What is Digg?373 Comments
- jonmills, on 10/11/2007, -5/+144Let's see....in line at the AT&T store at 2:00 PM. Got my phone by 6:20 PM. Got home before 7, tried to activate: "sorry, your current account cannot be used with the iPhone." Three calls to AT&T tech support later, turns out that I had a "business discount" on my account that I didn't even know I was getting, and I don't even have a business account...it's a normal personal account! So, they removed that, but still the transaction doesn't go through....same error...now 9:30 PM. I try again at 11:30 before bed...and it works! Sort of. I get all the way through the activation process, and then it says "additional time is needed for you phone to be activated...you'll get an email." And subsequently my previous phone was deactivated, "unrecognized SIM card," yet my iPhone wasn't activated yet...so effectively I had no phone service! Had to use Skype to call AT&T tech support! Answer: it will just take time. And 7 hours later, there's still no change. 12 hours after spending $639, I have no cell phone service and a shiny brick sitting on my desk. /rant
- tsunamisteve, on 10/11/2007, -10/+99AT&T FTL
- undersky, on 10/11/2007, -9/+94Wow, tough crowd on Digg toward iPhone huh? I guess I will get buried for buying one myself, but I have to speak up the truth.
1. I have heard about the activation problems from Eastern Time Zone customers as I waited in line in the Pacific Time Zone. So I was somewhat prepared for it.
2. My activation went through in less than TWO minutes.
3. There are literally hundreds of thousand of people trying to activate or switch their phone at the same time.
4. When some people, even as little as 1%, it could mean literally thousands, have this problem.
5. After waiting in line with these people for 3 hours, I have to say these are not the smartest or nicest people. The two girls in front of me in line were your spoiled sort (no more than 15 years old), not only were talking non-stopped what they planned to buy next, but also what they plan to buy next next. The guy behind me was the usual self-consumed short-fuse dude. Yes, there were some more intelligent people or your traditional apple guru types, but I guess wha I am trying to say is this... some people really are just hard to be satisfied, and they do not have any patience whatsoever.
Seriously, if I have to wait four hours to activate my phone, then I will just wait four hours. Instead of freak out, i will enjoy the scarce chance when I am disconnected from the technology. In the grand scheme of things, is it REALLY that important? I know many of them just spent $600+ dollars like me, but you know, if you could've waited 6 months, just wait another 6 hours! These people at ATT are working their butts off! It's not an usual thing, actually, it's unprecedented, to have THAT many people trying to activate at the same time. - chrisc801, on 10/11/2007, -8/+88Why couldn't they just sell it unlocked ?
At&t only was a dealbreaker for me. - fourfun, on 10/11/2007, -6/+60Looks like AT&T adopted Cingular's customer service motto: "We're not happy until you're not happy!"
- mattxb, on 10/11/2007, -0/+48Im so glad I don't work AT&T customer support right now. What a nightmare that would be.
- cyberdork, on 10/11/2007, -5/+52My god, you are waiting in line with thousands of people to buy a phone on the launch day, and then you are surprised when you go home and it turns out their services are overloaded.
If I was going to buy an iPhone I would simply wait till Monday after all this launch day frenzy and the hiccups are over. Like one more weekend without an iPhone would be so terrible.
All these rants here are pretty pathetic, actually they sound like a bunch of spoiled kids: "But I want it now!!! Now Now Now!! waahhhhh!" - jrlcopy, on 10/20/2007, -6/+47Gah 4 hours for activation is not cool!!!
- Wonderkind, on 10/11/2007, -3/+41I worked at AT&T for almost ten years.
If Apple did only one thing wrong, it was contracting with AT&T.
Plan on more problems. - lebbink, on 10/11/2007, -10/+44- snacks for the 2,5 day wait queue: 29,95
- iPhone: 599,-
- not being able to call anyone and brag about your new iPhone because AT&T sucks: priceless.
muhahaha - prockcore, on 10/11/2007, -1/+33Quick question, we know the iphone uses a sim card, and it won't work with other sim cards, but does the iphone sim card work in any other phone?
