My Story
I've been closely following the thread for the past week and thought I would share my experience.
On the morning of the 14th, I decided to sleep in and order the iPhone 5 a few hours after the pre-orders began, hoping to avoid all the non-responsive websites and craziness I dealt with when pre-ordering the iPhone 4 on day one. I logged onto Apple at 6:40 AM EST and saw that they had slipped to a 2-week shipping estimate, so I thought I'd try my hand at ordering from AT&T, which was still reporting launch day deliveries (though, their "fine print" saying that it depends on stock levels didn't comfort me). I took a chance and pre-ordered from them, and had zero problems getting through the ordering process. I ordered a 32 GB Black iPhone, and saw my grandfathered unlimited data plan was going to be kept as I saw it show up as my only option. I was done around 6:55 AM and received the same e-mail as many others did (at 7:10 AM):
"Thank you for placing your order with AT&T.
Your iPhone 5 will be delivered on 9/21/12. All orders are processed on a first-come, first-served basis. You will receive a confirmation email when your order is ready to ship. You can check your order status online anytime.
Your shipment may be subject to delays for reasons that include, but are not limited to, product availability, inventory, credit issues, number porting or carrier delays, and completion of other required AT&T business processes...."
My order # starts with 1407..., though from what people have said, that may not explain the order in which AT&T fulfills orders.
Then, I got a text later in the day at 2:42 PM from AT&T that said:
"Your preorder has been processed. You will be notified when your order has shipped."
I checked my online status at the link the e-mail included and it had shifted over to Pending Shipment in the Tracking Number column. Additionally, checking through the My Orders tab on AT&T's site had the Shipment Status as "Processing." I was ecstatic. That slowly began to fade, as there has been no activity since then. No other e-mails or texts. My phone and SIM are noted as backordered (though, it is good to hear that it does not necessarily mean it is backordered - just that they haven't paired my order # with an iPhone).
Going in, I knew that there was a good chance I wouldn't receive my new iPhone on launch day. I chalked that up to the fact that I didn't get up around 3:00 AM EST, like many others in this thread did. However, as we've seen, many who ordered in the wee hours of the morning have been anxiously awaiting for their phones to be shipped, while others who ordered at 9 AM, 10 AM, even 11 AM EST, have had their orders shipped. Even though mine may not arrive tomorrow, it is more frustrating to see those who had the dedication to get up super early still not seeing any activity in their accounts.
Maybe, come tomorrow, AT&T will have filled all these orders that are sitting at "backordered," everyone who ordered before some random cutoff time gets their iPhone, and we can all sit back and laugh about how we were fretting when we know the company is terrible at communicating with its customers. However, if it turns out that the orders were not filled on a first-come, first-served basis, as AT&T clearly claimed they would do (yeah, I know, why would we believe them in the first place, given their history), they truly would be screwing over their customers. It could be the case that those are Premier customers had orders filled from a separate inventory, leading to further confusion. In either case, AT&T absolutely pales in comparison to Apple in communicating with its customer base. Terrible is the only way to describe it.
So, I guess all there is to do for those whose orders have yet to be listed as shipped is to keep refreshing Order Status pages and hope that AT&T can work some last-minute magic and get launch day orders to all those who ordered early enough.
I know this whole post will have me sounding entitled, with me expecting to get an iPhone tomorrow. I admit it - I am incredibly jealous of all those whose order statuses have updated. And I'll also be really happy for everyone who is able to get one tomorrow, whether or not mine arrives. I'll still be jealous though - I think I'm allowed that.
