Saturday, June 30, 2007

iPhone Processing Activation Email - 15 hours 6 minutes

Hi All,

If you iPhone is in the Completing Activation state and you haven't yet received an email with an order number, check your spam folder. This email was received 15 hours and 6 minutes from the time the activation was submitted.

===========================================================
From: do_notreply@att.com
Subject: Thank you for your recent purchase

We are currently processing your order. Your order number is XXXXXX
You will receive an additional e-mail when your order is complete that will provide further instructions to activate your iPhone.
===========================================================

BTW, after this email was received, our old phones were no longer active.

iPhone Activation Delay


AT&T is now processing your activation.


You will receive an email confirmation once your activation is complete.

iPhone Activation Issues - processing your activation
  • This is the message you receive on your iTunes screen after you submit your iPhone activation.
  • I have surfed the AT&T iPhone Customer Forums and there are iPhone customers that have waited more than 12 hours with this message, from 9pm Eastern Time last night.
  • We submitted ours at 11:58PM ET on June 29th, and 12 hours later, our old Cingular phones still work for both incoming and outgoing calls, and we have not received our iPhone successful activation email.
  • We ended up ejecting the iPhone from its docking station in the morning and were able to re-dock it without harming the activation as we not so patiently are waiting.

Resources

iPhone Activation Problems

We just returned from the Apple Store this evening and we are trying to activate our iPhones. Here are some of the issues we've encountered so far:

Resources

Activation Specialists
1-877-777-4189
iPhone Activation
1-866-907-3484
AT&T iPhone activation support
1-877-419-4500

AT&T Website
http://www.att.com/iphone

iPhone Support Website
iPhone Support
iPhone User Guide


iPhone Customer Support Forums
AT&T iPhone Support Forum
MacRumors iPhone Forum
Apple iPhone Support Forum
Howard Forums for iPhone

Tips
1. iTunes 7.3 -- Before you activate your iPhone, make sure you upgrade your Mac OS X so that you can install the new iTunes. If your are a Windows Customer, make sure you download the latest iTunes.

2. Phone Bill -- If you plan on porting your numbers from another carrier or are a Cingular customer, make sure you have your account number from your phone bill and your password (let's hope you know what it is).

3. iPhone will not work until Activated -- In order to do anything on the iPhone, you must activate it first which requires selecting your cell phone plan. This also means that you are unable to play with it before transferring or porting your old number, which could take up to 6 hours or longer.

4. AT&T Wireless (not Cingular Customer) -- We had to call AT&T Customer Service to assist us with the activation (only a 45 minute wait). Since we were not an Cingular customer, the rep had to manually change our plan over from the old AT&T Wireless (not Cingular) before we could activate our phones.

5. iTunes Apple ID -- Make sure you have your Apple ID or your iTunes user name and password.

6. Activation Busy Try Again Message -- We received this message on our iMac and tried multiple times and finally gave up. I really hate to say this, but it worked on our three Microsoft Windows Machines without a failure.

7. Microsoft Outlook iTunes Plug-in Disabled -- After installing iTunes 7.3, the iTunes Outlook Plug-in was disabled and Outlook crashed. You can re-enable it in Outlook by clicking About, Help, Disabled Programs.

8. Activation Submitted -- When your activation is successfully submitted, you will receive an email.

9. Don't Take your iPhone Out of its Cradle -- When waiting for activation which could be as long as 6 hours or more, don't take your iPhone out of its cradle according to the activation specialist we spoke to on the phone. You need to wait to receive a second email notifying you that your activation has been completed.

iPhone Activation Video


Friday, June 29, 2007

Buying an iPhone

We went down to the Apple Store on June 29th at 8:30pm and after standing in line for only a few minutes, we walked in the store past a group of security guards.

Any of the Apple Store employees can place your order with their hand held device. You are limited to purchasing 2 iPhones per person. This is a revolutionary purchasing experience:

1. You simply give them your credit card and identification and email address.
2. You will be asked for your electronic signature.
3. The iPhone comes in a small box, about the size of a watch
box.
4. As you would expect the Apple store employee gives you a very nice Apple iPhone bag for your new iPhone.
5. You do not leave the store with a paper receipt, it will be emailed to you.

Our iPhones