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By Steve Ragan Jul 2, 2007, 15:55 GMT
AT&T suffers wrath of bloggers over activation issues
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Older Talkback
I got mine running in under 5 minutes. I guess I was one of the lucky ones.
Business users are at fault because their lack of imagination. You cannot just buy a phone and expect that you can make changes to your company phone account.
I would check with a company telecommunication manager first if I can add or remove any services.
Those users are not responsible. Any company property like phones, computers are for conducting company business only and any misuse could subject to termination of an employee.
I used AT&T for analog cell a few years back and was so frustrated and disgruntled by their customer service that I not only canceled my account, but vowed never to use their service again.
Sounds like that decision would still stand today.
From the article: 'For the large volume of users, most were able to use the iPhone the same day they got it. The minority of the iPhone users who are still waiting are making the most noise, and rightfully so.'
Statistically, if you bought an iPhone everything worked out. It seems to me that a lot of the problems (including mine) are edge cases, usually in situations where the person activating the phone isn't the account holder (either because of business accounts, family plans, etc.).
My main gripe hasn't been the problem -- new system, new phone, double plus media hype conditions -- hello, problems. No surprise that there's been problems, I'm used to problems.
What blows my mind is how Apple/AT&T seem to have completely failed to design for the inevitable problems that do occur. If I understand what's going on correctly, if there is any problem activating your phone, your order is placed on hold with no notification. I've known my order was on hold since last night, but iTunes still says my activation is being processed (but obviously, it's not).
And no email has been sent to me yet, even though the order has been on hold for at least 12 hours. It seems to me that if Apple/AT&T had planned their system to include notifying customers that a problem had occurred, please call this number to fix it the angry minority would be much less angry about the whole affair.
In summary:
Kafkaesque situation = Angry customer
It surprises me that the above is an obvious, basic tenet of customer service in the digital age, but so few companies realize it and seem to feel no regret in subjecting their customers to incomprehensible customer service procedures.
I too am frustrated by ATT customer service and switched to T-mobile. ATT should think about improving customer service. IT does help a lot if you can answer and resolve the customer issue without letting them wait for hours and sometimes they say that it is resolved but it is not. You still get an overcharged bill and you have to call again wait for hours and then again hope that it will be taken care off in next bill. I too will never switch to ATT. I would have for iPhone but I am scared off with word ATT.
A year ago I had no problems porting my phone number from Cingular to T-Mobile (I left Cingular because I moved to Chicago and their coverage there is terrible), so I got the iPhone, back to AT&T. Guess what? They said they can't port my phone because it's 'out of market' (from out of Chicago), why didn't I have this problem when I switched? So I have to call do a lot of tricky things to get in the 'market area' like give them an old address as my actual address, just so they would approve switching my number's area code. They did, but they have to ship me a NEW sim card by mail, which will take 5-7 business days. Considering there's a Holiday in the middle of this week, it'd be two to three weeks since I get that SIM card and port my number. This is stuff I expect from Microsoft, not from Apple, so there you go Apple, thanks for partnering with AT&T.
P.S. AT&T coverage in Chicago remains awful. I can hardly get a signal inside a building, and it's the only service that has that problem.
I bought my wife an iPhone Friday and we had no problems activating it. Granted, the 'This may take up to 3 minutes' message timed out, stating we'd be sent an email shortly when activation was complete, but that took no more than 10 minutes. We are existing AT&T non-business customers, which may explain part of the smoothness of the process. Overall the activation experience was great and the time delay gave us time to get her PC set up with Outlook, etc., in preparation for the first sync with the device.
Basically, I have to agree with the users being somewhat at fault with many of these problems, obviously if you're not approved to make changes to your phone plan, you will have issues activating a device that requires added services, as you are not authorized to add said services. DUH.
I waited in line for six hours for an iPhone, but then couldn't turn it on until Sunday. Very frustrating. Customer service couldn't do anything and the whole thing was a mess. You can only move that slider back and forth before you want to throw the thing to the ground in a hail of touch screen shrapnel.
But, I have to admit, once I got it activated on Sunday (two days later!) it is so beautiful and fun to play with it was hard to stay mad at them. I probably would have angrily returned any other product, but this thing is just so damn sexy. It was worth the wait, although if you would have asked me Saturday I would have told you different. They really should have been prepared for thousands of people to activate at once.
My experience was flawless in activating my iPhone. This device is everything and more than you would expect and worth every penny. at this very moment i am very comfortably writing this blog from my throne,I hope the rest of you enjoy as much as i have been. Christmas came a little early this year.
I bought my iphone and had no difficulty getting it going. I did not go through a corporate account, just a personal one. I love my phone. It does just what it is supposed to do.
God, talk about a bunch of instant gratification whiners. You're literally counting the 'hours' that its not activated - get a life, 36 hours in not even a concern for lack of a bowel movement and you're freaking out because of a silly phone.
I didn't have any problems activating my iPhone on Sat.
Listen, if a user is buying an iphone and wants to make a change to there personal business account then they should be able to make changes. Don't ever say that a user doesn't have the right to change stuff on there own account. This is just piss poor planning and lack of service on AT&T. End of story. I must laugh though since I always find it funny when people get screwed by phone companies since it isn't myself this time. Misery loves company!
Maybe ATT is so slow in activating the accounts because they are busy turning over all your data to the government, no warrant needed.
Just wait until all these iPhone users get their first bills and then the ever inefficient ATT/Cingular customer service group gets into the picture.
ATT cannot get bills right and they have some of the worst customer service that I've ever run across. The only group worse? The cable company.
I wonder if there is a record for the largest numbers of cancellations of a service?
I contacted ATT last Friday through a site for iphones and was able to get an order through. Was not easy but after searching through the site I linked to the proper site. They took my ordr an I should have it within 3 weeks. The site is www.iphonefetch.com
'He said in the interview that most users have been able to complete activation in less than ten minutes in some cases.'
Which is it, 'Most' or 'in some cases'?
That's what Apple gets for getting into bed with one of the worst rated cell companies out there.
No one seems to be complaining about the phone itself, but the activation process which is in the hands of...AT&T. It's not an iBrick, it's iDiots at AT&T. It's not rocket science to project activations, but it seems that once again AT&T just can't seem to have the foresight of that which is beyond their noses. Maybe Jobs and company are to blame for making a deal with such a company that can't decide what it wants to do, let alone do something, like activating a phone which they have a notorious history of screwing up accounts on both the wireless end as well as the land line. The phone is great, it's the telecommunications behind it that needs their heads examined, maybe that's why their CEO is having problems finding a replacement.
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