I had major issues activating my Series 4 watch with AT&T. I haven’t seen other posts, so maybe this was only me, but maybe this’ll help someone else.
TL;DR (from the AT&T reps): AT&T doesn’t seem to like watches purchased from anyone other than AT&T. Only activate the watch in-person at a “core” AT&T store. Don’t even pair the watch to your phone before activating cellular. (Or maybe don’t use AT&T?)
I preordered from Apple; after pairing the watch, I saw the Set Up Cellular option in the Watch app and figured it’d be easy. That redirects you to AT&T’s website for the activation. That page always resulted in an error for me - it took me a while to figure out that the page doesn’t work if you’re on a VPN. Once the page works, it looks easy to add a new line for the watch. After going through that process, I got a message that my order had to be reviewed by a human and they’d email me after that.
About 24 hours after that, I received the email that said they’d reviewed my order and I needed to call them. 20 minutes on the phone and a pretty confusing conversation with a rep that ended with my order “back on track” and they’d email me with an update.
24 hours later and no email, so I called again. The first rep was a bit confused and transferred me to tech support, who insisted that activation can’t be done online or on the phone - only in-store because I didn’t buy the watch from AT&T.
I spent 30 minutes in the AT&T store with a very helpful rep, who found that my watch had a number “reserved” but he wasn’t able to activate it. He talked to at least 2 techs on the phone, and they agreed that the only way to activate it was for me to go to a “core” store.
Almost 3 hours(!) in-person at the “core” store with a dedicated rep, I finally left with an activated watch. It required multiple calls/chats with AT&T support people, and even the rep couldn’t get an explanation of what happened or why. Some of the reps on the phone suggested trying a different SIM.
My impression is that AT&T had to do a real bodge to force the watches into their existing system, and they’ve done a pretty miserable job training their reps and support staff. Probably because watches are a miniscule percentage of their devices, and an even smaller percentage of their revenues.
TL;DR (from the AT&T reps): AT&T doesn’t seem to like watches purchased from anyone other than AT&T. Only activate the watch in-person at a “core” AT&T store. Don’t even pair the watch to your phone before activating cellular. (Or maybe don’t use AT&T?)
I preordered from Apple; after pairing the watch, I saw the Set Up Cellular option in the Watch app and figured it’d be easy. That redirects you to AT&T’s website for the activation. That page always resulted in an error for me - it took me a while to figure out that the page doesn’t work if you’re on a VPN. Once the page works, it looks easy to add a new line for the watch. After going through that process, I got a message that my order had to be reviewed by a human and they’d email me after that.
About 24 hours after that, I received the email that said they’d reviewed my order and I needed to call them. 20 minutes on the phone and a pretty confusing conversation with a rep that ended with my order “back on track” and they’d email me with an update.
24 hours later and no email, so I called again. The first rep was a bit confused and transferred me to tech support, who insisted that activation can’t be done online or on the phone - only in-store because I didn’t buy the watch from AT&T.
I spent 30 minutes in the AT&T store with a very helpful rep, who found that my watch had a number “reserved” but he wasn’t able to activate it. He talked to at least 2 techs on the phone, and they agreed that the only way to activate it was for me to go to a “core” store.
Almost 3 hours(!) in-person at the “core” store with a dedicated rep, I finally left with an activated watch. It required multiple calls/chats with AT&T support people, and even the rep couldn’t get an explanation of what happened or why. Some of the reps on the phone suggested trying a different SIM.
My impression is that AT&T had to do a real bodge to force the watches into their existing system, and they’ve done a pretty miserable job training their reps and support staff. Probably because watches are a miniscule percentage of their devices, and an even smaller percentage of their revenues.
