In store iPhone 3G activation only a myth?

In line early at large ATT store in San Antonio about number 50 or so - doors opened at 0830 at 845 they told us that all the 16GB blacks were gone! So off to the Apple store - spent 5 hours in line at Apple Store who could not sell me the iPhone because I was receiving a discount on my bill from AT&T - seems if you have a discount because of the company you work for even though its a personal account Apple can’t sell you the phone because of the activation system in place.

I had contacted AT&T both thru their rep at the store and by calling customer service yesterday and while in line at the Apple store today and was assured there would be no problems buying the phone - so much for doing my homework and trying to be prepared.

Of course their are no 16GB models available at any of the AT&T store and I was less than 2 ft from having one in my hand at the Apple store after waiting 5 hours..

It is hard to believe two companies as big as AT&T and Apple didn’t know this info in advance and either been prepared or got the word out to customers.

So it looks like I will have to get up earlier on Saturday and go back to ATT store and hope that they didn’t sell Saturdays shipment on Friday assuming there was/is a Saturday shipment.

After attempt 32,768 it went through. 11:58 GMT-8 (PT). Good luck, y'all!

I went to an Apple store, because I knew (as of last year and just because) that AT&T would be a bad call and run out.
They just opened another brand new Apple store in my area, the grand opening was this morning, and they have way more than enough in stock. Manager is a friend, and she said they had enough to give everyone in line each color.

AT&T = shorter line, but smaller supply and for sure non-Apple experience.

Phone activated itself over the air somehow and after a couple more tries I got iTunes to sync. I think patience and persistence is key on this one....

My phone activated when a call came through for it. maybe calling your numbers and see if that helps?

Very strange... My iphone just activated itself. Not through itunes or anything like that. Just recieved a phone call and it was working. Weird. Still can't sync the thing through itunes though.

The people at the apple store allowed me to leave without activating, because he said that over the course of an hour he was only successful 5 times.
On another note, this was the absolute worst apple launch I have been to, and I have been to at least 5. It took over 5 hours from when I got on the line until I left the store. One of the main problems was that people did not know any of the terms, and took over an hour to get a phone. I had everything set up, and once they got to me it took 5 whole minutes for me to complete the transaction.
I do not now who to blame. apple. att, or all the stupid people who do not know what is going on.
And, I am even more pissed off because my old iphone is deactivated, and the new one needs to connect to itunes, so I am without a phone now.

2nd iPhone just came online!!

This is pretty annoying, as is the fact mobile me still isn't available for sign up/working. I decided to be a bit more thrifty and wait on the 3g for now, since I hear that despite the coverage charts , 3g speeds from att are rare.

Anyway, just another non 3g iphone owner who updated and can't use his only phone now!

Lisbon, Portugal here... still can't activate. Had my iPhone 3G for about an hour now.

Still waiting on any updates regarding the activation server's status.. looks like this is a global issue.

Same in Canada for Rogers and Fido. They send people home to finish activation in iTunes later...