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Will Best Buy activate my iPhone 5S?

Bizzle79

Bizzle79

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 1, 2011
45
25
New England
Hi everyone,

I am planning on purchasing the iPhone 5 from Best Buy (wither on launch day or shortly after due to my reawrds and credit card)

I want to use an upgrade available on another line to get the phone. The line is being used by my sister and I wouldnt want her SIM to go dead (esp since she is outside my state) and I have looked uo a few threads on how to do the cross upgrade by calling AT&T

My question is will Best Buy activate the iPhone on that line or can they handle the cross upgrade or can i buy the phone without activating and handle the cross upgrade?

Thanks for your input
 
Stuke00 said:
When I did mine on Verizon at Best Buy, they would only do it if the upgrade was on the same account.
Click to expand...

You mean they do the cross upgrade if both lines are on the same account?

Yes both our lines are on the same account. Thanks
 
I don't think it'll work that way from Best Buy. I tried having them not activate it or anything and then going to the AT&T Store. Even though they didn't open the box the old phone still deactivated. In my case I actually had to go back to Best Buy and have them activate the phone since that needed to be done first. (I could also do it myself on a computer, but Best Buy was closer at the time)
I am far from certain, but I think the best option may be to order online if you want to do a cross upgrade without deactivating the other person's phone.
 
dave420 said:
I don't think it'll work that way from Best Buy. I tried having them not activate it or anything and then going to the AT&T Store. Even though they didn't open the box the old phone still deactivated. In my case I actually had to go back to Best Buy and have them activate the phone since that needed to be done first. (I could also do it myself on a computer, but Best Buy was closer at the time)
I am far from certain, but I think the best option may be to order online if you want to do a cross upgrade without deactivating the other person's phone.
Click to expand...

Thanks dave420, order online from Apple or Best Buy (im not sure they will be selling online though?)
 
I think you need to call your sister as I am pretty sure Best Buy will not do the cross upgrade.

I did this long ago at the AT&T store and it disabled my partner's phone because the computer would not do it any other way. They did give me a new SIM card that I had to give to my partner to get his phone back up and running.
 
May just depend on AT&T and how it works at best buy. I can confirm that I went into Best Buy and used my girlfriends upgrade to upgrade my phone. Her line never shut off or anything and I walked out with a new phone activated on my line just fine.
 
Lucille Carter said:
I think you need to call your sister as I am pretty sure Best Buy will not do the cross upgrade.

I did this long ago at the AT&T store and it disabled my partner's phone because the computer would not do it any other way. They did give me a new SIM card that I had to give to my partner to get his phone back up and running.
Click to expand...

Thanks Lucille. So wahts the concensus on doing this? Buying it online from apple/AT&T? Or buying from an AT&T store?

I have read of people in the forums who were able to cross upgrade successfully without sims being deactivated
 
Stuke00 said:
May just depend on AT&T and how it works at best buy. I can confirm that I went into Best Buy and used my girlfriends upgrade to upgrade my phone. Her line never shut off or anything and I walked out with a new phone activated on my line just fine.
Click to expand...

That is good new and looks like BB can do this. My encounter was with AT&T and it was years ago. Maybe it is more easy now.
 
AT&T can handle this no problem....

BBY is hit or miss. I've been to stores where the rep knew how to, and one that didn't.

At any rate, I'm hoping the Apple store will be able to handle my somewhat difficult situation. Since they generally ship the phone "unactivated" but they still take the upgrade for pricing, I'm hoping I can get an "unactivated" iPhone 5S using my mom's upgrade that I can then activate on my work line.
 
I have had it done at Best Buy, the issues is finding a rep that is knowledgable. I basically had to look at his computer screen, say I am using the upgrade on this line, but I am activating it on this different line. Was not an issue, you may just have to walk them through it.
 
Bizzle79 said:
Thanks dave420, order online from Apple or Best Buy (im not sure they will be selling online though?)
Click to expand...

I personally would recommend Apple if you order online, especially for a new device. Another poster said that Best Buy was able to do everything in store, so that may be an option. I did not really explain to the Best Buy employee what I was trying to do at the time, so there may be have been more options available. In my case everyone was local so I was not concerned about losing service on one of the devices.
It does seem like at a minimum that unless you work out something with them ahead of time whenyou buy a new AT&T iPhone in store it will immediately deactivate the old phone.
 
Anyone notice bestbuy is charging $50 more for the iPhone 5S vs Apple retail for full price purchase? Termed "replacement (Phone only)"
 
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