AT&T's Server Problems Continue to Cause Problems for iPhone 4 Pre-Orders

[ouimetnick]

the relentless stupidity of ATT. They *****ing KNEW it was releasing today! Why didn't they get their head out of their ass before

You already have a nice iPhone 3GS 32GB anyways. Why the rush to have the latest toy? It sounds like a lot of people here are impulse buyers.

 

[krazygoat]

User the Apple Store App, I had tried since 1am Pacific time till 11am to pre-order on both Apple and AT&T's websites with both failing miserably.

Took me 5 minutes using the iphone app, it does not use AT&T verification servers.

 

[the_wallcrawler]

Isn't everyone upgrading "early" getting that $18 charge? That was in my original text for AT&T saying I could get the $199 price with an $18 upgrade fee.

The one time I got past the account validation step on Apple's site, they had the $18 fee waived.

 

[erzeszut]

....The second reservation is through the Apple Store iOS app, which says I have an iPhone reserved for me at my local Apple Store, which is all lovely and whatnot, but I didn't pay anything to reserve this phone. I can only assume there's not going to be a phone on 6/24 at that store with my name on it, and if a sweaty dude who waited in line since 1:30am the night before gets there before I do that morning, he will probably get the last one.....

That is incorrect. Not sure what part of "the phone will be held for all reservations until the close of business on June 24" is so hard to understand.

Let's say your local store has 300 reservations. And let's say they get in 400 phones. (I'm skipping the 16/32GB differentiation for simplicity, here.)

In that case, they'll only sell 100 to the "sweaty dudes who waited in line since 1:30AM." They will NOT sell the 300 pre-reserved phones on June 24. Those phones are reserved for specific people.

Now. If 50 of those people don't show up by the close of business, those 50 reserved phones are fair game on June 25.

But if you reserve a phone at the Apple Store, unless Apple tells you differently before June 24, your phone will be waiting for you and only you.

 

[Fender321]

User the Apple Store App, I had tried since 1am Pacific time till 11am to pre-order on both Apple and AT&T's websites with both failing miserably.

Took me 5 minutes using the iphone app, it does not use AT&T verification servers.

I was only able to reserve in-store pickup with the iphone app. If I tried to pre-order it failed instantly after entering my SS/zip code saying it couldn't connect to server.

 

[OsloBergen]

About twenty minutes ago I went through the process, chose the phone, selected the data plan, picked the store (no option to ship), etc. After all was said and done, I got a screen that told me "See you at the store" and to bring ID. There was no confirmation number or anything else to indicate completion. Did it go through? Is that what should have happened?

Nevermind, after reading through some more of the posts I think I found the answer to my question.

 

[spacedout17]

Just got though, thank goodness!! Took me since 3am but the igods smiled on me. Looks like things might finally be working the kinks out.

 

[AppleFan1984]

It amazes me that apple and Att would not expect a deluge of orders. Every iPhone launch has been insane.

And then when you do get it you continue with the AT&T experience by finding they haven't invested enough in their infrastructure to handle their normal traffic either.

Combine this with their lax security, and I gotta wonder how much they paid Apple to get an exclusive deal.

Definitely not on par with the Apple experience.

 

[derek4484]

No matter how you slice it, its a black eye for both apple and AT&T. While the fault is with AT&T, people don't always make that connection and will blame apple for it.

You gotta believe apple must be royally pissed at AT&T's inability to handle this.

Who says its at&t's fault? A bunch of apple fanbois? I tried apple.com for hours and hours this morning. Switch to att.com at noon eastern and got my order through in 5 mins. Not a reservation or appointment but a real order that will be delivered to my house on the 24th.

 

[tm1000]

That is incorrect. Not sure what part of "the phone will be held for all reservations until the close of business on June 24" is so hard to understand.

Let's say your local store has 300 reservations. And let's say they get in 400 phones. (I'm skipping the 16/32GB differentiation for simplicity, here.)

In that case, they'll only sell 100 to the "sweaty dudes who waited in line since 1:30AM." They will NOT sell the 300 pre-reserved phones on June 24. Those phones are reserved for specific people.

Now. If 50 of those people don't show up by the close of business, those 50 reserved phones are fair game on June 25.

But if you reserve a phone at the Apple Store, unless Apple tells you differently before June 24, your phone will be waiting for you and only you.

Ok but IF there are 400 reservations and only 300 phones get shipped then it's first come-first served. That's why they can state the fact that it's based on availability

 

[ericfelt]

Mine finally went through on Apple after trying all day. The $18 upgrade fee was waved. But they added an estimated tax of $24.67. Order total $323.67. Did this happen for anyone else?

