Ok, I called the 1-877-800-3701 and eventually got through to a rep. She took my order number and then put me on hold to look up the account. Once she got back she said that she could look at my account but couldn't edit it, as someone was already working on it and that hopefully it'll be available soon. Has anyone else heard this? I'm just trying to figure out if its true or a stall tactic.
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iPhone Activation Issues
- Thread starter iamhammill
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I am sure they are using a few different explanations/excuses depending on what you bought. I had the "invalid option" even tho I chose nothing during signup.
I wouldn't buy it.
Same thing happened to me. Nothing ever happened
. I can't get through to 3701. I called 1-877-419-4500 and the guy said that there's nothing going on with my account, so he took all my Verizon info down and apparently submitted a "Comitment" to get it done by 11 PM Mountain. So now I play the waiting game.
I'm on the phone with them right now too... the 3701 number. My rep (in Canada) said someone is logged in working on my account too.. but she did offer to keep me on hold to see if they would log out so she could see what they were doing. She is being extremely helpful... Praying, Crossing fingers, etc. Hopefully she will get it figured out! I'll post when she comes back on.
finally for me - success
Finally!
it took 30 hours from when I tried to activate. AT&T had to cancel my 1st activation and enter a new plan into the system. At 12:02am I tried again... Success!
I am posting this on my iPhone now.
Finally!
it took 30 hours from when I tried to activate. AT&T had to cancel my 1st activation and enter a new plan into the system. At 12:02am I tried again... Success!
I am posting this on my iPhone now.
You and me both. This is totally unacceptable. Even if they are manually entering them by hand, say you have 100 people doing that, how long would that really take, I'm guessing not 40 hours.
I love the message at the bottom of the receipt; "AT&T is looking to hire GREAT people!" No ****, because the ones you have now stink of donkey balls. (Actually everyone at the store seemed to be nice, I'll find out later this afternoon).
I really don't think the Apple store liked me when I walked to the genius bar and said I wasn't signing up for no damn appointment and they were going to attempt to help me. (I say a customer sort of smile, I think she liked that I wasn't going to take any ******** from them, I've taken enough already from other issues of which I knew the problem but had to be stupid so the genius looked like he was doing his job).
-mark
My Activation hold was due to credit check problem...
I'm a new AT&T customer without a number port. I have an existing family plan with another carrier that I'm not ready to lose yet.
I started iPhone activation at 12:15am Saturday morning. Initially it went to "requires more time" but later bounced to a screen detailing three options based on my credit (my credit report is clean as of this morning.) I restarted activation and went to sleep after seeing the "requires more time" error.
No further emails after the original "requires more time" email. This morning, I spoke with a very pleasant Canadian CS rep at the 877-800-3701 activation number. She was able to look up my account by name, as I did not receive an order number.
She pointed out that the account was stuck in a credit hold mode, and that she would need to "Red Flag" the ticket for resolution. After reading this forum, forums at Howardforums.com, and the Apple forums, I believe the "red flag" queue is very long.
I asked her to cancel the activation request. She cancelled the request, and I hung up. I have to admit, she was one of the nicest CS reps I've dealt with in awhile, so kudos to her for keeping it cool and professional despite what must be a pretty tough day.
So I restarted activation, and again my account is bouncing due to credit check issues. I selected "PrePay" as a stop-gap for now. The price of minutes on pre-pay is horrific - but the data plan is unlimited and I don't tend to use more than 200 minutes a month.
After everything settles down, I will evaluate my options and switch to a more price-friendly plan.
So - if you're still waiting on activation, you MUST give these people a call and find out why you're waiting.
Bill
I'm a new AT&T customer without a number port. I have an existing family plan with another carrier that I'm not ready to lose yet.
I started iPhone activation at 12:15am Saturday morning. Initially it went to "requires more time" but later bounced to a screen detailing three options based on my credit (my credit report is clean as of this morning.) I restarted activation and went to sleep after seeing the "requires more time" error.
