It is now about 5:00 Mountain Time as I write this. I spent most of the day at the AT&T store from about 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. Then I spent several more hours at home talking to AT&T and Apple support personnel. I have swapped SIMs so often that I deserve a SIM merit badge. I have set up no fewer than six separate phone accounts. My credit card has been beaten and battered funding those accounts. Here's what I learned: If you want to set up your iPhone as a prepaid account, do not--no that's not emphatic enough--do NOT, DO NOT attempt to set up the account in advance with AT&T.
Just don't. Trust me. Here's how you should do it:
Buy the iPhone. Connect it to iTunes. Sign up using 999-99-9999 as your social security number. After failing the credit check, select a GoPhone plan. After signing up for a GoPhone plan and being assigned a number and passcode, connect to the AT&T GoPhone funding page as prompted, enter your credit card or debit card information and you're good to go. DO NOT attempt to fund your iPhone over the phone with AT&T. DO NOT set up your iPhone prepaid account in advance with AT&T.
As for me? After a certain number of failed attempts (all on the part of extremely warm, wonderful, but ultimately unsuccesful AT&T employees), the fraud detection system kicked into gear. That's where I am now. I can't move forward until AT&T closes down all those well meaning but useless accounts and lets me activate the one, good account that started and ended in iTunes.
As for the AT&T and Apple personnel? I've been working with them now for nearly 22 hours of on-phone and in-person time. (Yes, I was up way late last night). With the exception of one person[1], they have all been fabulously kind, patient and supportive. Thank you to you all, especially Diana Cruzan the retail sales manager for the Aurora City Place AT&T store, Jamshed Mulla, AT&T iPhone Guru, and Dan Callahan of Fleishman Hillard.
[1] There's always one.
Update: 5:25. Just off the phone with AT&T fraud detection people. It LIVES!!!! "iPhone is Activated". Woot!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
7-02-2007 @ 7:56PM
Henry said...
Did you have to put down a deposit with prepay?
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7-02-2007 @ 7:57PM
Erica Sadun said...
No deposit. No contract. No credit check.
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7-02-2007 @ 8:00PM
Dave said...
I'm curious if there's anything stopping someone from say, Canada, from buying an iPhone, signing up for pre-paid and then taking it back to Canada to use as a wifi Internet device and iPod?
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7-02-2007 @ 8:02PM
Michael Rose said...
You're a lot more patient than I would have been...
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7-02-2007 @ 8:06PM
Kendall said...
Do you know the rates for text messages? Also do you get the annoying pop ups like many were reporting since you have the pay as you go?
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7-02-2007 @ 8:09PM
Straight Cash Homie said...
I am waiting for my online ordered iPhone and this question will sound incredibly naive to most of you I am sure but forgive me, I am not a mobile phone wizard, my current phone is more than 4 years old after all. My question is: Since the prepay has no contract, this would seem to mean that if a person signs up for prepay with the iphone and subsequently another provider (other than AT&T) offers SIMs for iphones, I could switch carriers. Is this correct?
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7-02-2007 @ 8:16PM
Alan said...
Here is my question... can you activate your iPhone as a goPhone, then switch over to the monthly rate ($60 for 450 minutes and unlimited data) but not be in a contract?
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7-02-2007 @ 8:26PM
Frank Nanook said...
I woul like to bring an (activated) IPhone from New-York to Canada this week (to use as an ipod/wifi device without a SIM card)...what would be the price of that AT&T GoPhone plan ? (in fact a one time activation fee)
Frank
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7-02-2007 @ 8:32PM
Dan said...
I did this same thing today after some frustration over the weekend. I originally bought the phone with the intention of adding it to a small business "family" plan. Well, since we use the Fed. ID of the business, I'm not allowed to add an iPhone to that account. So, I decided to go prepaid until they decide to allow iPhones on corporate accounts. I did it all in about 3 minutes...VERY simple. I used the name Wireless Person and a SSN of 999-99-9999. 30 seconds after submit I was given the opportunity to choose a GoPlan. I picked the cheap one...immediately got a phone number, then funded the account and was up and running right away. Data is unlimited, text messages and voice minutes are 0.15/ea. Of course, the more expensive plans give you more options, but I plan on getting rid of this account ASAP. FYI, I've also since removed the SIM and the iPod and Wi-Fi works w/o the SIM just fine.
Dan
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7-02-2007 @ 8:32PM
jimmie said...
I signed up as a go phone customer as well. Every time I use my iPhone and turn it off I get an annoying reminder of my account status " the last transaction cost 0.00 USD. Your account balance is 32.24 USD. You have 995 N&W minutes remianing". It's annoying that it pops up after I yse my phone, mail, etc. and turn the iPhone off. The alert pops up on my screen and there's a dismiss button. I called Apple and they said that there is nothing they can do, this is how the iPhone go phone works. They said all AT&T go phones do this. Anyone else having this problem?
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7-02-2007 @ 8:39PM
Drnkusv said...
I have been having this same problem. It is bizarre, because with the unlimited data plan, nearly all of these messages say the last transaction was 0.00 USD -- so there is no possible benefit to the message. According to AT&T the only way to sstop this is to disable SMS messaging on the account entirely.
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7-02-2007 @ 8:49PM
Frank said...
is the (annoying) message present if you remove yje SIM card ?
Frank
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7-02-2007 @ 9:49PM
celsius said...
awesome. count me in.
thanks for all your dedication!
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7-02-2007 @ 10:36PM
pablo said...
If you have to restore the phone does this trick still work?
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7-02-2007 @ 10:38PM
Erica Sadun said...
It should. If it doesn't just call up AT&T customer service and they'll help you with it. This isn't really a "trick" so much as an unadvertised but completely legitimate plan. AT&T helped me out with it all day. Out of the many people who I talked with, not one said I did anything wrong or had violated any agreements or done anything than request a feature that was available but not widely known. The plan should survive a reset.
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7-02-2007 @ 10:51PM
sb said...
Once you activate the phone, can you put in a different company sim card and have the iPhone work ok? If so...one more iPhone sold.
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7-02-2007 @ 11:21PM
Matthew said...
I missed the WHY part to this. Maybe it's personal. Why did you want a prepaid plan so bad?
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7-02-2007 @ 11:58PM
Erica Sadun said...
Data plan is $19.99 unlimited. Take a look at this gallery.
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7-03-2007 @ 12:11AM
cookiebrownie44 said...
Can you use the Pay As You Go, The one with the card refill) and not just the Pick Your Plan which is charged monthly??
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7-03-2007 @ 12:11AM
Erica Sadun said...
Pay as You Go is no-go according to AT&T. The rather expensive PickYourPlan seems to be the only prepaid choice.
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