Apple's $30 apology for iPhone activation delays?

Apple is reportedly offering iPhone 3G S buyers a $30 iTunes Store credit for activation delays.

(Credit: Apple)

iPhone 3G S buyers are still experiencing delays activating their new smartphones, but Apple apparently wants to make it up to them.

Apple began notifying affected customers via e-mail on Sunday that they may experience additional delays for another two days due to "system issues" and "high activation volumes," according to readers in various blogs who claim to have received the e-mail.

The problems began immediately after the new iPhone's launch Friday.

As a way of apology for the delays, the same e-mail said Apple plans to offer customers a $30 credit iTunes Store credit for "the inconvenience this delay has caused."

Here's the entire text of the e-mail:

Dear Apple Customer,

Thank you for your recent Apple Store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.

We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.

On Monday, you'll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team

Apple representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

During last July's iPhone launch as new customers tried to complete the required in-store activation process, overloaded AT&T activation servers slowed Apple Store lines to a crawl, and the servers eventually crashed altogether. Apple soon ditched the in-store activation and was simply "unbricking" phones, letting buyers activate them at home rather than hold up the line because of crashed servers.

In stark contrast to the frenzied first day sales of the original iPhone and last year's iPhone 3G, Friday's launch was marked by considerably smaller and quieter crowds for the smartphone's debut.

One analyst expected Apple to sell 500,000 iPhones this weekend. That's half as many phones as Apple sold when it launched the iPhone 3G, but Apple sold that phone in 21 countries on the first day. In comparison, the iPhone 3G S was sold in only eight countries on its first day.

[hikeeveryday]

You know Steve Jobs isn't back from sick leave yet. My Gen 1 iPhone took a couple of days to get working and all I got was nothing.

[SteadyFwd]

Our generation has the coolest toys in all of history.

[craiger45]

I have to agree. I'm older, 58 and have seen a lot of electronic devices come down the pike. Won't go into them all, but my 1st PC was an IBM-AT, 20 meg hard drive, 16 megahertz cpu, first color monitor, thought it was the best. I had a cell phone in 1987. It was a brick in a bag. My first handheld was a palm pilot 8 megahertz. I had always been a Microsoft, IBM guy and and was a little apprehensive of Apple products. Since then have upgraded all to better, faster, more capacity. I have to say that I think my ipod itouch is the greatest electronic device ever devised by man.(There it is), just when I think I can't be amazed any more I download another app and holy ****, I'm floored again. It is the almost complete package. Small, fast, easy to use, easy to see the screen, more, more. When the day comes, that it has external sensors, well hello star trek.
For you folks out there that have grown up with this technology, I hope you see the same kind of changes I have for the last 40 years. It's a part of what makes life worth living. Enjoy what's happening, and don't let small hiccups bother you, they always get straighted out. Help each other when you can. We all have a little geek in us, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this comment right now. Rock on...

[ikramerica--2008]

Well said. I'm 20 years younger and I remember having to turn the ring on the TV dial to "fine tune" the reception of each channel on my TV. All 6 of them (the channels). We got the first generation Sony Discman, which was an amazing device that was so fragile you couldn't carry it around or even walk loudly near the place it was sitting, or it would skip. But it was still amazing for it's time.

That people are complaining because an upgrade took a few hours longer than they wanted is just sad...

[protagonistic]

@ ikramerica

TV? :-)

[ballmerisanape]

I have to agree about the iPod touch... I've waited (dreamed) a long time for a device like this one.. It's a huge leap forward in design+function. BTW.. it does have external sensors (think Nike+iPod).. People are considering making external electrocardiogram and/or electroencephalogram extensions for this platform.. that would be cool. It's more than capable of doing it right now..

[cvaldes1831]

I don't care about the iPhone (contract requirements are too pricey), but the iPod touch absolutely rocks. And I have the original 1st generation model. I'm waiting for the next (3rd) generation one.

I've tried a bunch of different gadgets (Sharp Zaurus, circa 1994?) and hands down the iPod touch just rocks. A 99-cent game that entertains me for hours? That is effing worth it.

[requestinfo01]

The funny thing is that if you call AT&T at 611 they are able to activate right away. I waited 24 hours since beginning the activation process, and then called AT&T. Was done in a couple of minutes. I guess should have waited and gotten the $30 credit... :)

[vertig0730]

Maybe they will issue a credit to all the iPod touch users too. Since the update has broken some previously working items and made some addons useless!

