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AT&T iPhone 4S Pre-Order Status Thread

Just an update,
My in store pre-order (Oct. 7th, 9am pst) for a white 32gb phone just shipped. They're definitely moving, just not sure how quickly.
 
NetworkShadow said:
So you were told the same 14 to 21 days* range as me but for some reason you got ahead in line... Did you order before me? (Noon EST) Or did you order a color/capacity of the 4S that has less demand? (I'm white 32GB)

There still doesn't seem to be a logical explanation for who gets their phone first and when...
Click to expand...

Yes, I ordered on 10/7 in store at about 10:30 a.m. I ordered a black 64GB.

Scoth said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)



How many of these were walk-in buys? These numbers don't "squash" anything. Your argument is completely based off of assumption.
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If the number were 200,000 then I would agree with you. But with the number being 1 million there is no way you can say that a lot of that wasn't pre-orders that were shipped. It just isn't logical.

Gman 2007 said:
Frankly -

I agree some of the posts were over the top but they do reflect a frustration with the AT&T customer service experience. It is a reasonable expectation that AT&T be able to communicate when they will be shipping back ordered products. It is also reasonable for customers to be able to cancel orders if they have not been billed or shipped. Your positive experience with AT&T in no way diminishes the extremely poor and unethical treatment that many people have experienced. This is clearly demonstrated by the 242 pages in this thread. I also do not consider it a good business practice to string along loyal current customers and at the same time provide product for retail customers.

Also keep in mind that when you call for an updated status on your shipment they tell you that your shipment is sitting in a ware house waiting to be shipped. It is obvious is not a true statement in most cases because people who pre ordered on the 7 still have not received a shipment nor have any idea of when a shipment will occur. This is simply inexcusable for any credible company. If AT&T was not a operating in a protected, regulated environment (not a lot of competition) it would went out of business a long time ago. The iPhone and its loyal customer base should get a lot of credit with sticking with AT&T. The iPhone has been credited with being a launching point for the future of AT&T and has heled it gain many new customers.

You can be as positive as you like and are entitled to your opinion but that in no way alters the fact that AT&T has not provided a reasonable service level to some its customers. I would ask you to respect this fact and point out that this thread was created specifically to cover ATT issues with the iPhone launch; not your past experiences with AT&T. Lastly, I am slightly annoyed by your lack empathy and agree with a previous poster that recommended that we ignore your comments because you were more of a distraction than a positive contributor.
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If you think I have a lack of empathy then you didn't read my last post. At this point I have no empathy for you but I have plenty of empathy for those that are waiting for their orders and aren't acting like spoiled children and lashing out at others.

Also, I've been replying in this thread since page 14 on October 10th, days before I had any confirmation that I would be receiving my phone on time and I was positive from the beginning.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/13536195/

You have obviously only been reading in these 242 pages the posts that fit your storyline. There have been PLENTY of posts from the beginning of people that received their phones on time without issue. And the fact that you are complaining, with the release of the iPhone 4S on THREE OTHER CARRIERS in the U.S., that AT&T has no competition just shows how little credibility you have. If you hate AT&T so much switch carriers. There is NOTHING preventing you from doing that. If you really believe what you are saying, that AT&T is unethical then I say you need to really look at yourself for continuing to do business with them.

You are the one that needs to be ignored at this point.
 
some movement next week

karmatourer said:
Hopefully those of us who ordered online on the 8th (LOL) may see some movement next week.:cool:
Black 16g
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If you have followed this thread there is no real logic on what orders get processed first. I think at this point it will be more a factor on the model and color than when you ordered. It is very clear that we have fallen to the bottom of the priority list and getting a phone via apple retail is the fastest option.

I did call 1-866-499-8008 for premier customer support (no called piss poor customer support) and discovered I am no longer in "pre-order hell" and am "in progress". The lady said that my order is just waiting to be shipped but has no idea on when that will be. I specifically asked her several times when I could expect a shipment but she went into the pre scripted message that is non senseical, uses a lot of terms that are meaningless and really insults your intelligence. I am not holding out any hope for shipment this week as my order according to UPS tracking is getting pushed back daily.

