Apple says, ‘Yes, we know AT&T sucks. Here’s $30 for your trouble’
For AT&T, bad press continues to be its constant companion. Following the MMS and tethering rebellion, which has seen the company kowtow to iPhone subscribers, comes the third annual activation massacre—can’t they do anything right?
Did you buy a new iPhone this weekend? Have some trouble activating your fancy new handset? Then chances are you’ve received an email from Apple apologizing for the delays, confusion and just plain aggravation caused AT&T account activation.
Dear Apple Customer,
Thank you for your recent Apple Store order. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay in your iPhone activation.
We are still resolving the issue that was encountered while activating your iPhone with AT&T. Unfortunately, due to system issues and continued high activation volumes, this could take us up to an additional 48 hours to complete.
On Monday, you’ll receive an email from Apple with an iTunes Store credit in the amount of $30. We hope you will enjoy this gift and accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience this delay has caused.
Thank you for choosing Apple.
Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team
Yes, that’s right, for the third year running AT&T’s experiencing “system issues” and “high activation volumes” that have made iPhone account set up well nigh impossible for large numbers of handset buyers.
Does this mean that a million or more iPhones have sold in the first three days just like last year? Actually, I’m thinking that’s a strong possibility.
Nevertheless, it is simply inexcusable for AT&T to not be prepared to handle the volume…
What’s your take?
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June 22nd, 2009
Actually, the first gen iPhone activation problems were Apple’s fault. They finally admitted that after AT&T denied it. Apple wants to keep everything hush hush because they can’t stand bad press. I wouldn’t doubtmif this was Apple’s fault and they’re just playing the blame game again.
August 27th, 2009
$30 isn’t bad, atleast they gave you something…
October 19th, 2009
Apple is becoming little by little into Microsoft… I have no doubt the problem was with apple and not with AT&T… First AT&T had the problem BUT APPLE COVERED THE EXPENSES? WHY? WHY NOT FORCING AT&T TO COVER THE EXPENSES FOR THEIR ISSUE? (fishy)…
Then AT&T had all kinds of problems with the 3G network. They blame it on AT&T for EVER until AT&T discovered that the problem was with the 3G antenna of the phone… Apple kept blaming AT&T and when you tell them HEY YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE HAVING A PROBLEM WITH YOUR INTERNAL ANTENNA! IS THAT AN AT&T’s PROBLEM? THEEEEN was when they accepted to exchange your iphone.
Now Snow Leopard is having the problems and OF COURSE the problem is with THE OTHER SOFTWARE. OR THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES. OR THE PRINTERS… When I told them I HAVE NOTHING INSTALLED BUT THE SYSTEM AND NOTHING PLUGGED… Oh, well so it must be the computer… when I told them Well it is installed on 4 computers and all of them have the same problems?…. THEN they told me, well the new system was released ahead of time and some applications are not compatible!
Stevie… Stevie… Stevie… GREED IS A CAPITAL SIN HONEY! and CAPITAL SINS ARE PENALIZED WITH DEATH… SO DON’T GO AROUND THE WORLD ASKING WHY CANCER IS EATING YOU ALIVE!
December 15th, 2009
um i work for at&t and when a brand new iphone is opened it is activated through itunes does no one realize this? how is that an at&t problem?
December 20th, 2009
At&t sucks. They have commercials ccritisizing verison on how they can surf the web while on the phone…. I have verizon and I could do that with the last few phones I had on verizon! They lied! And they say they have the fastest 3g coverage. Yeah… but where can you use the fastest 3g coverage? They don’t cover anywhere but big cities.let’s not forget how they say they have the smartphone…. but all of the other phones suck. Verizon has multiple phones that are great so you have more than one phone choice when you get there. Yes, they’re not an iphone smartphone, but they have the droid which is like the iphone and a lot more blackberrys and normal phones and the alias it has everything at&t doesn’t have and at&t doesn’t have a lot. Clearly, verizon is the best bet. I didn’t want to, but the prices on verizon are much better too. Maybe at&t should stop TRYING to bring down verizon and slam them and come out with better price deals and phones.
December 24th, 2009
clearly not many are happy with any providers gap between marketing and what you really get…
not really much worse than politicians…
ATT APPL VER and the rest are “publicly held” companies, who’s bottom line is to provide ever increasing shareholder equity at the expense of service if need be… they all eventually will grow themselves into something worse than the current mediocrity if they keep up the same crap far as I’m concerned
I wont buy these companies products or stock
December 27th, 2009
I have to agree that AT&T does suck. So much so that I have been looking for an alternative to the iphone. I am tired of the constant phone drops and slow browsing speeds. I mean seriously, none of us would even think of using AT&T as a carrier if it wasnt for the iphone. Well I say its time to hold Apple accountable for their choices. Start thinking about the quality of service you have and make the choice to leave AT&T.
January 16th, 2010
AT&T service, operators and service reps are the worst!
If you feel the same way drop in on the AT&T fanboy forum and get it off your chest:
http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board?board.id=Community_Feedback
You’ll be glad you did, I was.
January 22nd, 2010
I got my first AT&T phone the other day. It is not an iphone because I refuse to go into contract at this point, plus I hate iphones (ducks). Just an ordinary Nokia Flip Phone that won’t take the SIM card they sent. I strongly supsect it’s the wrong card so. Customer service told me to go to the nearest AT&T store. Then when I got to the store, the person in the store told me to call AT&T customer service because I bought it online. How’s that for a run around?
Thank goodness it’s a prepaid and not committed plan. I’m only out $60 instead of much more and I can toss this phone in the trash. It costed $60 for me to learn that AT&T is truly a worthless company. No wonder they can’t overtake verizon.
January 24th, 2010
The retarded AT&T commercials since the release of the Droid is just sad. They say that you can talk on the phone and surf the internet at the same time and Verizon can’t do that. That’s such bullcrap, and every single person knows it! They are just trying to steer the public away from Verizon’s recent commercials about their 3g coverage maps over AT&T. Which is not a lie either. Fact hurts worse that a lie. Verizon really does have 5 times more 3g coverage than that of AT&T.
I have the Motorola Droid, I got it the very first morning it came out, and I can talk on the phone, surf the web, listen to music, and run multiple apps at the same time if I wanted to… all while on a call! And the Droid is just amazing hands down. Iphones are obsolete and crappy. Iphones and Ipods are just a fad. You kiddies will get over it soon enough once you realize who is really the king.
The Android OS is open source so you can fully customize virtually every aspect of it. On the other hand… Apple… they run a dictatorship. Apple doesn’t run your life, so why should you let them decide what you can and cannot use on your own device. Android is taking over and Apple is feeling scared now. I’m glad! Leave it to Google to wipe out crappy Apple. I’m rootin’ for you Google, Verizon, Motorola, And Droid!
So… Verizon has the Droid, the best 3g coverage, the best 3g speeds, superb customer service, they aren’t dirty liars, and they have everything else you can possibly think of in favor over AT&T. Why the heck would somebody go with a shady company they call “AT&T”? That’s beyond me. Figure that one out for yourself.