Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Haaaalllleeeeejuuuuuahhhhh!
We just did it. After probably 20 or so phone calls to numerous departments all over Apple and AT&T; we finally found the *right* department who can actually activate iPhones with you online, on the spot.
The magic number, and you will want to write this one down, is 877-800-3701. A special shout out and thanks to Scott Francis who left us a comment with the key to getting this whole mess solved. Apparently this is the one place at AT&T; where they can actually activate your iPhone with you online. It was about a 20 minute hold and about a 10 minute process but the iPhone is now activated.
Thanks to everyone who spent the last day plus with us on ZooomrTV while we got it activated. It’s been a fun ride. Now time to play with the phone and figure it out.
Congrats, Thomas. I was watching most last night.
Thomas, congrats! Your perseverance has finally paid off. A good feeling isn’t it? despite hairs being pulled, walled getting smacked, etc for the past hours.
Awwwwwww, man. 🙁 What the hell am I gonna watch now!??!?!
“Hallelujah, …”
So I guess for once ValleyWag wasn’t exaggerating when they called it the JesusPhone. So what’s next, Armageddon caused by dropped phone calls? It *does* make phone calls, right? 🙂
What a PR nightmare for AT&T; with all the activation problems being reported.
And it’s kind of a “shame on you” to those of you that put up with that kind of crap. You are basically paying through the nose for the privilege to be ignored and nearly abandoned by a service provider. The key is SERVICE, which they seem to not provide.
Hi Thomas,
Glad it worked for you.
Enjoy it.
Best regards.
THANK YOU!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting the phone number to activate my iPhone! I have been waiting very patiently for an email from iTunes for over 30 hours and NOTHING! I called the number, got through in about 45 minutes, activated within 15 minutes and I am up and running.
Again, thank you so much! I just added your blog to my favorite blogs in Google Reader!
Jason DiMambro
you are an idiot. i saw several ppl trying to help you in the zooomr chat and you ignored their suggestions, choosing instead to milk the story. how funny that the solution you eventually was the same as the one they suggested. if you had spent more time trying to solve the problem and less time on a broadcasting ego-trip then maybe you wouldn’t have wasted so much of your weekend on hold and could have spent it with the children instead.
i agree with the last comment. The author here is one of those geek idiots i see all around. The holier then thou kinda people who would rather milk a story then fix a problem.
Are you on drugs? The “magic number” that solved your problem is the same number you called first according to the preceding post.
The HTC 6800 (aka Titan, aka Sprint Mogul) rocks. No problems getting it going.
There is even a hack that will make it look like an iphone – if you really need it to.
Makes you wonder if these people with the iPhone activation problems are a group of ADD-afflicted button pushers who don’t let things happen without a thousand button presses or mouse clicks.
BTW, you might want to update your slashdot submission and mention that you’re no longer waiting for activation. Just a thought.
steelsun, it’s a matter of definition. the “service” they’re selling is that they carry your calls (when the equipment is working ok.)
whole issue seems utterly weird. I’ve used GSM for almost a decade and I’ve never needed any “activation” on- or offline. Put the SIM in the phone and off you go. (I’ve always used unlocked phones.)
Just keep on milking it Thomas. Perhaps one day being efamous will offset your parents not loving you.
I did my activation in under 8 minutes. If it had taken longer than 72hrs I would have start complaining, but all this documenting for something that you just leave there until its done….
i understand yoru frustration, but I think you exagerated with the calls too much….
Hmm. When you look at all the hours spent, money spent for an iPhone and it being activated, that is a huge price to pay. You can make the money back easy perhaps, but is it time well spent? You don’t get that back.
Its kind of ironic that I got a FREE offer for a Razr V3T this week, that took about 10 minutes to order over the phone. When I received it in the mail (No waiting in line), it activated ITSELF after I charged it (This phone activation would have been a pretty boring and brief videocast). My phone service actually went down $10 a month when I switched providers.
The iPhone is the latest and greatest today, but its not going to replace your Canon 5D or your Macbook. Its a phone. And certainly not *miphone*. For a while anyway.
so what was the problem? That your phone was not in the dock when AT&Ts; backend servers tried to activate your phone? (hence no activation, no email?)
That would be a serious omission on Apples part not to include in the itunes activation wizard that you need to leave your phone docked until you get the email.
To answer a question raised here…
“I’ve used GSM for almost a decade and I’ve never needed any “activation” on- or offline. Put the SIM in the phone and off you go.” -Anonymous @ 12:48am
Q: So why is the iPhone different from other GSM phones?
A: There were two different activations going on here. One with Apple and one with AT&T.; Apple gets 5% of all monthly service fees (which were set by Apple) from AT&T.; They wanted to make sure that all activated users were in their database, so they could get their money from AT&T.; Also, they did not want a crap load of unlocked phones showing up on other provider’s networks where they get no service fee percentage. Anyone complaining about having to sign a 2 year contract to get an iPhone can blame Apple for this too. AT&T; had nothing to do with it. Apple touted this phone as being so revolutionary. It’s not. The contract between AT&T; and Apple is what is revolutionary. Never has a phone maker had total pricing control, a cut of service contract revenue or control of activation through proprietary software. I am not saying all of the activations issues were Apple’s fault, but the issues would not have happened had normal activation processes been allowed.