If it doesn't, I find that disturbing.. and destroys the whole purpose behind having a sim card in the first place. - brw3245, on 10/11/2007, -5/+33I activated mine at about 7pm on the 29th with zero problems. It took about 2 min to activate with iTunes. All in all I am a happy customer it really is a remarkable device. At dinner I showed some pictures, was able to look up the lyrics to a Neil Diamond song that a friend wanted and showed my friends that indeed I could look up internet porn on my mobile phone. The future is here :)
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -4/+31*waits for rev 2 of the iphone*
- macewan, on 10/11/2007, -3/+26It's taking a long time to filter all the iPhone purchaser information through the NSA, give AT&T a break! Geez ;-)
- PleaseBeSerious, on 10/11/2007, -2/+24Even more amazing than the number of people affected by this is the number of people who are surprised that it happened.
- kenvsryu, on 10/11/2007, -5/+26Apple chose AT&T since it's financially beneficial - not for their great service or great network.
- JoeBaynham, on 10/11/2007, -3/+23Reports of 6 hour Activation wait.. I think some people would rather of activated it in the store.
- reir, on 10/11/2007, -5/+25AT&T = garbage
http://www.who-sucks.com/tech/8-reasons-why-att-sucks-beyond-all-belief#more-39 - armorshell, on 10/11/2007, -31/+49Physically impossible. As I understand it (mostly from "well" informed Apple users) it's impossible for Apple products to fail in any way shape or form.
I'm lolling as hard as I can - Merlyn383, on 10/11/2007, -3/+20There are two big reasons that Apple couldn't sell it unlocked.
1. Things like the Visual Voicemail require a LOT to be changed on the backend of the system. It's not all done on the phone side, the infrastructure has to have the right setup for it.
2. Apple is all about quality control on their products. They wouldn't let the iPhone work on just any network unless they knew that they had a system in place to make sure that the cell network was keepig up their end of deal with service. - bittermang, on 10/11/2007, -2/+18After watching the girls at the front desk pull their hair out screaming at the Verizon web based authentication activation gateway thing, this AT&T failure doesn't surprise me. I guess one could equate it to what would happen if you turned that same non working gateway into a Wal Mart self checkout, and then set literally thousands of people out to beta test it all at the same time.
- duren, on 10/11/2007, -7/+22It's been over 10 hours for me and I still looking at a $600 paperweight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14that's cause you and thousands of people did it all at the same time!!!
what, you think it's normal for any cell phone carrier to have to activate this many people at once? - famouspete, on 10/11/2007, -4/+1812 hours gone since signing my life away and clicking *submit*. Still, iWait.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12So really, if you are under the age of 25... which is apples customer base... ATT doesnt want your business... Unless you prepay for the service...
- TheOther1, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12Except Verizon would have crippled 85% of the features, just like they do with most their phones now.
- kingkilr, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11Because ATT was willing to give them what they wanted, it sucks for people not on ATT. I'm sure in time the exclusive deal will expire and other carriers will offer the same stuff ATT did and get the phone,
- nismerf, on 10/11/2007, -3/+13I waited after I got mine know how networks and everyone and their mother trying to register their phones. So I did it at midnight, no issues at all, even transferred a number from my old carrier. I was on the phone in a few min, the number transferred (normally this can take 6 hrs to a day) in 2 hours.
- Amnesia10, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11I agree that it is not cool, but two big caveats. This is the biggest launch of a mobile phone ever, so there will be initial teething problems. I would have thought that AT&T would have allowed people to go though a lot of the activation in advance, especially if they know that they wanted one, with the payments only starting after the phone has been connected and the details added.
As to launching a phone on a Friday evening so if there are problems it cannot be dealt with till Monday, that was not a great idea. - universeman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9I got the prepaid option since I'm not using this as my primary phone anyhow. Minutes are expensive but the service is about what the base-level contract plan is. And I still get the unlimited data. GoPhone iPhone!
- RavenBladeX, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9Apple went to Verizon first, but they turned Apple down because they wanted too much control.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9At least Im not the only one that talks on the phone whilst dropping a deuce.
