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First iPhone 4S Deliveries Made to German Customers Ahead of Official Launch

Louisville is one of the main UPS hubs. Planes come here and the items get sorted out in a 5 millions square foot hub. (yes that big).

For example, if you ship something from South California to North California, it gets flown to Louisville and sent back out. I know this seams like it's a waste of money and time but is actually an awesome operation to watch. Over 100 planes land at Louisville a night and take back off early morning re-dispersing the packages.

So even if you live closer to Alaska than Kentucky, your phone will still come here. Odds are your phone never even got off the plane in Alaska because it was sitting on a pallet with 1600 other phones on the plane.

Also, for those watching FlightAware, sometimes UPS does not list flights until an hour or so before they go out so it may or may not be of any help to track your phone.

Lastly, UPS owns another warehouse nearby the Louisville Airport where they do nothing but cell phones. The Anchorage flight that came in this morning probably had all the phones taken to this warehouse where they will sit until Wednesday night or Thursday night and then sent back out by air to the next location and then trucked out to your home or a smaller hub then your home.

Now you know how the shipping operation works!!!
 
bommai said:
I would like to order the screen protector and case so that they come in before my phone on Friday. I would like to prevent damage from accidental drops and screen scratches. Anybody recommend which one to buy. I don't want it to be too bulky and don't want to compromise on the protection either.
Click to expand...

check overstock.com / o.co for cases and bumpers and such. Great deals and $1 ships everything..
 
nitro230 said:
Same here, ordered from AT&T at 4am EST. Got a second email saying that it is preparing for shipment but when I look up my order on AT&T it still just says processing. Hopefully I get it right away as I am going on a cruise the beginning of next month and was looking forward to playing with it on the plane
Click to expand...


After getting several emails from ATT about the order covering everything from processing payment, processing order and now processing shipment, I decided to check on ATT's website.

Chatting with a support person online it got this...

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Angela Adams'

Angela Adams: I apologize for the inconvenience Mr. Beck. *All orders for iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 begin shipping October 14, 2011. iPhone 4s orders can take 21 to 28 days and iPhone 4 10 to 14 days on or after October 14, 2011. You will be sent a email confirmation with tracking information when the order is completed. I apologize but there is no more information provided for your order.
you: WHAT! Orders begin shipping October 14th!! ??????
you: We were told that the items when ordered would Arrive on or by the 14th
Angela Adams: I apologize, the orders will ship on 10/14/2011 Mr. Beck

But the emails I get say this...

Thank you for your recent order! Your iPhone has been reserved. Your order is expected to be delivered on 10/14/11*. You will receive a confirmation email when your order is ready to ship.

You can track your order online at www.att.com/wirelessorderstatus. Status may not be available if your order was placed within the past 24 hours.

That statement means delivered, not shipped by.
 
AbblePC said:
After getting several emails from ATT about the order covering everything from processing payment, processing order and now processing shipment, I decided to check on ATT's website.

Chatting with a support person online it got this...

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Angela Adams'

Angela Adams: I apologize for the inconvenience Mr. Beck. *All orders for iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 begin shipping October 14, 2011. iPhone 4s orders can take 21 to 28 days and iPhone 4 10 to 14 days on or after October 14, 2011. You will be sent a email confirmation with tracking information when the order is completed. I apologize but there is no more information provided for your order.
you: WHAT! Orders begin shipping October 14th!! ??????
you: We were told that the items when ordered would Arrive on or by the 14th
Angela Adams: I apologize, the orders will ship on 10/14/2011 Mr. Beck

But the emails I get say this...

Thank you for your recent order! Your iPhone has been reserved. Your order is expected to be delivered on 10/14/11*. You will receive a confirmation email when your order is ready to ship.

You can track your order online at www.att.com/wirelessorderstatus. Status may not be available if your order was placed within the past 24 hours.

That statement means delivered, not shipped by.
Click to expand...

This person knows nothing. She is reading from a script. She is sitting in a comm center with a hundred other people wishing their shift was over. Your phone will be there Friday.

Your welcome, please step away from the ledge.
 
Based upon past process...no one in the US should expect delivery before Friday.