[kelmon]

Silly question but whose fault is that? The 3.0 software has been available in beta format for many months with developers given plenty of time to ensure that their applications work under the new version of the OS. Have you checked for updates? If so and they do not exist yet you are still having problems, have you contacted the company that makes the software to ask them for a solution?

The other question is, has your device been Jail Broken?

[Vegaman_Dan]

No... Touch users don't qualify for anything like that. Even when the new model came out, they did not give credits to those who bought one previously at a higher price. Nor have they given credits to those who have had to pay for the OS updates that come free on the iPhone.

Touch owners pay more for the product with a higher profit to Apple and do not qualify for compensation. They are second class citizens.

[vertig0730]

@Kelmon

Nope not jailbroken and I am referring to the car interface issues. Apple wrote code that would break on existing 3rd party products. So, who should I be mad at when this worked perfectly well under the 2.0 and with a 4th gen Nano.

[amarveer1]

Does everyone who got the Iphone 3 G S get the $30?? I bought mine on Friday and have not received an email.

[ralfthedog]

I think you get the email if your activation is stalled.

[ranzic]

A lot of the activation problems seem to be that AT&T did not have the new SIM Card # in their system, but rather the one from the phone being upgraded. I don't know if this was a failure of Apple to notify AT&T or the new number or AT&T just not updating their system.

I was "waiting for activation" for over 8 hours before finally calling AT&T who surprisingly seemed unaware of the problem until they contacted a tech at Apple while I was on the phone. I gave them the new SSID and IMEI numbers and was activated in less than 30 seconds when reconnecting to iTunes.

Does anyone know if I get the $30 for this hassle or is it just people who are still not activated?

[ikramerica--2008]

Yep, that's what is happening. AT&T is not getting the record of the new SIM or that you even bought an iPhone, so they you not only don't have an active SIM, but you also don't have the data plan even though you signed up for it.

I would wager that most of these activation issues are coming from existing AT&T customers.

My phone was listed as 999999999999 rather than the proper ID number, so once they got that fixed, the phone worked immediately. But then the data didn't work over 3G, as it turns out that the data plan didn't get added because with the phone listed as 9999999999, there was no qualifying phone on the account when the initial order went through.

This is entirely a problem with the phones shipped by Apple to existing customers (not new customers, not customers who went into an AT&T or Apple store).

Call AT&T or go an AT&T store and they will fix it right away.

[protagonistic]

I was one of those who got the message about activation being delayed by up to 48 hours. I called AT&T support on the 866 number because my old cell phone battery would only hold about a 20 minute talk time charge. The first time I got through fairly quickly and they said to just wait a bit. The second time I stayed on hold for about 20 minutes and then hung up. The last time I decided to wait it out. I sat and hold and made it almost all the way through two movies before calling 611 on the old phone. Got right through and explained my problem. The lady I talked to had me up and running in a few minutes. I hung up on the land line so she could call be back on it to finish the process. It was showing just over 3 hours and 15 minutes on hold. For my money they were putting people on hold and walking away.

Anyway, I got the email about the $30 iTunes credit today. It will be interesting to see if they leave it there or if they manage to mess up my already activated iPhone. :-) Just the wifi capability of the phone makes it worthwhile for me. With this I can do just about everything I would do with a laptop if I had one, and this fits in my pocket. Still, It was worth the wait for me.

[ikramerica--2008]

The 866 number? Not where where you got that one, but I was given an 800 number and go through right away, and of course there is 611. Also, there is 1-800-MYIPHONE you can always call, and when they determine it's an AT&T issue, they transfer you over and there is no wait in my experience.

[protagonistic]

@ikramerica

There is an 866 number, for some customers, as well as an 800 number. When I called the first time they told me that since I was one of those that could use the 866 number I should use it. Anyway, my cell phone was about to die and I didn't want to call on it because I was anticipating delays. I ended up calling 611 on it and got right through. The lady was nice enough to call back on my other phone.

[diver-1]

Drink the cool aid do not pass go. The advantages of apple.

[ballmerisanape]

Apple sold over one million iPhone 3GS models through June 21... that's 1 model.. one carrier... in three days. Not to mention the millions (literally) that updated to the 3.0 software.

[Seaspray0]

@balmerisanape. The "number of phones sold" has already been criticized as misleading since it counted preorders and units shipped to at&t (shipped only) as sold. Before you go bragging about cool aid numbers, you should wait for something more concrete such as sales for the first month.

