iPhone 4 Pre-Orders Bring Down Servers and Generate Long Lines

[1stalban]

AT&T Site

After about 1.5 hours of periodic tries, I was able to get onto my AT&T account and go through the upgrade process for a black 32 GB.

I received a "THANK YOU" page that included all the details of the order and an order number. It's been about 2 hours now and have not received a confirmation email and I am not able to check status of the order on the AT&T site. (it does say there that orders may take 24 hours to show up).

 

[NAG]

By the way, I don't recommend using Chrome for this. I've managed to get Chrome stuck on the "daisy" screen ("Processing information") two or three times now. I suspect that somehow the javascript polling fails on Chrome and the page just gets stuck there.

I doubt browser matters that much, I used Chimera/Camino last night (yes, I normally use Safari for surfing but I was messing around with some extensions that were messing up).

 

[NightCastle]

I successfully reserved one using the phone app, but when I try to do the 2nd phone on my account, I keep getting "Could not create your reservation at this time. Please try again later..."

I'm not sure if this is a coding problem and it won't allow me to do more than 1 on my account or if the reservations system is hosed again. Anyone else been able to reserve more than 1 with your account info?

I heard somewhere that they were goign to limit the purchase of the new iPhone during launch to one per individual. I don't know if it is a valid statement, but your experience seems to fit.

 

[ux4all]

Not only is that just a "reservation," it's a useless one. Look at the bottom of the e-mail. Your "reservation" is not a guarantee of availability. In other words, your "reservation" doesn't actually RESERVE anything!

I failed to read the fine print... boy this process is awful. For those that are interested, here is the text from the reservation note:

Pre-authorization does not guarantee iPhone availability at an Apple Retail Store. iPhone is sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

[NAG]

Please people, can't you just wait to pre-order tomorrow? Or the next day? They aren't going to sell out in the first couple of days of pre-orders. I doubt you will get the phone any earlier based on when you pre-order or at least not any difference between the first couple of days of preorder.

One thing to clarify for a few readers, because I see this confusion about when you get charged for a pre-order a lot. If you use a debit card, you will be charged immediately because the seller needs to check that you have the cash in your bank account at the time of the transaction. That money gets frozen in your bank account immediately. A credit card should only be charged when the product ships (the seller knows that Visa or Amex is going to have the cash then, so they can wait).

Finally, if Apple can have this kind of response on preorder days, this means that iPhone 4 is going to be a huge hit. I'm thinking that it will outsell every Android Phone easily, outsell every individual Android Phone manufacturer, and come close to selling as many as all the Android Phone's together. I'm going to get one through work once work has approved them. They just recently approved the iPhone in general, so I hope that it doesn't take too long to approve a new model.

Thanks for the clarification. They do $1 charges for credit cards, right?

 

[number9]

Sure you didn't just reserve it? I don't see that option to purchase on my version of the store app...

No, if you tap the large banner at the top of the App that says "Pre-Order Online Now", you can pre-order, not reserve, the iPhone 4. Runs into the same problem for most though- it craps out after entering you account info to check upgrade status.

 

[CupertinoBob]

I successfully reserved Could not create your reservation at this time. Please try again later..."

Wow now I have a problem. I finally got thru to ATT and went through all the steps to order a 32 gig. It seemed great and showed the receipt information but after about two minutes it crashed and said timeout. Now I don't know if I ordered one or not. I tried calling but have been on hold now for 30 minutes. Tried email but it won't let me type in the box. What a mess. I kind of think I did not get one ordered because wouldn't they send me an email. I tried logging on again but it won't let me. What to do?

 

[HornetOSX]

it's been about 45 mins now since I made the order..... should I Be worried?

it's been nearly 4 hours for me..... but I can check the order on the order status page and they took the money outta my account. that seems to be good enough for me !!!!!!!

 

[rhinosrcool]

After several unsuccessful attempts through the apple store, I decided to try att's site. Voila! Through their on-line store, they do accept debit cards (yes, w/ the debit card, they do charge you immediately). Here's my order status:

 

[Duffinator]

I can understand maybe an hour or two of interrupted orders but FFS, going on 4+ here, get your s h i t together!

+1. Still not getting anywhere on my end.

 

[rylee27]

Wow now I have a problem. I finally got thru to ATT and went through all the steps to order a 32 gig. It seemed great and showed the receipt information but after about two minutes it crashed and said timeout. Now I don't know if I ordered one or not. I tried calling but have been on hold now for 30 minutes. Tried email but it won't let me type in the box. What a mess. I kind of think I did not get one ordered because wouldn't they send me an email. I tried logging on again but it won't let me. What to do?

I think if you got a receipt, you might be safe! I just did the same thing but got a Gateway timeout after entering my credit card. So now I'm wondering if my credit card/order went through or if I should try again.

