About two weeks ago I broke down, again. By that I mean Apple’s shiny dark magic took over my thought process. I did not even know what happened; it was like I was in a trance. I found myself standing outside an Apple store with an iPhone in my right hand and my soul in the other. I turned around to look into the store and all that I saw were droves of people that looked the same, everyone was just a walking Gap commercial. I then saw myself in the window; I had my black hood up with my black Boston cap on, and my black down vest on. I looked like I usually do, but something happened to me at that moment. I knew in my heart I was different then these people, I was an individual, not some drone. But what the hell was I doing buying this novelty that I swore I would never touch ever again? I walked through the mall talking to myself and my conscience was fighting itself. Deep down my heart was telling me to go back and return it. One side was saying “Yo dude, this device is going to bring so much trouble in you life”, and the other was saying to me “All your friends will finally think you are cool”.  Steve Jobs and the Cupertino soul reapers got the best of me that day, but it will never happen again!

So once I purchased the phone I wanted to activate it. I wanted to activate the iPhone with our tax id number so I could charge it to the business. Well obviously the iTunes activation process would not allow that. So I had some extra time one day and drove over to the local AT&T store. I wanted to ask them a couple of questions and see if I could activate the iPhone with the tax id number. I was told by the AT&T rep that it is possible, so he gave me instructions on how to do it. So I went home hopped onto iTunes activation to see if it would work, nope no dice.

So I give AT&T customer support a phone call, I spoke to nice gentlemen and he transferred me directly to the AT&T iPhone division. I guess it was too late because they were not home. So I am starting to get pretty frustrated. I obviously do not want to activate this thing under my own social. I have had my identity stolen once before so now I am very weary of giving it out for anything. So the next day I run over to the same AT&T store, the store is packed. So I head on over to another AT&T store in our local mall. The customer support rep pretty much refused to look at me. He told me he could not help me at all, honestly he did not even look at me. I was just amazed at how poor his customer service was. So he tells me I need to go to the Apple store and talk to them. So I go back to the Apple store I purchased the phone at. I wait in line for about 20 minutes to talk to one of the Apple rep’s, he tells me that he has never heard of anyone activating the iPhone with a tax id number. I asked him how do businesses activate the iPhone then? He responded by telling my “they don’t, corporations have to have each individual user activate it under their own social security number, and they just use the companies billing address instead of their own home address.” He also told me that this was an AT&T matter not Apple’s. He gave me the AT&T customer support number I originally called. I was so furious at that moment. So I went back home, sat down and tried to relax. I told myself I would try one more time to get this activated.

So two days later I went to the original AT&T store thinking I might get lucky and find the original AT&T rep that told me I could activate it with a tax id number. Well no luck, but I did get a rep that seemed really informed on how to activate it with a tax id, he actually told me that he just did for a customer two days ago. So I am pretty excited at this point. So he is telling my how to do it on iTunes. He tells me I first have to have an AT&T number and account. So he signs me up with a 2 year contract and gives me a number and an extra nokia phone just in case I have some problems with the activation at first. He tells me when I start the activation process on iTunes that I need to put that “I am replacing an AT&T phone with the iPhone”. So I do so, I proceed to enter my AT&T mobile number he gave me and my zip code. He also told me “instead of entering the last four of your social enter the last four of your tax id number”. After that I hit the activation button, at this point I am on cloud nine, finally I will have this thing up and running! I wait about a minute and I get a message saying “iTunes cannot activate this phone with the current credit information.” I try it one more time, same thing happens. I am going crazy at this point!!

I call the AT&T store back, and that last rep I spoke to answered the phone. I proceed to tell him what is going on. He tells me to try again in the morning, and proceeds to pitch me wood to get me off the phone. At this point I am ready to drive my car into the store. So I call AT&T customer support. I finally find someone that really knows her stuff. She was amazing. I proceeded to tell her about my past week and all of the drama that occurred. She starts to apologize, and then I tell her what the last rep told me. She flat out said that he took me. She said in no possible way can you activate your iPhone with a tax id. She said even the largest corporations cannot do it. She told me Disney could not even do it. They had to have their employees activate them with their own social and bill the company. At this point I was just dumb founded.

She took all my information down; she took the last reps information down as well. She cancelled my two year plan, and told me the rep most likely lied to me so he could get a commission. She told me even if I cancelled my account he would get credit for the sign up. She was a breath of fresh air. She and I chatted for about 10 minutes on how lame the activation process is for businesses. She fully agreed with me that Apple could have sold a lot more iPhones if they would allow tax id activations.  

So at this point I feel better, I still have the iPhone, still not activated, and I am most likely going to take it back. I should have listened to my conscience, at this point the allure and luster has worn off. I still love my ppc6700 with my hacked WM6 rom; I will be sticking with that until I can get the HTC touch via Sprint. 

So again Apple almost gives me a heart attack, the stress this device caused me was incredible. Some of you will say “why don’t you just use your SSN to activate it”. Because I have principles, and I will not give in just to get a novelty.

Oh and to top it all off I have the last AT&T in store rep on tape telling me how to do everything, from start to finish. I also have the nice lady I spoke to last on tape. If anyone from AT&T or Apple would like to hear them then feel free to contact us. I don’t think it is necessary for us to release these tapes publicly; we don’t want anyone to get in trouble.

The Geekery’s own iPhone commercial will be published in about an about 30 minutes or so.