Comments on: Big iPhone headache: Waiting for AT&T activation

Buying an iPhone was the easy part. It took AT&T 39 hours to activate my iPhone, and it can't be used even for playing music or movies until that happens.

[cn2itb4]

What do you expect from the "new" AT&T?

Why would the "new" AT&T be any different from its (several)
predecessors - the "old" AT&T, the old SBC, the old SWBT, or the
old Cingular?

The only reason they can even survive is because they have so
much money that they've bought every politician in sight, every
regulatory agency in sight, and bankrupted nearly any source of
meaningful competition.

AT&T is THE reason that I haven't gone out to buy an iPhone in
spite of the fact that I'm an Apple fan and have several varieties
of Mac computers and iPods. I MAY break down and get an
iPhone anyway, but I certainly won't expect the service from
AT&T to help make the experience pleasant.

[Stating]

Exactly Right

I will never buy an iPhone as long as it is only serviced by AT&T. And being locked into a contract -- forget it. Contracts are a license to give bad customer service.

[kevmacR1]

No surprise, really

The ONLY reason I don't have an iPhone right now is because AT&T
is the carrier. Good luck to all you iPhone owners. You have a
what appears to be a kick-ass phone (for a 1st version), but your
carrier blows chunks and I blame them, not Apple, for many of the
phones limitations.

[slowreply]

Same here - 12 hours later

No go on my iPhone. Apple blaming AT&T for the delay in activations, ATT&T is blaming Apple for not supplying the data through iTunes. In either case, my iPaperwait is useless for now, 12 hours and counting since I spent the money on it....

[Vegaman_Dan]

The iPhone 'Experience'

This is exactly what Apple was worried about. They produced a great product, but then got hooked up with a company who has the reputation of slow service, poor quality, lowest customer satisfaction scores in the industry and frequent outages.

You can call garbage by any name you want, but it's still AT&T to me.

Reading the posts online seem to indicate the iPhone 'Experience' is that of waiting, waiting, and when you're done, waiting some more. No, you don't get to use your phone- that would be silly. Don't worry, you can still use it as a music/video player or surf the net- what? You can't? Oh. Um....

A big black eye for Apple on this launch and it's both the fault of AT&T for their failure to plan and Apple's for choosing the worst carrier in the industry. That promise a good future for iPhone users if this simple launch that was planned two years in advance failed.

[MacHeads]

First you have to understand

That some Social Security Managing system clamp down on
weekends for backup and maintenance purposes they wont
answer requests if under high load thinking they are under a
network attack . When are those procedures planned mostly ?
Weekends and off hours. Iphone uses Social Security numbers
for verificaiton purposes ... by demand of AT&T . Apple has no
use of it at all. Not Apples fault but certainly AT&T's partly for
choosing a verification process they did not run a stress test
upon for YEARS . I wonder if every company runs these at all.

I live in Europe and belive me as a system administrator for Mac
os X platforms i perform stress tests on a regular basis for every
system installed i consider it a requirement for validation of an
installation . I can't say it is the same everywhere especially in
the Windows world.

The activation process and lock out is more an anti theft
measure than anything else ... Apple wants your phone activated
but if it is stolen how do you make sure the account/device does
not get abused ? Deactivation by default. This step makes sense
to me in a context where Apple laptops are one of the most
looked after stealables in Europe.

[Thomas, David]

Logical Only Choice ...

Apple made the deal with CIngular. They were shopping for a
carrier long before AT&T loomed into the picture. You cannot
forsee everything, and Cingular was the only major
carrier that allowed Apple to do what Apple wanted to do.

I am very thankful they completed this deal before AT&T
came into the picture because AT&T would never have allowed
the deal in the first place. In a sense, it's a blessing, and a
curse. Fortunately, this curse runs out in two years for
Apple.

No one can deny this truly is a breakthrough device.
The rest of the industry can be thankful that the other carriers
were so short-sighted. It allows all the other manufacturers to
take a cue from Apple (once again), and start producing similar
devices (I am still a mac loyalist, but let's be real about
it).

Bottom-line ... the consumer, and enterprise
market place will benefit greatly from this.

[MaLvaDo39]

Took 5 mins here!

Not bragging, but no one reports a house not on fire...
Reports are only on the houses that are up in flames.

Sure there will hiccups and AT&T should compensate accordingly.
Hold them to their promises.

[Thomas, David]

Same here ... only 5 minutes

However, I am on the east coast, On this side of the country we
were activated first, and there was only a small delay.

I bet, as
we rolled across the country, the activations increased
exponentially. I bet someone pulled the plug on something in the
old AT&T (not former Cingular) offices somewhere.

[tntpayne--2008]

12 Hours and Still Waiting

It has been 12 Hours since I received my e-mail telling me "AT&T
is now processing your activation."

