I stood in line for 2+ hours yesterday at the Pioneer Place mall in downtown Portland, Oregon for an iPhone 3G. I hadn’t planned on buying a 3G iPhone because I honestly felt, and still do feel, that the original iPhone is still a pretty damn good phone. However, I have technology lust syndrome and the allure of having the new “shiny” was too much to resist.
While I stood in line at the Apple store I was unaware of one extremely bizarre hiccup in my quest for technology glory. An individual can not purchase an iPhone 3G from an Apple Store if they have an existing AT&T account that is linked to a corporate account or has a FAN number associated with it.
I was a wee bit shocked to hear this news after already standing in said line for 30 minutes. I immediately summoned an Apple employee stalking the line and drilled him for answers. He offered up no solution other than to walk away and visit an AT&T store. I informed him that I would do nothing of the sort because AT&T doesn’t have any iPhone’s and I’ll get mine from your store come hell or high water.
Reaching for my current iPhone I dialed 611. After being transferred to business customer care (seriously awesome folks by the way) I speak with someone about my predicament. She informed me that she could remove the FAN number from my account, I buy the phone, then call back and have FAN reapplied. Problem solved.
I summoned the Apple employee again. I informed him of my good news yet he was already keenly aware of this solution. He is instructed by Apple NOT to give this information out to consumers. They can only inform them that they can’t buy a phone from the Apple store and instead only directly from AT&T. Excuse me? Why would Apple turn people away when there is a very simple solution to the problem? I’m baffled as to why Apple would turn those away with “special” AT&T accounts.
Since Apple isn’t shipping AT&T any legitimate iPhone 3G stock, if you have a corporate or FAN AT&T account the best way to get an iPhone is to remove it right before purchase. I walked back into an AT&T 1 hour later and had my FAN account back.
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One Comment
I had the same issue! I was third in line at the Washington Square location (got there @ 3;45am). I called up AT&T in the Apple store and the CSR removed my FAN number…10min later I was out the door with my shiny white 16GB iPhone!