6/29/07 7 PM: Like everyone else who has been anticipating the iPhone, I was contemplating various strategies to be certain that night would fall on June 29 with *my* iPhone tucked safely in its cradle. Unfortunately, business and personal obligations prevented me from applying the brute force approach of getting in line from early morning…or earlier. Instead, I opted for a more calculated plan, targeting a relatively out-of-the-way AT&T Store.
The strategy paid off. I walked into a mall in Chambersburg PA at 5:03 PM, turned the corner and was greeted with a line of only seventeen people! You may laugh, but that many people in that particular location was something of a memorial to just how far the new cult of iPhone had spread. The remaining 57 minutes were spent chatting with fellow

The folks at the AT&T store handled the situation very efficiently. Only eleven buyers allowed in the store, each directed to a specific clerk to take their order. The iPhone boxes themselves were nowhere to be seen. There was one runner who, once you stated your order, would retreat to a back room and bring each one out individually.

After selecting an 8GB iPhone and a “Belkin iPhone Holster, I explained to the clerk that there might be a problem with completing my activation online: I’ve been sitting an *old* AT&T unlimited talk time plan like a mother hen, enjoying the ability to call anywhere, any time, 24/7/365 for one flat rate. From past encounters with then-Cingular Customer Service I knew this can make things problematic, since I’m not in their usual database. “No problem,” the clerk assured me (just like another clerk at another AT&T store had assured me at 11:30 AM that morning).

By 6:45 PM I was home, with new version of iTunes fired up and ready to go. With a slight chirp, the iPhone came alive. Gorgeous screen! The activation process seemed to go smoothly…and then the message I didn’t want to see: “Your Account requires additional time to complete.” An email would let me know when my iPhone was ready for action.

While not a total surprise, I was a bit annoyed at this, since I suspected the old AT%T plan to be the problem, and had asked twice, receiving assurances that it would not. Patience is a virtue.