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Verizon or Apple activation server down?

I spent about 3 hours in a NY city area Apple store yesterday (Saturday November 3, 2012), attempting to pick up my iPhone 5. Apple said the Verizon servers were down, Verizon said there was nothing wrong on their end. Has there been a issue recently? I even attempted to just purchase the phone and I would activate it myself (as I travel frequently), Apple said they could not do that because they could not sell the phone without Verizon knowing the phone was sold. Apple explained that they actually activate the phone when its sold, but they have to communicate with Verizon to let them know this (action) has occured.

My basic question, was/is Verizon having an issue activating phones?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Comments

Buur

Having the same issue at a Michigan store. It's maddening that I can't just buy a phone and walk out with it, even paying full price. So now my phone is just sitting in the store as I am on day 3 of waiting for a call that I can come get it.

gina7239

Verizon servers were down yesterday. Not that I was buying an iPhone but I couldn't get any account info or my Verizon app. Customer service said system maintenance for 5 hrs .

2krunk

Thanks Burr,

I was truly frustrated, they also told me that I could not buy the phone at full price.... that really shocked me. The store also told me to call back today to see if the servers were up. Did your store indicate if it was a Verizon issue or an Apple issue?

Buur

They said it was a store issue and that a lot of people were unable to activate phones. I am not exactly sure what is going on though and honestly I am not sure anyone in that store knew either. What was really wonderful was the guy telling me, "Crazy thing is if I could give you the phone you could walk over to the Verizon store and activate it no problem but we aren't allowed to do that." Gee, thanks.

2krunk

Thats interesting Gina and thank you for the reply,

I was told by Verizon it was a "System Update", being in IT, I know they dont or shouldnt run an update during the middle of the day. At 7pm on Saturday November 3, Verizon phone rep quoted me "At 6 pm we were told it would be fixed in 2 hours, so we should be back up in an hour" At 9:15 pm the Apple Store refunded my purchase as they could not sell the phone ( I had pre-paid for the phone online and selected in-store pick up) I am wondering if it is Apple or Verizon that has the issue. I say this because the store offered me a free phone case, because I had been so reasonable.

2krunk

I tend to agree as what initially happened was, I presented the Apple store staff, my online receipt and they stated the order had been cancelled..... As I had received no email stating this and no refund of monies, and I had not cancelled the order, there must be a problem with their data. They them offered to refund the money (up to 30 business days) and I could pay again for the phone... Once I explained that meant I was essentially having to pay for an off-contract phone until my refund arrived, they had to have a better way to satisfy an issue, the customer did not create. Having said that, Apple blamed Verizon and vice versa.

redhed428

I live in California, my iphone died yesterday at 1pm Eastern. This is the third time so I'm a pro at this. I get the phone, no mention of a Verizon outage of any sort, start the download in the store but it's taking too long so they stop it and tell me to finish at home.. I called Verizon at 1 pm and was told the system update story, on my third call at 6pm the rep told me the computers were just down and in all her years she'd never seen anything like it. At 11 pm they were still spouting the system update story. Luckily this morning they're back on line,

billybobjon

i work for an indirect agent so i will give it to you straight. Verizon has servers in the basement of a building in new york....its a data exchange server system. it links two systems together. from what i have heard is the basement has been flooded since Wednesday and it crapped out yesterday. they say its an "update" to make it sound scheduled but it was not. They immediately started using "older" back up systems and got a lot of the country back online but at very very slow speeds. I think i have seen one email today saying they are still experiencing "lag" today on the network. Verizon does have hundreds of people working on these issues and of course they hate the fact they are losing money every min the problem persists. just call your local store before going and ask if they are able to upgrade or activate today in the store.

jondal

sounds like vzw I dont see why they have servers in a basment LOSERS lol

Ann154

Where should they put their servers? On the roof? Servers put off a lot of heat and are heavy. Basements are cooler than the upper floors of a building. The floors can be designed to carry the weight of the equipment better then steel girders.

vidaljr19

Hello. I'm from Chicago and I experience this same issue on Saturday. When I called in on Sunday, they told me I could go in and pick up the phone but the activation process was going to take longer then usual. Which I was fine with as long as I was able to get the phone. I get to the store and they turned me around saying it wasn't possible. They asked for my number and told me they would call me when it was up and running again. Anybody hear if the activation towers/servers are now back up?

Buur

I was finally able to activate mine yesterday. So they are back up, but apparently intermittently.

vidaljr19

Thanks for the response. I never did receive a call from the Apple tech yesterday. This is starting to get a little frustrating.

2krunk

We were able to pick the phone up yesterday, but we "activated" it at home. The Apple Store was swamped when we arrived about 2 pm and initially we had to wait 45 minutes just to get to the point of attempting to purchase the phone. We had called Verizon early 11:00 am and they had contacted the store and said there were no issues at the point, but they could not guarantee the system would stay up. Sure enough while we were in the store, the Activation system started to act funny and some were unable to pay for their phones. Luckily when it came our turn, we were able to get through. I think Verizon was getting slammed with activations due to so many people unable to get their phones. I read in another post that some of their servers were in NY City in a basement and had been flooded... I cant confirm or deny that to be true, but being in IT, the basement would be the last place to put servers... but then again, I dont work for Verizon. One thing, we paid for the phone and were told to activate it at home, immediately the old iPhone4 we were upgrading stopped working, I guess they could have told us that would happen, but all is well, we got home about 5 hours and saled through the activation.

2krunk

Unless there on the very bottom level of a building, not sure why putting them in a basement would matter, it would be rare if a building in NY could not physically support a server room, it would be a very very poor choice of real estate. Modern servers run cooler, are lighter and are more energy efficient than just 5 years ago. Not defending or lambasting Verizon as I have no idea if they are in a basement, but if they are, they probably wont be there much longer in the future. As Governor Cuomo said " We seem to be having these 100 year storms every two or three years, and the city was not designed for what we are currently dealing with."

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