Trouble activating my iPhone 4s

[cewilson]

I've recently purchased a used iPhone 4s from a woman who'd just upgraded to an iPhone 5. I've also installed the latest version of iTunes (11.1.4) and had this 4s synced with it. I know that I'm supposed to activate the phone so I can use Verizon's service, but I'm having a bit of trouble with that: I've dialed *228 and hit 1 when prompted (to activate iPhone). Then, when I dialed my phone number (the number that's seemingly already programmed into this iPhone), the machine said, "Welcome to the Verizon Wireless National Payment Center. . . Sorry, I'm having some technical difficulties; please try again later" and hung up on me. No matter what I do, I still receive this same machine with the same message. I'm not a customer of Verizon, so I don't have any account numbers or anything like that to work with. I don't have another phone with which to call Verizon Customer Service, either. What could I possibly be doing wrong? Please, if you can help, let me know!

[ttipgem]

If you are "not a customer of Verizon", then you would need to become a customer of Verizon by opening an account with Verizon.  Go to a Verizon corporate store.

Or are you trying to activate the device with another carrier?  If so, what carrier and what country?

[SuzyQ · Accepted solution]

cewilson wrote:

... I know that I'm supposed to activate the phone so I can use Verizon's service, but I'm having a bit of trouble with that: I've dialed *228 and hit 1 when prompted (to activate iPhone). Then, when I dialed my phone number  Who is the carrier for this phone number?  Do you have cell service currently with another carrier?  You can only use Verizon's service if you are a Verizon customer....

... I'm not a customer of Verizon, so I don't have any account numbers or anything like that to work with.  If you are not a Verizon customer, then you can't use Verizon's service.  When you try to activate the phone with a number that is not registered with Verizon, it appears you are being sent to the "payment center" to pay for service before they will activate the phone.

If I were you, I'd take the phone to a corporate store, and see what would need to be done to get it activated - it will involve setting up a Verizon account, either prepaid or post paid. 

Do you currently have cell service with another carrier?