Discount problems
Hi, just got back from my local Apple store... thought I'd share my experience. I got there at about 6:30 EDT. I was probably 50th in line or so. By the time 8 rolled around, there were tons more people and I considered myself toward the front. I got into the store at maybe about 8:20, and gave "Bill" all my info. Before he could finish the transaction, he said he got an error stating my account was not eligible for at&t activation through Apple because I get a corporate/government discount on my monthly bill. In retrospect, I guess it makes sense, but this didn't even cross my mind. Almost two years ago when I signed up for service, I brought a pay stub to my local at&t store. It showed that I worked for the local (county) government. They applied the discount and that was that. As far as I'm concerned, it's a 100% personal account that just happens to have a discount on it because of where I work. My job has no knowledge of/has nothing to do with my personal phone. They don't even use at&t. They use Sprint!
Anyhow, the guy helping me said there was no other option but to go to an at&t store instead. Of course this is absolute BS, but naturally I realize it's not Apple retail's fault. It's Apple & at&t's fault for coming up with the most confusing way in history to upgrade your mobile phone. So, I thanked the guy for his time and headed to the nearest at&t store, two floors up in the mall. Meanwhile the Apple line keeps getting longer and longer.
After standing in line at the at&t store for a bit, I realized a few things. 1) the line was much shorter. 2) the line was not moving at all! I swear they were helping one person at a time! 3) they were not going to have enough phones by the time they got to my place in line - the manger policing the line said it was probably so. After realizing all this, I asked him if they would be able to take the discount off my account, hopefully taking care of what was blocking my upgrade at Apple. He said they could. Of course, though, I would have to wait my turn in this slow as molasses line. After about an hour, I decided to call at&t to see if they could just do it for me. Ten minutes on the phone, and an account rep took the discount off. He said it was effective immediately, and I verified this through at&t's wireless website (using my 1G iPhone). Now, I realized that this didn't necessarily mean all would be well and good when I got back to Apple, but I had to give it another shot.
I was walking back to the Apple store, staring at the huge line. It was about 10:00. I planned to go to the back of the line, but I got a great iDea and decided to head to the store entrance to explain my situation. I kindly and briefly explained my situation to the guy controlling the front of the line. He was the same guy that let me in originally. I think he recognized me. I told him there was a problem with my account, but that I called at&t and cleared it up and I wanted to try again. Surprisingly, he let me back in, but he had another employee help me find the guy that helped me originally. When he was nowhere to be found, they checked his schedule and found out he was on lunch! They said it really would be best if I could have him help me again, and asked if I could come back in 45 minutes! I said that was fine... 45 minutes was still way less than the time it would have took to stand in that long line.
So, at 11:00 I came back and met Bill again. I explained to him that I had the discount taken off my account and I hoped we could try again. He said sure, but advised me that others were in similar situations (no surprise there) and trying again had not been successful. I had feared this possibility, but he was still offering, so I said why not. He took all my info again, and up came some sort of connection error. After about 20-30 minutes of everyone - employees and customers alike - being confused and frustrated with various snags in the whole process, the "servers" and "connections" started working again. To my amazement, they were able to complete the transaction this time! But, that was only step 1. After you've paid for the phone, they usher you over to another group of Apple employees to activate. This is where they unbox your phone, hook it up to iTunes, activate, walk you through some things, etc. When I got to these guys, it quickly became apparent that there were still problems... iTunes servers were down or otherwise having issues. After a few more minutes, I was allowed to leave with my unopened 3G iPhone and head home.
In the end, I was out of there before noon, which is way less time compared to last year when I waited in line for 8 hours pre-launch. However, I sincerely hope that next time around Apple & at&t will revert back to home activation via iTunes. This whole Apple store interfacing with your at&t account was a MESS!
Hi, just got back from my local Apple store... thought I'd share my experience. I got there at about 6:30 EDT. I was probably 50th in line or so. By the time 8 rolled around, there were tons more people and I considered myself toward the front. I got into the store at maybe about 8:20, and gave "Bill" all my info. Before he could finish the transaction, he said he got an error stating my account was not eligible for at&t activation through Apple because I get a corporate/government discount on my monthly bill. In retrospect, I guess it makes sense, but this didn't even cross my mind. Almost two years ago when I signed up for service, I brought a pay stub to my local at&t store. It showed that I worked for the local (county) government. They applied the discount and that was that. As far as I'm concerned, it's a 100% personal account that just happens to have a discount on it because of where I work. My job has no knowledge of/has nothing to do with my personal phone. They don't even use at&t. They use Sprint!
Anyhow, the guy helping me said there was no other option but to go to an at&t store instead. Of course this is absolute BS, but naturally I realize it's not Apple retail's fault. It's Apple & at&t's fault for coming up with the most confusing way in history to upgrade your mobile phone. So, I thanked the guy for his time and headed to the nearest at&t store, two floors up in the mall. Meanwhile the Apple line keeps getting longer and longer.
After standing in line at the at&t store for a bit, I realized a few things. 1) the line was much shorter. 2) the line was not moving at all! I swear they were helping one person at a time! 3) they were not going to have enough phones by the time they got to my place in line - the manger policing the line said it was probably so. After realizing all this, I asked him if they would be able to take the discount off my account, hopefully taking care of what was blocking my upgrade at Apple. He said they could. Of course, though, I would have to wait my turn in this slow as molasses line. After about an hour, I decided to call at&t to see if they could just do it for me. Ten minutes on the phone, and an account rep took the discount off. He said it was effective immediately, and I verified this through at&t's wireless website (using my 1G iPhone). Now, I realized that this didn't necessarily mean all would be well and good when I got back to Apple, but I had to give it another shot.
I was walking back to the Apple store, staring at the huge line. It was about 10:00. I planned to go to the back of the line, but I got a great iDea and decided to head to the store entrance to explain my situation. I kindly and briefly explained my situation to the guy controlling the front of the line. He was the same guy that let me in originally. I think he recognized me. I told him there was a problem with my account, but that I called at&t and cleared it up and I wanted to try again. Surprisingly, he let me back in, but he had another employee help me find the guy that helped me originally. When he was nowhere to be found, they checked his schedule and found out he was on lunch! They said it really would be best if I could have him help me again, and asked if I could come back in 45 minutes! I said that was fine... 45 minutes was still way less than the time it would have took to stand in that long line.
So, at 11:00 I came back and met Bill again. I explained to him that I had the discount taken off my account and I hoped we could try again. He said sure, but advised me that others were in similar situations (no surprise there) and trying again had not been successful. I had feared this possibility, but he was still offering, so I said why not. He took all my info again, and up came some sort of connection error. After about 20-30 minutes of everyone - employees and customers alike - being confused and frustrated with various snags in the whole process, the "servers" and "connections" started working again. To my amazement, they were able to complete the transaction this time! But, that was only step 1. After you've paid for the phone, they usher you over to another group of Apple employees to activate. This is where they unbox your phone, hook it up to iTunes, activate, walk you through some things, etc. When I got to these guys, it quickly became apparent that there were still problems... iTunes servers were down or otherwise having issues. After a few more minutes, I was allowed to leave with my unopened 3G iPhone and head home.
In the end, I was out of there before noon, which is way less time compared to last year when I waited in line for 8 hours pre-launch. However, I sincerely hope that next time around Apple & at&t will revert back to home activation via iTunes. This whole Apple store interfacing with your at&t account was a MESS!
