Well I am holding in my hand my new 6+ so luckily I now know that they can in fact process NEXT through the Apple Retail Store.
Just a quick timeline of what I did for a 6+ 128GB Gold AT&T
9/19 - Ordered through ATT.com, expected ship date 11/9-11/27
9/21 - Cancelled ATT order and orderd through Apple iPhone app, 3-4 week delivery, window 10/21-10/28
9/30 - 1AM - Browsing Apple iPhone app saw several area Boston stores having stock
- 1:30AM - Cancelled Apple.com order
- 1:35AM - Eligibility cleared, purchased phone on Apple iPhone app through 2 year contract and in store pick up
- 9:30AM Received email stating that my items were ready to pick up
- 11:00AM Arrived at retail store and "picked up" my order and immediately returned it.
- 11:30AM Repurchased through AT&T Next in Apple store and walked out at 12:30PM (AT&T systems were taking for EVER to activate all new phones).
From now on, will just be waiting 10 days or so and then start browsing looking for stores with stock as this whole mass order at release apparently does nothing since stock is still sent to stores...