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iPhone Activation Issues

Success with 877-800-3701 but there's a catch

First off, I am a former "Blue".

My phone has been activated since last night but not usable (still isn't itunes unlocked ). The woman Debra who helped me pulled up my order id and confirmed that my iphone was activated. She examined my account and found the problem holding up everything. Even though I am enrolled in the new iphone plan and was converted to "orange", Customer Care/Billing did not change the billing code on my account. The code is for an unusable plan. That is the only problem with my account. However for some FN reason Customer Care is closed today and they are the only ones who can change a billing code. She tried for an hour with me to get somebody else who can change a billing code but she didn't succeed.

The 877 800 3701 number sometimes bounced me to a voicemail, but be persistant. You will get through. I have to wait for tomorrow but you might not. If you are showing as activated but cannot connect have them, with a fine comb, go over your account. Maybe there is something that they can adjust today unlike in my situation.
 
avkills said:
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
Click to expand...

Mark,

The activation email comes from the Itunes store (my other phone was activated and the email is from the Itunes store). APPLE has to UNLOCK the phone. AT&T has done everything on their end, as the sim card is working perfectly fine in my Treo. I have checked my AT&T account online and everything there is just fine.

Apple has to unlock the phone through the Itunes store and they have been dropping the ball. God forbid Jobs or someone at Apple would come out, aknowledge the problem and apologize. I am going over 48 hours and it is utterly ridiculous.

Max
 
ok.. maybe i just might be everyones savior.. i dunno. but here is the link from the activation email .. replace the '/////" with your applicable data.

itmss://albert.apple.com/WebObjects/ALActivation.woa/wa/DirectAction/iPhoneRegistration?cmd=pa&ICCID=//////////////&AppleSerialNumber=/////////////&IMEI=////////////////&CTN=/////////////&sn=//////////////&ctn=////////////////


CTN would be your phone number

everything else is on the box (IMEI , ICCID, SN).
 
Log into your new wireless account online, if you then see that it says you are activated, it is Apple's bag. My account has been active for the last 24 hours, yet Apple has been denying any wrong doing...big surprise.

Now I am glad I sent a professional yet stern email to the Apple press reps for the iPhone; not like they will get it.

All I can say is they had better not say " I'm sorry, we can't access that information....." ******** you can't, more like you won't you lazy sack of ****.

-mark
 
milks said:
ok.. maybe i just might be everyones savior.. i dunno. but here is the link from the activation email .. replace the '/////" with your applicable data.

itmss://albert.apple.com/WebObjects/ALActivation.woa/wa/DirectAction/iPhoneRegistration?cmd=pa&ICCID=//////////////&AppleSerialNumber=/////////////&IMEI=////////////////&CTN=/////////////&sn=//////////////&ctn=////////////////


CTN would be your phone number

everything else is on the box (IMEI , ICCID, SN).
Click to expand...

Thanks milk, I'll try that if my talk with the Apple rep goes sour. Hell, I can't do anything but break my already useless iPhone, right?

-mark
 
Call the number ending in 3701. Tell them to cancel your activation. You will receive an email within a minute or two. KEEP THE REP ON THE PHONE until you get the email. Then wait approx 5-10 minutes. Quit and restart iTunes. Plug your iPhone back in. It will tell you that "AT&T had trouble processing your activation... click continue to retry activation" follow through all the same steps, and within LITERALLY 30 seconds, it is done. I am SO EXCITED FINALLY!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
 
yea.. i finally got my iphone activated after 36+ hours in the dark.. so i decided to put the link up... a previous poster said some of the data was encrypted but.. none of it was in my link. verbatim .. character for character was my imei, phone number, sn, and iccid
 
Iphone Activation

Okay, here is my story

-Waited in line about 3 1/2 hours, but actually took me about 6 hours waiting in line to get an iPhone. ATT place said all systems across northeast were down and NO ONE could sell anything.

-Activated at 8:30PM EST
-Waited, waited, called SEVERAL times and got the typical response, 24 hours sometimes 72 hours.. I just kept calling all the numbers to see if i got anyone that knew what to do.
-its now 12:24p EST. And i FINALLY got everythine working.
-Throughout this whole ordeal, after i went through iTunes activation with the new sim card, nothing happened for like 12 hours, then i activated my old sim card for some reason.
-Got two emails telling me to look for other emails.
Long story short, i just went to the ATT store and told them to give me a new SIM card.
-Came home, synced with itunes and within like 3 minutes my number (existing att customer) moved to new sim and my iPhone is up and running!

