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AT&T iPhone 4S Pre-Order Status Thread
- Thread starter EvoNiner1986
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Went to the store today. They refused to cancel my order because "it has already shipped" even though I have received no tracking or confirmation information, and my order status is still backordered. They just printed out the order sheet and circled "in progress." This wasnt acceptable for me, so they called customer service who called the factory who apparently confirmed that my order was shipped, but they couldn't give me any tracking information.
I went online to live chat with one of the reps and they said that I can't cancel since the shipping information has already been sent, even though my package hasnt moved. They just told me that all I can do is order another from the store and mail back my original once i get it.
I went online to live chat with one of the reps and they said that I can't cancel since the shipping information has already been sent, even though my package hasnt moved. They just told me that all I can do is order another from the store and mail back my original once i get it.
Because you MUST have ordered it over the phone, all phones orders will be shipped out on Friday arriving Sat or Mon -
If you pre-ordered in a store and are in 'backordered' status...go to the store NOW!
Just to echo some of the recent posts here from people who placed pre-orders in AT&T stores last Friday, only to find themselves in a seemingly perpetual 'backordered' status...
I have a Premier Small Business Account w/ six lines. Myself and one other person on the account placed pre-orders in-store on Friday 10/7 @ 10:30 AM PST (after trying unsuccessfully to place the pre-order over the phone with AT&T's Premier call center reps). At the time of pre-order, the rep that processed the order told us to expect delivery on 10/14.
Sure enough, when the verification email arrived 2 1/2 hours later, it says to expect shipment in 14-21 days!
Just like everyone else checking this thread, we too have been checking our order status online for the last week, hoping to see that 'Quantity Backordered' column change from 1 to 0. No such luck. Even this morning there was no change in status.
Getting frustrated with the lack of status updates, I called AT&T's Premier Customer Care center yesterday and spoke with a nice, sweet, by-the-book rep. First I had her pull up my order to see if she saw anything different on internal AT&T systems than I was seeing online. Sure enough, nope it's backordered and there was just "such high demand," some people have to wait a few weeks to get one, even though they pre-ordered.
So I then asked her, theoretically, if I was able to find an AT&T store with an iPhone 4S in stock on launch day, could they cancel my pre-order and sell me one of their phones? She told me, as many people have reported in this thread, that it would not be possible to cancel a direct fulfillment pre-order because of various complications (account already showing it had been upgraded, no way to stop the shipment, etc etc).
Thankfully, I'm a persistent SOB and I really wanted the 4S today, so I called the store I placed the pre-order with, told them what position I was in, and they said "As long as your order doesn't show it's even close to shipping, we should be able to cancel it for you no problem, and sell you one of our phones in stock. We no longer have a line so come on down."
Needless to say, I hauled butt over there, and 30 minutes later I had a new black 64GB iPhone 4S in my hands ringing with an incoming call. The store literally had no line and appeared to only have run out of black 16GB iphone 4S's, and it was about 11:45 AM PST.
There are so many levels of incompetence here on AT&T's part, it's impossible as an end-user to know where to place the blame. I'm sure the folks in the call centers have no idea what the world is like in an AT&T retail store, and vice versa, but they've really upset some long-term faithful iPhone customers who have become accustomed to pre-ordering their new iPhones.
I have been an iPhone user since the 3G, and have ALWAYS pre-ordered my phones and had them delivered on launch day. Pre-ordering was always the way to go, because retail never received enough shipments to make through the first hour of business on launch day without turning away customers. So it appears this time that AT&T fixed the cluster that was retail launch in the past, and in doing so totally jacked up the pre-orders and have left those who thought they were on-the-ball ordering their phones a week early totally high-and-dry.
So, if you pre-ordered last Friday before 4:00-5:00 PM PST and are still in backordered status, I strongly suggest you book it to your nearest AT&T store and don't leave until you have a 4S in-hand. Any AT&T store that tells you your pre-order can't be cancelled is either lying to you, or an idiot. Just to confirm, here's a screenshot of my pre-order's order status page now, about 3 hours after I left the store with my new phone.
Best of luck to all you faithful Macrumors readers. Hopefully this thread can help some of those frustrated per-orderers out there, who are ready to take their business away from AT&T for screwing this up so bad.
Just to echo some of the recent posts here from people who placed pre-orders in AT&T stores last Friday, only to find themselves in a seemingly perpetual 'backordered' status...
I have a Premier Small Business Account w/ six lines. Myself and one other person on the account placed pre-orders in-store on Friday 10/7 @ 10:30 AM PST (after trying unsuccessfully to place the pre-order over the phone with AT&T's Premier call center reps). At the time of pre-order, the rep that processed the order told us to expect delivery on 10/14.
