iPhone 4 Activation phone number different

Question

Level 3

570 points

iPhone 4 Activation phone number different

When trying to activate a new iPhone 4 get the message:

"Confirm your phone number:

314-xxx-xxxx

The phone number should match the one provided when you purchased your iPhone. If you want to use a different number, contact AT&T after activation.

If this number is different from the one provided when you purchased your iPhone, contact Apple at:

(800) MY-IPHONE"

The instructions say to call Apple, but after two hours on the the phone yesterday with AppleCare and AT&T, no luck on resolution. I also went up to the AT&T corporate store and spent another two hours without resolution.

I ordered the iPhone via the Apple Online Store. I called them and they had to idea how to fix the issue.

When I ordered my iPhone I put in the phone number on my account. When I received the iPhone 4 yesterday from FedEx it displays a completely different phone number. The instructions ask for the Zip and Last 4 of the Social Security number of the the person who owns this "314" phone number. That is not me, so I have no idea what that would be.

There is no way to bypass this screen. Even restoring the iPhone as new results in the same display.

This is an Apple issue. I was able to back track and find out that the serial number the Apple Online Store thought they shipped in fact WAS NOT. It is two digits different!!

Mistakes happen, but I wasted a whole day yesterday trying to fix this and noone can help me. If anybody knows the fix please reply. Thanks.

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 7:47 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Oct 28, 2011 11:32 AM in response to iphone3Gguy

Hi there. Did you ever find a fix for your issue? I've got exact same issue, been speaking with apple customer support. no resolution as of yet. I just want to use my new phone 😟

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Answer 2

iphone3Gguy Author

Level 3

570 points

Oct 28, 2011 4:07 PM in response to Knightraeven

I was able to resolve this issue by taking the phone into an Apple Retail Store and them swapping the entire phone. The Genius had to do other things on the back end, but unfortunetly I do not know what because they did not share that with me.

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Answer 3

Oct 28, 2011 5:25 PM in response to iphone3Gguy

Thank you for responding. Glad to hear you got your phone issue resolved! Gives me hope now I am not stuck with a $600 brick off ebay. lol. Much appreciated.

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Answer 4

SRGDC79

Level 1

5 points

Nov 9, 2011 5:55 PM in response to iphone3Gguy

Same issue. Read this post and here is what I found out.

The serial number on the box and what was on the order was wrong.

Called Apple Care and after all the tramsfering and calling everyone, I spoke to Apple care Senior tech support. I had to provide them with all the following information: Phone number (the correct number), serial number, Imei number, last ssn and zip code, and name. They said an engineer would get back to hear and she would let me know.

At first I was not able to activate the phone and I had to do a complete restore and once that was done, it came up as my phone number.

Hope this helps people. Thanks!

Steve

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Answer 5

Nov 11, 2011 4:24 PM in response to SRGDC79

Awesome, SRGDC79! I spoke with them there too. They initially told me I was SOL but he re-escalated it. The guy I was working with in senior tech got sick though and was out for a week. During that time I got impatient and just got mine replaced under warranty at the local Apple store. They were extremely apologetic about the issue.

Glad to know they can fix it on the back end as well.

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Answer 6

eve1748

Level 1

0 points

Jan 28, 2014 11:09 AM in response to SRGDC79

after 3 years later this solution still works THANK YOU

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