Filed under: iPhone
My unusable iPhone
Two roads diverged in iPhone activation and I--I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. Instead of going for the standard postpaid plan, I opted for the prepaid one. I have signed up for a $29.99 per month Pick Your Plan with a $20 per month iPhone unlimited data plan. My account is fully provisioned on AT&Ts side and it shows as an iPhone compatible account. And yet, I cannot get past the "AT&T has determined that your current account cannot be used with the iPhone" screen. I'm told to call back tomorrow. The prepaid office is closed today. At least the iPhone looks pretty in its dock.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James Donevan said 6:34PM on 7-01-2007
The less travelled road (read prepaid) seems to have worked fine for other users. Perhaps you should take another look at the map (read instructions).
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Randy said 6:36PM on 7-01-2007
in your dock ? you cant use it as a ipod or surf the wifi .
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Aleks said 6:50PM on 7-01-2007
OMG!!!! Now they are denying people who choose Prepaid plans?!!??!!??!?!?!
I'm one of the lucky few that got through to prepaid but my friend got screwed royally by AT&T because they didn't even let her get to the 'prepaid' screen.
There's a huge article I wrote on the Apple forums after experiencing VERY STRESSFUL issues with AT&T:
http://digg.com/apple/Why_are_AT_T_lying_to_us_about_iPhone_prepaid_options
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jacob said 8:08PM on 7-01-2007
I was on the phone with att for about 45 minutes today..... Basically they did something to my account and told me that if I go to a corporate store, they will switch my account from postpaid to prepaid..... I don't know why they wouldn't do it on the pin but they said that I would have to wait 30 days to switch it.....so I'm going to do it tomorrow...... For me, the difference between a 2 year contract and 100 minutes a month is worth it
Posted from my iPhone :D
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Sam said 7:13PM on 7-01-2007
How did you guys even get to choose the prepaid plan?
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Jim Stutsman said 8:18PM on 7-01-2007
AT&T claimed they could not verify my credit because every attempt to call me using any of the numbers in my credit history failed. I have since verified that the correct numbers are in there, and they could not possibly have even tried to call. Not knowing about the problems with prepaid service, I signed up. And it worked fine! My phone is activated and the number transferred. And not being under contract, I can leave AT&T the very second that Apple makes a deal with another carrier!
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Shannin said 7:21PM on 7-01-2007
this is what i would like to know
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~bc said 7:49PM on 7-01-2007
Why would you think you could use a pre-paid plan? Didn't they announce that wasn't an option?
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tkelly said 8:06PM on 7-01-2007
can't you use the ipod or wifi if you take out the sim card? i am really dying to know.
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Heh said 8:15PM on 7-01-2007
Not to laugh (too much) at your misfortune...but it is very ironic that the high priestess of pre-release iPhone cultism is having problems on the first weekend...
As a Mac cultist from way back, I'll will buy one eventually but I'm still amused by this after all your hyping :)
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Jay said 12:05AM on 7-02-2007
Thanks for sharing...?
I love that this is "news".
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jamaca slim said 12:30AM on 7-02-2007
definitely karma for bad blogging
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basscadet said 3:05AM on 7-02-2007
it seems all the device's functions are locked until someone activates a connection with carrier (AT&T exclusively that is). So, if ppl wanted to buy the iphone and intentionally not get the 2 year plan, they couldn't use it as videopod/internetpod but only as a paperweightpod.
Sly.
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VanillaSpice said 9:00PM on 7-04-2007
@ #9, Heh, there is no irony here. It would only be ironic if Erica had loudly declared that iPhones would be easy to activate on pre-paid plans, and even then it would only qualify as "barely ironic".
For this to be real irony, Erica would have to be an AT&T employee dealing with pre-paid activation, or an Apple spokesmodel who appeared in a video explaining how easy it was to set up pre-paid on the iPhone. Only then would her troubles be considered ironic.
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Phactorx said 12:20AM on 9-08-2007
what you do is get another sim pop it in your iphone create a new account when you get to the screen where it tells you to add the funds to the new number you call at&t up at 18774194500 tell them you want to add your funds to your new number then unplug your iphone then plug it in it will say it is looking for funds now since the funds have been moved to the new number your iphone will complete activation
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