Follow me on
Twitter

Services
Bio
Contact
What Works Now
NEW Expanded Edition
PRESS RELEASES FROM HELL and How to Fix Them
The Traditional Press Release Is Dead! The Made-for-the-Internet Release is News Now.
Buy this Report.
REALITY PR STRATEGY: Everything You Need to Know to Get Free (or Really Cheap) Publicity Now. Before you spend another dime on PR, Buy this Report.


After the Long Wait, And the $600 -- iPhone Activation Hell

ibrick.pngOh boy! It seems that scores thousands of people, who waited in line for days for an iPhone are having trouble getting AT&T to activate their phones -- a problem that renders the phone an iBrick. An Engadget poll reports that 38% of iPhone buyers have iBricks!

Apple is said to have sold 1.5 million iPhones this weekend. That means there are a LOT of pissed off customers. And since so many are early adopters, like Steve Rubel and Thomas Hawk, many are singing their blues in well-read blogs. See why I told you to wait!

It's being called iGate, and iPhone Hell, and those are the polite terms. Engadget explains "So yeah, long story short, there's a few people out there left phoneless while AT&T gets its act together."

Reports are here, here, here, here and here. Robert Scoble, the lucky duck, seems to have had a great experience. Ditto for Amanda Congdon.


Categories: News
BL Ochman | Jul 1 07 11:34 | TrackBack (0)

Comments

BL - this was highly predictable given the hype. Tom Raftery predicted it days before techmeme woke up. But...this is what you get when people buy into the halo effect around products and services. It won't be the last time because what we don't often admit to is that much of IT is akin to the fashion industry. Moving swiftly on.... -:)

Posted by: Dennis Howlett at July 1, 2007 1:42 PM

I experienced no problems setting up my iPhone. I was an existing AT&T/Cingular/AT&T customer - don't know if that had any impact. The whole set up went very smoothly and I love the device.

Posted by: Moda di Magno at July 1, 2007 3:09 PM

If the registration was done before 8-9PM on Friday, it seems to have gone smoothly. Also, I think new numbers had no problems.

I activated my phone twice. For new number, it worked very smoothly. For the second time, for number porting, it didnt. But I got the confirmation in couple of hours.

http://rajuv.com/2007/06/29/iphone-is-locked-at-sim-level-too/

Posted by: Raju Vegesna at July 1, 2007 3:13 PM

Call me a Luddite, call me old-fashioned, call me whatever, but I don't have a cell phone. I've found them too hard to hea. My landline phone doesn't give me such grief.

Okay, I guess that means you could call me "hard of hearing," and, memo to Apple and other cell phone makers: There are going to be a lot more of us in the coming years.

Posted by: Martha Retallick at July 2, 2007 11:14 AM

wow! really? no cell phone? i consider it a necessity, especially since 9/11.

but i certainly don't need an iPhone at this point.

and really, you ought to get your hearing checked out. you are so right taht there will be lots more of us saying "what? what?"

Posted by: B.L. Ochman at July 2, 2007 10:17 PM

Sorry to hear that people had problems. I activated 2 iPhones on Monday (new accounts, transferred numbers over from Virgin Mobile) with no real problems.

I did have to call AT&T though. My wife and I set up a Family Plan account initially using her Mac, which made her name come up in caller ID when I called people.

The customer service rep I spoke to was friendly and helpful and resolved the problem immediately. She was a hoot to talk to as well. We were laughing about how insanely busy they were over the weekend and it wasn't letting up!

She was hoping that Apple would sell out of stock soon. :)

Posted by: Tripp at July 5, 2007 1:08 PM

Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)






Email this story to a friend







TrackBacks

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.whatsnextonline.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3954

Search


Join the What's Next Blog mailing list
Email:

Contact: BL (at) whatsnextonline (dot) com
212.369.8312



blog advertising


About BL Ochman
BL Ochman
Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations


Poll ID 0 does not exist.


top 25 marketing blog

B.L.'s flickr photos








    Categories
    Ad targeting
    Advertainment
    Advertisement
    Advertising Campaigns
    Alternative Marketing
    Awards
    B.L. Ochman
    Benny Bix
    Best Practices
    Blog Advertising
    Blog Bashing
    Blog ethics
    Blog Legal Issues
    Blog Post From Hell
    Blog Software
    Blogging and Moblogging
    Bloomberg for President
    Books
    Business Communications
    Business Ethics
    Buzz
    Case Studies
    Clueless ad agencies
    Commentary
    Conferences
    Corporate_Blogging
    Cross Media
    Customer Service Issues
    Dead Tree Journalism
    Design Train Manifesto
    Digital Journalism
    Don't Believe the Hype
    E-Commerce
    Email Marketing
    Entertainment
    Ethics Crisis
    Events
    Fatblogging
    Folksonomy
    Fun
    Global Business
    Heard on the street
    Hurricane Katrina
    Internet
    Internet PR
    Internet strategy
    Interviews
    Leaders
    Marketing Strategy
    Media Relations
    Memes
    Mike Bloomberg for President
    Multi-Media Advertising
    Must-Read Articles
    Needs a Blog
    New Products
    News
    Nikon D80 Blogger Program
    Nikon D80 Blogger Program
    Nonsense and Parodies
    Peer to peer
    Peer-to-peer
    People to Watch
    Pet Food News
    Podcasting
    Politics
    PR Cluelessness
    Press Release From Hell
    Product Placements
    Promotions
    Public Relations
    Publishing
    Reality Marketing
    Reports
    Resources
    RSS
    Satire
    Search Engine Marketing
    Second Life
    Shameless Self Promotion
    Social Media
    Social Media Marketing
    Studies
    Surveys
    Technology
    Thought Leaders
    Top Bloggers Essential Research Tools
    Trends
    Up and Comers
    Up Your Budget Treasure Hunt
    User Generated Content
    Venture Capital
    Video Contests
    Viral Marketing
    Virtual Marketing
    Vlogs
    Word of Mouth
    Worst Practices

    Powered by
    Movable Type 3.31