[The_happy_switcher]

On Friday I posted this and several people were able to activate within minutes depending on their current plan--for me it was about 10 mins:


1) Call 800-331-0500

(2) Dial 0 and then 0 again

(3) Ask the customer rep to activate you.

(4) Give them your SIM Card # and IMEI. To find this quickly, go to "Settings" on your iPhone, click on "General," then "About." The "ICCID" is your SIM card and the one above that, IMEI is the other number they need.

(5) They will ask you to shut down your phone, wait 30 seconds and turn it on.

(6) When the phone turns back on, you should be activated.

[Seaspray0]

Good post. It's nice to see someone provide a solution.

[willywill82]

I'm really baffled by the reason so many people are having this problem. I got my iPhone 3G S in the mail on Friday (much earlier than I had actually expected, much to my suprise and joy!) and since I am an exististing AT&T customer currently with an iPhone 3G, when I unboxed my 3G S, I simply used the SIM card pop-out tool, and put my iPhone 3G SIM (which obviously has ALREADY BEEN ACTIVATED) and in like no time at all, the phone was activated and I was able to use it 100%. So are the people who are having problems either new to AT&T, don't know how SIM cards work, or were they expecting that all the brand new iPhone 3G S' SIM cards were automatically going to all of a sudden be linked to their existing ATT account, ready for use? I mean, maybe it's me, but when I got mine in the mail, all I expected to do is literally pop in my old SIM and hit the road.

[ranzic]

There seems to be some confusion as to whether you were supposed to do this or not. I was told both by Apple and AT&T NOT to use the old SIM but to activate using the new SIM that came with the 3GS.

[ikramerica--2008]

WW82 - You may think you know what you are talking about, but it's not that simple.

Existing AT&T customers without a previous iPhone can't use their old SIM cards, so your "ease" does not translate to the people actually having the problem. Move along, willy.

[subie09lega]

I got mine on Friday but was leaving town so activated it Saturday evening after I returned. Was done in a couple minutes. I figured the issues had been worked out by then.

[SeizeCTRL]

Wow, I showed up at 7am, they asked for all the pre-order people to go inside, I went in and was out by 7:20... as a new customer with an activated iPhone in hand. It was so fast and painless. I've been absolutely happy ever since. Part of me wishes I would have switched to AT&T sooner, but then I would have missed out on the 3G S.

[ikramerica--2008]

Yes, as a new customer it was no problem.

As an existing non-iPhone customer who had the phone shipped to him, that's the problem.

Yet, they were still very, very helpful over the phone, very nice, both people I talked to were Americans (didn't have to explain things 3 times or spell simple words for them), had a nice conversation, and everything was fixed.

AT&T customer service kicks Sprint in the you know where (been there, through with Sprint), which is why I would never consider a Pre no matter how great people say it is.

[richardspina]

What about the people who ALREADY owned iPhones that had to wait a half a day on the 17th to download their 3.0 software. That is far worse business tactics than what the people buying the new phone went through.

[etiahwhite]

I updated just fine but honestly what did you expect with millions of people trying to access the same update...Your phone was still functional (well for most people I know for some there phones bricked). Imagine waiting half a day that's almost an eternity. I'd say it's probably worse to have a phone that isn't activated and isn't working then a phone that isn't running the latest update but still functions. People really unrealistic expectations sometimes for these apple product launches.

[ikramerica--2008]

You have got to be kidding. 18 million people had existing iPhones, from most accounts. You honestly expect that everyone would be able to get the software within minutes of release? Grow up. It's not a "tactic" but a simple supply and demand equation. Too much demand on the limited supply of server bandwidth. But it was temporary.

[protagonistic]

You sound a bit spoiled. You probably would have had a heart attack if you had to wait a week for the floppy disk to arrive in the mail. ;-)

[ikramerica--2008]

Floppy disk? how about putting a cassette tape into your computer tape drive, starting a game loading, and coming back in 45 minutes when it was finished! This instant gratification generation doesn't know how tough we had it back in the dark ages!

[Perry_Clease]

"by ikramerica--2008 June 22, 2009 12:53 AM PDT
Floppy disk? how about putting a cassette tape into your computer tape drive, starting a game loading, and coming back in 45 minutes when it was finished! "

I am not a programmer, other than some scripting, but I started out in graphics setting metal type into a composing stick.

[thelemurking]

Don't forget how we got online way back then, using a modem that you placed a your phone handset into and connected at an astounding 300 baud per second. Thank god fidonet was all text based :)

I had a Collecovision Adam, and Buck Rogers was on tape... I think that was the only game I had on tape.

