iPhone Activation Woes - Days 1 through 3

I work very hard to keep calm and remain pleasant whenever I have to resolve problems with customer service representatives. I know that getting angry will usually not help bring resolution any faster and that maintaining my cool and sense of humor will help someone help me. However, even I can be broken. I haven't lost my cool yet, but I can feel myself nearing the brink.

I fully understand this is the largest rollout ever for a cellphone. This is the first time cellphone activations have been done online from the comfort of your home. It is also the first time AT&T has worked with Apple to orchestrate this. For all of this, I'm willing to cut AT&T a lot of slack. However, it's hard to remain patient when you have two non-activated iPhones 48 hours after initiating activation when I waited 12 hours in line to purchase them.

I wish I would have taken better notes, but I'll do the best to document my saga. There isn't an end in sight so I had better start writing now for fear of forgetting the earlier days.

DAY ONE: June 29th, 2007

As I mentioned, I waited in line for 12 hours to purchase my two iPhones. In fact, I have been waiting for the iPhone since I sat in the audience at the Macworld Expo Keynote in January when Steve Jobs unveiled them. To ensure I would get my iPhones, I arrived at 6 am at my local AT&T store. I was fourth in line but the three young ladies in front of me were only purchasing a single phone so I guess you could say I was second. One in the party of three of three graciously stood in for my wife so I could get the second of my two iPhones -- my wife was stuck in Atlanta trying to get home.

After the 12 long hours in the Florida heat, I had my iPhones and was the first to emerge from the store. The local paper interviewed me and my picture and quotes were on the front page the next morning. I would receive calls, e-mails, and text messages throughout the day from people who read the article. "How do you like your iPhone?" they would ask. I didn't have much to say since I was still awaiting activation on the first phone.

The problems began when the AT&T checkout employee entered my name in the system as "Janes" instead of "James". I didn't noticed the error when I was the store. I never thought to look carefully at the receipt what with being delirious with joy and dehydration. I just knew I had my iPhones, and I was off to activate them. I'm a new AT&T customer so I'm setting up an account and porting two numbers from my current carrier. At home, I began the iTunes activation process with the first iPhone, and that seemed to go fine until the final screen. I remember the screen stalling for a long time, and eventually, it timed out and reported that I would receive an e-mail when the activation was complete. I could barely sleep that night waiting for that e-mail. I set my alarm for 5 the next morning in the hopes it would be waiting for me. An e-mail arrived at 3:21 in the morning, but it was not the one I wanted. "We are unable to locate the address you entered."

DAY TWO: June 30th, 2007

I called the phone number on the e-mail right away. As this was the first of many phone calls to AT&T, I don't remember the specifics of the call. I do remember that I was assured that the problem was fixed with my misspelled name, and I should wait for the confirmation e-mail. I think I called once or twice more that day to check on my status, but each time I was assured everything was in order and I just needed to wait. At 2:13 pm I received an e-mail stating, "We're sorry. AT&T has identified a problem with the information you provided." During a call back to AT&T following receipt of that e-mail, I was assured everything was now correct, and I needed to hang tight.

I think it was one of the last calls I made that day when I learned that my case had been red flagged and forwarded to tech support. AT&T offered to forward me to tech support whereupon I spoke to someone from Apple. Given that there was no evidence of a defective iPhone, I wasn't sure what Apple tech support could do for me, and as it turns out, neither were they. I probably spent thee to four hours on hold that day and by this time, I was ready to sleep on it and hope it would be resolved by morning.

DAY THREE: July 1st, 2007

I called in the morning to check my status. This time, Natalie from AT&T helped me. She seemed like the most empowered of everyone with whom I dealt so far. Eventually she had to confer with tech support on my case and she had me on hold while she herself was on hold with tech support. I believe tech support this time was actually AT&T tech support and not Apple. After over a half hour of waiting on hold, she suggested I hang up and she would call me back once she had spoken with tech support. She returned my call an hour or so later stating she had no success getting through to tech support and that I should call on my own later in the day once the morning backlog of calls was cleared. Taking her advice, I called tech support myself around 11 am.

This call resulted in what I thought was progress. I was told there was a problem with my address and that it was to be forwarded to another office, and I would receive confirmation of this via e-mail in an hour. After an hour went by, there was no e-mail. Two hours elapsed and I called again. The representative tried to help me while I waited but eventually asked me if she could work the problem and get back to me. I waited for about four hours and never received a return call.

The last call of the day resulted in the most information about my activation woes. Over the course of waiting on the phone for about an hour, I learned that there was some problem with my existing cellphone number. For whatever reason unbeknownst to me and AT&T, my billing address did not match the subregion for my previous carrier. The verdict was I had to return to the AT&T store and receive a new SIM card for my iPhone. They kept telling me it would be free as if paying for it would be an acceptable option.

I've now spoken to about 8 different people over the last two days. Each time, I back-brief the new person on everything that has transpired. I should note that the representatives have always been very polite and forthcoming. Call waits have varied from an hour to none at all. I now have the hold music track memorized and I could recite the tech support script from memory. I'll take the day off from work tomorrow so I can be there when the store opens.