Buying an iPhone: Two store process?

The Apple Store employee seemed very nervous as he approached me, yesterday. I’d been standing in line for nearly three hours, as had everyone else, and he was about to tell me I couldn’t upgrade my wife’s Nokia phone to an iPhone 3G. After he tried to give me the reason, I told him, “Are you sure? Because I went to an AT&T store on Sunday, and the guy said since her Nokia line is already on my Family Talk plan, I could switch her to the iPhone, but would have to pay extra for the data plan.” The employee said they’re not equipped to do that at the Apple store, to which I replied. “Well, that’s my fault for not confirming it, so I won’t freak out on you.”

The employee was relieved. He glanced at the line behind me, and sighed, “Thank you.”

I felt bad for the guy. Waiting three hours for a phone, half of which were spent standing in the mid-day sun on a 90° day, will set anyone to boiling. Tell that person after the wait that he can’t get the phone, and you’ve got an explosive situation on your hands. I get why Apple’s doing the whole in-store iPhone 3G activation thing, but I don’t get why they didn’t have more 1 to 3 people at a time activating phones. I also don’t get why the Apple employees, a week after the launch, still aren’t better trained on how to handle anything but the most basic activations. And considering that they aren’t, I don’t get why Apple isn’t sending more phones to AT&T…because that’s where I had to go to complete my iPhone set-up.

This is what I needed to do: I have a 1st gen iPhone sharing minutes and text messaging with my wife’s Nokia on AT&T’s Family Talk plan. I’m the primary account holder, and wanted to keep my iPhone while upgrading my wife’s Nokia to the iPhone 3G. The AT&T dude said this wouldn’t be a problem. Apple said it was. Apparently, they had an AT&T rep in the back of the store, and he said my wife’s line couldn’t be upgraded. No reason was provided, the Apple employees were too busy to keep bugging him for one, and they wouldn’t let me talk to the guy. But, what I could do is upgrade my iPhone and give my wife the old one. Fine, except my wife really didn’t want the old one, and I did. 3G network aside, I prefer the look and feel of the old iPhone in every way. I’d been in line for three hours, though, and wasn’t about to leave empty handed. Fine. I upgraded my line, and figured I’d either end up using the new phone, or my wife and I would just swap numbers.

On the way home, though, I passed the AT&T store I’d visited earlier that week. The same employee was there, so I explained the situation. “No problem,” he said. “Bring in all three phones.” I did, and here’s what happened. The AT&T rep took the SIM card from my wife’s Nokia and put it in the new iPhone. He did something on the computer to switch the account with HQ, and now my wife’s information was on the iPhone 3G. Because that phone had been activated at the Apple store, it was all set and working right there with her number. I’m not sure what he did online with my account, if anything, but said I’d have to reactivate my old iPhone with iTunes. The original SIM card could probably stay in place, but he gave me the new SIM out of the iPhone 3G just to be sure.

Back home, I connected the iPhone to the computer, and it behaved as if it was brand new. Not good, since it wasn’t recognizing my account. So, I swapped out the SIM card with the new one I’d set up in the iPhone 3G at the Apple Store, and it knew my name and number. I used this to reactive the old phone through iTunes (much as when I originally bought it), told it I need the $20/month data plan, and received an e-mail 10 minutes later stating everything was set.

So, despite Apple’s claims to the contrary, I was able to upgrade my wife to the iPhone 3G while retaining my account on my original iPhone…I just needed AT&T’s help to do it. If you don’t have an AT&T store near you, no worries. You can handle the SIM swapping on your own, then get on the phone with AT&T customer service.

Now, not everyone will have the success I did, I’m sure. The iPhone 3G upgrade mess flows deep and wide, with variables the Apple employees aren’t trained to work around. It’s not safe to assume you can always do what Apple tells you and just fix it later, but you need not give up on getting the iPhone 3G, either. Call AT&T or visit a store before you go to Apple, and tell them what you want your set-up to be. If they say it’s possible (you may want to get that in writing, just to be safe) and Apple says it’s not, don’t panic. Get the phone, activate it, and head straight to AT&T to make it all work.

Just be sure to plan on taking the whole day off, and don’t do it when it’s 90° outside. Oh, and try to be nice to the Apple Store employees. None of them wanted this, and trust me; they want you to get your iPhone more than you want it yourself. The sooner you’ve got it, the sooner you’re out of the store, and the sooner they can get back to selling iPods and Dora the Explorer games.