No further emails after the original "requires more time" email. This morning, I spoke with a very pleasant Canadian CS rep at the 877-800-3701 activation number. She was able to look up my account by name, as I did not receive an order number.
She pointed out that the account was stuck in a credit hold mode, and that she would need to "Red Flag" the ticket for resolution. After reading this forum, forums at Howardforums.com, and the Apple forums, I believe the "red flag" queue is very long.
I asked her to cancel the activation request. She cancelled the request, and I hung up. I have to admit, she was one of the nicest CS reps I've dealt with in awhile, so kudos to her for keeping it cool and professional despite what must be a pretty tough day.
So I restarted activation, and again my account is bouncing due to credit check issues. I selected "PrePay" as a stop-gap for now. The price of minutes on pre-pay is horrific - but the data plan is unlimited and I don't tend to use more than 200 minutes a month.
After everything settles down, I will evaluate my options and switch to a more price-friendly plan.
So - if you're still waiting on activation, you MUST give these people a call and find out why you're waiting.
Bill
Others have said this but I'm reiterating because it works...
...call the Activation Hotline and ask them to cancel your Activation Request. It might take a while for them to find it but tell them to track down a supervisor and cancel the Activation Request.
Then restart Activation on your iPhone, DO NOT PORT A NUMBER - JUST HAVE AT&T ASSIGN YOU ONE, and you'll be activated in a matter of minutes. Then call back later to the regular AT&T Customer Service line and start the porting process separately.
Worked for me after 26 hours of Activation hell.
...call the Activation Hotline and ask them to cancel your Activation Request. It might take a while for them to find it but tell them to track down a supervisor and cancel the Activation Request.
Then restart Activation on your iPhone, DO NOT PORT A NUMBER - JUST HAVE AT&T ASSIGN YOU ONE, and you'll be activated in a matter of minutes. Then call back later to the regular AT&T Customer Service line and start the porting process separately.
Worked for me after 26 hours of Activation hell.
People...after almost 48 hours, I can safely guarantee that 99% of the problems are due to APPLE and NOT AT&T.
I have a family plan with two numbers, activated the main number in 3 minutes and still waiting on the second number. Spoken to countless people with no real answer besides "wait". Just a little while ago, I have swapped the old sim card from the old phone and put it in the Iphone to start the application again. Same result..."at&t is now processing the application..BS..Blah blah", no further email after that...yet.
Took that old sim card (which was deactivated once I tried to activate the Iphone the first time with the sim that came with the Iphone) and it is now back working on the old phone. What does that tell you??
It means that AT&T is doing their part in promptly activating the sims but it is friggin APPLE that's dropping the ball BIG TIME!!!!
The activation email that everyone is waiting for comes from APPLE, not AT&T. They are the ones that are bogging down the process and they are the ones to keep us on hold for hours. I have called the 877-419-4500 (at&t) multiple times and the hold time has been seconds, and they have been very nice and helpful. The only unhelpful ******s I have encountered were Apple employees.
I say it again....IF YOUR OLD SIM (OR THE NEW IPHONE SIM) WORKS IN YOUR OLD PHONE IS BECAUSE AT&T HAS DONE THEIR PART PROPERLY. NOW WE ARE WAITING ON APPLE AND IT'S TOTAL BS!! THANKS STEVE JOBS....GREAT LAUNCH....NOW YOU'RE GETTING EVERYONE PISSED OFF WITH ACTIVATIONS....GREAT WORK.
If this thing is not working by tomorrow morning, I am mailing it back to Cupertino with a love note in it.
I have a family plan with two numbers, activated the main number in 3 minutes and still waiting on the second number. Spoken to countless people with no real answer besides "wait". Just a little while ago, I have swapped the old sim card from the old phone and put it in the Iphone to start the application again. Same result..."at&t is now processing the application..BS..Blah blah", no further email after that...yet.
Took that old sim card (which was deactivated once I tried to activate the Iphone the first time with the sim that came with the Iphone) and it is now back working on the old phone. What does that tell you??
It means that AT&T is doing their part in promptly activating the sims but it is friggin APPLE that's dropping the ball BIG TIME!!!!