 

[STC1709]

i can order through att as well but i am not about to get screwed by the crappy company that they are and receive it 3 weeks after the 24th. I'd rather order if from apple. att is as reliable as my gf saying she is going to be ready to go at 7pm

 

[staticfade]

I successfully reserved one using the phone app, but when I try to do the 2nd phone on my account, I keep getting "Could not create your reservation at this time. Please try again later..."

I'm not sure if this is a coding problem and it won't allow me to do more than 1 on my account or if the reservations system is hosed again. Anyone else been able to reserve more than 1 with your account info?

I had the same problem. I created a new iTunes account and used it to reserve my second iPhone and that worked. The guy at the Apple store told me its one iTunes account per iPhone. So just create a new one.

 

[NAG]

I think if you got a receipt, you might be safe! I just did the same thing but got a Gateway timeout after entering my credit card. So now I'm wondering if my credit card/order went through or if I should try again.

When I was ordering with Apple it crapped out on loading the "Thank You" page. I just went to order status page and double checked that it went through – and it did. So you can successfully order it and still get an error, oddly. I'm not sure where in AT&T's site you can check order status, but it is probably in the account page somewhere.

 

[xgman]

Wow, this is really, really bad today. What a huge AT&T screw up.

 

[Jules242]

FINALLY...

ATT's site worked again, and I was able to change my billing address and that of my credit card so that I'll have it shipped to washington D.C, where i'll be from the 24th and on.

"Pre-orders for iPhone® 4 and iPhone 3GS 8 GB will be processed to arrive as early as June 24, 2010, if submitted by 2 p.m. ET, June 22, 2010. The actual shipment date and receipt of your order is not guaranteed and 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."

 

[me2000]

"Due to a system upgrade the site is temporarily unavailable, please try again later. For immediate assistance please contact customer service at 1-800-331-0500."

 

[Mystic Gringo]

AT&T success

So, I got the error everyone's having with all the sites. I made a reservation that I am now going to cancel, and finally got through with AT&T.

What helped alot, when I got the error after selecting which line I wanted to upgrade, I just kept refreshing and confirming. Eventually almost crapped myself as I got into the site.

If you are not refreshing and confirming resubmit on their site, then give it a go, it worked for me (3 times, the security code on my card is rubbed off, and hard to read so I had to go through the friggin process a couple times).

 

[bevobadger]

Done!

Tried for about an hour on the apple and att sites....no dice.

tried the new apple store iphone app.....no dice.

went to the apple store................HUGE line and wait (that place is always crazy)

dropped by the att store, in and out in 15 minutes.........ORDERED!!!

 

[squirrelist]

FINALLY got through on AT&T's website. Though this was on the confirmation page:

The actual shipment date and receipt of your order is not guaranteed and 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.

 

[STC1709]

i think a lot of you will disappointed when you find out you will not be receiving it on time from ATT I can almost bank on that. I refuse to order it until apple's site gets back up and running

 

[nsayer]

Quite frankly, at this point, I think I'm just going to go to buyiphone.apple.com and hit "reload" constantly for the rest of the day. Maybe even make an Applescript to do it.

Scrotched earth.

 

[CupertinoBob]

Wow now I have a problem. I finally got thru to ATT and went through all the steps to order a 32 gig. It seemed great and showed the receipt information but after about two minutes it crashed and said timeout. Now I don't know if I ordered one or not. I tried calling but have been on hold now for 30 minutes. Tried email but it won't let me type in the box. What a mess. I kind of think I did not get one ordered because wouldn't they send me an email. I tried logging on again but it won't let me. What to do?

To continue, finally got thru on phone to ATT and they tell me no way to know if order went thru except check online for status. However it turns out it takes 24 hours for that to show. Lots of fun, guess I will just order another and then cancel if I am to get two. What fun. But it is very beautiful here at Pebble Beach and life is good.

 

[DineshD]

After about 1.5 hours of periodic tries, I was able to get onto my AT&T account and go through the upgrade process for a black 32 GB.

I received a "THANK YOU" page that included all the details of the order and an order number. It's been about 2 hours now and have not received a confirmation email and I am not able to check status of the order on the AT&T site. (it does say there that orders may take 24 hours to show up).

I ordered last night at 2AM PST from the ATT site. I have still not gotten a Confirmation E-mail, nothing indicating the phone has been pre ordered, but the Iphone 4 is in the order status on my ATT site, unfortunatley i cant use the confirmation number on apple's site. I thought they were linked

 

[me2000]

i think a lot of you will disappointed when you find out you will not be receiving it on time from ATT I can almost bank on that. I refuse to order it until apple's site gets back up and running

Exactly why I'm waiting for Apple's site to be up.