How exactly does preordering work?

Nope. If you pre-order, you'll have to pay the full price of whichever model, unless you can convince your carrier to change your eligibility date.

 

What about the sim card

Do you have to call at&t to activate the phone? If you preorder

 

luck

If you have at&t, go to you're nearest at&t corporate store (not an authorized reseller). Ask them when your upgrade is. They will say that October 5 date. Ask them if there is any way you can get an upgrade earlier without an early upgrade fee. If your account is in good standing, the agent will be able to push back the date up to 30 days. This will effectively make your upgrade date Sept 5, well before the iPhone launches and everything in at&t's computer should be good to go when you pre order your phone.

When you pre-order your phone is in an "unactivated" state meaning it has no functionality. Its basically a brick. Once you activate your phone, you'll be able to use the phone's basic functions. Once fully activated the SIM in your old phone will automatically be deactivated and the SIM in the new phone activated. During this time, both your phones will work with voice, messaging, and data. This provides a seamless transition to your new phone without any downtime.

Hopefully I've helped you!

 

Is it typically only AT&T that does this or have other carriers been known to do the same?

 

Which aspect are you speaking of? IF you buy a carrier locked phone you will have a sim in your phone. IF it's unlocked I believe you need to get a sim. Any carrier may push back upgrade date, you need to call and ask your carrier.

 

I have an upgrade October 1st, so im hoping Spring will move upgrades up! I believe At&t did it for the iPhone 4s.

 

How does pre ordering work?

You stay up until midnight and watch everyone else online talk about the apple store going down.

Then you see it come back up and go right back down again, and again, and again.

You fight and kick and claw trying to order until you get lucky and it works at 5 or 6 am........

 

If you ordered a carrier-specific phone, there'll be a letter in the package that gives you the correct number to call. Depending on how many people are trying to activate, it takes as little as 30 minutes to hours. If you get your phone on launch day, expect to wait a long time.

 

I am on a family plan and want to use my family members upgrade since my line is not eligible. Would I pre order one and then activate it with apple on my line? I was under the impression whichever line you preordered for had a pre programmed SIM card with that lines info on it. Thoughts? What's the process for activating a pre ordered phone with apple directly and not through the carrier?

 

like the poster a few up said, when you order from apple the phone comes with a SIM card, but it is not activated. Once you call the number they provide you with, it activates the new iphone and deactivates the old one. You do not need to go to your carrier.

 

i swear to god i feel like some of you guys giving advice dont know crap!

if you have at&t and your upgrade isnt "eligible" when the new iphone comes out, dont worry! if you have at&t it allows you upto i think 3-6 months early to upgrade ONLY to an iphone if you have an iphone. my line is upgradeble nov 29, the guy said if iphone came out sept 12, id be available for an upgrade only if i got an iphone. call at&t/verizon/sprint and stop asking so many questions!

 

This.

AT&T always lets anyone with an iPhone contract ending in the same years as a new iPhone, upgrade on launch day. They do this to lock you in for another 2 years to avoid risking your move to another carrier.

Calling and asking AT&T or any other provider about moving up your date is the best thing. All advice here is anecdotal. I don't get why people ask these questions here when you can get the for sure answer by calling the company.

 

Ok but when you call to activate the device, can you only activate it on the line used for the upgrade or can you activate it on any line within the family plan?

 

Yea, they are always all about locking you into a new 2 year contract... I haven't upgraded my account since the launch of the iPhone 4 (got the 4S with my GF's upgrade)... So I spoke to an AT&T chat representative to see if they could lower my monthly bill without lowering my features... They couldn't but I did get a $50 credit on my phone bill for next month.

Being out of contract... has its perks.

The old "I would like to know what you are going to do to keep my business" line.

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Normally... Like with the iPhone 4S... you could just swap the SIM cards, then you would want to inform your carrier you switched phones within a couple days (especially if you have AT&T with Grandfathered Unlimited Data)...

EDIT: Well, at least with AT&T, you could just swap SIMS (assuming they were both micro sim's)

This time, because of the nano sim (Most likely), you will have to call your carrier.

 

Yes that's the reason for my question. I know I won't be able to swap SIMs. Thus my question still remains..?

 

you can always ask the worse they can say is no!

 

AT&T stores will run out of iPhones sometime in the morning of launch day, so if you pre-order and ship to your home, you can go to a store if you would like. Otherwise, you will have to call to make sure the nano sim is activated on your line with the other person's upgrade.

 

I have plenty of friends and coworkers who were denied early upgrades by AT&T.
In fact, AFAIK, they only ever did early upgrades once, with the release of the iPhone 4.
That was the year that they were losing their exclusivity so yes, they were very desparate to lock people into two more years before they had the chance to switch to Verizon but I don't know anyone who was successful with the 4S.
By all means give it a try but don't be surprised if they refuse.

 

Ignoring the whole early upgrade point, if you are upgrade eligible, when/if you pre-order through Apple, does it ask for your AT&T info to know that you are eligible for the upgrade pricing? Then just call to activate once you get in the mail?

Thanks

 

Yes. When you order online it will ask for your phone number and it checks your eligibility. If you go apple.com right now, just go through the buying process but do not check out. You can see exactly how it works.

 

^ This will also tell someone if they have early upgrade status

ADDITIONAL: And it will tell you your upgrade date if you do not know what it is.

 

is this a trick question?

You order and then they send it to you.

Any more questions?

 

Copy/paste from AT&T website.

"Dial *NEW# (*639#) from your wireless phone to receive a free text with your upgrade eligibility status."

This will let you know. My contract isn't over unlit December but it still says I can upgrade at the new two year price which is always 200$

Edit: exact verbiage.

"As a valued customer, we can offer you an upgrade with a new 2-yr commitment and an $36 upgrade fee."

 

My question is how long does it take to get the phone? I believe it will still ship on launch day so then I would get in a few days after that? Or I can ship it to an AT&T store and pick it up there and it is garunteed for me?