48+ Hour Activation Hell
Sun, July 1, 2007 at 07:29PM 
I certainly hope that no one has had quite as long an activation wait as I have, but I suspect it is rather typical. I'm a "worst case" customer because I'm an existing old "blue" AT&T customer AND I'm on a family plan. Why existing customers have a tougher go at it than new customers it is understandable only from a systems perspective. As a client, it sucks.
And I've been told many different things. First there were the hours of waiting optimistically on Friday night, trying to work within the assumption of iTunes making everything right. Then there was the representative telling me that I needed to physically go to an AT&T store to "convert" my customer account. And it got worse from there.
At the AT&T store, they did do something to my account. I know this because my old phone stopped working by noon on Saturday. I sure hope no one has been trying to reach me, or even now for that matter. Tomorrow, when I go back to work I really do need a phone and I'm not sure they will have it sorted out by then.
This is aggravating, obviously, but I'm especially disappointed because I have lost my long-anticipated "weekend-with-the-iPhone" that would have resulted in some nice posting on this blog. I hope you've done better than me. Feel free to rant in the space below if not.
Charles Gordon
I have now read the stupidest line of writing on the subject of iPhone activation. On July 26, 2007, Laurie J. Flynn of the New York Times wrote,
"It is not entirely clear why so many early iPhone customers did not activate their phones right away, but Apple executives acknowledged that many customers experienced activation problems during the first week."
I guess there were a bunch of us who bought the phones just to look at them, I suppose.
This is in the context of a very positive article for Apple profits and iPhone sales: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/business/26apple.html
Reader Comments (5)
My phone isn't activated yet either. Started trying Friday at around 8pm EST, here we are Sunday after 10pm and still nothing. I'm trying to move my number from Verizon, my wife had no trouble doing the same, but yes we are on a family plan. A bunch of friends also got iPhones, still less than half have successfully activated.
That's interesting that you say it is half of your friends. Engaget is running a poll with over 10,000 respondents...and only 49.7% of them had a trouble-free install: Poll
I wish AT&T would just fess up that it is the volume, not random technical issues, that is causing the problem. Oh, and they should "give" us our activation fees back--and make the first month of service free. That would be the right thing to do for damage control.
I feel your pain - my activatin took 27+ hrs.
"I know this because my old phone stopped working by noon on Saturday. I sure hope no one has been trying to reach me, or even now for that matter."
I was told by aan AT&T rep that I could take my iPhone's sim and put it in my old phone. Give it a try if you're still waiting for activation.
"I wish AT&T would just fess up that it is the volume"
When I called, that's exactly what they said the issue was.
Any news on your phone? All 8 of ours are now working. AT&T's a-team was definitely back at their desks this morning, though the two last phones to activate took 65 and 67 hours total. Since activation I've gotten 5 calls from AT&T asking if everything is working, can they do anything for me, etc.
Hope you're finally basking in the iPhone glow. This thing is really wonderful.
As of 3:07 am this morning my phone was activated. I could barely believe it! I've been playing with it on and off, but I had to put in 12 hours at work today (though it was really about 10 hours of work and a couple of hours of iPhone demos). I was surprised at the people interested in the phone...the guys in my tech group were curious, but it was the non-tech people who acted like they wanted to run to the store.
I'm glad it looks like everyone else is up and running now too. I've forgotten all about the "lost weekend" and just loving this device!