The activation email that everyone is waiting for comes from APPLE, not AT&T. They are the ones that are bogging down the process and they are the ones to keep us on hold for hours. I have called the 877-419-4500 (at&t) multiple times and the hold time has been seconds, and they have been very nice and helpful. The only unhelpful ******s I have encountered were Apple employees.
I say it again....IF YOUR OLD SIM (OR THE NEW IPHONE SIM) WORKS IN YOUR OLD PHONE IS BECAUSE AT&T HAS DONE THEIR PART PROPERLY. NOW WE ARE WAITING ON APPLE AND IT'S TOTAL BS!! THANKS STEVE JOBS....GREAT LAUNCH....NOW YOU'RE GETTING EVERYONE PISSED OFF WITH ACTIVATIONS....GREAT WORK.
If this thing is not working by tomorrow morning, I am mailing it back to Cupertino with a love note in it.
Damn I'm tired of hearing their back patting ******** on hold VO and music. Sheesh, I hope I get this thing going today.
I can tell this is another call center though from yesterday, the VO and music actually works and doesn't cut in and out and sound like overdriven muck.
-mark
I can tell this is another call center though from yesterday, the VO and music actually works and doesn't cut in and out and sound like overdriven muck.
-mark
Are you sure it comes from Apple? I am not doubting it, but my new SIM will not work in my old phone, so I have no way of testing that. However, Apple reps led me to believe all they did was provide a front end to AT&T servers.
But I would not doubt it; since it seems to be a iTunes issue in unlocking the phone.
-mark
25 hours and success
I waited 25 hours and it finally activated and the email (yes, from apple) came in and said to hook it up to Itunes for activation. Once I did that, it took only a couple of minutes to be up and running. My guess is that they will have mostly everyone up by tomorrow. Sucks though as they shut off old phones before the new one can be used. Can cause trouble for a lot of people.
Im heading to the apple store today again and wonder how many unhappy campers will be there.
I was not being very patient after 15 hours but now that it is all done, I am so happy and it WAS worth the wait. Hang in there!
I waited 25 hours and it finally activated and the email (yes, from apple) came in and said to hook it up to Itunes for activation. Once I did that, it took only a couple of minutes to be up and running. My guess is that they will have mostly everyone up by tomorrow. Sucks though as they shut off old phones before the new one can be used. Can cause trouble for a lot of people.
Im heading to the apple store today again and wonder how many unhappy campers will be there.
I was not being very patient after 15 hours but now that it is all done, I am so happy and it WAS worth the wait. Hang in there!
Hi Folks,
Just wanted to share my experiences so far. I attempted to port my number through from T-Mobile, but after 12 hours, I'm still waiting. After receiving an iTunes message saying, "iPhone activation has expired", I called AT&T.
According to the porting technician, Demarco, "...something went terribly wrong in your activation process", and the only way to fix it is a new SIM card from AT&T, which I'll have to pay for. Absolutely unacceptable. Anyone else share similar issues?
Just wanted to share my experiences so far. I attempted to port my number through from T-Mobile, but after 12 hours, I'm still waiting. After receiving an iTunes message saying, "iPhone activation has expired", I called AT&T.
According to the porting technician, Demarco, "...something went terribly wrong in your activation process", and the only way to fix it is a new SIM card from AT&T, which I'll have to pay for. Absolutely unacceptable. Anyone else share similar issues?
It took my iPhone two and a half hours to activate last night. Just wanted to share my experience.
So go to the store and demand a new one. I am certainly not paying extra for anything that was THEIR fault. In fact, I am going to get them to GIVE me extra for hosing my whole weekend.
-mark
Same here
Same here, almost exactly. And nobody seems to know what to do about it. Unbelievable.
Same here, almost exactly. And nobody seems to know what to do about it. Unbelievable.
A possible solution!!
