EVO V activation process

[SFC_Ren]

Well I didn't want to start a whole new thread on the activation process. Im having some major problems, unbeknownst to me I idiotically allowed the Radio Shack rep. to supposedly port my old number over from T-mobile and activate my phone.

Well VM tech support has been no help at all. After two calls through 4 different people, they have now told me they are escalating me to another higher level of tech support that will contact me within 24-48 hours. WTF? Really?

So could somebody answer this question for me. When you type in ##25327# on your EVO does it show your phone number under the Mobile Number? Mine shows 000-000-3771 it shows my MSID as the same thing. Should these be showing my phone number?

BTW, I am getting error 131 unable to connect to network errors

Thanks,

 

[septembersrain]

Well I didn't want to start a whole new thread on the activation process. Im having some major problems, unbeknownst to me I idiotically allowed the Radio Shack rep. to supposedly port my old number over from T-mobile and activate my phone.

Well VM tech support has been no help at all. After two calls through 4 different people, they have now told me they are escalating me to another higher level of tech support that will contact me within 24-48 hours. WTF? Really?

So could somebody answer this question for me. When you type in ##25327# on your EVO does it show your phone number under the Mobile Number? Mine shows 000-000-3771 it shows my MSID as the same thing. Should these be showing my phone number?

BTW, I am getting error 131 unable to connect to network errors

Thanks,

Yes, your number and your unique MSID number should show up.

Try doing a restore of the phone. Then activate again.

Keep in mind porting can take up to 24 hours. Is your T-mobile line off already?

 

[bucketfull]

has anyone experienced any problems activating from a RS employee? If not my phone is coming into the store on the 6th and I'll just have them activate it for me to save myself all the problems

 

[SFC_Ren]

Yes, your number and your unique MSID number should show up.

Try doing a restore of the phone. Then activate again.

Keep in mind porting can take up to 24 hours. Is your T-mobile line off already?

Yes my T-mobile line was off within 30 minutes of leaving the radio shack store. And that was confirmed by VM customer service. How do I do a restore of the phone? Is that the reset in the same window where I can see my mobile number and MSID? I've done that quite a few times. I'm going to wait for the two hour mark. Before turning the phone on again.
Thanks for the help.

Any other ideas?

 

[Stereodust]

I changed mine 4 days prior. Though I don't know how relevant this is.

Did they make you pay for the plan you switched to that day or did you pay for the plan the day you activated you're phone?

 

[Jaxmoto]

Had my own activation issues today, although I think it was a unique situation...

Bought it retail from a RS store. Did not have them activate since I needed to change my grandfathered plan to a regular plan. A few speedbumps in changing the plan, but I got it done online.

Then I go to activate and it tells me there is an error and I have to call. I call VM customer service and they tell me the phone is already activated on someone else's account. This was a new phone that I opened for myself, however the screen protector was bubbly and the SN sticker was worn like it had been used.

I asked the VM rep a few times to make sure, and verified the SN multiple times. She couldn't tell me the name it was registered to, but said she could definitely see it was another name/address from mine and not just an activation error. She said since the phone was registered to a customer there was nothing they could do.

Went back to the RS store and swapped the phone for their last one. Had them do the swap in-store since my account was already set for the new plan. Took a few restarts, but it finally swapped my phone and activated.

Either someone registered a customer the wrong phone in that store from the bottom of the box, Sprint screwed up with their SN's, or someone stole the SN to do a donor phone to get an improper phone on VM.... either way it was a pain in the arse. Probably a donor phone theft since someone has an active account with that SN and is about to get caught.

If you do let them swap phones/activate in RS just make sure you have your account set for a $35+ plan, and make sure they know the phone may need to reset a few times. Took about 20 minutes in-store, 4G, 3G, voice and everything was working when I walked out.

 

[GreyCelt]

According to their website you will lose whatever you have left on your $25/month plan and everything will reset to the new $35/month rate starting the day you submit the request and they switch it.

Even more incentive for me to wait since my billing cycle starts on the 13th!

Well, when my wife activated her Evo V and switched from $25 to $35 plan, they credited her account $15 for the part of the month that wasn't used. Her month started on May 27th.

Edit: Oh, and I forgot...They restarted her month for 6/3 and charged the full amount then did the credit.

 

[ZAXIS]

so september, was yours sprint branded as well??? and when you say dont power on till activation , is that a recommendation to not play with my phone when i receive via wifi until im ready to activate it. when i got my ov i still had time on my op m, so i waited to activate it yet still explored my ov via wifi connection, my plan cycles on the 19th so i was just gonna wait it out.....i preordered as you did and mine comes on the 6th

 

[Fazermint]

According to their website you will lose whatever you have left on your $25/month plan and everything will reset to the new $35/month rate starting the day you submit the request and they switch it.

Even more incentive for me to wait since my billing cycle starts on the 13th!

When you go to the website to change your plan, they give you two options. You can either change right away (and lose whatever's left on your current month) or you can choose to have your plan change automatically when your current month is up. The latter is what I chose. So I'll be activating my phone on the 11th when the $35 plan goes into effect.

 

[septembersrain]

so september, was yours sprint branded as well??? and when you say dont power on till activation , is that a recommendation to not play with my phone when i receive via wifi until im ready to activate it. when i got my ov i still had time on my op m, so i waited to activate it yet still explored my ov via wifi connection, my plan cycles on the 19th so i was just gonna wait it out.....i preordered as you did and mine comes on the 6th

Yes mine was Sprint branded .
I do recommend keeping this phone off until you're ready to use it. I don't know why but having it on before hand seems to cause issues later with activation.

If you really can't wait, just make sure you cancel the hands free activation right away when you start it up.

 

[septembersrain]

Did they make you pay for the plan you switched to that day or did you pay for the plan the day you activated you're phone?

