Im going to walk into apple...and choke someone out. After 35 hours, im burnt. I was on the phone with a very helpful man who changed over my AT&T Plan to a new compatible one and then connected me to another department who would manually activate my phone. After being on hold for 2 hours, I was disconnected. I called back, and waited 3 hours on hold and was disconnected yet again...and punched a hole in the wall. I took a break for a while...just came back ...called again..waited 30 minutes and was disconected. I was so close, yet so far.
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iPhone Activation Issues
- Thread starter iamhammill
- Start date
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Awful Tragic & Terminal
As a devoted Apple customer and shareholder, I am completely dismayed at the bad eye Apple is getting from the gross incompetence of AT&T.
Not only do I not have an activated iPhone after 48 hrs, but I have wasted 7 plus hrs on hold and getting the run around from AT&T "customer support". Add to that an additional trip back to the AT&T store to change my family plan and get new sim cards for all my other cell phones. Yes, amazingly I am an existing AT&T customer (for 6 years). And guess what one of the AT&T reps told me, "It's all Apple's fault!".
Got that? Because my existing AT&T account would not allow me to activate my iPhone, unless I went back into a AT&T store to change the plan and get new sim cards for all my other phones, it was Apple's fault!
So what happened after I got back from the store today? New message that I needed to wait for a new email. I called AT&T and they took my information and told me I would be getting the email within 1 to 2 hrs. That was 9 hrs ago. I called back after 6 hrs and raised hell when they told me that they were going to forward me to another department and that the wait time was a reported 20 minutes. I demanded to talk with a Supervisor
as my experience yesterday was that a reported 10 minute wait meant a 1.5 hr wait. He basically told me that I was keeping him from getting me service by asking to talk with him.
End of the story is that after 1 hr and 20 minutes on hold, with the AT&T rep waiting with me, my cell battery was dying so I asked if she could call me back on my landline. She said sure, just wait till she set it up. I gave her my number, she called me on the landline and said to go ahead and hang up my cell. I did and then guess what? She said," Oops, they lost the connection."
No problem she said, "They are reporting the wait time as 1 hr".
I am on my way to pay the 10% restocking fee to Apple and tomorrow I will cancel my AT&T service, and just let them try to hold me to the new 2 year service agreement!
AT&T has provided me with the worst customer service experience in my life (I didn't even mention the 45 minute wait to be told to call another number that ended up being a fax line!).
BUYER BEWARE!
As a devoted Apple customer and shareholder, I am completely dismayed at the bad eye Apple is getting from the gross incompetence of AT&T.
Not only do I not have an activated iPhone after 48 hrs, but I have wasted 7 plus hrs on hold and getting the run around from AT&T "customer support". Add to that an additional trip back to the AT&T store to change my family plan and get new sim cards for all my other cell phones. Yes, amazingly I am an existing AT&T customer (for 6 years). And guess what one of the AT&T reps told me, "It's all Apple's fault!".
Got that? Because my existing AT&T account would not allow me to activate my iPhone, unless I went back into a AT&T store to change the plan and get new sim cards for all my other phones, it was Apple's fault!
So what happened after I got back from the store today? New message that I needed to wait for a new email. I called AT&T and they took my information and told me I would be getting the email within 1 to 2 hrs. That was 9 hrs ago. I called back after 6 hrs and raised hell when they told me that they were going to forward me to another department and that the wait time was a reported 20 minutes. I demanded to talk with a Supervisor
as my experience yesterday was that a reported 10 minute wait meant a 1.5 hr wait. He basically told me that I was keeping him from getting me service by asking to talk with him.
End of the story is that after 1 hr and 20 minutes on hold, with the AT&T rep waiting with me, my cell battery was dying so I asked if she could call me back on my landline. She said sure, just wait till she set it up. I gave her my number, she called me on the landline and said to go ahead and hang up my cell. I did and then guess what? She said," Oops, they lost the connection."
No problem she said, "They are reporting the wait time as 1 hr".
I am on my way to pay the 10% restocking fee to Apple and tomorrow I will cancel my AT&T service, and just let them try to hold me to the new 2 year service agreement!
AT&T has provided me with the worst customer service experience in my life (I didn't even mention the 45 minute wait to be told to call another number that ended up being a fax line!).
BUYER BEWARE!