Sure enough, when the verification email arrived 2 1/2 hours later, it says to expect shipment in 14-21 days!
Just like everyone else checking this thread, we too have been checking our order status online for the last week, hoping to see that 'Quantity Backordered' column change from 1 to 0. No such luck. Even this morning there was no change in status.
Getting frustrated with the lack of status updates, I called AT&T's Premier Customer Care center yesterday and spoke with a nice, sweet, by-the-book rep. First I had her pull up my order to see if she saw anything different on internal AT&T systems than I was seeing online. Sure enough, nope it's backordered and there was just "such high demand," some people have to wait a few weeks to get one, even though they pre-ordered.
So I then asked her, theoretically, if I was able to find an AT&T store with an iPhone 4S in stock on launch day, could they cancel my pre-order and sell me one of their phones? She told me, as many people have reported in this thread, that it would not be possible to cancel a direct fulfillment pre-order because of various complications (account already showing it had been upgraded, no way to stop the shipment, etc etc).
Thankfully, I'm a persistent SOB and I really wanted the 4S today, so I called the store I placed the pre-order with, told them what position I was in, and they said "As long as your order doesn't show it's even close to shipping, we should be able to cancel it for you no problem, and sell you one of our phones in stock. We no longer have a line so come on down."
Needless to say, I hauled butt over there, and 30 minutes later I had a new black 64GB iPhone 4S in my hands ringing with an incoming call. The store literally had no line and appeared to only have run out of black 16GB iphone 4S's, and it was about 11:45 AM PST.
There are so many levels of incompetence here on AT&T's part, it's impossible as an end-user to know where to place the blame. I'm sure the folks in the call centers have no idea what the world is like in an AT&T retail store, and vice versa, but they've really upset some long-term faithful iPhone customers who have become accustomed to pre-ordering their new iPhones.
I have been an iPhone user since the 3G, and have ALWAYS pre-ordered my phones and had them delivered on launch day. Pre-ordering was always the way to go, because retail never received enough shipments to make through the first hour of business on launch day without turning away customers. So it appears this time that AT&T fixed the cluster that was retail launch in the past, and in doing so totally jacked up the pre-orders and have left those who thought they were on-the-ball ordering their phones a week early totally high-and-dry.
So, if you pre-ordered last Friday before 4:00-5:00 PM PST and are still in backordered status, I strongly suggest you book it to your nearest AT&T store and don't leave until you have a 4S in-hand. Any AT&T store that tells you your pre-order can't be cancelled is either lying to you, or an idiot. Just to confirm, here's a screenshot of my pre-order's order status page now, about 3 hours after I left the store with my new phone.
Best of luck to all you faithful Macrumors readers. Hopefully this thread can help some of those frustrated per-orderers out there, who are ready to take their business away from AT&T for screwing this up so bad.
Attachments
Ok so I pre-ordered through the AT&T website on Friday around 5:30 MST.
When I check the website it says my iphone 4s 16gb is backordered. I called the number and entered my info and the automated machine said my order has been shipped through UPS!
It then gives me a tracking number. The only problem is that UPS doesnt recognize the number and I also watched the UPS guy get off his truck, go to my neighbors house, drop off a package, get back on the truck, and drive away
Anyways, has anyone tried to call the number and check their order status?
When I check the website it says my iphone 4s 16gb is backordered. I called the number and entered my info and the automated machine said my order has been shipped through UPS!
It then gives me a tracking number. The only problem is that UPS doesnt recognize the number and I also watched the UPS guy get off his truck, go to my neighbors house, drop off a package, get back on the truck, and drive away Anyways, has anyone tried to call the number and check their order status?
