For some reason weird things happen to me (I have odd problems) when it comes to technology.  I’ve said it before,  I think it happens so I can tell others what to do to resolve their technical problems.  And my new iPhone 3Gs was no exception.

We were excitedly following the UPS tracking of the phone delivery.  When I got up this morning it was in Portland after having traveled from China to Hong Kong to Alaska to Kentucky (! must be a hub), to Portland.  That was at 5 am.  I didn’t think it would get to us on time.  But as I was running out the door to have coffee with a friend I checked again.  It was then 9:21 am. The phones had left Portland at 5:55 and arrived in Bend at 6:45 (wow, it always takes ME a lot longer even if I fly),  And were “Out for Delivery” at 9:17 (4 minutes earlier than when I checked).  I barely had enough time to let me son know they were coming when I saw the UPS truck.  Chad was here at 9:31 with our phones.  It’s truly amazing how fast our technology can travel!

My son had no problems.  He plugged in his phone, went to the iTunes and it activated and restored from his backup in 15 minutes.

As usual, I wasn’t so lucky.  I SWEAR it wasn’t anything I had forgotten to do, nor any instructions I had missed, it was just one of those things that continue to help me understand the frustrations people face when setting up their technology.  iPhones have a big cool factor so the company makes a lot of assumptions, or doesn’t want to confuse those people who have an easy transition, or don’t want to alarm potential consumers that there could be something confusing about their product.

It took a couple of times of restoring my backup before I got all my info.  Then I synced my contacts from both my computer and from “Mobile Me” and now I have duplicates of all my contacts (however they ARE separated into groups from my computer and from my mobile me automatically so I can just look through one of the groups).  Lesson: if you have Mobile Me- choose “don’t sync contacts, calendars…(or any other app that you already sync to your computer).

Then, most importantly, my phone wouldn’t complete activation, and wasn’t getting service.  I had done just what my son had and I thought maybe it just took longer for me.  After my frustration had built sufficiently I called AT&T. Navigating the voice recognition system was near impossible as my dogs barked at the perfect time so the system thought I had said “billing” or “new service.” I had to finally lock myself in an upstairs bathroom to make the call.

I was told I had to take the sim chip from my old phone and put it in the new one.  Not to whine but why did I have to exchange sim chips and my son didn’t?! How would I know I had to without the troubleshooting call.  I got my box as instructed and this time went through it without tearing for my iPhone as I had when it arrived.  Yes, there was a little tool with a picture of how to extract the sim card holder.  Lesson: unpack your new technology slowly so you don’t miss those little papers that have stop signs or “read me first,” or so you can see that there is a little tool that you may need to use . (it’s still understandable that I would think it wasn’t necessary because my son didn’t have to do it).

I put in the card and my best friend immediately called.  Great! It was working.  The Voice Mail still was not.  As you may recall from my recent post about iPhone troubles while I was waiting,  my old iPhone’s voice mail didn’t work.  With iPhone’s visual voicemail you can’t just press “1″ on your phone and set it up. It has to be set up with AT&T somehow so it either works or it doesn’t.  And when it doesn’t you need to call AT&T.

The lessons I learned from the voicemail call: as nice as customer service reps are, don’t be afraid to call back if it still doesn’t work. There is probably someone there who understands it better. And such  was the case with Dirk from Kentucky at AT&T.  He told me that it should have been fixed days ago.  He was able to get my voicemail back.  And he asked me to have someone call and leave a message, etc. before completing the service call with me.  But even Dirk didn’t know everything. He taught me that you can press “*#06#” to display your serial number.  Ok, cool.  But my son showed me that ALL information about the phone is available in the iPhone settings under “general”>”about.” (and by the way you can see a lot of other info too, including how many songs, apps, and how much memory and more).

Moral of the story: when you get new technology take your time opening the box, inspect everything you receive (they had a REASON they put it there), and know that you will get help ultimately from the manufacturer or service company.

Repeat the mantra “It’s going to work, it’s going to work…..eventually.” (and if it never does…be sure you know where the receipt is to return it)