Hi everyone. I expect to be flamed for this, my first post on macrumors forum, but I am in a fairly unique situation and I need some help. I am tired of calling AT&T stores everyday to hear the same answer (not that I call EVERY day, but you get the idea). Anyway, I am a long time ATT customer. My contract (a family plan with my wife) is eligible for full upgrade on 9/26/2010. My wife and I both turned 30 in July and our families got together and bought us enough ATT gift cards to get 2 32GB Iphone 4s and accessories. Totally awesome gift. Here is the problem.
I learned about the potential for early exception upgrades through various google searches and what not. I understand that they can only be requested and approved in AT&T corporate stores. So on July 16th, I went into the closest store in my area, not expecting a whole heckuva a lot. Especially since I was about 72 days or so from full upgrade eligibility. At first, the rep I spoke to was even reluctant to try to see if I could get an exception. He said it only usually gets approved when you are within 30 days. He said to come back in August when I was closer to eligibility. I almost said ok. But I asked him to try anyway and see. So he did that for me and sent me home as he did not expect to get an answer until the next Monday (the 16th was a Friday). Lo and behold, 15 minutes I get the call that both lines were approved for the exception. Great! So what's the problem? The freaking gift cards!!! The phones have to be in stock at the store, so I can't just order them and wait like everyone else. I have to wait until the suckers are in stock - which to me is even worse than seeing a "backorder" notice on my order screen on the website. I have been calling every week but to no avail. I hear apple stores are getting them in for walkins now, but no such luck at ATT. So my question is, can someone who might be in the know out there that reads these forums let me know when the iphone 4s might finally be stocked at ATT stores? It would really help so I can stop obsessing over checking for news articles for stock coming to ATT stores and I don't have to call every other day to my local ATT store to get the same answer! Your help is appreciated!!!
I learned about the potential for early exception upgrades through various google searches and what not. I understand that they can only be requested and approved in AT&T corporate stores. So on July 16th, I went into the closest store in my area, not expecting a whole heckuva a lot. Especially since I was about 72 days or so from full upgrade eligibility. At first, the rep I spoke to was even reluctant to try to see if I could get an exception. He said it only usually gets approved when you are within 30 days. He said to come back in August when I was closer to eligibility. I almost said ok. But I asked him to try anyway and see. So he did that for me and sent me home as he did not expect to get an answer until the next Monday (the 16th was a Friday). Lo and behold, 15 minutes I get the call that both lines were approved for the exception. Great! So what's the problem? The freaking gift cards!!! The phones have to be in stock at the store, so I can't just order them and wait like everyone else. I have to wait until the suckers are in stock - which to me is even worse than seeing a "backorder" notice on my order screen on the website. I have been calling every week but to no avail. I hear apple stores are getting them in for walkins now, but no such luck at ATT. So my question is, can someone who might be in the know out there that reads these forums let me know when the iphone 4s might finally be stocked at ATT stores? It would really help so I can stop obsessing over checking for news articles for stock coming to ATT stores and I don't have to call every other day to my local ATT store to get the same answer! Your help is appreciated!!!
