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Apple may be pulling back phones to the carriers?

Steve686

Steve686

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Original poster
Nov 13, 2007
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Since there are reports that this is such a big preorder launch and there now seems to be a little chaos with shipping times, I think there may be a conceivable notion that Apple is telling each of the carriers to expect less-than-promised phones for launch day.

Seems Apple may be telling them this in order to appease anyone using the Apple website or the Apple app to order, but had major issues getting an order done. Many of us here at MacRumors noted that the Apple online store took a couple of hours to go live, while the Apple mobile app let sporadic orders complete throughout the morning.

Apple direct is still holding at 3-4 weeks delivery, while carriers such as AT&T are showing delivery well into November for some phones ordered within a couple hours of preorders going live.

I think Apple may be bulking up supply to their stores in anticipation of people not accepting the current delivery times for online ordering and showing up in bigger than anticipated crowds looking to score a launch day phone.

Thoughts?
 
I think there are apple orders that have slipped into the November time frame.

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darkflounder said:
I pre-ordered so I wouldn't have to stand in line overnight.

The peasants get what scraps are left after us pre-order nobility have had our turn at the buffet.
Click to expand...

I was able to waltz into a verizon store 2 years ago and get two iPhone 5 phones. No line, no waiting and no pre-ordering headaches which appears to have filled up this forum today.
 
darkflounder said:
I pre-ordered so I wouldn't have to stand in line overnight.

The peasants get what scraps are left after us pre-order nobility have had our turn at the buffet.
Click to expand...

I ordered two phones for redundancy.

One on Apple, one on ATT.

My original ATT estimate for shipping was 7-10 days. It's now after the 2nd week in November.

Someone somewhere didn't estimate correctly, or was told false information in the chain of supply which is leading to this huge difference.
 
maflynn said:
I think there are apple orders that have slipped into the November time frame.

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I was able to waltz into a verizon store 2 years ago and get two iPhone 5 phones. No line, no waiting and no pre-ordering headaches which appears to have filled up this forum today.
Click to expand...

Still launch day for me.
 

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Steve686 said:
Since there are reports that this is such a big preorder launch and there now seems to be a little chaos with shipping times, I think there may be a conceivable notion that Apple is telling each of the carriers to expect less-than-promised phones for launch day.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think so, too. I think it's to be expected that Apple's going to prioritize their own pre-orders over orders from carriers (assuming they've already fulfilled whatever the minimum order they're required by contract to give to the carriers if they have such).
 
Steve686 said:
I think Apple may be bulking up supply to their stores in anticipation of people not accepting the current delivery times for online ordering and showing up in bigger than anticipated crowds looking to score a launch day phone.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I hate I didn't put too much thought into that while I was up at 2am. I do believe that's the case. Apple is holding back shipments from not only carriers but the online store as well.

Apple would rather see customers in their stores.. pushing them to buying cases or Apple Care+.
 
if apple doesn't move up my ship date from november to september, i'll cancel my order, sell every apple product i own and never buy anything from them again.

i know it isn't at&t's fault that my ship date is november... it is apple holding them back from at&t
 
For people who still can't get an order in, just a few minutes ago, I ordered my third iPhone 6 64GB from the Apple site and they will deliver by the 19th.

If you want to honker Plus size, you will be in October!
 
sakau2007 said:
if apple doesn't move up my ship date from november to september, i'll cancel my order, sell every apple product i own and never buy anything from them again.

i know it isn't at&t's fault that my ship date is november... it is apple holding them back from at&t
Click to expand...

Yes, that will show them.
 
Steve686 said:
I ordered two phones for redundancy.

One on Apple, one on ATT.

My original ATT estimate for shipping was 7-10 days. It's now after the 2nd week in November.

Someone somewhere didn't estimate correctly, or was told false information in the chain of supply which is leading to this huge difference.
Click to expand...

I did the same, used my Apple reservation to get a 9/19 phone today after ordering a VZW phone showing at 10/7 last night.

They couldn't seem to figure out how to just let me use my reservation for add a line, so whatever.
 
No. This happens every iPhone launch. The cellcos traditionally do not get much pre-order stock. Apple isn't pulling back anything. The cellcos order system isn't hooked into a real time inventory because there is no inventory so they put in a ship date far in the future. Once they know what there actual inventory is they move things up.

When I ordered my 5 my confirmations and order status said I wouldn't receive on launch day... until one day it said I would, and I did.
 
I'm in online chat with ATT right now.

I am going to keep my Apple ordered phone even though it isn't the ideal color that I wanted. Ref: 6P Gold.

