I had a similar issue. I'm using an iPhone with no SIM card (just running on WiFi) to check my botted account. The issue I had was that I forgot to turn on location services, so I opened the game for the first time and was level 10, but still had to choose a starting Pokemon. Make sure you have location services turned on (Settings > Privacy).
If that doesn't work, close Pokefarmer out completely and wait about 30-45 minutes, then log-in to your phone to set your name/choose your starter pokemon. This worked for me at least.