Going into this deal I was already aware of ATT's worse-than-acceptable service. That reputation held true, as they've 1) lied to me about iPhone availability at the Apple store on Friday, and 2) added unwanted accessories to my ATT direct-fulfillment order, as well as a few other annoyances that kept me at a corporate store for hours over the weekend.
The ATT store on Friday night said that all iPhones were sold out all over Dallas - and that they called all the Apple stores in the city to confirm this. I then called the Apple stores upon my return to home to discover ALL the Dallas stores still had stock. I picked a phone up the following morning at Apple.
The ATT store signed me up for Blackberry data plan on my old (freebee) phone that didn't have data capabilities.
Heck, the story goes on and on but I think we all get the point... I'll stop here and save you the grief I experienced. I'm just very GRATEFUL that my iTunes activation went perfectly.
The ATT store on Friday night said that all iPhones were sold out all over Dallas - and that they called all the Apple stores in the city to confirm this. I then called the Apple stores upon my return to home to discover ALL the Dallas stores still had stock. I picked a phone up the following morning at Apple.
The ATT store signed me up for Blackberry data plan on my old (freebee) phone that didn't have data capabilities.
Heck, the story goes on and on but I think we all get the point... I'll stop here and save you the grief I experienced. I'm just very GRATEFUL that my iTunes activation went perfectly.
So, finally after about 50 hours and way too much energy, I basically just said "Eff it." So I decided to just kill the activation and start over with A new number. I called the 3701 number after calling the emergency after hours number. After holding for a while, I was helped by a woman who quickly cancelled the activation. I restarted activation, and within 5 minutes it worked. It is most definitely worth the wait. Good luck to those waiting.
By the way, I wrote this on my iPhone. It's called "trogdor the phone.
By the way, I wrote this on my iPhone. It's called "trogdor the phone.
ok... i spent all weekend with a friend of mine going through this mess and for some stupid reason as soon as i saw his iphone up and running i HAD to have one...
now (of course) i am having issues
i have tried to read through this entire thread, but i just keep getting lost... all i am wondering is if anyone out there has had the issue i am having... here it is:
when i first put the iphone on the dock it went to the set up screen and then gave me and error... it told i could cancel and try again, so i did... now when i place the iphone on the dock it chirps then goes to sleep... ITUNES WILL NOT RECOGNIZE IT!
has ANYONE had this happen? if so, what did you do to fix it? i tried calling all these support numbers, but since i can't actually get to the first part of creating an account noone can seem to help me... and of course i can't find any way to contact apple for support
i am so heartbroken i could cry right now! i was fully prepared to have to wait on activation, and that i would have been fine with... but this is just beyond my realm of comprehension! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME BEFORE I LOSE IT!
thanks...
now (of course) i am having issues
i have tried to read through this entire thread, but i just keep getting lost... all i am wondering is if anyone out there has had the issue i am having... here it is:
when i first put the iphone on the dock it went to the set up screen and then gave me and error... it told i could cancel and try again, so i did... now when i place the iphone on the dock it chirps then goes to sleep... ITUNES WILL NOT RECOGNIZE IT!
has ANYONE had this happen? if so, what did you do to fix it? i tried calling all these support numbers, but since i can't actually get to the first part of creating an account noone can seem to help me... and of course i can't find any way to contact apple for support
i am so heartbroken i could cry right now! i was fully prepared to have to wait on activation, and that i would have been fine with... but this is just beyond my realm of comprehension! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME BEFORE I LOSE IT!
thanks...
Give us your computer specs and operating system details, please. And of course, you've downloaded the latest iTunes, right? (need 7.3)
i am on a pc (blah i know, but i have to have it for work LOL) using windows xp (WITH sp2) and the latest itunes (7.3)
i have uninstalled and reinstalled itunes like the iphone support site suggested... and i have rebooted... nothing seems to help
thanks in advance for any suggestions you can give!
*edit*
one more thing... when i first tried to activate i was at my friend's house and used his mac... no issues at all with recognizing the iphone... it wasn't until i brought it home that i started having this problem... not sure if that is relevant or not... the only thing i can think of that would be an issue there is that my initial attempt occured using HIS itunes... maybe? i'm so lost... ::sigh::
I had my activation cancelled, but every time I connect my phone, it thinks the first part is done and goes straight to naming it/syncing. I don't know what to do now. I'm calling AT&T Customer Service in the morning.