I did make a milestone today in that I actually found someone willing to cancel my on-line order with out talking to a supervisor. Maybe they are changing their policy due to the amount of time people have been in pre order, back order, in progress, hell. I did not cancel as I am curious to see just how long it will take and thinking of switching to Venison if I can get a good deal on data (doubtful).
 
I pre-ordered on the morning of the 7th and they have totally lost my order even though I can see the order on the wireless.att.com/business/order_status page. I reordered another phone through Apple's website. I spent hours on the phone talking with "Peggy" at AT&T Premier Store...those people are unreal.
 
Gman 2007 said:
If you have followed this thread there is no real logic on what orders get processed first. I think at this point it will be more a factor on the model and color than when you ordered. It is very clear that we have fallen to the bottom of the priority list and getting a phone via apple retail is the fastest option.

I did call 1-866-499-8008 for premier customer support (no called piss poor customer support) and discovered I am no longer in "pre-order hell" and am "in progress". The lady said that my order is just waiting to be shipped but has no idea on when that will be. I specifically asked her several times when I could expect a shipment but she went into the pre scripted message that is non senseical, uses a lot of terms that are meaningless and really insults your intelligence. I am not holding out any hope for shipment this week as my order according to UPS tracking is getting pushed back daily.

I did make a milestone today in that I actually found someone willing to cancel my on-line order with out talking to a supervisor. Maybe they are changing their policy due to the amount of time people have been in pre order, back order, in progress, hell. I did not cancel as I am curious to see just how long it will take and thinking of switching to Venison if I can get a good deal on data (doubtful).
Click to expand...

I think that you are right that there is a strange process going on but my feeling is that it is just more complex than anyone realizes. If you think about how many AT&T stores there are across the country they probably made arrangements to ship certain quantities of each size/color combo to different distribution points across the country. And they likely made a very calculated decision that it was more economical for them to wait for additional shipments to reach each area than it would be to make an attempt to redistribute the phones that they received in their first shipment from Apple. In other words, let's say they shipped 1000 black 64GB phones to the distribution point closest to me and they only received pre-orders and store orders for 900 of them in the first round. That would mean that everyone within reach of that distribution point would have received their phone. However, instead of sending the extra 100 to areas where the black 64GB was over-ordered they decided it was better to carry these in stock in stores in this distribution area. If you extrapolate that out to all the different stores and all the different areas you can see how it would get complex. This is even harder for AT&T because they have an order of magnitude more stores than Apple does.
 
frankly said:
I think that you are right that there is a strange process going on but my feeling is that it is just more complex than anyone realizes. If you think about how many AT&T stores there are across the country they probably made arrangements to ship certain quantities of each size/color combo to different distribution points across the country. And they likely made a very calculated decision that it was more economical for them to wait for additional shipments to reach each area than it would be to make an attempt to redistribute the phones that they received in their first shipment from Apple. In other words, let's say they shipped 1000 black 64GB phones to the distribution point closest to me and they only received pre-orders and store orders for 900 of them in the first round. That would mean that everyone within reach of that distribution point would have received their phone. However, instead of sending the extra 100 to areas where the black 64GB was over-ordered they decided it was better to carry these in stock in stores in this distribution area. If you extrapolate that out to all the different stores and all the different areas you can see how it would get complex. This is even harder for AT&T because they have an order of magnitude more stores than Apple does.
Click to expand...

Do you work for AT&T? I ask this because you've defended them very hard in this thread. I'm just curious.
 
I pre-ordered a 64GB Black 4S at 12:15 pm PST from a local AT&T Store. I was backordered until today. I now have a FedEx tracking number and I will finally have my phone tomorrow. I will never pre-order from AT&T again, lesson learned.
 
Iamjoshlee said:
Ordered white 16g on the 8th and got email 2 days ago reminding that they haven't forgot about be and that my phone hold be here about 14 ish days from when i pre-ordered. I also just checked and I am no longer back ordered as of today.
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I got that same email a few days ago as well. Only difference is mine stated 21-28 days from my order date of 10/13.
 
