AT&T billing systems crash for iPhone customers

Derek, derek, derek…. You said in the comments you weren’t going to get one. Now you’re starting to pick at my foundation. ;)

hey Dan! was good times waitin in the iPhone line with you, we got ours DESPITE the system crash! im fondling my iphone from the back of a cab riight now, didn’t want to risk getting jacked on the subway. anyway great meeting you, blog til dawn!

I just activated mine… worked fine, took about 2 minutes to get everything up and running

Damn, Two public sightings in the last month! Not good!

@Mac it was totally cool meeting up with ya too.

We did my iPhones via paper. no joke. they swiped my credit card 1982 style.

ooh look i’m playing with mine too! wait no…PDT here too :P

I bought mine around 7 today and still waiting for the activation to go thru. AT&T said that there’s so many activations going on right now that it’s bogging the system down… kinda sucks. You can’t do anything other than 911 calls until you activate it…

Haha Dan got an iPhone… (in that 3rd grade teasing tone of voice)

So when do we get a review?

I will be writing a review shortly myself… I’ve already successfully locked my little baby up once, but it recovered as soon as I hung up the phone. I guess thats what happens when you’re using safari via wifi while having a conference call and playing with the ipod software all at the same time lol.

alright 3 successful lock ups from trying to push this thing to it’s limits (Playing Music, Using Smug Mug in Safari (Heavy AJAX with 1MB+ Images and Texting) although I know how to restart and unfreeze the lil guy now, and in the process found the sim card using a thumb tack :D)

NO PROBLEM!!! Took — maybe 2 minutes to activate and start playing and rubbing “my precious.” I LOVE IT!!! Great coverage, no snags of any kind. I’ve gone through each application and am currently using almost all. I love the instant contact list. I was surfing the web all the way from Birmingham, AL to Atlanta on a trip this past week. I’ve talked to several others who have bought one. NO ONE that I’ve talked with had any problems activatiing or with the iPhone. I have to believe it’s like everything else… the happy are silent and the few (minority) are LOUD. I don’t blame them, if my activation had not allowed me quick use, I would not be happy either.

I have been trying to get in touch with the proper person to correct my bill. I purchased two I phones and took them to France and was not told that when using the web the Iphone will not turn off unless it is reset. Once you are on the web that will continue, even if you put the phone on the charger unless you have reset it the billing continues.

This is a problem that Apple knows and it is something that is causing outragous charges that will never be paid and it they are it is a fraud.

I have been unable to contact anyone at AT&T to discuss this and or do anything about the issue.

Somewhat unrelated, In September I was a Verizon customer I purchased the I Phone, I was already an At&t land line customer, I was offered and AGREED to switch to Att wireless AGREED IN WRITING to be placed on Bundle billing and the Unity 1350 plan with the I-phone data plan, for 6 months now my bill has never reflected what I agreed to… it states I am on a Nation 700 plan, so my bill is outrageously high… I have made payment in good faith regardless thinking this would get resolved… now Executive offfices tell me I am not eligible for Bundle billing because I am an Iphone customer… I have spoken to probably to no less than 30 people at at&t about correcting my bill, NO ONE… I mean NO ONE presented me being an I Pohone customer as an issue until today (2-13-2008).. Contract doesn’t state any i-phone exception or disclaimer like this at all… Does this make sense to anyone???

After a recent trip to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, I was charged with a $4673.08 phone bill. In a span of 2 1/2 days I was alleged to have made 159 calls to one and same phone number in Mauritius accumulating a total of 1206 billing minutes to one and the same number.

In one instance I was billed for 104 minutes in one hour (?), having made 3 more calls to the same number that I was already connected to. After an initial inquiry, the internal Tech Department determined that it was technically possible. I could have put the first call on hold, and then dialed another number, and so on. Unfortunately, the Tech Department had overlooked the fact that I had dialed the same number that I was already connected to. Normally, if you dial the same number that you are already connected to, you get a busy tone. It was getting Kafkaesque.

Fortunately, another supervisor initiated a second inquiry. A review of my prior and after phone records revealed a serious deviation from my usual phone usage pattern. The young and sympathetic supervisor was sure to get the billed amount credited.

It would have been too easy, had the story ended hear. After a new inquiry the Tech Department now determined that the I-Phone dialed a dial-up internet service number to down-load emails in the absence of GPRS accessibility. Well, I neither knew nor had approved that my trusted little I-Phone dialed away while I was sleeping, eating, sailing, snorkeling, or scuba diving.

You may think me crazy that I was at least partially relieved with this explanation. I had been fearing that a Trojan Horse virus of sorts had hijacked my phone. However, the Tech Department explanation would be rational except for the fact that these charges were only generated in a 2 1/2 day time span. It hadn’t happened earlier. We had arrived in Mauritius on December 27. And between the 27th and the 31st the phone charges were absolutely normal.

Is there anybody else out there with a similar experience? At this point I almost don’t care about the bill anymore. I have spent hours studying the bill, talking and communicating with at least 7 different customer service reps and 2 different supervisors. What should I do? Pay the phone bill and get over it or should I interplead the funds to a court and fight AT&T Wireless in court and whatever media attention I can generate.

I know I’ll never travel with the I-Phone again. I clamor for my old reliable T-Mobile Blackberry with its national and international unlimited email service and its expensive but predictable international roaming.