AT&T Lets Us Down Again

Gear Diary is reader-supported. When you buy through links posted on our site, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. You can learn more by clicking here.

Ah, AT&T.

So, I’m sitting here staring at my shiny new iPhone 4S. It’s unusable right now, thanks to AT&T’s lack of preparedness. They’ve had several years to figure out how to handle the spike in the load on their servers that accompanies the launch of a new iPhone model. Yet they still manage to hack up a hairball when it comes time to process orders and activate phones.

Apparently, I’m not the only one, either. Several blogs are reporting AT&T customers are experiencing widespread problems with activations. When AT&T carried the iPhone exclusively, I could at least understand that they may have felt that they could get away with inconveniencing their customers. If you wanted an iPhone, there was nowhere else to go. Well, that ain’t the case anymore, AT&T. Time to do a better job serving your loyal customers. Loyalty can be earned, but it can also be lost.

At least Apple had a backup plan when AT&T’s servers could not handle the load the night preorders started. Maybe next year Apple should just go straight to the reservation system they used as a backup and bypass checking the account status for AT&T  customers until later. It would have saved me at least an hour trying to get through the ordering process last week.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks for your support!

About the Author

Gear Diary Staff
Gear Diary was founded on September 30, 2006, with the goal to create a website that would not easily be labeled. Everyone who is part of Gear Diary is a professional who uses technology in their work and daily lives. On this site, we share our enthusiasm while exploring the gear we use — the equipment that makes our lives easier, more entertaining, more productive, and more manageable. Our hope is that Gear Diary visitors find this site to be a welcoming, friendly, and accessible place to learn about and discuss interesting topics — and not only those that are tech-related! Gear Diary is a place to discover and explore all kinds of new gear, including smartphones, computers, kitchen gadgets, Toys, EDC, camping gear, or even your next new car! You can follow us on Twitter @GearDiarySite.