Frankly, you're probably the same type of person who thinks all kids who participate in a sport should get a trophy just for trying. Let's not give praise to a crappy job as well done. If we did that we would have gotten half the hover dam built, half a Empire State building, or the U.S. saying hey we made it half way to the moon....hippie why don't you go hug a tree and tell it what a good job its doing...I find you annoying.
 
supply chain

frankly said:
I think that you are right that there is a strange process going on but my feeling is that it is just more complex than anyone realizes. If you think about how many AT&T stores there are across the country they probably made arrangements to ship certain quantities of each size/color combo to different distribution points across the country. And they likely made a very calculated decision that it was more economical for them to wait for additional shipments to reach each area than it would be to make an attempt to redistribute the phones that they received in their first shipment from Apple. In other words, let's say they shipped 1000 black 64GB phones to the distribution point closest to me and they only received pre-orders and store orders for 900 of them in the first round. That would mean that everyone within reach of that distribution point would have received their phone. However, instead of sending the extra 100 to areas where the black 64GB was over-ordered they decided it was better to carry these in stock in stores in this distribution area. If you extrapolate that out to all the different stores and all the different areas you can see how it would get complex. This is even harder for AT&T because they have an order of magnitude more stores than Apple does.
Click to expand...

I agree, there probably is not enough space or interest to discuss supply chain logistics in detail. I acknowledge there are many factors that are not within our line of sight. I do think that Verizon and has similar distribution channels and a different customer service strategy.

It is also obvious that certain models will be more constrained at the beginning of a product roll out because they will be a higher demand for certain colors & capacities.
 
djransom said:
Do you work for AT&T? I ask this because you've defended them very hard in this thread. I'm just curious.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? That last post wasn't even a defense. It was simply a logical explanation of what MIGHT be happening. I am dumbfounded by all of the hatred that is going on in this thread so that if I simply post that my phone has been delivered I'm accused of defending AT&T.
 
to those who haven't received your iphones yet:

wait till you get it and realize the battery life is pretty bad.

you will be double pissed :mad:
 
Both of our 32g white phones that we preordered on Oct 7 11:20am est in the store have shipped and we have tracking numbers.

Hope you all get the same kind of status update soon.
Very excited as it's our leap from the blackberry to the iphones.
 
Shipped!

My white 32GB iPhone 4S that I ordered at 10:30am Central time from my local AT&T store now shows as shipped! With a FedEx tracking number and everything!

This has possibly been the longest two weeks of my life... LOL

My friends who ordered from the same store at about the same time ordered the black versions. Theirs was shipped before mine, including Chris, who ordered his shortly after mine. So I suspect they are shipping black before white. (LOL -- Yes, making gross over generalizations based on 3 orders from one store! Isn't that what MacRumors is all about?)
 
PerplexShyt said:
to those who haven't received your iphones yet:

wait till you get it and realize the battery life is pretty bad.

you will be double pissed :mad:
Click to expand...

This is my first iPhone... How bad can it be?

I use an old phone now more than 6 years old and it lasts all week with me talking and texting
 
Alexsipilot said:
This is my first iPhone... How bad can it be?

I use an old phone now more than 6 years old and it lasts all week with me talking and texting
Click to expand...

@PerplexShyt: That's an off-topic troll post...

You've got to break-in your battery, it'll get better with use... Fully discharging the battery once a month is good practice. You can also improve battery usage by being smart with location services (location based reminders etc).

Let's keep this thread on topic now please.

I've got tracking! White 32GB pre-ordered in-store Oct 7 at noon EST. To be delivered tomorrow via FedEx.
SGQ6i.png
 
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frankly said:
Are you serious? That last post wasn't even a defense. It was simply a logical explanation of what MIGHT be happening. I am dumbfounded by all of the hatred that is going on in this thread so that if I simply post that my phone has been delivered I'm accused of defending AT&T.
Click to expand...

I ask because most customers who have received their phones have moved on from this thread, but yet you continue to try and rationalize what AT&T MIGHT have done and it comes off as you defending them. No hatred at all, more so an observation.
 
It appears that the phones are moving again. It's like the second wave has come in. I pre ordered 2 16g black phones In Store on the 7th and only received one on the 14th. Just received an email confirmation that the other has shipped. I've already replaced it so it will be going back to the store tomorrow. That's one available to a hopeful purchaser.:)
 
It has shipped!!!!

Finally! I just got an email saying it shipped via fed ex today, it's a 32 gig white and I'm happy but still pissed of that AT&T let it get this bad. But they are moving after all!
 
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