26dayswithoutaniphone.com

More Pictures from the weekend

2008-07-14T14:46:19Z

Joe has uploaded some more photos from the weekend, so here are some of my favorites:

Make sure you check out Joe on Flickr for more quality shots. Or check out www.fjgaylor.com for more of his work.

How an AT&T IRU Customer can get an iPhone

2008-07-12T23:07:07Z

If you have been following anything from the last 36 hours on this blog, you know it’s been a huge hassle to get my iPhone. Here’s a quick background on the issue.

At my last employer we received a 15% discount for Cingular/AT&T. Having any sort of discount, bundling internet/phone, or U-Verse will label you as an IRU customer, as I understand it. Needless to say, there are a lot of people in my shoes. Even though I have not been with that employer for over 1 year and I signed away my discount with the purchase of the 1st iPhone, my account is still (and probably will always be) an IRU in the system.

Here’s the dilemma. Apple has all the iPhones and shipments and great customer service, but are plagued with activation issues and no power to change anything in AT&T accounts. AT&T has the power and the knowledge, but they don’t have any iPhones. Most stores we went to received 20-50. Apple Keystone had to have 1,000+ yesterday, and another shipment today. (As of 6:40pm Saturday, Apple Keystone is sold out according to @jcfluhr.)

So if you are an IRU customer and you want an iPhone, but don’t want to deal with the hit-and-miss game at an AT&T store, here’s what I did. Your mileage may vary, but it worked for me.

1)I relentlessly tried get the iPhone at an Apple store, as documented on this site. Then I realized I would continue to get the IRU error multiple times.

2) I changed gears and got a new game plan. I bought an iPhone as a ‘new customer’, receiving a 317-xxx-xxxx number and paid my $.

3) I went home, put my old sim card in my new iPhone, and fired it up. Worked like a charm. 3G, GPS, voicemail, calling, everything works.

4) I had already seen the HUGE lack of communication between Apple and AT&T, so I figured I would use it to my advantage. I went to an AT&T store, explained to them that I wanted the 217-xxx-xxxx number for this iPhone but was set up with a new 317-xxx-xxxx number. They grumbled about how Apple employees did not know what they were doing, etc, etc, and said they would take care of me. He tells me to call 611 and they would delete the 317 # and account. Easy enough. So I go home, and call 611, whsays that I have to go back to the Apple store to take care of it.

Let’s stop and think here for a second. If they couldn’t do it the first time, what makes them think I would be taken care of this time? And I wasn’t about to wait in line again, and definitely did not want to pull the VIP card out anymore. I skipped the line twice already that day, which was enough.

So this morning I head back to AT&T so I can call 611 while in the store. I go in, re-explain my situation again, and am told “oh, we just got an email for people like you today.” So… I sneak a peek.

Look at the last line…. If an IRU customer (that’s me) activated a separate consumer line for iPhone 3G (that’s me) at an Apple location (that’s me) and now requests a number transfer to their IRU line (that’s me), please direct those customers to call (that’s me).

The first 2 reps we talk to are clueless and again tell me to go to the Apple Store. How would the Saturday of launch be any better than a Friday 8am launch? Ugh.

Luckily the district manager happened to be at that store today. We tell him the situation (again) and he says that he could just delete the 317 account, but was afraid I would receive a $400 bill in the mail for the price difference of $199 and $599 for a non-commitment iPhone.

He calls his boss who calls his boss who escalates it to the upper levels of corporate, somewhere around the ivory tower area. he tells me to go home and that he’ll call me after it’s completed.

So I go home. And about 4 hours later, I receive a call…

As easy as that, right?!?!?!? Haha, what a process. In the end, all is worked out and I hope it’s easier for one of you since I had to suffer through it.

So in a nutshell, go to Apple, buy an iPhone as a new customer (if I had done this at 8am yesterday, I could have avoided a lot of headache), activate it, switch sim cards, and go to AT&T and tell them to cancel the other #. I also believe I avoided the $18 whatever-fee because of how it was processed. It’ll probably be on the next bill though.

Alright, get out there and get it done!

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Brad has his iPhone. Tom gets his iPhone.

2008-07-12T14:23:22Z

Tom emailed me overnight to let me know the iPhone has arrived.

Hi Brad!

Just wanted to let u know that the iPhone arrived successfully! No shipping damages or anything else!

The only bummer is that I couldn’t find a camera to record any unpacking with. Since my parents are out of town, they grabbed our camera from the trip.

Anyways, I just want to thank you for a great deal, and now we’ll both be super amazed by our new phones!:)

Cheers
Tom

And as for the USPS tracking? Yep, you guessed it……

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IPHONE!!!!!! VICTORY!!!!!!!

2008-07-11T21:48:35Z

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HEARD IT, I HAVE MY 3G iPHONE!!!!

I can’t divulge details yet because I need to make a 6th trip to a new AT&T store to get some little things solved out. Yes, where there is a will there is a way. And the way is 3G iPhone.

Here are all the videos from 8am on. It was non-stop. I finally got home at 5pm, exactly 18 hours from when we began, and 23 hours after I picked up Joe at the Indy Airport. What an adventure.

HUGE thanks to all of you showing the love and support on Twitter, text, comments, and emails. You made it SO MUCH more fun and enjoyable than it should have been. Seriously, it was a blast. And this blog will forever document the day. Good to know there are still some people out there with a sense of humor and who know how to have a good time. I’m glad were a part of it.

Video recap from 8am-5pm:

I am going to SHOWER and SLEEP. Full report to come tomorrow.

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The Saga Continues

2008-07-11T15:29:00Z

A picture story of the hours that have gone by. Jubilation, Excitement, Despair, Depression.

Jubilation.

Elimination.

Anticipation.

Frustration.

What is yet to come?

More pictures on Flickr.

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Back at the Apple Store

2008-07-11T15:14:08Z

We’re back at the Apple Store. Got the VIP Red Carpet rolled out and skipped the line of 600+. Things are progressing.

Uploading more pics and videos as we speak. Keep an eye on the feeds.

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Sadness.

2008-07-11T12:12:18Z

At the iPhone store. Account user lookup error. I must go to an AT&T store. Sadness. Complete and utter failure, AT&T.

Apple people, you still rock.

More to come.

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We’re in line!

2008-07-11T09:42:39Z

Finally in the store and in line. We can see inside the window and all is glorious. Look below at the video post for the latest vids, or go straight to the YouTube Channel.

Shoutout to our friends at iPhoneMatters.com. Hope all is going well in your line!

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The Crew

2008-07-11T07:47:45Z

This is who we’re rolling with tonight.
They don’t know our names. We’re just ‘the bloggers’. It’s probably better that way.

(View all images from tonight here or in the post below)

Check out the video post below for updated videos. In recent news, we went back to make sure a line hadn’t started. Mall security emerged from the main door, and the Apple employees ran back into the store through the back door. We huddled around a bush to evade the mall cops, so 12 of us were shuffling back and forth depending on where the cop went.

The mall cop went to tell a car to leave, and they tried to rat us out. The mall cop says ‘no, those are just employees. They come out to smoke all the time.” We almost lost it in the bushes. One of the kids acted like an employee and walked around on his cell until the cop left. Then we got out of the bushes and headed back to Marsh. We’re now back at Starbucks to upload videos and photos.

Keep fighting the good fight, iPhoners.

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The 1 video to watch.

2008-07-11T06:23:32Z

If you watch one video and one video only, please make it this one.

Take special note of the ‘pull my pants up so they know I mean business’ exit of the car, followed by the ‘Do they even know who they are dealing with?’ strut.

Epic.

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