Frustrating.
there's a "first part for naming/syncing?"
i thought this happened AFTER the activation occurred...
see how confused i am! LOLOLOL
72 hours??? wah???
I've been trying to get them to cancel my activation all day. Everyone says something different. Regardless, they won't do it! They claim I just need to wait. "It could take up to 72 hours" they say.
At this point, the only bright spot is that my activation won't cost me anything. That is to say, if it ever actually gets activated. I hate to say this, but I don't think Verizon would have effed this whole process up nearly this bad. They would have just activated the phone perfectly and then disabled every feature.
I've been trying to get them to cancel my activation all day. Everyone says something different. Regardless, they won't do it! They claim I just need to wait. "It could take up to 72 hours" they say.
At this point, the only bright spot is that my activation won't cost me anything. That is to say, if it ever actually gets activated. I hate to say this, but I don't think Verizon would have effed this whole process up nearly this bad. They would have just activated the phone perfectly and then disabled every feature.
i am on a pc (blah i know, but i have to have it for work LOL) using windows xp (WITH sp2) and the latest itunes (7.3)
i have uninstalled and reinstalled itunes like the iphone support site suggested... and i have rebooted... nothing seems to help
thanks in advance for any suggestions you can give!
:
When I picked up my iPhone on Saturday morning - there were a few people in line that were in your same shoes... Their Windows wasn't recognizing their iPhones.
One person was running 64-bit Windows, which isn't supported. I'm assuming you're not running 64-bit Windows though...
There's an article that Apple posted about Windows machines not recognizing iPods... check it out and see if this fix is relevent to your case:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93716
Although the above article doesn't exactly match your troubles, some of the maintenance items here may help you.
Also, may be a silly idea, but try plugging in the USB cable to another port, of somehow make sure the port you're plugged into works.
You can also check to make sure the iPod services are running in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
Hope these suggestions help you!
After nearly 44 hours, my iBrick is now a bonafide iPhone! I knew that I had a special situation (porting number over from T-Mobile) and that it would take at least 24 hours for activation, but I didn't know that it would take THIS long.
Didn't do anything special -- just waited. I began the activation process on Friday @ 11:05 PM. On Sunday morning, I was still in activation 'limbo' so I called the AT&T and Apple Customer Service numbers posted in this thread. Both reps told me that my number had already been ported and that my phone was showing up as 'activated' in the system. They advised me to just wait for the final Activation email.
After reading the posts here, I was ready to go to the AT&T store on Sunday evening to demand a new SIM card; however, I decided to hold out a little longer. I was doing work on my MacBook Pro when *bam* ... at 7:36 PM on Sunday, my iPhone suddenly powered up and I noticed that the Activation message in iTunes had changed from 'Your phone requires additional activation time' to 'Congratulations, AT&T is now activating your phone.' *weeeeeee*
I don't know if this will help, but the last AT&T rep I spoke to told me to make sure that I keep my phone connected to iTunes while I wait for the Activation email. When my phone began activating, I was expecting to receive some sort of email confirming that my phone was activated; however, I never received the email -- most likely b/c my iPhone was already connected to iTunes when the activation finally went through the system. So this may be worth a try for those of you who are in a similar situation.
Good luck to those who are still in the process of activating! I hated the huge wait and was getting ready to throw the iBrick out the window, but trust me ... the wait was worth it!
Didn't do anything special -- just waited. I began the activation process on Friday @ 11:05 PM. On Sunday morning, I was still in activation 'limbo' so I called the AT&T and Apple Customer Service numbers posted in this thread. Both reps told me that my number had already been ported and that my phone was showing up as 'activated' in the system. They advised me to just wait for the final Activation email.
After reading the posts here, I was ready to go to the AT&T store on Sunday evening to demand a new SIM card; however, I decided to hold out a little longer. I was doing work on my MacBook Pro when *bam* ... at 7:36 PM on Sunday, my iPhone suddenly powered up and I noticed that the Activation message in iTunes had changed from 'Your phone requires additional activation time' to 'Congratulations, AT&T is now activating your phone.' *weeeeeee*
I don't know if this will help, but the last AT&T rep I spoke to told me to make sure that I keep my phone connected to iTunes while I wait for the Activation email. When my phone began activating, I was expecting to receive some sort of email confirming that my phone was activated; however, I never received the email -- most likely b/c my iPhone was already connected to iTunes when the activation finally went through the system. So this may be worth a try for those of you who are in a similar situation.
