I can't remember from years past how this worked. I ordered an AT&T iPhone 5 today from the Apple site (unfortunately with the 2 week ship date). We have a family plan with two lines. One is eligible for an upgrade and one is not, but we want to switch the phone from the eligible line to the non-eligible line. It's a little trickier than it used to be because the iPhone 5 uses a nano SIM rather than a micro SIM, so I'm guessing it's going to take a call to AT&T to sort out, but I'm hoping that the phone isn't already activated to the line we don't want.
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Will new iPhone ship from Apple pre-activated?
- Thread starter medgirl2001
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Good luck! I tried to do this last year between an iphone 4 and 4s and it took almost 24 hours. Apple told me to call att. Att told me to call Apple.
From my experience, activate it like normal first because apple seems to lock it to that ONE number. Then, call or go to att and have them swap the accounts.
p.s. my situation was worse because I was 200 miles away from the other iphone.
Well my understanding would be that if you activate the new phone your old one would be deactivated. So they wouldn't be able to fully activate it before shipping, because that would leave you without a phone for a few days. But the phone will be tied to the number that you used to buy it, I think Att should be able to work that out though.
I am on the same boat...after talking to 5 different AT&T csr. Here's what I know.. when you receive the phone, don't do anything. Open the box and call at&t. Tell them what you are doing (rcvd iphone and is activating it on another phone number).. they will ask you all the information to switch over the sim. Don't plug it in to your computer, laptop, till they tell you to. When you called them, ask them if they are familiar with this process, if they are not.. hang up and call again till you get someone who knows what they are doing.
I'm in the same situation so I called up AT&T to see what needs to be done. They said to call them when you get the phone and they will do an "upgrade swap" and tie the new nano sim to your own line. The sim ships without a line tied to it, but once the phone is turned on and activated, it will be tied to the line that you upgraded with.
Apparently if the person knows what their doing it's not a big deal, I'm not holding my breath on it though.. I have a feeling something will get messed up.
Apparently if the person knows what their doing it's not a big deal, I'm not holding my breath on it though.. I have a feeling something will get messed up.
Just so you know, this is exactly what did NOT work for me last year. I called both apple and att many times. I personally would just activate it like normal which will deactivate the old phone then call att and give them the SIM number and have them swap on their side.
eh I don't know about that.. my understanding is once a sim is activated for a specific line.. it can't be switched to another line. You'd have to go to an AT&T store to get new sims, especially with the new phone having a nano sim.
You better hope it is not activated. If new phone is active, guess what happens to your current phone.
Not!!
Not!!
Yep.
That's why I NEVER buy iPhones from Apple.
They're not my carrier & they cannot help me.
Apple is wonderful when you order anything but an iPhone.
I order my iPhones via AT&T.
It takes about eight minutes & they always arrive the morning of launch day before 10:30am, right to my front door.
I sign & off to work I go with a big smile & no hassles.
Yep.
That's why I NEVER buy iPhones from Apple.
They're not my carrier & they cannot help me.
Apple is wonderful when you order anything but an iPhone.
I order my iPhones via AT&T.
It takes about eight minutes & they always arrive the morning of launch day before 10:30am, right to my front door.
I sign & off to work I go with a big smile & no hassles.
makes no difference where you order from.. for situations like this you should always call your carrier once you receive it.
FWIW the first year I ordered my 3GS through AT&T, I received it 2 days late and I was supposed to receive it launch day. Never an issue through apple the years following.
I know, but I could swear they used to do this. It was the first time I bought an AT&T smartphone, in 2008 (not an iPhone). I remember being freaked out at the thought that we would have no working phones during shipping. We were also porting numbers from T-Mobile, so maybe that had something to do with it.
My concern now is more that the SIM on the new phone will already be tied to the number we don't want in some way. As another poster in this thread mentioned, I thought once a SIM was set to a certain number, that was it - if you wanted to change it, you needed a new SIM.
It's a bit of a confusing process, and there seems to be a lot of conflicting information.