In the USA, Apple exerts great control over Fedex.
 
still waiting here in germany after i ordered at the apple store 45-50 minutes after it went online...but still "Processing Items" with an order number W2229*****
 
Just had a hell of a tease in the elevator here at work. The UPS person was getting on to deliver to multiple floors as I was getting on. She didn't push the button for my company's main floor, so I jokingly said "Aw, nothing for me on the 15th floor?"

She replied "Yeah, I do have a box for 15. That'll be next. It's an Apple box."

*REALLY* piqued my interest. But it was an iPad for someone else... :(

edit: Just checked, mine is in "Preparing for Shipment" status.
 
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/8C148a Safari/6533.18.5)

Has anybody's iphone left the ky ups facility yet?
 
I'm in the US. Ordered right after the store went up. It went through smoothly. My order still has not shipped. I am pretty worried as they said it will be coming from overseas so it is very likely it will not be here by friday...

My order went through around 3:50 am EST. Thought that was a sure way to get it on time. I might have been wrong with that assumption.
 
Just kind of bothered by it

Here's my problem, I love every country and wish we could all just quote (get along)... Though I been reading Some of German Pre order apple folks that have recieved the Iphone 4S already... I know how the market works, its just, sorry guys, Germany just said FU to the USA and they will make there own timeframe... NOT TRYING TO START ANYTHING... I'm just trying to make a point... Nothing else, I hope Siri works for every place it can do for now... Peace to all

It's only a few days everyone, peace to all... :)
 
Here's my problem, I love every country and wish we could all just quote (get along)... Though I been reading Some of German Pre order apple folks that have recieved the Iphone 4S already... I know how the market works, its just, sorry guys, Germany just said FU to the USA and they will make there own timeframe... NOT TRYING TO START ANYTHING... I'm just trying to make a point... Nothing else, I hope Siri works for every place it can do for now... Peace to all

It's only a few days everyone, peace to all...
Today 06:16 AM
Click to expand...

I think there is no evil plan involved in these early deliveries...maybe DHL just messed something up. Could have happend in the US as well.

My order is still "processing" I'm starting to be very pessimistic about a delivery on Friday :(
 
My 4S has shipped!

What's funny is last night it still said "in progress" but when I checked this morning it showed that it shipped on the 9th, and my brother's (who he bought just before me, but his is white and mine is black) shipped on the 10th.

However, when I look at the given FedEx tracking number, it doesn't register in the system.
 
Status is still 'Preparing for Shipment'.

Both UPS and Fedex does not have any record for my 16 GB White.

And how do guys know whether it would be in UPS or Fedex?
 
I would encourage those who ordered from AT&T to not overwhelm the call center since they can't help you anyway. Remember it's 2011 & the ordering is all automated. You ordered via computer, you will receive emails sent by the system without human intervention. Therefore your most accurate info is what you receive via email.

I ordered mine as soon as the site was open for orders.
Next within minutes I received an email confirming the order.
The next day I got the email with an estimated ship date.
That was followed by one stating the estimated arrival & a tracking no.
I waited the suggested 24 hrs to allow the tracking number to post.
Then I checked and found a delivery date of the 14th.
Yesterday my order cleared customs in Alaska.
This morning it is on it's way to Oakland, the next stop.

So, it's coming along according to schedule. I'm ultimately familiar with the process since it's the same no matter what I order from Apple or AT&T out of Apples Chinese Operations.

The main reason I always order mt iPhones via AT&T is they have to approve it and I see no reason to ad an extra layer by ordering through Apple who in turn must process it through AT&T.

If I'm ordering a computer that's different, & for those orders I only use Apple.

If you don't have the sequence I've outlined above theirs not much you can do but wait. Remember the problems are all caused by the huge crush of demand that is typical at launch time. Past experience has taught me that unless you're order is placed within the first ten minutes after the site opens it's a total crap shoot.

Good Luck To All :)
 
For those in the US who ordered from ATT:

Anyone rec'd a shipment notice? I ordered at 4.40AM the first day and called ATT today. The woman said that ATT won't even get the phones until Friday 10/14 and will then ship them priority for Monday/Tuesday delivery. I'm hoping that's wrong...so I'm curios to hear from any other US-based ATT order holders...

Thanks!

UPDATE: Interesting...after I call, I refreshed my browser (open to my ATT order page) and now have a UPS tracking number (not yet showing up in UPS' system)....most likely a coincidence, and less likely my call...
 
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