Cell phone upgrade, how do you surprise them?

[Fire14]

I have done activation myself at home thru VZW a few times. in mour case it was underwarrenty replacement phone and in one case a lost phone.

 

[florep1]

Ya know? That may be the trick. Every time I've done this, I've always ordered the phone online and activated it at home. It hadn't even occurred to me that I might not be able to do this if I bought the phone in store. Hmmmm. Well, the plan for today was to purchase dd's iPhone at Sam's Club. I'll have to ask about this. If it's a problem, I'll order from verizon. I think it's only $3 difference in price. I'll report back!!

I've tried both online and instore purchases and was able to delay activation both times. My dd is in college 3 hours away from home. Her phone crapped out on her a few months ago so I called the Verizon store closest to her to see if I could pay for an iPhone over the phone with a credit card and she picked it up. It was a no-go as they said they don't accept phone orders in the store as they had no way of verifying identity, blah-blah-blah. I went to out local store, explained the situation, and they let me get an iPhone and they told me I had 30 days to activate it or I'd have to pay full price. i took it to her that weekend, and activated in minutes.