Reader: iPhone store experience "cool" but Activation S-L-O-W
Summary: Reader jkinner wrote me last night to report that while the iPhone buying experience was straight on, the activating experience proceded at a snail's pace:I'm in Southern NJ, and I went to both an AT&T store (limited stock, but only 1.5 hours from arrival to departure with an iPhone) and and Apple store.
Reader jkinner wrote me last night to report that while the iPhone buying experience was straight on, the activating experience proceded at a snail's pace:
I'm in Southern NJ, and I went to both an AT&T store (limited stock, but only 1.5 hours from arrival to departure with an iPhone) and and Apple store. The Apple store was certainly a lot more fun. I'd hate to spoil the surprise if they do anything tomorrow, so I'll just say it was a cool experience. They also had lots of iPhone boxes sitting right behind the registers. That certainly explained the guard at the front of the store!
However, after arriving home with 2 iPhones, I had to spend 3 hours beating my head against the abysmal activation system. I know, lots of other people had absolutely no problem. Well, good for you, I say, and congrats!
After getting over that hurdle (apparently a technical glitch in the integration between Apple's and AT&T's parts of the credit approval process), I've still been waiting 1.5+ hours for the "additional time to complete" to be up. Hopefully, I can stay awake a little while longer and actually see the thing work.
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Talkback
3 hours? I'm at 13!
18 Hours and Counting
Now at 13 hours, too
I have a big problem now, since I thought I was in the AT&T activation queue last night, but when I reconnected iPhone today, iTunes took me back to the credit rejection screen. I sure felt rejected, all right. After 2+ hours on hold this morning (1+ for AT&T support and another 1+ after they foisted me off on Apple support), I've now been told that it looks like I'm in the queue.
Kudos to the AT&T store manager, who worked with me this morning to get me my credit verification code. He's the one person I could count on to answer the phone, and I'm grateful for his help.
activation note...
after a little fooling around with tech support, i took out the sim to be sure the number on it matched the one they had. then i replaced it, and boom! it worked.
give this a try if you haven't yet.
ALMOST 19 HOURS!!!!
Really getting ridiculous...
This represents a complete breakdown in the supply chain. Does AT&T expect me to believe they didn't know how many phones were hitting the shelves? Did they really underestimate the appeal of a product for which people were willing to wait in lines for 24 hours just to TOUCH the phone?
Be warned, everyone. At least in my state (NJ), you have 72 hours to cancel a contract. This could bring you seriously close to these limits, nevermind that you might also have to face a restocking fee, too, should you decide that you want to wait until AT&T gets their act together.