This entire iPhone 3G purchasing process has been tiresome and downright frustrating.
I walked into a corporate AT&T store on Saturday, the day after the iPhone launch. I wasn't expecting to get an iPhone that day, nor was I in any rush. I placed an order through direct fulfillment instead. I swiped my card, and processed the order through debit (I entered in my PIN). After I hit "accept," the associate informed me that the order would not go through as debit, and must be done as credit. I swiped my card again, this time as credit.
The next day, I looked at my online banking account, and there was a charge for $212.93 from AT&T from the day before. Shocking. I called my bank, and they informed me that this was in fact a debit charge. Again, shocking. I went into the AT&T store, and they told me that the charge never went through on their end. They left the conversation with me needing to bring in a statement to dispute the charge. Great.
That leads me to today. Checked my order status, and saw that it was delivered to the store. I drove over there, with my bank statement, and talked to the same associate. He took my bank statement copy, and told me he'd call me within a couple hours. I'm not holding my breath. When I asked for my iPhone, he told me that although it's in the back, delivered, it cannot be processed, b/c of some sort of problem with AT&T's system. Apparently, their internal system did not confirm that the phone was shipped and received, and as such, cannot be rung out. A customer who was also in the store got the same answer when he asked for his phone as well.
I'm really in no rush to get the phone, but it'd just be nice to get some sort of service from AT&T. The website should have mentioned this problem before I made the drive to the store. Frustrating, to say the least.
