I fought the good fight for 12 days...
TLDR: Return it, get a new one. Like magic.
3 tickets with AT&T, each one closed 24 hours later, with a email note telling me "AT&T Free Msg: The network ticket we filed for you is closed. Everything looks good on our end. For indoor specific issues connect to Wi-Fi.(www.att.com/features/wifi-calling) XPRU_X011EH""
Each time obviously not resolved... each time start over because the previous ticket was closed and contained no info... the 4th time I just stopped responding and tried apple support again... who sent me to AT&T again, again and again... Closest Apple Store is 65 miles from my house, a couple miles closer than the one I picked up the phone from 12 days prior... but still a jaunt... got there at about 3:30... 3 hour wait to get to a genius.. who told me what we already know, which is they don't know yet... and they had no repair units to swap with me... I was still in the return window, and they had my version in stock... I returned the old one, bought the new one... problem gone... so far...
Working theory I discussed with the apple peeps was bad batch of IMEI numbers, either duplicates, malformed or a bad batch of chips from Qualcomm that is can't hash correctly and gets booted from the system...
SO hard to blame AT&T if a new handset fixed the issue... but still pawsible if AT&T is responsible for the IMEI issue if that turns out to be the case.
GenX rant ahead about a 1st world problem:
Apple can contact me for more info on my experience, because the other thing all these comments and threads have in common is that Apple Customer service was abysmal... AT&T also having abysmal service left all of us "fans" of apple in a lurch... imagining that it is ok, 2 weeks out from launch, to have customers not only with non working phones but also leaving the return window, with perhaps no phone to fall back on because it was an upgrade, while you absolutely know the product is defective or at least non functional with it's signature feature... (I know I know... but it is called the iPHONE...and off wifi access is why its not called iPod or IPad)
PROACTIVE...Apple absolutely knows who is with at&t...and Apple definitely knows or should know by now, which launch day customers were effected... yet still crickets, no contact... One sure way to destroy a brand... destroy the trust of your most ardent fans...
This world makes it hard enough to try and still believe there are companies that still care about their customers beyond the $$$$, AT&T lost their way some time ago, but Apple was still one of them for me... I'm not sure it is anymore, and that just makes me sad.
❤️🔥
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