I am/was a current AT&T customer for the past 15 years or so.

tntpayne

[rodeline]

my iphone is in limbo

I started activation at 8pm last night. It's been 15 hours and my
iphone is in coma stage. Apparently, my plan is from three
years ago and is not compatible with the iphone. After getting
the notice from AT&T thru e-mail, I spent all night long and the
early morning talking to Customer Service from both sides.
After getting the correct plan at 2AM, I am still wating for
activation. This morning I was told by the Apple customer
service just to leave the iphone connected till the activation
happens. I hope to be able to use my phone soon.
So for older AT&T subscribers, make sure your plan is updated
before you start the activation proccess thru itunes.

[sscroggi]

Who's payroll are you on

I have spoken with several people in differnt states and no of them had the activation problems you describe. YOur comments tell me that you must be on one of the other wireless carriers payroll, sounds like sour grapes to me

[EuripedesCO]

interesting comment

payroll? LOL. It works for some and not fo others! they were
unprepared for this launch and for many customers it is frustrating
for this delay in service. They have every right to be upset! and any
real consumer that educates themselves on the ranks of other
providers knows AT&T is the worst in the industry. JUst read any
article on the subject of Cell providers. www.JDpowers.com, or
newsweek, or comsumer reports etc. yes with new service there is a
wait and the network is overloaded and whos fault is that?
AT&T!!!!!.

[Thomas, David]

Not Sour Grapes

I respect the author, not butt-kissing, he has a history of
objective reporting. His issue is real, as it is for many others. I
was able to activate my phone, but I did not the wait from
AT&T.

The author is on the west coast, I am on the east.
There were bound to be very few glitches for those who had the
chance to activate their phones first. But as the process rolled
across the country, and increased, the odds of a simple act (of
like a backup), increased.

Declan is completely correct, as
well as a few other posters. AT&T dropped the ball, because
they weren't full prepared. Remember, this merger between
Cingular, and AT&T is new. With the old attitude of AT&T part
of the equation, it was bound to happen. It is sad.

Anyone
notice that most people chose to visit an Apple store (if they had
the opportunity) versus an AT&T store. People wanted phone,
and were willing to deal with AT&T, but only at a
distance.

Maybe this will be a firm wakeup call to AT&T
about how they go about servicing their consumers. One
shining light, is that AT&T just picked up a hell of a lot of vocal
consumers.

[jakinner]

No payola here...

I have personally spoken to multiple AT&T support folk who have all confirmed there are major problems with iPhone activation. What I have heard from them is that they have hired additional staff and certain "problem" accounts are being handled by hand instead of in an automated fashion.

The most recent estimate I have heard for activations starting now is 24-48 hours. This is from an AT&T rep.

[Stating]

The New Old AT&T

Same old AT&T. Yes their systems are antiquated, batch oriented behemoths. Probably still running Autocoder.

An AT&T business DSL customer of mine wanted to increase his bandwidth to 1.5/1.5 symmetric. He was told by AT&T that he would have to cancel his existing account and then open a new account. What kind of ******** is that?

If AT&T spent half as much on technology improvments as they do on marketing they would have a useable infrastructure.

[cdadler]

worked awesome for me

i registered two phones on a family plan as an existing customer. phone 1 took about 5 minutes

phone 2 was added to the account and activated 28 minutes later 8:36pm and 9:02pm eastern time respectively. this included my time to enter the info and receive the email.

sorry about the problems others are having.

[azulch]

Simply click the link in the email

At about 9 pm I also encountered the same wait, but the email they sent at the same time, confirming the wait, contained a link with text indicating I could try again. I did it three times and on the fourth it worked. It was the same as getting a busy signal and continuing to dial until you get through. No sweat.

This device is unbelievably good. And, given the volume, I can't complain at all about the combined Apple and AT&T service experience thus far.

[tntpayne--2008]

No Link

There is no link in the e-mail to try again!

[EuripedesCO]

AT&T iPhone

Word has it that a AT&T customer has already had the iPhone
unlocked and moved their Tmobile SIM card into the iPhone and
it works like a charm. AT&T is a joke!. I am a huge Apple fan and
am so dissapointed that a great company like Apple went with
the worst Cell Phone company on the planet.

Like most consumers I really want the iPhone but would rather
stay with my mobile provider then go to the darkside for a
iPhone. My BlackBerry does all the iPhone can to a point, but my
service is the best and the Customer Service from my provider
can't be beat!. Sorry Apple but no iPhone for me until you all go
to a real mobile provider.

