AT&T: Getting upgrade date bumped up

They will do it up to 45 days early without an issue. So I'd call at the beginning of December and you should be fine to get it in time for Christmas. By then I'd imagine stock would be more plentiful, and 3+ weeks is enough time to ensure it arrives on time.

 

Really? Do you know this from experience? From what I've heard they're pretty unforgiving on iPhone upgrades in particular. Like no wiggle room at all.

 

In my experience with AT&T, upgrade dates are usually moved up to the first of the month in which your upgrade would be up. For example, if your contract end-date was today, you would've been eligible on November 1st. That of course limits the number of days to 30'ish, as opposed to 45, but it's better than waiting until the exact date.

 

Ha, my upgrade date is Jan 2nd.

 

I would try calling them in December and see if they will do it. They would upgrade my wife's phone when I called them but I held off on the upgrade. Her upgrade date is 12/10/12 and I called them in mid November and they were wiling to do it.

 

My dads upgrade date was February 1st, I just called last week, and asked them to upgrade it so I can buy him a phone for the holidays, and they checked my bill, saw I had 4 phones on the plan, never late, etc and got manager approval and I got the iPhone 2 days later, Fedex overnight, with no upgrade charge or charge for shipping...

I was very surprised that ATT took care of me that well, give it a shot, you never know what CR will tell you, or how they will treat you until you try.

 

I just got my iPhone 5 this week even though I wasn't eligible for an upgrade till May 8th since I got the 4S last year. Following the advice of other people on the forums I simply called 3 different times, was very polite, and nicely asked if my upgrade could be moved up. 3rd time was the charm. The first time I called the CS Rep tried but ultimately couldn't get approval from her manager, possibly because I was still under one year. Then on Black Friday I called twice and the second CS Rep was able to process the order for the normal 199 price. Got my iPhone a couple days later.

Like others have said it definitely helps if you always pay your bill on time and possibly if you have it on auto-pay like I do.

 

^ This. My official upgrade date was actually today (11/29), but I was able to do in on 11/1. It seems that as long as it is within your month for an upgrade, AT&T will let you do it.