Your Activation Requires Additional Time to Complete

Now I got this stupid message after waiting for FOUR HOURS!!!

"We're sorry. The phone number you entered is not eligible to be transferred.
Please re-connect to iTunes and don't select to transfer your existing number to complete your iPhone activation. "

Okay, so I reconnected the iPhone... and then got the standard "needs more time for activation." I have absolutely NO choice to re-do my activation request as a new number activation.

This is seriously messed up, Mr. Jobs!

Nice going with AT&T. Good job, Jobs.

I am still waiting almost four hours now. . . I am not porting a number over or an existing customer. I'm new and this is actually my first cell phone.

My iPhone will also not activate, I called AT&T got transferred to there "activation department" and I talked to a nice representative that would not give me a time estimate of when my phone will be activated. I remained calm...(luckily I have another phone to actually contact AT&T, I would be furious if I would not be allowed to have access to my phone for 24 hour without another option) Anyways...after a couple minutes of getting nowhere I finally got her to tell me that if my iPhone was not activated by 1am to give them a call back (it's now 11:45pm Eastern Time, I initiated the activation 2 hours ago and I'm an existing at&t customer. I blame apple for this one, the phone is there invention it is there responsibility to ensure that a product with this much "hype" should go through smoothly. I'm so glad that I walked into my at&t store at 6:30 and was out of there in 10 minutes...for those of you who waited in line all day....you should get priority activation.

I have been an "early adopter" since the 1970's, so I would say, I have developed a little ""we'll call it maturity""on more than just tech (i.e. net etiquette). I have also, using that same experience, over that time developed what I call, "you sold me this, now why doesn't it work, and shouldn't you be compensating me for the fact that it doesn't?" This iphone tech is great stuff, but the bottom line is ATT (disclosure: I worked for ATT for years before the breakup; I am now a retail consultant for national specialty brands) had no real motivation to ramp up to this, because of the unprecedented exclusive 5 year agreement w/ Apple for this service, where ATT was making way more profit off the deal than Apple. It's "Who else you gonna call if you want it, so deal with it", which has pretty much become the mantra of the few remaining telecommunications corporations. I do not speak of the front line guys- in store; phone support, etc. They are just victims of the corporate line.
My bottom line is, Do not think about penalizing me for buying your product on the first day, if you are offering it for sale on the first day. Expect and prepare for problems, and if they do occur, be prepared to make me as a consumer happy, not frustrated. Otherwise, expect the responses this discussion group has generated, and more.

goin on 5 hours here, and prob wont be ready for atleast 48hours due to keeping old cell number.

Started activation process at 7:15 EDT. My old AT&T Blackjack went "No Service" at about 8:30. It's now 11:45 and nothing. Have to leave tomorrow morning for a week & if the phone isn't activated, I'll have absolutely no phone service.

Thanks, AT&T. I absolutely love my "revolutionary" paperweight.

Just a few minutes after I posted, I got a notice that my activation was complete! Since the phone was already connected to the computer, I clicked a link, which opened up iTunes and finished the process.

And, to answer my own concern, I now have five bars of signal strength. I guess the signal strength meter isn't accurate before activation.

(Oh, and I didn't mention it before, but I had an existing AT&T account; I was moving the number from my old phone to the iPhone.)

Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.10)

I noticed a couple other posts stating that turning the phone "off" and then back on solved the problem. I have done it 10 times and nothing has happened. Has anyone talked to an AT&T Representative that actually got an iBrick activated while on the phone? I'm sorry, I don't care if this is to be expected on a product launch...I am getting very impatient after two and a half hours...24 hours is completely unacceptable...If mine is not activated before the morning I am returning it and not paying the restocking fee. I am SO GLAD that I paid with American Express because disputing a charge with them always goes through flawlessly.

Just got activated. Took a little over 4 hours!

that's a great point. however, it's always nice to get a new piece of equipment that can do all the things you wnated in a pda/phone. I hope I get my activation by tomorrow. I have been waiting now over 6 hours. I will not sleep peacefully

3+ hours now; waiting since 9:02 EST.

I am not a happy camper (literally). Waited hours in line for this thing, and I come home to having to wait for activation. My friend not only got activated right away, he transferred his number from Sprint in less than 10 minutes!!!!!!

It has nothing to do with transferring numbers, or whatever. AT&T's having issues with activating phones. Jobs said that Apple was doing the front end (iTunes), AT&T is working on the back end. AT&T is royally messing up, and I'm furious right now.

$600, and hours in line and I'm waiting 2 hours now with no e-mail or anything. This is so dumb. AT&T is evil in almost every aspect, they steal money from their customers everyday, you'd think they could use SOME OF THAT to create a back end that WORKS. I mean, is someone at AT&T going, "Well, we weren't expecting more than 10 phones to activate tonight. They caught us off guard!!!!"

I am experiencing the same frustration. I waited 11 hours today in a mall, and didn't even get to play with it today due to this.

4+hrs and still no activation.

Kudos to someone at AT&T - I had some "Corporate Liability" flag on my personal account... as if it was owned by a corporation and I was an employee.

Not 10 minutes after I got off the phone, I got a call back, telling me that the "IT" guys had fixed the problem and to activate again. The nice rep stayed on the phone with me while it worked, then waited until the iPhone itself activated, and waited a few minutes to call me on the new phone just to make sure it was working.

Existing AT&T customer happy and working now.