FINALLY...!!!!!!!

Dont wait anymore.. Go get a new SIM and to the activation process again!! it worked for me!!!!!!!
 
cancel port and start over - no BS

guys i was in the que for 30 hours - i told them to cancel my order - signed on to att through itunes and setup a new att number in minutes - called today and they ported my phone number from verizon in 10 minutes - first call the activation dept and tell them to cancel u out - u should gt a mail at that point saying u are cancelled - then power down iphone and hook it up - itunes will start activiation over - select new number - get your new number - then call the att porting dept tell them u want to port over your vz number boom 15 minutes done - the iphone is awesome - keep patient def worth it
 
milks said:
ok.. maybe i just might be everyones savior.. i dunno. but here is the link from the activation email .. replace the '/////" with your applicable data.

itmss://albert.apple.com/WebObjects/ALActivation.woa/wa/DirectAction/iPhoneRegistration?cmd=pa&ICCID=//////////////&AppleSerialNumber=/////////////&IMEI=////////////////&CTN=/////////////&sn=//////////////&ctn=////////////////


CTN would be your phone number

everything else is on the box (IMEI , ICCID, SN).
Click to expand...

no luck with this link.... launched itunes but gave me the "requires additional time to complete" still :(
 
djbeeker said:
Call the number ending in 3701. Tell them to cancel your activation. You will receive an email within a minute or two. KEEP THE REP ON THE PHONE until you get the email. Then wait approx 5-10 minutes. Quit and restart iTunes. Plug your iPhone back in. It will tell you that "AT&T had trouble processing your activation... click continue to retry activation" follow through all the same steps, and within LITERALLY 30 seconds, it is done. I am SO EXCITED FINALLY!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Click to expand...



how long is it taking to connect to an agent?? ive been waiting to talk to a real person for 1hr and 15 minutes.... i dont want to hang up and try again knowing that i'll be at the end of the queue
 
Yup, Apple is giving me the hose job. uhhh, were aware of the problem, were working as fast as we can....****ing douche bags.

-mark
 
link didn't work. thanks for trying. i've been waiting 36 hours. two hours on the phone at 8pm friday. two more on the street corner using a payphone at 1am on saturday. two hours at AT&T, a half hour at apple (who knew it was ATT's fault) and now i'm waiting for a call back in 54 minutes from the most helpful person i spoke to.
 
so, I finally am up and running thanks to the 3701 number and a very long time on hold...
it is well worth it, once it finally works - definitely try calling that number, the guy did it in a matter of minutes once i got through.
 
So they missed the "Comitment" deadline. Nothing surprising there.

Apparently the address on my original credit check is wrong, and that is holding everything up. I'm going into the AT&T store here when it opens in an hour and I'm not leaving until it gets fixed.

I don't have a laptop to activate it in the store, do they have one?
 
after 3 hours of waiting in line, 6 hours of updating my sister's freakin' PC [my mac is on 10.3 and i didn't feel like upgrading with 10.5 around the corner] and 31 hours of waiting for At&t to activate the phone... IT'S ALIVE~! FINALLY!

I'm syncing now... :)
 
God damn back to AT&T to yet another number. I knew I should have waited on this god damn thing. I think now I am pinning all the blame on Apple; they royally ****ed this whole process up by trying to make the activations run through iTunes.

This ****ing douche bag Apple CS manager transferred me to the number porting center, what a ****ing ass wipe. Calling Apple again to ream this guy a new one.

-mark
 
43 hours later I finally have a working iphone. If anyone has had it take longer than this please post and PM me. I would be very curious if it really took anyone longer.
 
If you get a voicemail message when calling 877-800-3701, just keep trying. I received this as well the first few times before I finally got put on hold to speak to a rep.

Be prepared to wait on hold at least a half hour.

Ideally, you'll want the rep to manually perform the activation over the phone. Once this is done, you should receive your activation email within a few minutes.

My rep also gave me this number for after hours support in the event I still ran into problems: 866-801-3600. If you can't get through to 3701, perhaps you may have luck with this number.
 
avkills said:
God damn back to AT&T to yet another number. I knew I should have waited on this god damn thing. I think now I am pinning all the blame on Apple; they royally ****ed this whole process up by trying to make the activations run through iTunes.

This ****ing douche bag Apple CS manager transferred me to the number porting center, what a ****ing ass wipe. Calling Apple again to ream this guy a new one.

-mark
Click to expand...

