Activation Nightmare

Started last night at 7:15, it is now 8am, nothing, no activation email. I know people say that every carrier has its problems, but years ago when I used cingular, I had a 3 day activation nightmare. When I moved over to Verizon, it took about 10 minutes. Now I am moving back to cingular (ATT), only because of apple phone, and, TA-DA, same old nightmare.

Try powering of the phone and then powering it back on.

This resolved my activation issue last night after waiting close to two hours.

I waited in line for 4 hours. This wasn't too bad as they opened as they said right at 6. I received the "AT&T is now processing your activation" from an Apple Itunes email address at 8:51pm it is now 7:51am. I am now have 11 hours invested in the activation process alone.

I understand glitches happen and I certainly expected problems with all this new technology, but I am a Mac user and an existing Cingular customer. When I read these posts where it took people 5 minutes to activate, this sure is frustrating. Maybe all this secrecy and timing should have had a little better planning and testing.

Again I understand this is new and there are always problems right. I can deal with that.

BUT MY OLD PHONE WAS TURNED OFF IN LESS THAN A MINUTE. NOW I HAVE DO NOT HAVE A CELL PHONE !!!

APPLE and ATT ARE YOU LISTENING !!!!!!!!

10 hours and waiting in Florida.

question, those who are having this excessive activation delay, are you getting a new number or trying to port your old one? I had mine up and running in like 6 minutes after deciding to just get a new number and port my old one later this week when things cooled down.

in new york as well. I started waiting at 12:30 pm... got phone at 7:30 pm... gave up at 10:30 pm. woke up this morning and still no call from att or an email from apple activation.

I gave up last night after spending nearly an hour and a half on the phone with att (two calls of 45 min each). We got two iPhones and tried to set up a family talk plan...

I am an existing customer and have been waiting 11 hours, I dont think it matters.

I'm going into the 12th hour with no activation... I'm an existing customer in Atlanta...

I believe you have hit the nail on the head. Trying to use your current number (porting) seems to be the snag. I wonder if Verizon, Sprint have put a bug in the transfer system just to mess up all the switching to ATT this weekend.
I am tempted to just get a new number for my iphone. Does anyone know how to go back and set up a new number once you have already set up to port?

I started at 7:15CST last night and I am still waiting to use my phone. I still can't get the activation screen to go away. So right now my iPhone is my new paperweight holding my bills down from AT&T. So now I have been on hold for 33minutes to tell me to call anoyher number and be on hold again.

I am not happy!!!!

So I called the new number and they will not be open till Monday. I am beginning to like Bill Gates and Verizion Wireless more and More.
If Bill Gates is reading this please Don't use AT&T.

Most issues relating to new accounts are because of number porting delays and AT&T's inefficient phone system. Call the main customer service line 877-315-0500 and ask that they give you the number for the Number Porting office for your State. For Georgia, it is 888-898-7685. Provide them with all the details they require to complete the number porting process. They will also let you know how long it should take for your old provider to release the number. I'll post more as soon as I get my $600 paper weights.

Longtime Cingular/AT&T customer, using same number, East coast (Florida), 12 + hours and waiting

I can't find a pattern on here.

Hey, I'm THRILLED with the new ATT rates.
I've been paying $130.00 per month for my Verizon Blackberry with data plan.
And I don't talk very much.

I think we'll all be very happy when we finally get activated and get into using this unbelievable device. Just looking at the emergency screen is giving me goose-bumps. (ok I'm exaggerating, a little)

Calm down everyone. deliverance is imminent.

17 PowerBook G4-1.5Ghz DVD/R Mac OS X (10.3.6)

i was at a 12 hour wait. and all i did was simply turn my phone off....wait about 10 seconds then turn it back on and it actually worked. (although i got an email saying my phone was already activated.)

once you have it activated does anybody run into the problem of no interent?

FWIW, I ported my number from verizon, but didn't have problems with that. We did have to call AT&T and get a Family Plan enacted because my DH was previously on an individual plan. That took only a few minutes and the rep was very nice. I know that it has to be very frustrating to have to wait, but everybody involved is new at this. Believe me, it will be worth the wait! I was probably among the first people to activate, because I had my phone and was activating it at 6:20 pm EST, so I'm guessing that the servers and such weren't mucked up yet.