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My iPhone 4S AT&T Upgrade Nightmare

PatriotInvasion

PatriotInvasion

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 18, 2010
1,645
1,061
Boston, MA
So, I have an AT&T family plan with two lines on it. Both are iPhone's owned by my girlfriend and I. Her line was eligible for a full upgrade and she was willing to give me her upgrade so I could get the 4S. Ordered from Apple on pre-order day and was told by two people at AT&T that all I would have to do is call when I received it and provide the IMEI number to allow the phone to be activated on MY line and not my girlfriend's line I used to upgrade.

I call AT&T on the 14th and provide them with the IMEI...they tell me I should be all set. But no, the phone still wants to activate on my girlfriend's line!:mad: I call them back, they say they can't help and to go to an AT&T store. I do that and the 19 year old kid working there tried a new SIM...nope...still wanted to activate on my GF's line. They send me to the Apple store...the Genius Bar can't figure it out and wanted to give me some replacement from the mystery black box behind the counter....no thanks. Returned the whole phone to Apple....call AT&T to reset my upgrade eligility which they are now trying to tell me is NOVEMBER after I just bought the phone for the $199 full upgrade price. Just a complete disaster.

Back to the 4....so turned off by the whole process I may just wait until the 5 comes out next year. Didn't realize the "S" stood for sh*tshow
 
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Why didn't you just let it activate on here line and get the sim cards swapped around at the store? Once it was activated the rest was easy...

Also that mystery box behind the counter would have been a brand new phone at this point....
 
PS - I chose to turn down the replacement because a.) I'm convinced they are somehow refurbs...I don't do refurbs....especially not on day 2 of owning the phone. And b.) I resell the phone every year on Craigslist and if the serial number no longer matches the box, the resale value will decrease.

5 years running and AT&T and Apple are just a nightmare on launch day.:mad:

----------
RafaelT said:
Why didn't you just let it activate on here line and get the sim cards swapped around at the store? Once it was activated the rest was easy...

Also that mystery box behind the counter would have been a brand new phone at this point....
Click to expand...

Once AT&T switched IMEI's, the SIM that came with the 4S was locked into MY LINE and wouldn't even allow activation on my GF's number that was showing on the iPhone. Plus, my GF wasn't with me so I couldn't start switching SIMs in multiple phones.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
PS - I chose to turn down the replacement because a.) I'm convinced they are somehow refurbs...I don't do refurbs....especially not on day 2 of owning the phone. And b.) I resell the phone every year on Craigslist and if the serial number no longer matches the box, the resale value will decrease.

5 years running and AT&T and Apple are just a nightmare on launch day.:mad:
Click to expand...

I just wanted to thank you for allowing sensible people like myself to buy perfectly good merchandise at a discount because you are allergic to "refurbs".

And it probably wasn't a refurbished unit. That implies that someone used it, didn't like it, was returned to the factory, inspected (and verified it worked as new) and repackaged. All in one day. Fat chance.
 
sakau2007 said:
I just wanted to thank you for allowing sensible people like myself to buy perfectly good merchandise at a discount because you are allergic to "refurbs".

And it probably wasn't a refurbished unit. That implies that someone used it, didn't like it, was returned to the factory, inspected (and verified it worked as new) and repackaged. All in one day. Fat chance.
Click to expand...

I understand it's unlikely that it was a refurb, but please see my second point about the serial number.

And I'm glad you take advantage of refurbs. You help keep the costs down for brand spankin' new products that most of us buy. I am very OCD about expensive electronics and don't want to pay for something that someone else's grubby nose pickin' hands have already been all over. I'd rather pay more for the glitz and glamor of factory packaging and knowing I'm the first to touch it.:p To each his own.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Explain your experience....
Click to expand...

I was told to go to ATT and have them do this once I got the iPhone. Took the new 4S there and they put in a new SIM card. Was told I had to go home and finish by connecting to iTunes. I did that, got a message that my activation was pending. After 4 hours, still not activated. I took out the new sim I received and put in the one from my iPhone 4. I was able to make and receive calls but data did not work. Spent almost 2 hours on the phone with ATT and finally a supervisor was able to do something on their system that made 3G data work using the iPhone 4 sim. Two days later I got an email from Apple saying they could not activate my device and that I should come into a store.

Go figure.

My phone was pre-ordered from Apple.com.
My guess is that the upgrade switch process works much smoother when ATT has control of the ENTIRE process from start to finish.

I don't know if anyone can attest to that assumption though....
 
It is quite simple.... You have to Activate with your girlfriends line because you are using her upgrade. The "Activation" process is what "confirms" the upgrade was recieved. The actual activation is the final step in the "using the upgrade discount process"

1. Activate First.
2. Swap SIMS
3. Call AT&T and update IMEI
4. ????
5. Profit.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
So, I have an AT&T family plan with two lines on it. Both are iPhone's owned by my girlfriend and I. Her line was eligible for a full upgrade and she was willing to give me her upgrade so I could get the 4S. Ordered from Apple on pre-order day and was told by two people at AT&T that all I would have to do is call when I received it and provide the IMEI number to allow the phone to be activated on MY line and not my girlfriend's line I used to upgrade.

