Over 48 hours after purchasing my iPhone I still do not have service. The most frustrating thing is the lack of clear information from AT&T. Here's a quick rundown of my situation:
- Friday 6:30 PM: Purchase iPhone and go home. Before I attempted activation I had a few errands to run. Big mistake. Many of the folks in line were talking about rushing right home and activating to avoid any of the problems that would surely overwhelm AT&T later that evening.
- Friday Evening: I plug in my iPhone and start the process via iTunes. Halfway thru I am told my account will not work, I need to call AT&T. I have been an AT&T/Cingular customer for almost 10 years. Even though we've had a family share plan for the past 4 years, one of the numbers on the account was originally a corporate number. That needs to be cleared. AT&T rep takes my number and says somebody would call me back that night. No call.
- Saturday Morning: I call AT&T and wait for over 90 minutes, eventually I hang up because it's Saturday and I have other things to do. I venture down to the AT&T store and ask them about this 'corporate' flag. The rep looks up my account and says that there is a note in the system that the flag is going to be removed, but it can take as long as 24 hours.
- Saturday Afternoon: I attempt to run the activation again on iTunes, it goes further this time. I eventually get the famous "Your Activation Requires Additional Time to Complete...." message. Things are looking up, or so they seem.
- Saturday Night: I call AT&T and check on the activation. The rep says they are running anywhere from 24-48 hours behind, everything else looks good though. Keep checking.
- Sunday Morning: I call AT&T and inquire again, the rep says everything on my account is provisioned correctly, it will still be 24-48 hours.
- Sunday Evening: Reading Rex Hammocks' note, I call the 'special' number he used. Turns out my account is not provisioned correctly, so WTF were the two previous reps looking at when they said "everything is provisioned correctly?" I spend almost 30 minutes on the phone with this rep rebuilding my order since the iPhone data plan and the SMS plan weren't on the previous order. Once again WTF?
At some point I am supposed to receive an order number, then I can call back in to check on things again. When will that be? The rep didn't want to give me a range since they didn't know. Estimate would be with 24-48 hours. (Gotta love those numbers now!)
So what will AT&T be giving me and the thousands of others to make up for this massive cluster F? Similar to what TypePad did last year, I'd like to see an e-mail from Randall Stephenson saying, "Hey we screwed up, what can we do to make it up to you? Would you like a free ( ) week, ( ) month of service?"
Visitor Comments
FWIW: I've seen other posts on iPhone Hell that say the "order number" email comes from iTune Store and not AT&T -- could be caught by spam filters.
Rather interesting to read some of the iBrick stories out there. So many people having such a problem -- not good considering all the iHype...
Posted by: Jim Johnson | July 1, 2007 10:29 PM
My phone was setup perfect on Friday evening. i waited until 9:30 to activate and by 10PM i was synched and playing with the phone. Zero issues all week. sorry you're having those issues Josh.
Posted by: adam Jackson | July 1, 2007 11:31 PM
Unfortunately, I doubt you'll get the response you're hoping for from AT&T. They are not the model of a customer-friendly company. (I don't know how BellSouth was, but I suspect you'll become more acquainted with this now that they've become the local provider in your neck of the woods. AT&T, in the SBC days, managed something amazing - they made me miss Verizon!)
That said, as wireless providers go - I've been a customer of all 4 major US providers, and actually, I found Cingular to be the best overall. Which is no great commentary on them, but more a statement about the sad state of the industry.
I suspect that they know that with this first batch of iPhone buyers, they're dealing with the die-hard gotta-have-it bleeding edge folks, and don't have to do much beyond get it working eventually. And, they've got you in a contract (once it's activated). I'm not saying this is admirable, but AT&T's corporate approach seems to be "you're on the hook, so squirm!"
Posted by: John Whiteside | July 2, 2007 11:07 AM