 

[MacVixen]

My order just went through using Apple's site for the 32GB and home delivery after trying all day. It's an upgrade order (I have 3G) on a premier account. My credit card has been charged, it shows up in my order history, but no confirmation email yet.

Were you actually charged, or was an authorization hold placed on your credit card? I ordered via AT&T, but don't see a charge yet. I hope that is not a problem. I did get a confirmation email so I feel good about that. The only thing it said was because I used a debit card to be sure funds were available the day they shipped or else my order would be cancelled.

 

[Sethry]

iPhone 4 finally ordered at att.com

After trying since 7am MST, I finally was just able to preorder through At&t's website. There was still an $18 upgrade fee, but at least it's ordered mow and there will be zero waiting in line on the 24th. So the phones are definitely not already on backorder.

 

[Psiklops]

About twenty minutes ago I went through the process, chose the phone, selected the data plan, picked the store (no option to ship), etc. After all was said and done, I got a screen that told me "See you at the store" and to bring ID. There was no confirmation number or anything else to indicate completion. Did it go through? Is that what should have happened?

Got the same thing - twice! Is it reserved or not?

 

[MacVixen]

The one time I got past the account validation step on Apple's site, they had the $18 fee waived.

My understanding was that the $18 fee would show up on our AT&T bill, not added to the order.

 

[helmsc]

What I'd really like to know is how many are just planning on unlocking then put it up for sale on eBay to make profit

 

[nsayer]

Let's say your local store has 300 reservations. And let's say they get in 400 phones.

No, no, no. Let's say your local store has 300 reservations. And let's say they get in 200 phones. Now what, smart man?

 

[ouimetnick]

And then when you do get it you continue with the AT&T experience by finding they haven't invested enough in their infrastructure to handle their normal traffic either.

Combine this with their lax security, and I gotta wonder how much they paid Apple to get an exclusive deal.

Definitely not on par with the Apple experience.

Every launch had an Apple issue too. When 2.0came out, the iTunes servers crashed. When iOS 3.0 came out, itunes servers crashed. There where so many folks downloading the iOS, iTunes servers crashed. Not to good considering the typical Apple experience.

 

[derek4484]

You already have a nice iPhone 3GS 32GB anyways. Why the rush to have the latest toy? It sounds like a lot of people here are impulse buyers.

+ 1 million

There's many people on here that would pre-order a box that steve jobs took a dump in and marked it iPoop.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

AT&T seems to be Apple's biggest problem very often.

 

[longofest]

Got the same thing - twice! Is it reserved or not?

There isn't a confirmation number. You should get an email though.

 

[borrachomoe]

after trying all morning on the website, the apple store app got through no problems. received my confirmation email.

I was also able to pre-order mine using the Apple Store App on my iPhone, but it took my almost 3 hours of trying.

Now the odd thing is that the confirmation email says the price of the iPhone 4 32GB is $699, when I selected the existing user/upgrade to a new phone option

 

[fishmd]

ok, so does anyone know what happens if you reserve in the apple store, and then go and order a phone for delivery?

I mean, I want the white iPhone. But I like everyone else have no idea what happened to it. Maybe it will be available in a few weeks, but maybe not for several months. But say we find out in a few days that it will be available fairly soon, I would wait to get it.

I was thinking I could order a black one for pickup in the store. Then if I hear about the white one in the coming week, just cancel the reservation. But would this mess up my eligibility status with AT&T at all. I mean, I would not want it to show up in their system that I had already reserved a phone on my upgrade eligible line, and so then not be eligible for the subsidized pricing if a white one comes available.

 

[stympman]

I finally got through on Apple's website and got to the point where you pick the data plan. Surprisingly I see Unlimited as an option for $30. Can anyone confirm this? Is this an error? I picked it and it didn't do anything to stop me.

 

[erzeszut]

Ok but IF there are 400 reservations and only 300 phones get shipped then it's first come-first served. That's why they can state the fact that it's based on availability

I think it's an issue of semantics here. The emails people are referring to say "pre-authorization is not a guarantee of availability" or something like that.

I think "pre-authorization" refers to perhaps checking your upgrade eligibility. I don't think it's the same as "making a reservation."

Every bit of information I've seen from Apple suggests that if you make a reservation, either via apple.com or the iOS app, you will have a phone waiting for you until the close of business on June 24. Until that day arrives and I hear differently, I believe that to be correct.

Having said that, I ordered mine to be shipped, to avoid the chaos at the Stores on June 24. But now my concern is the "iPhones must be shipped to the billing address" nonsense from AT&T. I had my 3GS shipped to a non-billing address last year without issue.