[aka_tripleB]

Apple should offer $30 Apple store credit. Who still buys music and video when you possible can find it cheaper else where. At least if you want to buy $30 of music or video you still can, but you get a choice to buy new accessories that you have to replace because the ones from your old iPhone don't work.

[ikramerica--2008]

What is cheaper than free? You get $30 free, so it's free.

[baconstang]

Find it cheaper? Or steal it? You can use it for apps. I think those are still hard to steal.

[Tedders85]

Got mine on Friday via FedEx and activated it without any issues at all Friday afternoon. I guess I am a lucky one.

[mrcockrell]

same here, got my 3GS friday via FedEx and activated it through iTunes in a matter of minutes and been using it since, couldnt have gone smoother

i was upgrading from a 3G phone and i bought my 3GS direct from Apple.com not Att.com and i used the sim that was already in the phone when it arrived

[ctekmediadotcom]

72 Hours Later!!!

I am still stuck with a dead iPhone. I have received no e-mail from Apple or AT&T.

But after my 2.5 Hours dealing with both AT&T and Apple on the phone and a 1.5 Hour visit to the AT&T store, the guy at the AT&T store admitted on Saturday that my iPhone should work and I was good to go my account was all paid and current, no problems, go home have a nice day and wait.

Keep in mind this is on a 2G phone that I tried to upgrade to the new Apple iPhone Software 3.0 (update.) I have been a loyal GoPhone Prepaid customer with AT&T since 2007 when the first iPhone came out...

[tektaktyks]

As a GPS industry insider, here are some facts.

1. A small antenna doesn't preclude turn by turn nav. Think of it as 2 parts to the application:-

a) GPS Receiver. This tells us where we are.

b) Mapping software. This knows where we are (from the receiver) and where we'd like to go (from our human input), calculates a route and guides us there, using the GPS position to advise on upcoming junctions etc..

2. The GPS chipset inside the iPhone is actually a very good one (it is a bought in SiRF chip at $3.60 each, according to Apples BOM). It is quite capable of turn by turn navigation, and is used in many of the other phones with GPS you are talking about.

3. In short, if Apple don't allow turn by turn navigation in something like the TomTom/Garmin format (ie, no data connection needed) it isn't due to any technical reason. It's a purely business decision based on the Apple/AT&T' revenue
model.

Interestingly, according the the Bill of Materials, the 3G iPhone is costing Apple about $175 to build. This isn't including shipping, Advertising etc.. So where do we think their profit is coming from?

That's right - Data services.

[cmedina1]

I must have been one of the lucky ones. I ordered it through apple.com, received it on Friday before 1pm and when I got home I connected it to my computer and activated it through iTunes with no problems.

[fshea]

Who cares about a lousy $30 dollar iTunes Credit?

Thousands of people paid for overnight delivery for a reason. The credit should be a credit on your Credit Card and an additional $30 dollar Credit on your card for the BS.

Apple has proved it isn't RIM once again. Keep with the games and toys. BlackBerry and Nokia sales never make the headlines for this BS.

This is why Apple will NEVER make it in corporate America or Corporate anywhere.

No comment doesn't cut it in the Business World and that is always Apples modo.

[nbvail]

My god, what a baby, the reason fro slow activation was due to AT&T, a huge member of your Corporate America, who b-t-w is hiding in their boardrooms afraid of doing business, while Apple had people standing line during a recession buying a phone. You should get nothing, I waited around 4 to 5 hours and then once my AT&T service started I didn't look back.

[etiahwhite]

shipping was free...never make it in corporate america...hmm they're a corporation and they're profitable hmm your right they'll never make it.

[anilsudh]

Shipping was free. Please get your facts write before posting.

[ckh1272]

@fshea--Poor uninformed soul.

[fshea]

Pay them back for the Shipping Charges with Real Money. Not a Lousy Looney Tunes Credit.

[etiahwhite]

shipping was free

[baconstang]

fshea... did you buy one?

[perlamijomelican]

that's quite a nice gesture really, i wouldn't give you anything...
the lesson learned is; don't throw out your old phone until the new one is working.

[ikramerica--2008]

Too true. No existing AT&T customer was left phoneless. While my 3Gs wasn't able to make or receive calls, my old phone was still working fine. So until it got sorted out, I had my old phone and the equivalent of an iPod Touch 32GB. It was rough, I tell you... ;)