Received multiple iPhones on same day

[ReallyBigFeet]

So I placed an order for four iPhone X's on same day. Received 3 of the 4 today, fourth will be here tomorrow. All four are identical, all four purchased via Apple Upgrade program and all four lines they are destined for are existing "owned outright" no contract Verizon lines.

Here's my dilemma.

I don't know which phone is associated with which line. I should have made a note of it when applying for the program but I didn't. I believed they would show this information on the Apple invoice somewhere, but all that shows me is the unique serial number and order number for each device. No mention of which line its associated with.

Now it truly may not matter as I can activate any phone on any line and be good. But I seem to recall when I did my own upgrade from an Apple Upgrade iPhone 7 to a Apple Upgrade iPhone X....I had to match up the serial number. So apparently, it may matter that I properly associate the right line with the right phone only at upgrade time a year or so from now.

Anyone know how to tell these apart and which phone goes with which line? Or does it matter?

 

[Jjayf]

I really don’t think it matters. The phones are not activated until you pop in a sim and turn it on. Surely the carrier can supply you this information no?

 

[canuckRus]

So I placed an order for four iPhone X's on same day. Received 3 of the 4 today, fourth will be here tomorrow. All four are identical, all four purchased via Apple Upgrade program and all four lines they are destined for are existing "owned outright" no contract Verizon lines.

Here's my dilemma.

I don't know which phone is associated with which line. I should have made a note of it when applying for the program but I didn't. I believed they would show this information on the Apple invoice somewhere, but all that shows me is the unique serial number and order number for each device. No mention of which line its associated with.

Now it truly may not matter as I can activate any phone on any line and be good. But I seem to recall when I did my own upgrade from an Apple Upgrade iPhone 7 to a Apple Upgrade iPhone X....I had to match up the serial number. So apparently, it may matter that I properly associate the right line with the right phone only at upgrade time a year or so from now.

Anyone know how to tell these apart and which phone goes with which line? Or does it matter?

Are they possibly listed under My Services and then further distinguished by Sim card #?

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Are they possibly listed under My Services and then further distinguished by Sim card #?

No, Verizon still shows the old phones with old SIM's and old IMEI's listed on my account. Presumably because I've not done the upgrades yet.
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I really don’t think it matters. The phones are not activated until you pop in a sim and turn it on. Surely the carrier can supply you this information no?

Yeah I don't think it mattes which phone gets activated on whatever line(s) either, I'm more concerned about a year from now when upgrade time rolls around and I go to do an upgrade and the system pukes because the serial numbers don't match up with Apple's upgrade eligibility system.

And I generally don't do the SIM swap. When I activated my own iPhone X, it was moving from Upgrade Old to Upgrade New device, and the new device "automagically" knew my phone number when doing the phone activation/setup. Thus, no need to swap out SIM's. I'm guessing if I go through setup with these phones, they will likely do the same...but as I'm giving them out to family members as gifts, and will be shipping all four out of state, don't really want to have a cluster Xmas day trying to activate. Not cool.

 

[OriginalAppleGuy]

Interesting dilmma. Have you thought about calling citizensoneloan.com? What about calling AppleCare? Surely at least one of the two can assist. If not, Verizon may know - go by one of their corporate owned stores (611 can help there).

 

[Vermifuge]

When i got my phone i wasn't ready to activate it. I just wanted to look t the screen and maybe play with it a little. I clicked the language and one or two other screens. At some point my (current Verizon) Phone Number showed on my screen. I remembered I was supposed to power down my old phone first and swap sims FIRST. I was able to back out and power down the phone before it tried to activate with the new sim.

You should be able to do the same to identify which phone is which.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Interesting dilmma. Have you thought about calling citizensoneloan.com? What about calling AppleCare? Surely at least one of the two can assist. If not, Verizon may know - go by one of their corporate owned stores (611 can help there).

Was on Apple chat for over an hour last night. Chat guy couldn’t help. He suggested I call Apple and ask for a setup specialist. Spoke to them today, they couldn’t help either. He did say that come next year when I try to upgrade the phones that the serial number for the phone was “locked” to the line I used to process the upgrade...but since I own the old phones outright, there was nothing to upgrade. But I’m betting if I don’t get this sorted out, it will mess up next years’ upgrade eligibility.

I’ve got a call into Citizen One but they don’t seem to have much of a “tech support” group. Just credit support.

Will try Verizon next.

Somewhat surprised this is such a mystery. I would have thought Order number tied to Serial number (which it is/was) and serial number tied to upgraded account. But since there’s several handshakes going on behind Apple and Citizen One and Verizon, I’m getting a lot of shrugs.
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When i got my phone i wasn't ready to activate it. I just wanted to look t the screen and maybe play with it a little. I clicked the language and one or two other screens. At some point my (current Verizon) Phone Number showed on my screen. I remembered I was supposed to power down my old phone first and swap sims FIRST. I was able to back out and power down the phone before it tried to activate with the new sim.

You should be able to do the same to identify which phone is which.

Wanted to leave the boxes sealed as they are intended as Xmas gifts. But I may have to open them to sort this out. Mine did that also. So clearly, Apple systems “know” what phone line the phone is destined for....why that’s not available in any of their tech support systems is beyond me.