It is Apple and don't let anyone tell you differently. Unless it's a billing issue or credit check, it is up to APPLE to activate and unlock that damn Iphone through frigging Itunes. I am going on 42 hours and nothing yet. My sim card is active and working on the old phone (Treo). APPLE is pissing me off on this one BIG TIME.

The funny thing is that they were touting the activation process through Itunes as a beautiful thing and meanwhile it's what F***D up the whole thing.
 
Activated

I am an ATT/Cingular/ATT customer. Like many waited for 25 hrs to be activated (while the SIM card was already working). Made multiple calls with the same question: "Is there anything wrong with my account as far as activation process is concern?" and the answer always was " All OK"
For the last time when I called I asked if my number being parted? I got answer "Yes", but wait. I am an existing customer, what do you mean by "being parted"?. I told them that all I am doing is replacing my old phone with the iphone. The same FAMILY plan as before, which did already include unlimited data+200 msgs. So in a nutshell I was swapping phones. Once this was clarified. I got activated in <2 minutes.

Key points
1. Make sure they're aware you're an existing customer (i.e you're not porting your #).
2. Tell them you're swapping phones only ( if that's the case)
3. previously established Family plan doesn't affect activation. (it was suggested before here and at att forum)
4. Keep calling. Don't take their "24-42 hrs" and "your account is fine" BS
 
Activated!!!

41 hours, but we're up! Whoo hoo!

Called 4700 number, dude looked over everything again, checked something (was put on hold a couple of times); had me remove and reinsert SIM card. No go; he transferred me to the synchronization department (whatever that is), waited on hold for about 40 minutes, spoke with "Iris", she said that I'd be working in 5 minutes, had me power down wait a minute power on (twice), and after the 2nd time-- iPhone is active. Yay!

Now we get to start the process with the next phone... ugh..

rob.
 
Lets Get Organized!!!

i've been reading this forum for the past two days and everyone cant agree on the same solution. i hear the same solution and problems but people and there own spice to make it seem that their situation is unique when its not. i just want to know for the people who GOT ACTIVATED. to say how they did it from the following choices. all my friends got there phones activated at different times and they all went by really fast.

1. restarted the activation process.
2. got a new sim card and start over.
3. gave them hell and eventually just manually activated *which they say they cannot do.
4. waited after the first email *needs more time email. and after 30+ hours it works.
 
Brian77NJ said:
Okay, here is my story

-Waited in line about 3 1/2 hours, but actually took me about 6 hours waiting in line to get an iPhone. ATT place said all systems across northeast were down and NO ONE could sell anything.

-Activated at 8:30PM EST
-Waited, waited, called SEVERAL times and got the typical response, 24 hours sometimes 72 hours.. I just kept calling all the numbers to see if i got anyone that knew what to do.
-its now 12:24p EST. And i FINALLY got everythine working.
-Throughout this whole ordeal, after i went through iTunes activation with the new sim card, nothing happened for like 12 hours, then i activated my old sim card for some reason.
-Got two emails telling me to look for other emails.
Long story short, i just went to the ATT store and told them to give me a new SIM card.
-Came home, synced with itunes and within like 3 minutes my number (existing att customer) moved to new sim and my iPhone is up and running!

FINALLY...!!!!!!!

Dont wait anymore.. Go get a new SIM and to the activation process again!! it worked for me!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I'd successfully been able to get activation to the processing stage on my old SIM, but had been waiting for 20 hours for it to come through.

So I figured I'd try your approach - I went through activation on the old number with the SIM that came with the iPhone.

Unfortunately, it's brought me right back to square one because iTunes still says that the activation needs more time - and now I have the added problem of having my old SIM deactivated and I've signed up for the same changes twice, and for all I know I'm now at the back of the activation queue all over again. All I can hope is that they don't bung on the data plan additions twice on my bill or charge me twice for activation. What a joke.

So don't try this if you can avoid it.
 
robhedin said:
41 hours, but we're up! Whoo hoo!

Called 4700 number, dude looked over everything again, checked something (was put on hold a couple of times); had me remove and reinsert SIM card. No go; he transferred me to the synchronization department (whatever that is), waited on hold for about 40 minutes, spoke with "Iris", she said that I'd be working in 5 minutes, had me power down wait a minute power on (twice), and after the 2nd time-- iPhone is active. Yay!

Now we get to start the process with the next phone... ugh..

rob.
Click to expand...


what 4700 number??? i've been waiting for almost 2hrs now on this 3701 number - i'm ready to try something else
 
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