Correct Don -
The csr person can create a work order and restore your unlimited, (took only 3 days til I had mine back)
I've been looking forward to getting off of work and going to an AT&T store to cancel my order and get my phone. I clock out, get home, and boom...its no longer backordered. Good news, but at the same time not. Does that mean it will ship tonight? I was told I have overnight shipping so I know I will get it soon, does FedEx deliver on Saturday's? Do you guys think I should try and have my order reversed anyways? Knowing AT&T who knows how long I'll have "processing"
Canceling in store pre-order
Well, I had success at canceling, my local store had plenty. They said they received 6x more than they thought they were getting. I had pre-ordered a 64gb white and 16gb white. I ended up with a 64gb white and a 32gb white. They were all out of the 16gb black and white. I was greeted by the manager of that store and I asked if there was a way to cancel a pre-order. He said you can cancel a pre-order only if it hasn't begun processing. I told him that it says "In processing" online, and it also shows as back ordered. He said, that doesn't mean much, it matters what it shows in there system at the store. He said if there has been no movement, you can cancel. Worked out, no movement on either phone. However, I was there for almost two hours. There was problems moving account info over from the old phones to the new phones. Don't know why, but anyways, I've got a new iPhone 4s! Everything worked out
Well, I had success at canceling, my local store had plenty. They said they received 6x more than they thought they were getting. I had pre-ordered a 64gb white and 16gb white. I ended up with a 64gb white and a 32gb white. They were all out of the 16gb black and white. I was greeted by the manager of that store and I asked if there was a way to cancel a pre-order. He said you can cancel a pre-order only if it hasn't begun processing. I told him that it says "In processing" online, and it also shows as back ordered. He said, that doesn't mean much, it matters what it shows in there system at the store. He said if there has been no movement, you can cancel. Worked out, no movement on either phone. However, I was there for almost two hours. There was problems moving account info over from the old phones to the new phones. Don't know why, but anyways, I've got a new iPhone 4s! Everything worked out
Ray of hope
Just called my local AT&T store (Orem, UT). They have plenty in stock (that's where the stock for our pre-orders went). The guy I talked to said that I can come in, they can sell me a phone at the discounted upgrade price and either cancel my online order or if it has already shipped I just bring in the unopened phone and we're good. Hopefully, this info gives some people hope.
Just called my local AT&T store (Orem, UT). They have plenty in stock (that's where the stock for our pre-orders went). The guy I talked to said that I can come in, they can sell me a phone at the discounted upgrade price and either cancel my online order or if it has already shipped I just bring in the unopened phone and we're good. Hopefully, this info gives some people hope.
Maybe somone here can help me out. I ordered the morning of the 8th from Apples online store. My status still says "processing items. Not even "preparing to ship."
Can anyoner shed some light on what might be going on? I dont mean to sound like an impatient moron, just anxious and curious.
Can anyoner shed some light on what might be going on? I dont mean to sound like an impatient moron, just anxious and curious.
@ Don and Cartoonkid
Thanks I will try and do that today!
*Edit: I just went and look my account and it still says unlimited hmm I should call them later in the day when I'm off work.
UPS just pulled up in front of my apartment!
It's 2:53 and they said by 3pm!
I am a mail carrier...sorry you don't like us!
So mine was not scheduled to arrive for another week (in-store preorder). The local AT&T store manager told me he could not cancel my order because it was an Apple order through AT&T and Apple had control (don't know about that), but he gave me the option to buy one at the retail price and then when mine arrived I could bring it in for a refund of the difference from the contract price (essential giving me a phone today for the price I was already to be charged). I took this and now have my phone.
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Worked for me... according to the CSR in store, they do not have the capability to cancel a preorder for you IN STORE.. However my CSR picked up the phone and called ATT and got them to cancel it.. Once she confirmed it was not shipped yet, they were able to transfer her to someone that could cancel the order
Just play it like you were told this is possible (like I did) and you will win.. plus politeness gets you pretty far (and ignorance lol)
Good luck.. Glad this is over for me.Love this phone.. Whats that Siri? You love me too?
That's because they didn't know what they are doing or were lazy. They did cancel my pending order but it took him about 5 minutes and several steps to get my eligibility back.
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Is that the only store by you?
All I can say is I ordered instore on 10/7 and now I'm stuck in purgatory, all I can say is, I hate AT&T. At least my 3G is still working as an excellent paper weight...and babies like to play with it.
I don't understand why, after 4 iPhone releases, why people still go to the AT&T store to order an iphone. Do they not have a computer/Internet? We complain all day and night about how crap AT&T is and we still go back to them and order through an independant store with no clue about what's going on.
Let's learn our lesson for next time - order (a) online with AT&T OR (b) onblne through Apple.
Let's learn our lesson for next time - order (a) online with AT&T OR (b) onblne through Apple.
I have been reading for quite some time...
I'm just pissed at AT&T for playing these games, why offer a preorder if they knew this was gonna happen? I went in my local AT&T corporate store was the first to preorder @ 9am opening and been on back order since... I called every store including the one I purchased from to see if I can cancel and buy in store cuz they all have plenty in stock of 32 and 64 gig but none will allow me to cancel my preorder, this is nuts!
I'm just pissed at AT&T for playing these games, why offer a preorder if they knew this was gonna happen? I went in my local AT&T corporate store was the first to preorder @ 9am opening and been on back order since... I called every store including the one I purchased from to see if I can cancel and buy in store cuz they all have plenty in stock of 32 and 64 gig but none will allow me to cancel my preorder, this is nuts!