iphone

[Rhythm Thief]

Ms RT has been given one of these ridiculous objects by her new employer, who is a bit of a gadget freak and has abandoned his old mememephone in favour of a new model. So far, she's spent a day and a half sat at the computer talking to the Apple helpline people on the (landline) phone, and the thing still doesn't get a signal. Aside from sneakily selling it and buying a proper telephone with the money, does anyone have any advice?

 

[PBancroft]

Firstly, why did her boss give it up? Gadget freak he might be, but I know plenty of people who are just so but when something breaks they'll palm it off to someone they consider more technically literate than them assuming that they will be able to fix it.

 

[Panter]

iPhones don't work, get an Android

Seriously though, Apple support is very good, have they not resolved it yet?
Is it an issue with the actual phone signal, or the data?
Is she using a compatible SIM card? most old iPhones were locked to O2 for example.
Sorry if I'm asking the obvious, but just checking.
If it's not a hardware problem, try the service provider and see if they have any ideas?

 

[rusky]

I woiuld be inclined to take it to an apple store & see if the people at t he genius bar can help.

 

[Chromatic]

Ms RT has been given one of these ridiculous objects by her new employer, who is a bit of a gadget freak and has abandoned his old mememephone in favour of a new model. So far, she's spent a day and a half sat at the computer talking to the Apple helpline people on the (landline) phone, and the thing still doesn't get a signal. Aside from sneakily selling it and buying a proper telephone with the money, does anyone have any advice?

That's what they are like. I've got one, they are shite.

 

[Black Sheep]

what network was the phone on?

if it was on a network such as orange, they have a habit of locking their phones so that they will only work on the orange network - put an orange sim card in it and it will work, put an O2 one in and it won't etc

thats the only problem I can see.

I presume apple support will have gone with the idea of plugging it into the computer and doing a full reset?

 

[Ghost Donkey]

iPhones are powered by user smugness alone. As she does not love the thing more than life itself it refuses to work on principle. I'll get my coat.

Might be worth contacting the network provider. They will be able to tell you when the sim card last accessed the network. My only experience is with Vodafone and they have a corporate iPhone tariff. When we have contracts on the wrong tariff we get problems with network access.

Is the sim card the one used by her boss with that handset or is it another sim card? Has the sim card been activated on the network if it is a new contract? If it's a microsim for iPhone4s has the new sim been activated ont he network for her account?

Which iPhone is it? iPhone 4s have a great feature where you can short out the 2G and 3G aerials by holding both sides of the phone at once.

 

[gbb]

Re the signal RT, she's not left handed is she ?
Just got the wife one, but she aired her concerns about the signal to the sales guy (she knew someone with an iphone 3 that had signal problems.)
He explained (and demonstrated). If your left handed, you obscure the aerial with your hand. The metal strips round the edge are actually the aerials, there's three. He showed us how holding it can cut the signal dramatically. Move you hand, and the signal strength came right up.

SWMBO is on O2, no signal issues at all....she absolutely loves the phone. She is a phone freak mind

 

[Fletch456]

"Which iPhone is it? iPhone 4s have a great feature where you can short out the 2G and 3G aerials by holding both sides of the phone at once"
- buy a simple rubber case (not the apple one though they charge something silly like £25) and this sorts this well known fault.
- it always gets around the feature of it being super slippery from being metal sided. Dropping one without one of these is very very easy and the screens break even more easily.

For how do they work
- go into an iStore - all the staff seem to be very friendly and really knowledgeable - unlike so many other stores in the world. Though they do only sell one phone and know doubt all the staff have one - anyway were happy to spend time chatting to my Dad the other week over a simple thing.

- Also try youtube - you will no doubt find lots of videos so maybe google / youtube something specific. There are loads of videos on youtube of people demo'ing and reviewing phones.

 

[Fletch456]

PS Strange the apple support didn't help. If it's on Orange get your coat, a new phone and a new sim from a different network provider. That said how is it outdoors as Orange for me and others used to be terrible indoors. And you may be able to get it unlocked - there are shops advertising that.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Thanks for the advice folks. After a lot of messing about (including having a brand new iphone couriered over from her boss), it turns out it was the Vodaphone SIM card all along. A new one was couriered over on Saturday, but sadly it was the wrong size or something, so we went to the Vodaphone shop in Hereford and they fixed it in about fifteen seconds flat. I still don't like the thing, though ...

 

[Spinney]

Thanks for the advice folks. After a lot of messing about (including having a brand new iphone couriered over from her boss), it turns out it was the Vodaphone SIM card all along. A new one was couriered over on Saturday, but sadly it was the wrong size or something, so we went to the Vodaphone shop in Hereford and they fixed it in about fifteen seconds flat. I still don't like the thing, though ...

Glad its sorted - but if this was a phone she needed for work, then her employer should have been the one doing all the faffing around to make sure it worked...

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Glad its sorted - but if this was a phone she needed for work, then her employer should have been the one doing all the faffing around to make sure it worked...

I know. I told her that, often enough for her to get a bit tetchy with me.

 

[Deb13b]

Man I run my life from my iPhone ! I couldn't do without it. All my web surfing, emails, photo editing, banking, eBay selling, gaming, even tarot reading. And the Tom Tom app has been much used. A lot of people are put off because at first the iPhone seems really hard to master but once you get the hang of them they're bloody brilliant.
Ok that's my geekiness showing lol !