[allicara]

doubt it

I doubt very seriously that someone has already unlocked an iphone for use with another provider. First of all, most cell providers will not unlock your phone unless you have an active account with them. Second, I have had several phones unlocked over the years and it is never a one day process. It usually takes between 3-5 days. And all of the information I have received is that the iphone will NOT be unlocked under any circumstances.

[jerseyrich]

24 Hours (and more) is acceptable....

The most anticipated launch of a mobile telephone in the history of the technology...

Probably the best first day sales of any mobile phone ever...

People wait for days in line...

...kind of makes waiting 24 hours seem petty.

[Mikeatle]

Petty?

No. It doesn't seem petty to find twelve or more hours of waiting
for AT&T to get its corporate head out of its equally corporate
arse. I agree with the others who have stated that Apple made a
HORRIBLE choice in going with AT&T. The company sucks! The
phones could have and should have been up and running
immediately.

Why oh, why didn't Apple build a standalone model? I'd love to
have an iPhone that worked with WiFi only. As it is, I refuse to
buy an Apple/AT&T product. I already have a Verizon phone and
can't afford a second phone through AT&T.

[haitianhottiee]

Petty??? Not really

Petty, huh? Not if its you! How about 2 days? Is it Petty after you as
a customer have spent $700 (iPhone +accessories+ tax), waited in
line and have anxiously awaited the iPhone expierence? I DONT
THINK SO!!!!!

[mdw12053]

Activation

We got my wife's iPhone activated along with the transfer of a T-
Mobile cell number in less than 5 minutes.

[txag11]

Activation

The activation went smoothly for me.

I keyed my AT&T user info in and then 30 seconds later I was good to go, and that was around... 8p.m. EST.

[CannuckComment]

Ready within 2minutes!

Took me exactly 2 minutes to set up.
Activated without any problem at all.

[jesmac418]

AT&T poor choice for iPhone

I am not going to really bash AT&T for the lame response to the
iPhone intro. Even Apple had troubles the first week of the iPod.
My real complaint with Apple is why sleep with one carrier?
This limits your marketing so much! So far in the price plan I
have not seen anything really that great offered by AT&T.
Why not allow all carriers to offer a version with some special
software? This would make everyone happier with all parties.
I think for now my thought is no iPhone for me. I like my free
phone every two and have just upgraded my Nano to a iPod.
I really see the iPhone as a great product with a limited appeal.
At the very least Apple should offer a fully functional version
without the cell phone.

[wwdallas]

Former AT&T Wireless Customers?

Has anyone successfully added a $20 (or more) iPhone data plan to their former AT&T Wireless Plan? These are what's called Old Blue plans, as opposed to Cingular and the new AT&T plans, which I believe are called Orange Plans.

This would only apply to anyone that started as an Old AT&T Wireless customer before they got acquired by Cingular, and has kept their plan since being acquired by Cingular and now rebranded as the New AT&T.

I actually have an old Family Plan (3 lines) and wonder if the iPhone will accept my phone number and plan during activation.

[gwats1957]

I told you SO! NEVER be first in line!!

I'm a die-hard MAc guys for nearly 12 years now. I love the products and the software, but I've learned the hard, and expensive way NEVER to be an early adopter of Apple's or anyones else's technology.
When Apple introduced the 22" Studio display in 2002, I HAD to have one. So I scraped together $2500 hard-earned dollars and went down to the local store and got one. Cool, I thought to myself I've got the best display
from the best company and it's state of the art. It was... for about 4 months until Apple introduced
the 23" HD studio display, lowered the price on the unit I bought to $999, and then discontinued the unit a few months later, leaving me with an obsolete display and $1300 in debt.
The 22" display is still on my desk and working great, but it is a constant reminder of how dumb we can be with our money when we've just GOT to have the coolest and the best stuff on the block.
In less than six moths I'd be willing to bet we see improved versions of both the iPhone and IPod just in time for Xmas giving. You're also going to see a lot of folks seriously pissed when they can't upgrade their current iPhones without a major financial hit from Apple or AT&T.
I'll stay on the sidelines for now and avoid the Playstation 3 rush to ruin.

[darrell_amy]

Chill Out

We all know this will be obsolete in the next six months. However,
we'll enjoy six months of cell phone bliss while you waste away
using your obsolete technology. Maybe in six months you can buy
my used iPhone on ebay when I get version 2.0. Relax.

[gwats1957]

Trust me, it's in the bag!

I was looking @ the first deconstruction of the iPhone listed on the web and I was struck by the fact that there is lot of unused space inside....space that could be used to house a 100 gig mini HD, a bluetooth transmitter, perhaps a higher resoluton camera?
This phone is not the ending, but the beginning of a whole new generation of handheld products from the coolest company on earth.
God bless you early adopters, but the night is still young!
I hope you haven't spent ALL your $$$$ in one place!
I weep for you, but tears are from Laughter!