I was at a Rogers store at 845 for a 9 am opening in BC, got a 16 gb phone - so far so good.

Unfortunately they can't connect with Rogers to activate. They could see my customer information (I was upgrading) so they filled out the paper form but then wouldn't let me leave with the phone until they connected through Rogers.

Can't they send the devices home and activate online? The only reason this is a big deal is I'm off for 10 days of holidays and was hoping I could load the phone up then just change the number etc. online using the Rogers site.

The frustrating thing was that I had put a phone on hold at Futureshop and after getting one at Rogers I didn't want to keep it on hold at the expense of someone waiting in line, so drove to the Futureshop to take it off hold before they opened (one very relieved Rogers customer in line :)). Turns out he goes in, purchases the phone and has it activated while I'm still browsing accessories (arghh!!!).

Who would have thought that Futureshop would have better activation processes than Rogers itself!

Have others had similar experiences? Is there any way I could convince them to let me take it or is it useless until their processes are completed?

It's luck of the draw, they are all going on the same rogers activation system, sometimes they get it, but most of the time it's a lot of waiting and retrying for the rogers reps.
I'm waiting at home for mine too(BC also), I imagine once 2pm rolls around their servers will ease up and it will go a bit faster since the Ontario/Eastern stores will start closing at that time.

Count yourself lucky you got one showing up 15 min before. The store I was at had the most supply in my city and the line was full(all iphones accounted for) at around 7:30