- nickab, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8If it makes you feel better I'm still unactivated after 12 hours and 45 mins. I wouldn't care if I could practice typing on the keyboard or play a game with it, use the iPod features, or do SOMETHING besides call 911. I'm sure you know how I feel.
- Mikecol, on 10/11/2007, -4/+12For new customers, AT&T is requiring a deposit. However, their machines wouldn't validate the deposit as paid, so I have to go back tomorrow to pay the deposit. Only then can I begin the activation process through iTunes.
- Bitgod, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10Yeah, had a fanboy friend who got one, it took 6 hours to activate, he was pissed that he couldn't do anything with it until it got activated. Had another friend get one, it activated and worked fine. One big difference between them, the quick one got a new number, the one that had to wait was porting his number from verizon.
Some of the wait, especially if it's porting related, may depend on what region you're in. A 3rd friend who used to work for cingular mentioned the person that had to wait was in Texas, which was using a crappy old SBC system, and the guy that didn't have to wait was in NC and that would be under a much speedier former BellSouth system.
Me, I'll just be waiting at least a month to see if people feel the same way about their phone then as they do once they get to play with it today. - Netrilix, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9Heh, are you suggesting T-Mobile just because that's what you have? That would have been one of the worse choices for Apple. They really only had three big choices: Sprint/Nextel, AT&T/Cingular, and Verizon. Of the three, Sprint/Nextel seems like the obvious loser. I've heard countless complaints about their service, both before and after the merger. That leaves AT&T/Cingular, and Verizon. At this point, it comes to the subscriber base. AT&T Cingular has more subscribers, so they win.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10OMG, that is funny (sorry for you). That is like a worst case activation nightmare!
- rxbbx, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9First that stupid hype.. now everyone got one.. and now they are annoying with their activation problems. Go get some beer... and just wait :)
- griz, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9Everyone has to be the first in line, first to activate, first to send an e-mail, first to SMS, first first first. I'm sure any one of us could waltz into an Apple store in 2 weeks, buy one off the shelf, take it home and activate it in 5 minutes. People need to settle down, be patient and realize that this is what they get when they want to be first. You all sound line a bunch of crazy mothers fighting over a cabbage patch kid.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -4/+11They wanted to go with Verizon, but Apple wasn't good enough. Verizon FTW!!
Can you hear me now? - SomeJoe, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Having seen one working iPhone (and a bunch of others stilll waiting to activate) I can say that Apple did not make a piece of *****. AT&T however, and/or whatever cell phone structure is causing this has completely melted. There are a lot of pissed off people with $500+ lumps of beautiful coal on their desks right now.
- neuropsychguy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7If you can't afford the $60/month charge, why buy it in the first place?
- fr0mundacheese, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10That would then have been a "Bad to Worse" scenario, right?
- MacParrot, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7WHAT! A company made a deal with another that would maximize its profits? Send in the hounds!
- unmarked, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8Reality check: this is a AT&T wireless issue. And the reality is that these kinds of problems happen at all the carriers. The process for signing up for cell service is 100x more complicated than it needs to be. Problem 1 - long term contracts (a problem with all carriers). Problem 2 - not enough training. Problem 3 - antiquated processes.
Can Apple products fail? Sure (depending on your definition of failure). Is this about an Apple product failing? No, just an attempt by an Apple hater to claim so. - pauldy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6 Yea, apparently we are waiting 5 years on that one. Heres to hopping Apple had a don't f this up clause in that contract though and Monday the phones come unlocked via software updates on iTunes.
- wilhoitm, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5My activation and number transfer over from T-mobile took 2 minutes. I was amazed, I called my transfered mobile number about a minute after activation and my new iPhone rang. How did they do that so fast? I think things are not going so well for transferred numbers from Verizon though...
- enicholas, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I'm still waiting after 12.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6Lol, back in the day I had DSL service from ATT, don't remember when that was. Then one day the thing just stopped working. Called em a couple of times... nothing. About a month later with no service I finally switched over to cable, and never looked back.
- felchdonkey, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Yes, the iPhone SIM card IS portable. http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/06/28/iphone.return.and.repair/
Your line was funny, Murdats, but wrong. -
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