iPhone 3G: Can't merge calls

So I am now an iPhone 3G owner. Two iPhones, to be exact.

Last night, I needed to talk to two business associates: one in Virginia, USA, and one in Singapore. I figured instead of setting up a conference bridge, I will call Singapore using a calling card I got from InTouch Card (hey, did you think I'd recommend a card without using it first?), and conference in my associate in Virginia.

So I call Singapore, tell the first person that I am putting him on hold, and click the "Add Call"

Beautiful. The first call gets put on hold, and I am allowed to pick the second number from my contacts. When the call is picked up, I am supposed to hit "Merge Calls"

Absolutely beautiful user interface--couldn't be simpler, right? So I tap Merge, and the first calls becomes live, and the second call is now on hold. I am a bit confused, and try it again, and now the second call is live, and the first call is on hold. I try it twice more, with same result.

So I swallow my pride and tell them that I must be doing something wrong with my brand new phone, and ask my associate in VA to conference us in.

This fine Tuesday morning I wake up and Google for iphone can't merge calls--113 thousand hits! Some of them actually talk about different things, but looks like lot of people in the USA and Europe were/are having the same problem, and there seems to be no answer to this problem and

I finally found a post that suggested calling ATT (if you are on ATT, duh) and asking them to remove and re-add the conferencing feature on your account.

So I call ATT, and follow the prompts. iPhone support seems to be outsourced to Apple support, where I am put on hold for 15+ minutes (they did warn me to call back another time, though). A very nice young man comes on line, and when I described my problem, he said he has never heard of this before. So I told him about what I found, and he conferences in an ATT support person, who tells me she had removed and re-added conferencing (either she knew about this issue or took me on faith--didn't question me at all) and asked me to power down and restart the iPhone. Which I did, and proceeded to call ATT's support number and it worked.

Then I asked her about the second phone, and she said, yes, that's done too--try it. My first instinct is to let them go and try this on my own, but given the fact that I was on hold for 15 minutes, I decide to keep them on. I power-cycle that phone, call two numbers, and guess what--3-way calling still isn't working on the second phone. I report this, the ATT support person does the same thing again (I assume) and after a power-cycle, now the second iPhone can also merge calls.

If you have the same problem, here is what you should do:

1. From another phone, call 1-800-331-0500


2. When prompted, enter your iPhone number


3. Press 0 to talk to an agent


4. You can press 1 to talk to Apple support, or press the option for ATT support


5. Describe the problem, and ask them to remove/add conferencing


6. Reboot the iPhone (I did tell you to call from another phone, right?)


7. You have support still on the phone, right?


8. Call 1-800-331-0500 from the iPhone


9. Press 1 to acknowledge the phone number, then press 0, then 1 (Apple will put you on hold, and that's what you need now)


10. Touch "Add Call" (you may have to "Hide Keypad" first)


11. Go to recent, and touch 1-800-331-0500 again


12. Press 1 to acknowledge the phone number, then press 0, then 1


13. Touch "Merge Calls" (you may have to "Hide Keypad" first)


14. It should work. If not, you still have the support rep on the phone, right?

BTW, I asked the apple rep to create a knowledgebase article on this so at least other reps would know about this problem and solution.