I guess I just have bad luck then? Because I did everything I could on my end to ensure the process goes smoothly.
My past years experiences were, loading the PC with the apple store site, Apple Store app on ipad and Apple store app on iphone. Refresh refresh refresh. Some years it worked some years I was screwed! I've gotten in as much as 5 minutes in and then had my card declined because of fraud detection! luckily after I fixed the payment method, Apple CS put me back in the queue that year.
This year I just used my iPhone since i was in IUP, and it specifically said to come back to the phone. I was done by 12:02, and received confirmation email at that exact time stamp here. Not bragging but that's what happened. I made sure my router and modem were unplugged and replugged to make sure the pings were at their fastest. I also have 300mb service.
So it is just luck I believe, I know that the store app on the ipad didn't come on till much after for me, while I was looking for the confirmation of my order on the app. So that way sucked this year.