I call AT&T on the 14th and provide them with the IMEI...they tell me I should be all set. But no, the phone still wants to activate on my girlfriend's line!:mad: I call them back, they say they can't help and to go to an AT&T store. I do that and the 19 year old kid working there tried a new SIM...nope...still wanted to activate on my GF's line. They send me to the Apple store...the Genius Bar can't figure it out and wanted to give me some replacement from the mystery black box behind the counter....no thanks. Returned the whole phone to Apple....call AT&T to reset my upgrade eligility which they are now trying to tell me is NOVEMBER after I just bought the phone for the $199 full upgrade price. Just a complete disaster.

Back to the 4....so turned off by the whole process I may just wait until the 5 comes out next year. Didn't realize the "S" stood for sh*tshow
Click to expand...

You could have skipped all that and just activated it with her line and just took the sim out and put yours in.
Easy, no trips to AT&T or Apple, no returns or headaches....
 
Applejuiced said:
You could have skipped all that and just activated it with her line and just took the sim out and put yours in.
Easy, no trips to AT&T or Apple, no returns or headaches....
Click to expand...

Than why on Earth didn't AT&T tell me that? Probably to spare my GF from having to deal with SIM swaps? I don't know why AT&T can't just manually swap the DATES in their system when another line on a family plan wants to take the upgrade. That would have just allowed me to pre-order for my own line. They act like those dates are controlled by God or something. Just have a friggin' manager make the switch when need be....seems simple:mad:

Regardless. You call AT&T and you literally get a different story from each person you talk to. They are horrible. Nothing worse than calling a customer service line and you feel like you know more about their product than they do.
 
PatriotInvasion said:
Than why on Earth didn't AT&T tell me that? Probably to spare my GF from having to deal with SIM swaps? I don't know why AT&T can't just manually swap the DATES in their system when another line on a family plan wants to take the upgrade. That would have just allowed me to pre-order for my own line. They act like those dates are controlled by God or something. Just have a friggin' manager make the switch when need be....seems simple:mad:

Regardless. You call AT&T and you literally get a different story from each person you talk to. They are horrible. Nothing worse than calling a customer service line and you feel like you know more about their product than they do.
Click to expand...

Dude, its a lot harder and way more time consuming what you went thru than activating it with your girls account and then taking the sim out. Trust me that sim swap is better than wasting time at AT&T, then going to Apple then returning the phone and now trying to get your upgrade back. But up to you, some people make things 10 times more complicated than they are and life is always hard and a nightmare to deal with daily.
Not sure why AT&T or Apple didnt tell you about that but those upgrades swaps are done all the time.
It doesnt work the way you want or think it should, there's no swapping of dates or allowing you to order under your line when you're not eligible.
 
Applejuiced said:
Dude, its a lot harder and way more time consuming what you went thru than activating it with your girls account and then taking the sim out. Trust me that sim swap is better than wasting time at AT&T, then going to Apple then returning the phone and now trying to get your upgrade back. But up to you, some people make things 10 times more complicated than they are and life is always hard and a nightmare to deal with daily.
Not sure why AT&T or Apple didnt tell you about that but those upgrades swaps are done all the time.
It doesnt work the way you want or think it should, there's no swapping of dates or allowing you to order under your line when you're not eligible.
Click to expand...

Easy as over explaining/no idea what the hell he/she is talking about I'm guessing. :D
 
Applejuiced said:
Dude, its a lot harder and way more time consuming what you went thru than activating it with your girls account and then taking the sim out. Trust me that sim swap is better than wasting time at AT&T, then going to Apple then returning the phone and now trying to get your upgrade back. But up to you, some people make things 10 times more complicated than they are and life is always hard and a nightmare to deal with daily.
Not sure why AT&T or Apple didnt tell you about that but those upgrades swaps are done all the time.
It doesnt work the way you want or think it should, there's no swapping of dates or allowing you to order under your line when you're not eligible.
Click to expand...

So you're saying that if I go ahead and buy the 4S at an Apple Store. Have them upgrade it and "kill" my GF's current SIM...then give her the SIM in the 4S and put in the one that is in my 4, all will be fine? Just call AT&T and give them the new IMEI's?:confused:
 
Well...I can't find the phone anywhere in stock, so at this point, I'm just going to wait until an AT&T store has the 16GB's in stock and have them activate the upgrade swap on site. No SIM swapping needed when done that way.

I already have the 4 with iOS 5, so I'm not missing much while waiting. Heck, if I have to wait long enough, it'll probably make sense to just hold off on the upgrade all together and wait until next year. We'll See.
 
Finally got my iPhone 4S yesterday. Purchased from the Apple Store....activated on my gf's line, then swapped SIMs and called AT&T to let them know who had which phone model. Looks like I'm all set now so thanks for the advice! Looking forward to upgrading on my OWN line next year when the 5 comes out....far less hassle.

And the best part was that I sold my 4 on Craigslist the same day for $250! I actually made money on the upgrade!
 
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