Well, something had to go wrong. The Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone got pretty good reviews. The lines were long. AT&T's (NYSE: T) CEO gave an interview about how great the whole thing was.
But, customers who bought the phone are finding that it takes some time to activate the AT&T service that operates the phone. And, they are angry. The time lag for setting up the phone so it actually works affects both current AT&T customers and people moving their service from other companies, like Sprint (NYSE: S).
AT&T and Apple may be trading comments about which company is to blame. As one user posted: "Same here (in NYC), it's been about 10 hours for me. AT&T said (after talking to 4 agents) that it's Apple's job to activate the phone not theirs," added user PeteTech.
No product launch is perfect, and it's safe to assume that, once the initial flood of iPhone buyers has passed, getting the handsets to work will not take so long.
Maybe you can get better activation time if you offer to pay another $500 in addition to the $500 for the phone.
Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-30-2007 @ 2:19PM
john tomlinson said...
Never in my memory has a stock been treated like APPLE. On nice / good cooment and immediately there are 5 bad comments. Is it possible that there is a lot of short sellers. The anchors on SQUAC BOX, they should be investigated.
7-01-2007 @ 9:07AM
Michael Bell said...
ALL AT&T WIRELESS USERS IN DALLAS, TEXAS, ARE STILL EXPERIENCING A LEVEL 3 NETWORK OUTAGE THAT WAS FIRST REPORTED AT 5AM ON JUNE 30. THIS IS AFFECTING MY NOKIA 6230 HANDSET. WILL OTHER USERS PLEASE COMPLAIN TO AT&T SO THEY WILL FIX THE PROBLEM. I HAVE TALKED TO CUSTOMER SERVICE AT AT&T (FROM A LAND LINE) AND THEY CONFIRM THE LEBVEL 3 NETWORK OUTAGE (VOICE SERVICE CONNECTIVITY). MY WIRELESS HANDSET WILL NOT CLEARLY CONNECT TO CUSTOMER SERVICE USING 611. WHEN I DO CONNECT, ALL I HEAR IS AN ECHO OF WHAT I SAY AND THE RECIPIENT HEARS BUZZING, POPPING, AND SOME GARBLED SPEACH. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. OVER 1 DAY WITH NO CELLULAR SERVICE AND COUNTING.
9-19-2007 @ 6:00PM
E Bailey said...
Isn't there flooding in Texas and yet here people are complaining that their phones aren't working because some company wasn't prepared for the rash demand of the iPhone!!! Sad really isn't it how humans put so much into a piece of plastic instead of turning there energy towards those that have lost a loved one or everything they have worked so hard to acquire!!