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Activation Problems in iPhone Paradise
Thomas Hawk writes "Unfortunately it appears that some activations of Apple's new iPhone have gone badly. After waiting in line 36 hours I'm still unable to activate my phone. I'm documenting the AT&T circus call by call on my blog. I've had my hold calls dropped, been patched into other users unable to activate their phone instead of AT&T customer service reps, been told that my wife must get a new phone and that the family plan can't work for me. I've been told that the problem is that I'm not putting a new chip into my iPhone in the slot on the left side of my phone when no slot there exists. PR Blogger Steve Rubel has also been documenting his problems on his Twitterstream. According to an unscientific poll being conducted by Engadget about half of the people who bought iPhones have had activation trouble with about 38% of problems still unresolved." Even the folks at MacWorld weren't immune to these issues.
Activation problems? With the iPhone being hyped for a year?
Never saw it coming.
Especially since AT&T, a company known for shitty service, was given launch rights.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Keep in mind that AT&T is turning on more cell phone accounts at once than anyone has ever done in the history of the cell phone industry. iPhone sales have either hit a million units already, or they will by the end of the coming week. If they perform at 99.9%, that's still going to be a thousand people running into problems.
Everyone I know who's gotten one so far had it activated in a couple of minutes. The real story here is how smoothly it's going overall.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Lesson: do not launch product that requires extensive customer service at the beginning of a weekend.
The general observation seems to be that activation from a cold start works OK, but anything that requires "number portability" from a previous account may be troublesome. That's no surprise; number portability is usually a mess, because the carriers don't want you to use that Government-mandated feature.
It's still not clear why activation should require a separate computer. Activation via iTunes might be a nice option if you already use iTunes, but it shouldn't be the main route. After all, the iPhone has its very own Internet connection.
The iPhone looks like a great piece of tech, and I might get one someday. But...
It seems like Slashdot has a greater and greater proportion of articles that relate to gadgets (stuff to buy), and fewer and fewer that are about tech developments, science, etc. I'm not bitching about Slashdot, but is it really the case that nerds have become merely watered-down gear-freaks, and no longer employ their mind in the pursuit of knowledge?
Please, oh true nerds, answer my rallying cry!
I'm not trying to shift blame at all. I said myself that 25% of the phones I purchased had activation problems. But I don't posit that as evidence that 25% of *ALL* iphones have had activation problems. Look at the replied to my last three comments (which all got modded +5, btw), and you'll find the exact people i'm talking about who may have clicked "my phone is still unactivated!" when they don't even own one. (for the lazy, comments: here | here | here)
Replied to those comments, you'll see people who said they would laugh at me/whomever they saw on the street using an iPhone, people calling me stupid/dumb, calling those in lines "emo retards," calling those in line "suckers," etc. Now, most people who choose not to buy an iPhone just do so out of logical choice, and that's the extent of their involvement.. but there most definitely is a vocal minority that feels slighted by Apple.. I really don't know exactly why, but I can say for sure that when I spent $600 a piece on my unlocked Treos (as did many others a few years ago), I don't recall a sizable portion of people calling me retarded/dumb/etc. The fact is a lot of people online have some sort of irrational distaste for the iPhone, and for those that buy it. And I don't believe that 40% of the people who bought the phone so far are still without service (as noted in the poll). I suspect it's in the single digit percentile, which still sucks if you're in that group, but 40% it isn't. I even posted a link to the Apple discussion page that has hundreds if not thousands of relies from people with activation problems.. but Apple is quickly approaching the "million iPhones sold" mark, and I don't imagine that of those million there will be several hundred thousand that take 48+hrs to navigate an activation quagmire. But hey, maybe I'm just lucky in my experiences. Engadget even noted themselves that they've activated 6 iphones without any problems.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
Not only that, but the respondents are self-selecting (why would the "happy middle," who have no stake in spreading their tales of joy, even respond to the poll? While a higher percentage of early adopters probably read Engadget, it's still a small minority of the market. How about the benefit of iPhone haters claiming problems just to stir the pot?) and don't have to "prove" that they even have an iPhone. It's basically the same as asking, "what's your opinion about Windows Vista after purchase?" without taking any further steps.