 

[DeltaMac]

I expect that you are over-thinking this, and it will turn out to be a non-issue.
Each iPhone will be tied to the line that it gets activated on, right?

Wouldn't this be something that each new owner (who actually has the iPhone) will be sorting out?
These are gifts.
Do you really believe that your relatives (?) are so brain dead (sorry - "lo-tech" 😀 ) that they won't know how to contact Verizon without your help?

 

[nostresshere]

I really doubt it will be a problem. And, if it EVER becomes a problem, you can just switch phones around at that time.

After each phone is working, do a screen shot of the ABOUT page showing IMEI, etc for future reference.

 

[canuckRus]

I really doubt it will be a problem. And, if it EVER becomes a problem, you can just switch phones around at that time.

After each phone is working, do a screen shot of the ABOUT page showing IMEI, etc for future reference.

Sim card should make all evident.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

I expect that you are over-thinking this, and it will turn out to be a non-issue.
Each iPhone will be tied to the line that it gets activated on, right?

Wouldn't this be something that each new owner (who actually has the iPhone) will be sorting out?
These are gifts.
Do you really believe that your relatives (?) are so brain dead (sorry - "lo-tech" 😀 ) that they won't know how to contact Verizon without your help?

Well these are all four for my mom, dad, mom-and-dad-in-law. All are in their late 70's/early 80's. So yeah, in fact, I am worried about them not being able to sort this out. Especially since they live in different states than I do. My dad has early onset Alzheimers and often forgets he even has a phone.

And again, I've zero concerns about the setup process. It's a year from now when we try to upgrade the phones that's an issue. When I went through the annual upgrade cycle this year, the app asked me which phone I wanted to upgrade and then provided me with a serial number. It matched in my case. If it doesn't...not sure what that would have done (if anything) when I went to return it using the "return kit" they send out, which is locked to the serial number you purchased on contract.

 

[Gryzor]

I just buy outright, sell for maximum return, rinse and repeat. Avoids all this upgrade hassle. Still, I can confirm it's not a hassle, and you are not tied to particular phones and lines.

 

[woodynorman]

I just picked up an 8 plus from Verizon. I used my daughters line to buy the phone (on device payment plan). I wanted to activate it on my line when I got home from the store, so I didn't unbox it there. But Verizon has to "pre activate" it before I could leave the store...meaning its tied to her line (and her phone would be "deactivated" until I could get home to swap sims). I was told to NOT power it up until the sims were swapped. I got home and unboxed it. I immediately put it an Apple case before turning it on...but I hit the power button and it turned on. I immediately turned it off and swapped sims. She powered up her iPhone, and all was well. But my new phone (with my old sim) was immediately tied to her line. It took the better part of 2 hours on the phone with Verizon, and we still couldn't get it activated on my line, even with a couple old sims I had from previous iPhones. I had to go to a Verizon store and get a brand new sim, which worked. It was a major PITA.

Edit...I had picked up a iPhone X 2 days after launch day from the Apple Store. I bought it outright using my wifes phone number. It has since been returned. But it was the same story...it was "pre activated" immediately and my wifes phone wouldn't work until I got home to swap sims (which we did successfully). I'm not sure how buying outright somehow makes this process different.

 

[OriginalAppleGuy]

There needs to be a thumb's down icon on comments. Sorry neither Apple or Citizens could get you answers.

I take it you don't have an Apple store nearby. Here's a thought. You stated the people you are giving the phones to are quite old. They may not think twice about the plastic not covering the case if you pull the phones out and power up to see the numbers.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Made a Genius Bar appt today after being on hold for over an hour for Apple Support and finally being told they couldn’t help me and the only way to tell which phone was pre-assigned to which line was to open up all the boxes and get through setup to the activation screen. They suggested I go to a Genius Bar for help.

Get to Genius Bar, they say they can’t tell either without going through the setup process themselves. So opened up all four boxes and all four phones were pre-assigned to the numbers I used as I ordered each one. So...problem solved, but had to open the boxes. Thank god I didn’t send these off as-is, because both the Apple Support line AND the Genius guy both told me that while I would have had to go to a Verizon store to get a brand new sim if someone tried to accidentally activate the wrong phone. It would have turned off the old phone of the person with that line. They also think you can’t easily do an Apple Upgrade with a phone that has a different serial number than what was assigned to your line when Citizen issued you the approval for the upgrade program. Apparently, it’s their system that ties the serial number to the phone line. So had I managed to activate the wrong phone to the wrong line, it wouldn’t have been eligible for upgrade/return because the serial number wouldn’t match. They claim that’s an “anti-scalper” protocol because I guess it’s easy to get an iPhone on the Apple Upgrade program after jacking someone’s ID/credit profile, buy a bunch of phones and then sell them on the gray market.

At any rate....this turned out to be much more difficult to sort out than I would have thought. Not used to Apple pointing finger at someone else. Very accustomed to having everyone else point their finger at Apple, but Apple usually”owns” it. In this case....they were clueless.

Problem solved...for now.