You've got to feel for Frank G., who shared this story of holiday woe on the WWW Artist's Consortium mailing list. He ordered a Verizon iPhone 4S, and received it, but when he tried to activate it -- no joy.
Frank spent an hour and a half on the phone with Verizon tech support in an effort to activate, until they finally sussed out the problem: the phone wasn't allocated for Verizon. Rather than attaching to Big Red's CDMA network as it should, the phone was apparently set up with a GSM SIM that thought it was intended for one of Vodafone's overseas networks. We know the 4S is a worldphone but this is a bit much, no?
Frank returned his phone to a New York-area Verizon retail store, where they confirmed that indeed the phone was improperly provisioned; unfortunately now he has to wait a couple more weeks for his new device (although maybe he shouldn't have had to wait; see below). The store techs reportedly said that at least 10 other people had come in with the same issue that day.
It seems like we would have heard more commotion about this problem if it was truly widespread, but let us know: have you gotten a mismatched Verizon iPhone this holiday?
Update: A source inside Apple retail (also in the Mid-Atlantic region) says this issue has been cropping up recently, but not all Verizon outlets are as cooperative as the one Frank visited. The source reports about a dozen cases of customers coming in with Verizon-ordered, GSM-provisioned phones. The local Verizon stores are refusing to assist the customers, instead referring them to the Apple Store's Genius Bar (sans appointment) for help. "This is Apple's fault; they are the ones that need to fix it" is the party line from Verizon, according to those customers.
Meanwhile, commenters Ben, Josh and Sean recommend calling AppleCare's help line for assistance, or trying a restore of the phone via iTunes. In past circumstances with misprovisioned devices, the restore process was adequate for getting the phone back on track -- sometimes after two or three tries.
Thanks Laurie!
Some Verizon customers received GSM-provisioned iPhones originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Some Verizon customers received GSM-provisioned iPhones originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.


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