I am going to cancel my ATT phone since it will take too long after my Apple phone arrives.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
No. This happens every iPhone launch. The cellcos traditionally do not get much pre-order stock. Apple isn't pulling back anything. The cellcos order system isn't hooked into a real time inventory because there is no inventory so they put in a ship date far in the future. Once they know what there actual inventory is they move things up.

When I ordered my 5 my confirmations and order status said I wouldn't receive on launch day... until one day it said I would, and I did.
Click to expand...

I have a delivery date of 10/13/14-10/22/14. For the 5 launch I wasn't supposed to get my phone until October 4th but it arrived far sooner. Hoping for the same here. Although in 2012 I preordered from Apple and this year I used AT&T.

I'm stuck using my original iPhone from 2007 so I hope it gets here quickly.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
No. This happens every iPhone launch. The cellcos traditionally do not get much pre-order stock. Apple isn't pulling back anything. The cellcos order system isn't hooked into a real time inventory because there is no inventory so they put in a ship date far in the future. Once they know what there actual inventory is they move things up.

When I ordered my 5 my confirmations and order status said I wouldn't receive on launch day... until one day it said I would, and I did.
Click to expand...

You don't think Apple gives them ANY type of number to work with?
 
Steve686 said:
I ordered two phones for redundancy.

One on Apple, one on ATT.

My original ATT estimate for shipping was 7-10 days. It's now after the 2nd week in November.

Someone somewhere didn't estimate correctly, or was told false information in the chain of supply which is leading to this huge difference.
Click to expand...

Probably people like you ordering two phones, canceling, and screwing up the inventory counts.
 
Dunbar said:
More likely is that every outlet had a certain number of phones allocated for pre-orders and it was a simple case of supply and demand.
Click to expand...

Yes. A number Apple probably told them to expect, then later told them was not attainable, which is what I wrote.

Apple scaled back the supply to the carriers because of demand, and a very embarrassing Apple Store crash...following a VERY embarrassing "Sorry we can't get our sh it to work for an iPhone announcement".

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bpeeps said:
Probably people like you ordering two phones, canceling, and screwing up the inventory counts.
Click to expand...

More probable that someone screwed up the Apple Store expectations and pissed off quite a few people.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
No. This happens every iPhone launch. The cellcos traditionally do not get much pre-order stock. Apple isn't pulling back anything. The cellcos order system isn't hooked into a real time inventory because there is no inventory so they put in a ship date far in the future. Once they know what there actual inventory is they move things up.

When I ordered my 5 my confirmations and order status said I wouldn't receive on launch day... until one day it said I would, and I did.
Click to expand...

Exactly. You think people would learn after going through this multiple times. WAY too many people are stressing out of 'pending' orders and 'Expected' ship dates. As inventory gets matched up to orders, things tend to shake out. But carriers (and Apple) will under-promise just to be sure.

Of course, people like the OP who order from multiple sites (for redundancy) and then are cancelling orders aren't helping the situation. A lot of the next few days will be sorting out actual orders and how it matches up with inventory.
 
Steve686 said:
Yes. A number Apple probably told them to expect, then later told them was not attainable, which is what I wrote.

Apple scaled back the supply to the carriers because of demand, and a very embarrassing Apple Store crash...following a VERY embarrassing "Sorry we can't get our sh it to work for an iPhone announcement".
Click to expand...

Nope, I really doubt Apple "pulled back" inventory. What I'm saying is every outlet knew all along how many phones they were getting for pre-order. Demand just outstripped supply for certain models like happens pretty much every year.
 
mantan said:
Exactly. You think people would learn after going through this multiple times. WAY too many people are stressing out of 'pending' orders and 'Expected' ship dates. As inventory gets matched up to orders, things tend to shake out. But carriers (and Apple) will under-promise just to be sure.

Of course, people like the OP who order from multiple sites (for redundancy) and then are cancelling orders aren't helping the situation. A lot of the next few days will be sorting out actual orders and how it matches up with inventory.
Click to expand...

So you reason that the carriers didn't learn anything with all these launches, either? Apple just said to them, "Hey, we got some phones for you. NO IDEA how many, but just start selling preorders. It'll 'shake out'".

Laughable.

And as far as people not learning a thing after all of these launches? Well, yes, I did. Hedge your bets and make sure to get a phone on launch day by ordering(Good god strike me down) two phones from two different sources when online ordering advertised to start at 12:01am PST crashes across the board.

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ScubaCinci said:
So pulling back FROM the carriers, not TO the carriers :confused:
Click to expand...

I know it's worded oddly. I felt that the carriers actually never had the phones so you can't pull anything actually from them. I was referencing pulling back 'deliveries to' the carriers.

You are correct, though.
 
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