Trying to activate iphone 4

I have been trying to activate my iPhone 4 for 2 dAys now and have gone on the support websites but they need the serial number which I can't get because I still need to activate the phone. I have restarted it and turned it off and keep trying and trying to activate it but it says the servers are temporarily down. Also in the top left section where the Wi-Fi is supposed to be, it says "searching" which I don't know if that is just there for when you are starting up or is actually searching Wi-Fi which may be the problem from the start. If anyone has any suggestions or help advice please comment Thanks!

WTF serial number i have reset, reinstalled, updated, and jailbroke so many iphones and ipods in my life never herd of this try and call apple or go into a apple store don't go to wellmart or some cheap store like that it won't help you much just call apple

Best thing to do would be to take the phone back to where you got it from and ask them what is going on as you can't understand what it is doing.