iPhone Madness Part 1

Some of you may know of my recent quest to acquire an iPhone here in the Fargo/Moorhead area. It has been an absolute nightmare I can assure you. When AT&T says no coverage, no service, they mean it.

I think I will start at the beginning. For those of you that have heard this part, skip down a few paragraphs to where the cussing begins.

A friend of mine at work has an iPhone. Me and a few friends found out that she has had it and it has been working in the FM area for almost a year. We are all instantly in love and clamoring for ways to get our hands on one. After several emails and a bunch of phone calls to surrounding stores, we discovered we were pretty much SOL.

A week or two later, I got an email from my friend, she was selling her son's iPhone. He switched plans, so he didn't need his anymore. My guess is drugs! Why else would you switch from an iPhone to anything on the Sprint network.

Of course I bought the iPhone. I figured if nothing else, it is a $75 iTouch. Oh yeah, did I tell you I got it for a steal! $75 bucks!! Who wouldn't take that deal.

Now to the good stuff. After debating and researching and talking with my friend from work, I decided to take the risk and try to activate this phone. In case you aren't aware of the risk, AT&T is not located in Fargo. They do not advertise service in this area. It is considered "partner" coverage. And the AT&T contract states that if you use more than 51% of your minutes in a "partner" or out of area location for 2 consecutive months, they can cancel your contract. So by taking the AT&T plunge, I could lose out on any phone at all. I will get into cancelling my current line with Verizon another time.

I called AT&T directly and told my story. I maybe fudged some of the details about where I would use it the most, but for the most part it was all true. The lady was very helpful. She took all of my info, gave me my new number and said the new card for my phone would be in the mail later that day. Joy, joy!! I was thrilled! It was all I could do to stay at work for the rest of the day. I wanted it to be tomorrow.

Later that night, I hadn't recieved any update on my order which concerned me. So I decided to call AT&T and find out what was going on. We have now arrived at the Customer Service Wench part of the story. She will be from here on out known as CSW.

CSW informed me that there was no way possible that I could have ordered a SIM card. She didn't know who I talked to before, but they didn't have a way to ship it to me. This was a complete shock, considering 8 hours prior they were more than happy to take my SSN and credit card number. CSW wasn't very forthcoming with any details or recourse for the other person I had talked to. My iPhone dreams had been sufficiently flushed.

The next day, I had almost forgotten my CSW nightmare. But I was ready to press on. I decided to call around to AT&T stores to see what I could come up with. I called a Radio Shack that sold AT&T phones. They were clueless. They didn't sell them and couldn't help me. I called a corporate store in St. Cloud which is almost 200 miles away. They said that the AT&T corporate people send out SIMs all the time, and I should call them back. More frustration. Do I give up, or do I call AT&T customer service one more time.

I decided to call them one more time. This would prove to be the last time I would call them. I spoke with Justin at the customer service of AT&T. I grew to like him more and more during the call. He would go from serious, company man, to fun human hacker guy.

He explained to me that they don't sell the phones, and that I would have to go to the corporate store. I explained the closest store was over 200 miles away and this wasn't possible. I contemplated telling him I was a legless veteran with no way to drive and my only dream in life was to own an iPhone. I didn't figure he would care, so I left it at that. At one point in the conversation, he told me that AT&T probably didn't care about that 1 customer, that they were already the largest. I informed him that after Verizon acquires Alltel, that they would be 2nd, and they would indeed need my business. He also told me the best thing to do would be to take a road trip to St. Cloud and get my card there. Obviously a 400 mile round trip is just a drop in the hat to him. He eventually tried his best to help me out, getting all kinds of approvals and made phone calls on my behalf. It all boiled down to living outside the service area and the system would not allow me to have a card sent out. So another hour long call that ended in frustration.

So I still have no SIM card for my iPhone. I am heading out that way in a couple of weeks for my brother's wedding, so I will have every opportunity to get my SIM card then. Always the impatient one, 2 weeks might as well be a lifetime. Stay tuned for more iPhone madness. I don't plan on giving up on my quest for iPhone glory!