o2 iPhone registration screwed up monumentally; mum annoyed

Remember a while back I was writing about how my mum was loving her Apple iPhone?

Well, she loved it so much that someone at home (could have been her, I don’t know) upgraded the (unlocked American) iPhone as a result of a prompt on screen.

The device — obviously — screwed up and required unlocking again.

Since I’m a million miles away in America, I didn’t fancy having it shipped over here, then spending hours arsing about unlocking it.. and so on.

So I collaborated with my brother Martin to get her a new iPhone from o2. (Incidentally Martin runs Bladewatch if you’re into blades, servers and the like).

We reckoned this would be a piece-of-cake solution. Plug in the iPhone, register it, sorted.

Mum was eager. Really eager. She’d been using her unlocked iPhone like no tomorrow, not only sending texts by the ton but also listening to music, viewing photos, taking photos.. the whole shebang. She’s also been the envy of her friends.

The problem?

Well it wasn’t that easy registering the iPhone. Martin did his best with the activation system on iTunes (and remember Martin is a Class-A blade specialist, and uber-Mac fanboy) but alas it conked out. The handset didn’t want to activate.

Mum is not happy. Neither is Martin, neither am I.

My other brother, Fraser, incidentally, is fiercely loyal to Vodafone and not impressed at the 18-month o2 contract we signed mum up to.

Current status? We’re waiting for Apple to send out a box via UPS. We then have to stick the iPhone in that box, send it off and hope we get a quick repair.

GAHHHH. Did anyone else’s iPhone activation screw-up?

Mum’s now back to using her Motorola RAZR meantime.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH…..