First 40 hours with my new iPhone

Angry Jones: Its 6:30, I've had my iPhone for more than 15 minutes now, why isn't the service activated? I did everything asked of me including dropping my previous carrier after being loyal for 5 years and switching my whole family over - is "the new AT&T" trying to screw me right out of the gate?

Joyful Jones: Well, I did only have to wait 4 hours for the phone. I was still in 8th place while the line stretched out behind me to over 50 when the AT&T store reopened at 6. And I did wise up at the last minute and score an 8GB model to load up all those music videos, movies, and video podcasts. I'm sure it'll only be a few more minutes now...

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Angry Jones: Its 10:00pm and I only have two emails from AT&T about the activation. One of them says it could take 24 hours to port the number over! That's great, so I won't be able to receive incoming calls for awhile, who cares - unlock the dang phone!

Joyful Jones: Looks like AT&T underestimated the burst of activation traffic. I'm sure they've got top people working on catching up on the backlog. In the meantime, I can still get a taste of what's to come by turning the phone on and off again. At least Apple provided a cool slider and keypad to amuse me while I wait for the phone to be unlocked. Maybe I'll just check out a few more reviews online and see how other people are liking their phones...

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Angry Jones: Midnight, still no service. This can't be THAT hard, I had two other RAZR phones do this whole process within an hour earlier today. I'm going to bed - it better be resolved in the morning or I'm crackin' skulls.

(Next morning)

Joyful Jones: I bet its going to work now. Let me unplug the phone from iTunes, recycle the power , plug it back in... hmmmm. That's odd, its still giving me the same polite error message ---

Angry Jones: Stand aside fanboy, where's that customer support number? "Hello? Seriously, what the !#%@? What do you mean there was a problem with the activation process on your end? Fix it and turn it on, now!" -Click-

Joyful Jones: Hey look, people are starting to post iPhone-tailored websites, boy that seems cool. Can't wait to try those out. Hey, I wonder if the iPhone can connect to multiple computers in the house. I know! I'll upgrade iTunes on all the computers while I wait, shouldn't take much longer...

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Angry Jones: "iPhone tech support? What's the deal? You only have one job to do! WHAT!?! A feature couldn't be added? That doesn't make any sense to me. Oh, its on your end but you can fix it? O....K....how long till it goes through? Wait till 6:30pm? Arrrrrrrgggggggg!"

Joyful Jones: Well, the original email from last night did say the whole process could take 24 hours which lines up with the latest word from Tech Support. Too bad about my old phone service being cut off. Hey, I know what could take my mind off of having two expensive smartphones sitting idle on my desk - I'll watch some videos on my aging video iPod. If I lay down on the couch I can turn the screen on its side and pretend that the video is wider....

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Angry Jones:

6:35pm [unplug, recycle power, plug in... "Your activation needs additional time to complete"] - I know, iTunes, that's what you've been saying for over a day now!

6:36pm [unplug, recycle power, plug in... "Your activation needs additional time to complete"]

6:45pm [unplug, recycle power, plug in... "Your activation needs additional time to complete"]

6:50pm [unplug, recycle power, plug in... "Your activation needs additional time to complete"]

7:00pm [unplug, recycle power, .... wait for it... plug in... "Your activation needs additional time to complete"]

7:15pm [unplug, recycle power, .... pray to the Apple gods - what more do they want from me?!? ... Your mother needs more time to activate!!!]

Joy-no-so-full Jones: "Hello, its me again. I've received no emails of any kind from AT&T or Apple and iTunes still refuses to unlock my new iPhone. I'm trying to be patient, what seems to be the problem now? ... Everything looks good on your end? I know, people have tried calling my old number and they're getting 'new voicemail' greetings so the service *does* seem to be active - why can't you unlock my phone? Wait until the morning now? This is making me angry... You.. wouldn't like me when I'm... angry"

Angry Jones: Welcome to my hell. Sweet dreams.

(the next morning)

Joyful Jones: This has got to be the day, I'll never be able to face my coworkers tomorrow if I haven't even been able to turn on the dang thing. Try to stay positive. Think happy thoughts...

[unplug]

[recycle power]

[plug in]

...