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Bionic activation issues

I upgraded Friday to the iPhone but decided to come back to Android via the Bionic. Guess what...won't activate. A $300 phone won't activate. A $300 PHONE WON'T ACTIVATE! Come on guys...you release a phone that won't even activate in a non-4G area?? I tried the SIM in the Thunderbolt trick (I still have my Thunderbolt...thankfully) but its still a no go. I've seen where people are waiting 24hrs with no activation yet. I was told by customer service that it should activate by midnight. That'll be 6 hours after initial activation attempt. Has anyone found a solution that actually works?? Do I need to take it back and swap SIM and/or phone?? Don't really see where that would do any good if the first SIM/phone didn't activate. Surely SOMEONE has a solution to this...or at least your phone eventually activated?!? I'm dying to use this phone, but this is turning out to be a 'sign from above' maybe. Looks like I should have stuck with the iPhone...

Comments

Wildman

A number of users just disable the 4G radio and then activation worked, give it a try and see if you have luck..

gerio

Did they try to activate the Bionic SIM card or did they put the T-bolt's card into the Bionic?

I may have been the first person to mention the T-bolt activation method. I've since heard of a few other not-quite -official methods of activating the Bionic.

Geri O

unseenme

@Wildman no dude...once I touch the Droid I get a white screen that says 'PLEAE WAIT UNTIL YOUR PHONE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED AND RESTARTED' for 10 minutes then a white screen that says 'THERE WAS AN ERROR IN ACTIVATION. PLEASE TRY AGAIN OR CONTACT CUSTOMER CARE'. I can't even get Android to boot up. They say it's 'stuck in the switch' which they describe as being an issue with the switchover from the iPhone to the Bionic in their system.

@GeriO they scanned the SIM card and activated it through their system, waited 45 minutes while making several calls to their own IT department, then sent me home and said it'll be 2hrs. After 4 hours and another call to Tech, I started reading forums and searching for issues/resolutions and found the Thunderbolt trick, but it didn't work. any other suggestions would be very appreciated.

thanks for the responses! sorry to sound so mad but unfortunately I am. This is ridiculous.

Elitist_Jerk

take battery out for 5 mins, put it back in see if sim activates

its cutting edge technology, there are a lot of people activing, its still a network that is less than a year old

I have a feeling you should just go back to the iphone

unseenme

tried that a dozen times. one thing i noticed when i insert the SIM card into my Thunderbolt and power it on is it automatically dials *22899 but i stop it before it connects because you're not supposed to dial *228 from a 4G phone as it'll fry the SIM. I dont know what else to do. 12hrs and no activation yet. logging in to my verizon account online still shows the iPhone activated on my line but theres a message that says 'YOUR NEW DEVICE HAS BEEN DETECTED'. geez...this is nauseating now.

gina7289

Did it ever give u a sim card error? To be honest i have never heard that before... i think of retired sim mean it was active then inactive after a period of activity. From what i understood the phone registers the card after the phone actvates.i was told that 4g phones in general were haveing trouble active since this phone came out. I never had to register my sim card for my bionic but i bought mine at a corporate store. Ive heard stories of activation problems. Hope u are activated now.

unseenme

They cant even edit the order for mine. They were gonna change sim cards but they can't cause the status the order is in won't let then change it. Basically at this point I have a $300 iPod. They promote themselves as being the most reliable network & promote the Bionic as controlling all machines...and mine won't even activate. They're about to lose a long_time customer over this.

gina7289

Thats bad so what can u do?

unseenme

Mine has been sent to a department in tech support that can release the order so it either goes through or can be pushed manually. HOPEFULLY it goes through tomorrow, but I have the absolute best reps at my local store. I'm on the road all day, so one is letting me use her extra phone that is activated on another reps extra line until my Bionic activates. I have honestly never been taken care of by anyone in any company as good as these guys are doing.

unseenme

After an exhausting 64 hours, my Bionic FINALLY activated. the system eventually pushed the order through, but the rep at my store said he's never seen one take that long. I really hope VZW works a resolution out on this thing. It's an awesome machine but this activation issue is beyond ridiculous.

gina7289

Wow 64 hrs. What the heck. This guy was at the store today he was at the store 3 hrs and counting.

EdW_VZW

Hi Unseenme,

I apologize for the length of time it took in trying to activate your Bionic with understanding the frustration in not being able to get it activated faster. Perhaps an issue with the Sim Card contributed to the delay beyond normal circumstances that once they were cleared up, allowed your Bionic to be activated. However, I am glad that your were able to get your Bionic activated. I'm providing a link for an online reference on a Sim Cards which gives some light on their usage and how they function a 4G device.

gerio

EdW_VZW wrote:
Hi Unseenme,

I apologize for the length of time it took in trying to activate your Bionic with understanding the frustration in not being able to get it activated faster. Perhaps an issue with the Sim Card contributed to the delay beyond normal circumstances that once they were cleared up, allowed your Bionic to be activated. However, I am glad that your were able to get your Bionic activated. I'm providing a link for an online reference on a Sim Cards which gives some light on their usage and how they function a 4G device.

EdW, with all due respct,

I was in my Verizon store today they are still activating Bionics by first inserting the SIM card into an HTC Thunderbolt, activating the card, then inserting the SIM card into the Bionic to complete the activation. Both urban stores are doing this. They tell me that it's the fastest and best way to activate the Bionic, in spite of hours and hours on the phone with whomever they call for tech support. And I gotta say, these guys and gals are really sharp. FWIW, We are in a CDMA-only area.

I love the Bionic, but really, no solution for this yet?

Geri O

MrJcis1

YOU HAVE TO ACTIVATE YOUR 4G LTE SERVICE.

1. DIAL 1.877.807.4646 FROM ANY PHONE

2. FOLLOW PROMPTS TO ACTIVARE 4G LTE SERVICE.

RESTART YOUR PHONE AND SHOULD ACTIVATE.

Brrcda

Dang! I am on my 5th day without activation. I too have been through several tech support calls and 5 different SIM cards. I saw a video on YouTube on how to activate and that still didn't solve the problem. I can totally share your level of frustration. This is a company phone and I am letting the tech guy who handles this from now on. This wait is total BS and ridiculous! Anyway, glad at least someone with the same phone I have was activated.

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