<p>I am flabbergasted that I cannot find any that won’t break the bank (meaning, under $250). I want to get D2 an IPhone for her birthday, and have made all the decisions that need to be made. I spent quite a bit of time with our local Best Buy rep yesterday. The employees at this store have done an outstanding job serving us in the past, and I want to give them my business, which is why I haven’t told D to just go to her local Best Buy and make the purchase.</p>
<p>So, things I found out when buying an IPhone. There is no SIM card to switch out, so once I make the purchase, the phone is automatically activated, and her old phone becomes obsolete. This is an Apple policy. No way to get around it. The store I was at yesterday is down to three IPhones, and once they’re gone, don’t know when they’ll get more in. They recently went almost a month without any. So I want to buy it today, but therein lies the issue. If I buy it today, I cannot find a place that will offer overnight delivery. I don’t think it exists. The only place I found was UPS Critical Express Delivery, and they want $250. I’m willing to risk that there may be no phones left at Best Buy tomorrow, not to spend $250 (really, a no brainer). </p>
<p>So it made me wonder if anyone on here has had any success trying to ship something overnight on a Sunday. Have I overlooked any options? The other two places I tried were the USPS and FedEx.</p>
<p>Son bought his through the Apple website. Go to the Apple Store website, click on iPhone 3G, click on “buy online” and it will take you directly to the ATT store. Son ordered his this way and it was shipped to him within 2 days. This might be a good option for you.</p>
<p>Well, I kind of have my mind made up that I want to make the purchase at Best Buy; I have some Reward Zone credits that will help out a lot toward the purchase. And I really need overnight shipping as she can’t go without her cell phone for two days. As it is, she will go without for one day, once I make the purchase here. And we’re going for the 8G.</p>
<p>In that case, purchase the phone today. Mail it off via overnight tomorrow (make sure you get to the post office early–before 10:00am). She should get it by Tuesday. She should be OK without a phone until then. Good luck. She’s going to love the phone!</p>
<p>Getting to the PO before 10AM might be a problem. The store doesn’t even open until 10AM, so by the time I make the purchase, it’s activated, I ‘rebox’ it, and get to the post office, it will probably be 11 or 11:30. Hope that’s soon enough.</p>
<p>She’d rather not be without a phone all day today, and tomorrow, until the new one arrives on Tuesday. I will call Best Buy later this afternoon and see if either of the three phones they have left, have sold.</p>
<p>Well, she’s actually in the middle of auditions this weekend, and needs to be accessible by phone. Cast lists will be up tonight or tomorrow, and once that happens, she will feel better if she’s not accessible for part of a day. Had I been able to send it this afternoon, with arrival tomorrow, that would have been a bit different, than buying it today, shipping it tomorrow, then getting it Tuesday.</p>
<p>believe me longprime… that was the first route I tried. I can’t tell you how many numbers I called, speaking to people, and was told no. I was even willing to drive down to the main facility in Chicago, or out to O’Hare.</p>
<p>When I bought my son an Iphone for his birthday, I ran into the same problem but without the shipping part. If I purchased it right then and there, his would have immediately stopped working. Not that he couldn’t go without a phone for a day, but it was a surprise and I didn’t want to shut off his old phone without him knowing. The man at the Apple store suggested that we activate the phone with my husband’s number (he could go days wtihout using a cell phone) and as soon as my son received the gift, we could call and change it to his number.</p>
<p>3bm103 - what a brilliant idea. Really, the Best Buy rep brainstormed and brainstormed, trying to come up with ways to work around it. The worse part for me, was having to blow the surprise by calling her and asking what was the best 24-36 hours to go without her phone. We only have three cells on our plan. H’s is through work, so it would have to be my phone.</p>
<p>no, I asked that, too. Once you make the purchase, it has to be activated. Since it’s going on our family plan, under my name, I have to be the one to sign the contract, etc.</p>
<p>And that would also assume that the Best Buys in her area have one.</p>
<p>Actually it has a SIM and it comes with this paperclip like thing to use to open and close the SIM slot. THere is a tiny hole in the top of the iphone and when you use the end of the paperclip or the official thingy that comes with the iphone, you will discover the SIM. </p>
<p>And if you purchase it at an ATT store, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ACTIVATE IT RIGHT THERE if D already has an ATT phone and number. I purchased one for D2 for Christmas, and it was not activated until the SIM in the old phone was removed and placed into the new one. </p>
<p>APPLE and BESTBUY cannot do this. ATT can. They actually set up her existing account to add the iphone data plan on the day that you want it to be active. It will not affect her current phone service at all. You send the iphone to her, she squeals with delight, and she pops out the inactive SIM in it, and pops in her SIM. She turns it on, it finishes the activation process and it is ready to go. She does not know anything until she opens up the box. Her phone service is not affected. </p>
<p>We had no trouble with ATT setting this up. Unless she has a REALLY OLD PHONE and a really old SIM, there is no problem. But only if you purchase at ATT.</p>
<p>Actually, now that I think about it, I did buy it at an AT&T store, not Apple, and was told the same thing. It had to be activated before I left the store. Maybe different stores have different policies. That was December 26.</p>
<p>Well, I’ll know this for next time, but I wouldn’t be able to use my Reward Zone coupons at the AT&T store, and I’m expecting it to be about $100 worth, so I’m sticking with Best Buy this time around.</p>
<p>The original Iphone was not activated until you took it home and activated it on your computer. The new 3G phones are in fact activated IN THE STORE at APPLE OR BESTBUY, and usually is activated in the store at ATT. Too many first gen iphones were leaving the stores and ending up on ebay or on the gray market as unlocked phones. At Christmas, given that we had been with ATT for 20+ years, and had 4 phones on the family plan, and when I asked about a Christmas surprise, we were able to have the phone set up but the final activation took place with the insertion of the old SIM card.</p>
<p>Another idea when you have teens, they can take the SIM out of the iphone and slip it in the old phone when they have a situation where they might not want to put their iphone at risk. Like at the beach, or on a boat, etc.</p>