Good luck to those who are still in the process of activating! I hated the huge wait and was getting ready to throw the iBrick out the window, but trust me ... the wait was worth it!
hi, i got my iphone activated abotu 24 hours ago but i cant receive incoming calls? how much longer do you think i should wait?
My supervisor told me today that it should only take a couple of hours after the phone has been ported over and activated.
You could try calling the activations line, but we'll likely have no idea what the problem is, and tell you to either continue waiting or transfer you to our porting department, who will also probably tell you to wait.
For those of you who have an activated phone with no phone service:
I am an old "AT&T Blue" customer -- I have three phones that were on the old blue plan. i knew that i would need to change to the new Orange Family Talk plan.
Bought the iPhone on Friday ... got all the usual emails...called on Saturday morning to change to the Orange plan....after a few hours the iPhone was activated except for the actual phone service. This was fine with me..gave me a chance to play around with things. But eventually I wanted to use the phone part.
i had been told it might take 24-48 hours. But i called today and this is not the case. the other phones on the plan are unlocked phones that will work with the "orange plans" but will require a new "orange plan" SIM card. I figured that when they changed the plan over, the iPhone would start working but the other phones would stop working. At that point I would need to go into an ATT store and get new SIM cards for the other phones.
I was just told by an agent and her supervisor that they will not be able to activate the phone portion of the iPhone until I have the other devices ready...so I will need to go into the store with all my phones.
Don't know how many of you are in this situation but thought i would let you know that your best bet might be to forget about callng into ATT and hit the store. I will report back tomorrow.
Update: Went to the store with all my phones and recevied 3 new SIM cards. Went back to my office and 30 minutes later was up and running. See post #1487
I am an old "AT&T Blue" customer -- I have three phones that were on the old blue plan. i knew that i would need to change to the new Orange Family Talk plan.
Bought the iPhone on Friday ... got all the usual emails...called on Saturday morning to change to the Orange plan....after a few hours the iPhone was activated except for the actual phone service. This was fine with me..gave me a chance to play around with things. But eventually I wanted to use the phone part.
i had been told it might take 24-48 hours. But i called today and this is not the case. the other phones on the plan are unlocked phones that will work with the "orange plans" but will require a new "orange plan" SIM card. I figured that when they changed the plan over, the iPhone would start working but the other phones would stop working. At that point I would need to go into an ATT store and get new SIM cards for the other phones.
I was just told by an agent and her supervisor that they will not be able to activate the phone portion of the iPhone until I have the other devices ready...so I will need to go into the store with all my phones.
Don't know how many of you are in this situation but thought i would let you know that your best bet might be to forget about callng into ATT and hit the store. I will report back tomorrow.
Update: Went to the store with all my phones and recevied 3 new SIM cards. Went back to my office and 30 minutes later was up and running. See post #1487
I don't know why you're all complaining... the company that's actually responsible for your iPhone activations says it's "VERY PLEASED" with itself!
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9738494-1.html
Read it an weep!
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9738494-1.html
Read it an weep!
I don't know why you're all complaining... the company that's actually responsible for your iPhone activations says it's "VERY PLEASED" with itself!
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9738494-1.html
Read it an weep!
that is ridiculous
You could be right, but my clear sense is that the difficulty was that piece of model software iTunes and your beloved Apple Corp.
That said, once it's working the iPhone is pretty splendid. Get yourself a new SIM and re-activate and see if that doesn't fix you up. It did me (after 46 hours of waiting). I also got the strong sense that I could have gotten the new SIM at any time in those 46 hrs and it would have worked whenever I got it.
Truthfully, did servers crash and lose activations, hence the insane waiting times as things were attempted manually?
I ask because I finally said screw it and drove back to an At&t store, popped in a new SIM, and activated it in less than a minute. My first attempt was a 40+ hour ordeal.
I was a current customer so I had no porting just rate plan changes.
-mark
Yes its the same problem i have... they put a "commitment" ticket on my problem... we'll see what happens