Sending new iPhone to Grandma

[trek360]

Well, we're bringing Grandma to the world of the iPhone and including her on the family plan. The preordered phones would be coming to my house. She lives in another city. What's the best way to get Grandma her phone?

She's not terribly tech saavy,

so not sure if we should open the phone and activate it then ship to her?
Ship in original box or with phone in a case well packaged??
Phone on or off? (would find my phone work to track?)

We'll be seeing her at thanksgiving time but I'm not sure if AT&T will let me delay activation that long?

Any suggestions are welcomed....

 

[Matthew Yohe]

Just ship it to her, and she can walk through the "Setup." It's not difficult.

 

[Global38]

If you don't want to deal with frustrated grandma then just put it in a drawer and help her learn to use it over thanksgiving. Keep it simple.

 

[p1ally]

I would activate and send. My grandma is 82 and is AWESOME on her iPhone.

Ship it in the box, and pack the iPhone box well inside another box. And insure it.

 

[nmork]

Phone on or off? (would find my phone work to track?)

I'd probably set up iCloud and ship it turned on just to track it with Find My iPhone, just because I'd find it interesting.

 

[trek360]

Thanks for all your replies....

....Update on Grandma...

she's up and running and loving the 4s. I ended up opening it and setting it up for her. I'm glad I did because although she could have probably done the activation, not sure she could have gotten apps downloaded and organized.

For those shipping a phone, I did turn it off. Probably best in hindsight given what we now know about battery life. I sent it two day over the weekend. I was a bit worried about theft even though it was not marked as an iphone, but you never know who might get curious.

I sent her a little tutorial I typed up for the basics and she went to a basic iphone class at the apple store. The apple instructor said she knew more about the phone than most people.

She's had some trouble with the keyboard which isn't unusual. Not necessarily seeing it, but hitting the keys squarely.

Glad we got her on board!!!

Thanks again for the tips!!!!!!!!!

 

[KentuckyHouse]

Thanks for all your replies....

....Update on Grandma...

she's up and running and loving the 4s. I ended up opening it and setting it up for her. I'm glad I did because although she could have probably done the activation, not sure she could have gotten apps downloaded and organized.

For those shipping a phone, I did turn it off. Probably best in hindsight given what we now know about battery life. I sent it two day over the weekend. I was a bit worried about theft even though it was not marked as an iphone, but you never know who might get curious.

I sent her a little tutorial I typed up for the basics and she went to a basic iphone class at the apple store. The apple instructor said she knew more about the phone than most people.

She's had some trouble with the keyboard which isn't unusual. Not necessarily seeing it, but hitting the keys squarely.

Glad we got her on board!!!

Thanks again for the tips!!!!!!!!!

This is an awesome story and brought a smile to my face. Go Grandma! Aren't they the best?

Glad to hear you got her up and running, pretty smoothly from the sound of it. And that's one cool grandma you've got there.