called the 5401 # and was told to wait 24 hours, but kind of hung on the line to see if the rep would check anything... 1) she verified i had an account 2) there was no plan chosen: showstopper, so I chose the original plan 3) I was shown as no accepting the terms, so I accepted 4) I gave her my Sim # (use paper clip, and read the 8910 number on the bottom of the card) and IMEI from the box and she had a little trouble, but said the account is all set up on ATT's end.

Tried to get fee waived, but she said iTunes was not transmitting info correctly, and to try calling them. Apple in Emeryville denied activation issues before I bought the phone. The phone is now active (the moment I plugged it back in) and there is a reason it wasn't. Incomplete account info. Could be ATTs fault also, but this is a technical issue that can be solved if you treat them OK.

Try emailing oldmadbrother at yahoo dot com if you need more info, but that is the one account i left off the phone. This should at least help those where a "real" issue is holding things up. There are backlogs, but it was instant after my account was cleared up. New #, no porting required. Gonna play with my phone now that it works. Somebody (ATT / Apple) should take these huge profits and throw a little my way for my time to get this resolved. Classic finger pointing !
 
Started activation at 9:15pm
Got "Processing your activation" email at 12:19am
Got "Activation Complete" at 1:03am
Got "Service Activation Complete" at 4:03am
Now the phone says it is "Waiting for AT&T Activation" .... geez!

Just an update to all I got mine working!... I sat with my phone "Waiting for AT&T Activation - This may take some time." for about 4 hours. Rebooting the phone did not help. Removed the SIM & re-inserted without any luck. Called AT&T twice, Apple twice, no help...

Finally, I called AT&T and said that I'd done the iTunes activation, the phone was unlocked but "waiting for activation." I explained that Apple had said the hold up was on AT&T's end. I lied and said Apple told me to have the IMEI # checked... she looked over my account, made a "hmm" noise, and said, AH - your phone should be active now. BAM - It went from No Bars/No Service to Full service and AT&T. I asked what was wrong, and she said there wasn't an issue she just was going to re-send the activation signal.

The number I called was 1-877-419-4500

Give them you iPhone telephone number

This will probably only help those of you who are getting the message "Waiting for AT&T Activation - This may take a while"

Good luck!
 
"Phone is now activated" but nothing happening

I called the 1-877-800# to get "phone is now activated, and should be working" message but nothing is happening. What gives?

Realize this may have been written before in this thread, but I'm wondering why all the conflicting messages?
 
I've been pissed since I got home with a $600 machine that's as good as D.O.A.

I think it's completely busted that Steve won't let us at least play with the darn thing. Nice going, you smarty-pants. I hope you drop yours in the toilet, Steve.

Well, I've come to the conclusion that the problem is somewhere in the communication of at&t with Apple's servers. If the phones received activation directly from at&t like regular phones, I think they'd be getting done, because the sim is getting activated pretty fast. I was able to take my iPhone SIM and put it in my regular phone in a matter of minutes and it was working. I really don't ****ing know any more.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.