After 36 hours of nothing... I called 877-419-4500 (the number they used to post under the "requires more time" message in iTunes -- interesting, they took it away a couple of hours after this fiasco started). Anyway, I reached a rep within a minute, very helpful. She searched through the system based on my SSN#, and discovered that a phone number had been reserved for me, but nothing was happening.
Turns out that when I had to go back to the AT&T store to get a credit check number (after I had first started the activation), they reserve a number for the credit check. I have no idea why -- but the rep said the number was reserved from the store, not from iTunes. I think what happens is that when you go back to iTunes with that credit check number, the system fails if the original rep did not release the number or whatever they do -- in other words, it tries to reserve a number but one is already reserved, etc etc etc.
Maybe some of the credit check processes aren't reserving numbers and those activations go right through?
Anyway, this helpful rep asked me for the IMEI and SIM card numbers, associated those with the phone number that had been reserved, and said that now the application was put in. She warned me that it could take 1-24 hours from this point... but I'm hopeful that the block was released. It's been 5 minutes, no magic email yet.... but at least I now know my new phone number and I have a small hope.
For those of you who are still awaiting activation -- try calling the number above, have them search for any accounts associated with that, and ask them to associate your IMEI and SIM number with reserved numbers and put through the activation.
UPDATE: a few hours later, I got the magic email... I activated... I am happy...!!!!
After 36 hours of nothing... I called 877-419-4500 (the number they used to post under the "requires more time" message in iTunes -- interesting, they took it away a couple of hours after this fiasco started). Anyway, I reached a rep within a minute, very helpful. She searched through the system based on my SSN#, and discovered that a phone number had been reserved for me, but nothing was happening.
Turns out that when I had to go back to the AT&T store to get a credit check number (after I had first started the activation), they reserve a number for the credit check. I have no idea why -- but the rep said the number was reserved from the store, not from iTunes. I think what happens is that when you go back to iTunes with that credit check number, the system fails if the original rep did not release the number or whatever they do -- in other words, it tries to reserve a number but one is already reserved, etc etc etc.
Maybe some of the credit check processes aren't reserving numbers and those activations go right through?
Anyway, this helpful rep asked me for the IMEI and SIM card numbers, associated those with the phone number that had been reserved, and said that now the application was put in. She warned me that it could take 1-24 hours from this point... but I'm hopeful that the block was released. It's been 5 minutes, no magic email yet.... but at least I now know my new phone number and I have a small hope.
For those of you who are still awaiting activation -- try calling the number above, have them search for any accounts associated with that, and ask them to associate your IMEI and SIM number with reserved numbers and put through the activation.
UPDATE: a few hours later, I got the magic email... I activated... I am happy...!!!!
GODDAMMIT! Woke up hoping that it would be activated at this point. Still fubar and nobody's giving me answers. This is ridiculous!
Anyone else having any success?
the 3701 number must be really busy right now... ive been waiting for an answer for almost an hour - can this get any worse?
was on the phone for right at two hours, nothing happened. i was told I would get a call back in ten minutes....15 minutes ago.
im calling back.
im calling back.
Well it looks as though Apple has been the one pooch ****ing me the whole time. The CS agents on right now for At&t actually have a clue as to what is going on; and not once made up some lame ass excuse. Did not even flinch that I had no Web ID number. It is about time they actually put real employees (I suspect) on the case.
-mark
-mark
AT&T is not the problem ITs APPLE
I got my iPHONE Sim Card Activated from AT&T....
As informed by them, I removed my sim card from iPhone and placed it in my old phone... BOOM.. MY PHONE IS WORKING. BUT IPHONE NOT YET ACTIVATED!!!
AT&T is doing their job very well and being very couteous. BUT APPLE? NO ANSWER EVEN AFTER HALF AN HOUR OF WAIT...
I got my iPHONE Sim Card Activated from AT&T....
As informed by them, I removed my sim card from iPhone and placed it in my old phone... BOOM.. MY PHONE IS WORKING. BUT IPHONE NOT YET ACTIVATED!!!
AT&T is doing their job very well and being very couteous. BUT APPLE? NO ANSWER EVEN AFTER HALF AN HOUR OF WAIT...