I paid at time of switching. I was still using my MT.

 

[septembersrain]

Yes my T-mobile line was off within 30 minutes of leaving the radio shack store. And that was confirmed by VM customer service. How do I do a restore of the phone? Is that the reset in the same window where I can see my mobile number and MSID? I've done that quite a few times. I'm going to wait for the two hour mark. Before turning the phone on again.
Thanks for the help.

Any other ideas?

I'm not sure how on this phone yet but you need to do a hard reset.

On some phones It's volume up, power and camera. You'll have to read into what it is for this phone.

Once you've done the reset, try to activate again.

 

[Stereodust]

I paid at time of switching. I was still using my MT.

Ok, so when you swapped to the evo 3d they just carried over the minutes from the MT to you're current phone? I thought they would make you pay the $35 plan again when you activated the phone?

Sorry for all the questions, I just want this to go as smooth as possible, lol.

 

[SomeNameHere]

Ok, so when you swapped to the evo 3d they just carried over the minutes from the MT to you're current phone? I thought they would make you pay the $35 plan again when you activated the phone?

Sorry for all the questions, I just want this to go as smooth as possible, lol.

Just go to the website and start the process to switch to the $35/month plan. It warns you that in doing so you will lose the remainder of whatever you have left on your previous plan and your billing cycle will be reset to that day.

I've seen one person claim that they credited the account for the remainder of the month and reset the billing cycle, but I assume that was done over the phone with a CSR that knew what they were doing. That's probably a pretty rare occurrence given the state of customer service these days so I wouldn't count on that. But if you're concerned about losing what's left of your $25 then calling VM customer service to do the switch sounds like the only route.

Here's what I'd do: 1) Plan the day my phone will be in my hands, either confirmed shipped from mail order or confirmed in local store. 2) Switch my plan at least a day before I plan to activate the new phone. 3) Confirm I'm on the $35 plan. 4) Power off both phones 5) start the activation/switch from my OV to the Evo on the web, 6) follow the instructions, 7) Profit!

Well, actually I won't profit, VM will, but you get the drift....

 

[Antiochus]

Posted these in the other thread. Posting here in case they help someone.

Hard Reset Instructions.
Turn the power off.
Hold the Volume Down button
Press and hold the Power button until the device turns on
You then get a menu that has Factory Reset in it
Scroll down with the Volume Down button and choose Factory Reset and press the power button. It then takes you back to how your phone was when you first opened the box. Any personal info or apps will be wiped from the phone.

 

[odledm]

Just to answer some people's questions...

From everything I have seen when you upgrade your account to the $35 plan you will lose any existing minutes. I think it is the exception rather than the rule for them to credit you for a partial month, and in that case you probably had to spend a couple of hours on the phone with them. If you are concerned about losing minutes I would wait till near the end of your month.

When I activated online, I was still getting network connection errors for 3-4 hours afterward when I powered the phone on for the handsfree activation. When I pulled the battery and replaced it, it worked, the handsfee activation worked. It could be coinicdence so YMMV. I was playing with the phone on prior to activation on wifi so that may have been the cause of the initial delay, but I really don't know if it was or not.

I think if you have upgraded your account prior to going into RS, they shouldn't have a problem (or at least as many problems) switching you to the evo v.

Based on my experience switching phones does not cause your month to restart, only switching plans.

 

[steveamcc]

Just received my EVO V 4G on June 4th via Radio Shack (web order). I charged it up first before turning it on thinking that I may need a full battery and man was I right. I turned it on and it went thru the Hands Free Activation (HFA) 5 times without activating but then went thru a setup to add my Gmail acct, transfer contacts via Bluetooth from my old Verizon HTC Incredible and a few other things. But it still wouldn't call or text. Web and email were okay though. I called the 800 number around 5PM and was led thru the activation and port process, was told to remove the battery on the EVO and wait 4 hours, then setup my acct. online with Virgin Mobile with the plan of my choice (I went with the $45 plan). In the meantime I still had my old Incredible on and noticed it was out of service in about an hour. After the 4 hours had elapsed (and after setting up the plan online), I powered up the EVO and it went thru the same Hands Free 'inactivation' procedure to no avail. Made a 2nd call to the 800 line and went thru 3 people and the PRL update (no dice) and was told to remove the battery, wait 2 hours, power up again, retry PRL and HFA and repeat until it worked - gave up around 1AM. The next morning, it still wasn't activated. I called the 800 line and eventually ended up at 3rd level support with a young lady named JC who spent over half an hour trying different things, checking different resources and eventually taking my landline number and promising a callback within an hour or 2. Twenty minutes later she called back, had me power up the phone and it finally went thru the HFA, then PRL update and it worked! Total time on the 800 support line was over 2 hours (3 calls). Since it was a new phone and I was porting over from Verizon, there was a different procedure for activation. Can't believe I was the first to have this problem but at least they have a solution now. Only problem is that 1st or 2nd level may not know about it, so jump to 3rd level support if you don't get anywhere.

 

[trippin]

*snip* ... I was porting over from Verizon ... *snip*

My history with ports is they can take anywhere from instantly to two days. I'm more surprised someone on the line didn't let you know this. Most of the time when a customer wanted to port a number from another carrier we let them know it could take up to 2 days and they may be without any service on either phone for a few hours, upfront.

 

[SouthFLpix]

Just wanted to chime in and share my experience activating. Tried to change my plan online and failed, so I called in and was given a partial credit for the $25 month that had not yet ended, and they activated the Evo on their end.

They did tell me to make sure the phone was turned off while they activated it, and to turn it back on in 30 minutes, after which time the phone would be recognized on the network. They specifically mentioned that if I left my phone on I would get an error code and have to call back. So it seems to be pretty important to leave your phone off.