Unable to active FT and IMessage on IPad

[BigDukeSix]

Got my sister an iPad Mini for a gift. Her first Apple device.
She wanted it primarily for FT and iMessage.
She has a valid Apple ID, and can log in to iCloud and iTunes with no issues.
However, when trying to log in to either FT or IM, it gets stuck in the loop It asks her to sign in, we get the little scrolling wheel, and it goes back to sign in. I have even set up one of my iPads for her and tried it on another device after wiping it clean, same results.
I have scoured the web looking for a solution, and there are 30 pages of this issue being addressed on the apple.com support page. I have tried everything that has been suggested, with no success.
Both devices running latest iOS 8.4, they have been tried on different wifi networks, DNS has been changed to 8.8.8.8 Auto time zone has been cycled, iPad's reset, etc.....
Just hoping that maybe someone here has the silver bullet for this issue.
For something that is supposed to 'just work' it is quite frustrating!
Thx!

 

[BigDukeSix]

Finally had to call Apple Care. They did walk me through all the set up steps, which I had tried, then put me in touch with a supervisor who gathered all the information, and then he bumped it up to engineering. Took them a couple of days to resolve, but now I am able to log in. There is something about some peoples Apple ID's that only Apple can resolve. The customer service was great, and the supervisor did call me back with a followup of the status.