Ugh. Apparently my account was set up correctly — everywhere but here. I was just told that number has transferred and the account is set up correctly. Except that my iPhone has no idea it’s connected to anything.

Cathy in Jackson was the first person I’ve talked to who really seemed to get this thing on it’s way to working. I’m now fully escalated, forms have been filled out and I’ve been instructed to cycle power on the phone regularly for the next few hours. And she’s going to call me back later today.

I’m feeling like this might finally be straightened out today.

If I had any advice, I’d say to call the main AT&T number, 877-419-4500, and ask to be escalated to the iPhone fallout number. Yes, “fallout.” Have them verify that the SIM card is working correctly, and go from there.

At this point I’d try animal sacrifice if there was the slightest chance it would work.

The saddest part? This is sort of an improvement for me.

The AT&T Port Administration department gets to work at 7:30am. Maybe it’ll actually happen today.

After 30 minutes on hold with the iPhone Activation Line (877-800-3701), which beats the 60 minutes they predicted, my initial iPhone activation attempt has been cancelled. It only took 53 hours to get this far.

The woman on the phone, who sounded exhausted, was reluctant to cancel the request, but once learning it was possible I insisted. Based on everything else I’ve done with technology, this mess was well past the point of needing a reboot.

Einstein’s definition of insanity:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The full story is that I called the standard AT&T service number, (877-419-4500) and finally got someone who could tell me what was going on. The higher-ups must have finally given them something to work with. My account had been flagged as “needs more info” and I would have to call another number to follow up. The other number was the iPhone Activation Line, which she transferred me to.

Engadget’s iPhone activation poll shows just under 50% had a smooth activation. Nearly 40% were also locked out of doing anything with their phones.

Thanks to the equally suffering Charles Gordon at CrazyGadgetGuru.com for the link.

I’m pressing publish on this post and re-starting my activation. Deep breath…

An hour later… Yeah, as if. So the port hasn’t cancelled yet, or something. Whatever it is, iTunes can’t activate me. My Verizon phone still works, sort of. I can call but incoming calls go straight to voicemail, SMS still works both ways. iPhone’s still a brick. Silly me for getting hopeful.

Something to try when I’m home and have a dependable connection:

iPhone activation tip
Apparently the secret to getting your iPhone activated as soon as possible is to leave it plugged into your computer and connected to iTunes until activation is complete. A support person from AT&T told me that the their system works by going through a queue and pinging every unactivated phone in turn to activate them. If the system can’t see your phone, you lose your place in the queue and have to wait for the next time.

I’m still doubtful, but it can’t hurt to try.

Day 3, the AT&T people on the phone can’t seem to do anything and they’re starting to show signs of fatigue. Be nice to them, it’s not their fault. The “iPhone Activation Line” is basically down, I called this morning (Sunday) and there was a 60 minute wait. I got a person right away at the other number, while not admitting it per se, she had obviously been answering calls from distraught iPhone customers one after another.

As I said prior, Apple’s brand will survive this largely unscathed, the iPhone is just really, really astonishing. AT&T better have some heavy-duty spin ready for Monday morning or their reputation is going to go further down the drain. As pointed out by Harris, who is also waiting for two iPhone accounts to activate, “AT&T has 302,000 employees, get 50 smart ones in a room and fix this.”

I wonder if Apple had a plan for dealing with this or otherwise anticipated it. Something like a breach of contract clause which would free them and the iPhone from the shackles of AT&T? Harris again, “there’s only one CEO in America with the balls to pull that off.” At this point I really hope so.

Thankfully we’re visiting friends at their lake house where internet and cell-phone access is limited. Otherwise I’d probably be at my desk, pressing reload constantly, pissed off and muttering. Sort of like macademic. (wink wink)

Anyway, here we are going into the third day without service, if this thing actually starts working before Monday morning, I’ll be very surprised. Just for amusement, here’s what the email I got two days ago:

Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 8:56 PM EDT on June 30. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you’d like to make other arrangements.

Read more of my pathetic iPhone saga.

Day two, as far as I know we now have 2 successful activations out of 8.

The newly successful activation was blocked from doing anything last night and so was essentially a first try this morning. The rest of us who tried early seem to be locked in some sort of iPhone activation queue of doom.

News of the activation problems is spreading:

• This Digg thread, AT&T Activation Clumsiness hurts iPhone, says nothing, but it will have a zillion diggs by lunch. If things don’t get better the entire Digg top ten will be iPhone woes.
• Tuaw: While some sit in raptured bliss, others await activation
• Massive thread on MacRumors forums: iPhone Activation Issues
• Engadget: iPhone activations hosed until morning?
• Plenty more here: iphone activation – Google Blog Search
• Apple support is lit up: Apple – Support – Discussions – Phone

I’m trying to figure out who this is worst for. I’m thinking AT&T, who should be spinning furiously about how the activation problems are the fault of other carriers, the number transfer system or whatever. Their market value is going to get hammered on Monday. Have fun with the brand rebuilding since you’re going to be fondly known as the POS that kept us from using our new iPhones.

I just called the iPhone Activation Line, 877-800-3701, got a recorded message and disconnected. Nice. Also tried 877-419-4500 which put me on hold, I’ll try calling again later.

It is sort of funny how the communal joy of this experience has turned into communal frustration for so many. No, it’s not really funny at all. I want this very expensive, beautiful and fully useless thing to start working.

One of the first things I tried on Michelle’s iPhone was to use Safari to access the local file system. No dice, urls like file:/// yield this: