Awful activation procedure
After waiting over 30 hours for activation, I decide to call to see if there's anything that can be done to speed things up. Now that I've been on the phone since before 11:00 EST, I'd like to say that Apple's inability to design basic customer service systems seems to be in full effect here.
Apparently my order has been "on hold" for some time. Did anyone between AT&T and Apple see any reason to have an automated email telling me this? Nope. Did anyone feel like mentioning it to me when they looked over my order and transfered me to another hour on hold? No, that wouldn't be right. So now it's 12:30 at night, my order is on hold and I have more calls to make tomorrow to try to get it straightened out, after waiting for my "successful" activation to be finalized.
And don't try to blame AT&T, fanboys. Apple obviously designed this system along with AT&T. It might be AT&T people answering the phone, but the same sadist who designed the "genius" bar (you know, the great customer service system that requires you to pay a subscription to be able to make an "advance" appointment for service on even a defective product that never worked out of the box*) obviously designed this activation procedure.
Anyone who says this is an improvement over getting a cell phone activated in a store is either insane, lying or has no idea what they are talking about. The problem with this system is that Apple has no real stake in getting the phone activated, so they don't care. AT&T is slammed and I'm not at the store, so no one at AT&T has any real stake in getting the phone activated... so if there's any problem, it seems like you just sit in limbo and no one feels any real sense of urgency to fix the problem (or even tell you there is one).
And just so I can be as livid as possible, I just want to confirm - since I opened it, I can't take it back, right? That's what I'm waiting for - to be told that it will be almost impossible to activate, but that on the other hand, it can't be returned because I opened the box.
* I bought an iMac at Christmas with a defective display and was appalled at how many attempts it took me to finally get an appointment to have it serviced -- of course, I could have bought some "pro" Apple Store membership for the privilege of being able to schedule an appointment, but for some reason I could never quite sink to the level of lunacy that would require.
iUselessPieceofUnactivatedGlassAndFancyStuff
Apparently my order has been "on hold" for some time. Did anyone between AT&T and Apple see any reason to have an automated email telling me this? Nope. Did anyone feel like mentioning it to me when they looked over my order and transfered me to another hour on hold? No, that wouldn't be right. So now it's 12:30 at night, my order is on hold and I have more calls to make tomorrow to try to get it straightened out, after waiting for my "successful" activation to be finalized.
And don't try to blame AT&T, fanboys. Apple obviously designed this system along with AT&T. It might be AT&T people answering the phone, but the same sadist who designed the "genius" bar (you know, the great customer service system that requires you to pay a subscription to be able to make an "advance" appointment for service on even a defective product that never worked out of the box*) obviously designed this activation procedure.
Anyone who says this is an improvement over getting a cell phone activated in a store is either insane, lying or has no idea what they are talking about. The problem with this system is that Apple has no real stake in getting the phone activated, so they don't care. AT&T is slammed and I'm not at the store, so no one at AT&T has any real stake in getting the phone activated... so if there's any problem, it seems like you just sit in limbo and no one feels any real sense of urgency to fix the problem (or even tell you there is one).
And just so I can be as livid as possible, I just want to confirm - since I opened it, I can't take it back, right? That's what I'm waiting for - to be told that it will be almost impossible to activate, but that on the other hand, it can't be returned because I opened the box.
* I bought an iMac at Christmas with a defective display and was appalled at how many attempts it took me to finally get an appointment to have it serviced -- of course, I could have bought some "pro" Apple Store membership for the privilege of being able to schedule an appointment, but for some reason I could never quite sink to the level of lunacy that would require.
iUselessPieceofUnactivatedGlassAndFancyStuff