Are we really willing to believe that 13,000 iPhone customers responded to a poll on a tech-nerd website like Engadget? If that's even remotely accurate, that should indicate the high sales rate of the iPhone. But then again, it's similar to the response rate of every other Engadget poll, so it's probably total crap.
For the record, I don't care either way whether or not 38% of customers had activation trouble or not. I don't care whether 100,000 iPhones sold or 2 million did. It's a neat gadget, but my life isn't riding on it.
The iPhone has really fallen off the radar for everyone but Apple fans.
Wishing won't make it so, Mr. Ballmer.
It sounds like Apple is already starting to pawn off the marketplace thud of the iPhone
By "thud", do you mean the sound of the most successful consumer electronics product launch of all time? The iPhone's already set that record, even if they never sold another unit.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
That's why I came to this thread to post about it!
Perhaps this has been explained elsewhere, but here seems as good a place as any for me to ask the question: How is Cingular/AT&T not being to be a disaster for Apple.
Because we hate all cell carriers. We expect to hate the cell carrier.
After activation is complete though, we don't really have to talk to the cell-phone carrier. Then we just have the phone experience, which is great. That's when cell service may start to arise as an issue, but we've also been trained to accept that as a fact of life.
One thing Apple did well right off the bat is to not have to have us activate at the store, already a better expereince for most people despite the problems some are having. I myself am porting a T-Mobile number - while the number itself is not yet ported (and may take days more as T-Mobile apparently ports pay-as-you-go numbers by hand) the actual activation of my phone worked just fine, and I was abe to make calls and otherwise use the device almost instantly - it's only incoming calls and SMS I can't get just yet.
Frankly I expect a lot of issues to vanish Monday, when the regular people get to work instead of the poor weekend shift.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's like jewelry - a status symbol. People buy jewelry not because they are doing optics experiments or need a portable glass-cutting tool. iPhone has a potential to be eventually usable for making calls, but given that the battery in it is not replaceable (now we know for sure!) it is clear that iPhone is designed as a toy, to be a toy, and it is sold at a price of an intricate toy as well. In other words, it is not a businessman's strong and solid weapon of communication - it's a gentle, flimsy and feminine fashion apparel.
Brand new product fails to have flawless launch. Film at eleven on The No Fucking Kidding News Network.
If you think full internet browsing on mobile devices is a brand new thing, you need to need your head out of your ass and take a better look around.
The asshole giving this an Insightful needs to be shot. Repeatedly.
You know, I really hate reading about the PS3. So you know what I do (this is a secret, so don't let anyone else hear about it), I stop reading after I come across the word PS3. Most articles about the PS3 include it in the heading. I have installed this special widget in firefox called a scroll bar (you can probably download it from somewhere), and I scroll past the story.
I used to click on every PS3 story and complain about it, but then I realised that I was just being a complete wanker, and stopped.
So, how the fuck do you get moderated up, how many stupid people really hate iphone stories, but still feel the need to click on the link, and read all the comments to the end. What a bunch of retards.
I'm not sure whether you are applauding the AC on posting the captions, or attempting to flame me, but at any rate I don't recall accusing you of anything. So why would an apology even be implied? It seems the submitter is the one we should be upset with, as he had the "holier than thou" attitude that caused his 2 day horror. Especially considering the answer laid right in front of him, and he chose to ignore it.
That is what you get for rushing out to buy one like it's your new kidney dialysis machine. Everyone knows that it's not a good idea to buy electronics immediately after they are released, but for some reason people still do it. I will think about getting one when all the problems are fixed and they come out with a better model.
If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up. - Comedian Mitch Hedberg R.I.P. 03/30/68-2/24/05