Whoo hoo! I have in my grubby, nail-bitten hands an iPhone of my very own. Actually, since The New AT&T (which seems very much like The Old AT&T) hasn’t managed to activate it yet, what I actually have is a brick.
It’s a rather sexy, shiny brick, though. I can’t stop sliding the unlock button.
I know!
Here’s an on-going tale of my activation. Let’s see together how long it takes for me to have a working iPhone.
7:30 PM: Take a few unboxing photos of the iPhone. None of them came out very well. Very disappointed.
8 PM: Connected iPhone to MacBook for first time. I thrill at the trill iPhone makes when you dock it. The excitement is palpable as iTunes launches, tells me it’s looking for iPhone and then… tells me I need to update to Mac OS X 10.4.10. Sigh.
10:30 PM: Y and I finish iChatting; she logs out and goes to bed, I fire up Software Update and kick off the update process. While a couple hundred megabytes find their way to my MacBook, I surf the internet (i.e. twiddle my thumbs).
11 PM: Software Update completes, reboots, reboots again (really Apple, think you could warn people about that?). Log in, connect iPhone (ah, there’s that trill!), up comes iPhone, and I can finally start the process. I choose a family plan (awww!).
11:13 PM: My first email from the iPhone_Activation_Support team! Oh, its just giving me an order number and thanking me for buying an iPhone. Uh, you’re welcome?
11:19 PM: I hit my second hurdle. My activation “may take a while”. No guess as to how long “a while” might be. I get another email letting me know that AT&T is now processing my order. Uh, thanks?
Midnight: Still not activated, I decide to get some shuteye. Maybe I’ll wake up to a working iPhone!
7:30 AM: Wake up. iPhone still not activated. I start to worry, ever so slightly. I grab my T-Mobile phone, just to make sure AT&T hasn’t ended that service before starting my new one. Nope, T-Mobile still works. Whew.
7:45 AM: Visit AT&T website, call the iPhone activation number (877.800.3701), get to a Customer Service Rep (Senetria). I explain the situation, that it’s been eight hours or so, and no activation. Her reaction?
AT&T isn’t responsible for activating the iPhone
Blink. Blink.
She insists that any iPhone related questions are handled by Apple, that’s it’s all “done on the Internet”.
Ah! It hits me: she thinks I’m having problems using iTunes! I explain that I’m not, and she goes away for about 10 minutes, looking things up, I presume. When she returns, she informs me that I need to call iPhone Customer Service at… 877.800.3701, the very number I’m currently dialed in to.
8 AM: OK then. She transfers me over to Dave, who, I presume, is sitting in the next cube over. He looks into the magic AT&T systems and divines that “people” have been touching my account (ewww!), and that something should be happening Real Soon Nowâ„¢, perhaps as soon as 20 minutes, but he suggests I practice patience for another three or four hours. I thank him reluctantly and hang up.
8:08 AM: Lo! Another email from AT&T! “Processing Mobile Number Transfer”! This is great! My phone is semi-activated! I can receive calls on my iPhone, and start playing with all the features! Well, except for that “calling people” thing. Over-rated anyway.
8:38 AM: Still another email from AT&T! Is it… can it be? Yes! “Congratulations, AT&T has successfully transferred your existing mobile number.” Sweeter words have never crossed my spam filters.
And only nine hours to do it. Not the “super easy” activation some other people experienced, but relatively painless.
I won’t bother telling you how cool this phone is, you either already know or have read about it a million other places.
But I’ve got an iPhone!
Whoo hoo!