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iPhone 5s Will Not Be Available for Pre-Order

I dropped my 4s today and the screen broke! (seriously, it wasn't accidentally on purpose - I love my 4s and there were other toys higher on my lust-list)

Verizon is buying it back but I could be phone-less for 3 weeks - ugh. I'll be swiping my wife's a lot.

Maybe I'll swipe my mother's never-used dino-phone and forward my number to it for a temporary fix. What a pain.

If I successfully purchase a phone on-line from Verizon on Day 1, will I have to pick it up then or can I wait until my voucher arrives?
 
dtlee1974 said:
Our Verizon guy told us flat out that the 5s was going to be available on their business site for pre-order "next week." I even had our guy that handles phones ping him again to confirm that he was talking about the 5s and not the 5c. We'll see what happens I suppose, but I don't have a lot of faith in our Verizon guy.
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3rd party vendors are probably given a certain % of the stock, and allowed to sell them however they like. If they put them all up for pre-order and are fine having everyone that comes to their store be SOL, they can probably do that.

Also, from what I've read so far nothing really prevents Apple from offering pre-orders, they just aren't going to promise pre-orders.
 
duelingdragons said:
Truly disgusting that they will do this to their customer simply to generate lines in stores. Appalling.
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I've just been simply marveling today at all the comments of this sort! I've been amazed at how critical, underwhelmed, angry, DISGUSTED, etc. so many people are. WE KNEW that stock of 5S was going to be limited and tight due to limited supplies of the fingerprint sensor. We know that it will release in a bunch of countries on launch day--no special treatment for the USA.

So, doesn't it just makes sense that they wouldn't want to make them available for PRE-order?!?

There is absolutely no evidence that they are doing this "simply" to "generate lines in stores."

It's not appalling. It's not disgusting. In fact, it's just plain not even true.

If the 5S is so yawn-worthy, and Apple is so "disgusting" and is metaphorically flipping you the bird, and you're going to show them by NOT buying a 5S and maybe by switching to Android or something, then that's really and truly just fine. Maybe you'll save time in your life by not having to post angry and disgusted comments in threads like this. That would also be a blessing for the rest of us here--or I would appreciate it, anyway.

Don't get me wrong. You have every right to be critical and to want this feature or that feature or a lower price, NFC, 128GB, larger screen, etc. Whatever. I get it. But taking Apple's decisions as a PERSONAL insult is just plain irrational.

You have the right to vote with your dollars, but you're way off the mark if you think that you're anything but a minority. Apple sales and profits present an overwhelming truth: a whole lot of people are voting with their dollars, and they have voted pro-Apple--with every single iPhone and iPad release.

You're not going to teach Apple a lesson by not buying the 5S. I'm sorry, but you're just not.
 
carelesswhisper said:
Anyone have any estimates or guesses on how many phones each brick and mortar carrier store will get? I'm on AT&T.
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Not as many as the apple store. Granted, the apple store gets more people too. Go through the posts for the 5. That'll give you an idea of what to plan for.
 
I think this is pretty cool. The times I've spent waiting in line for new iPhone releases was always a blast. You meet fun people. Plus, this makes the 5S just a little bit more special. If you see someone with it on day 1, you know they really wanted it and they did something special to get it.

To those complaining... what, did you think Apple owed you the right to pre-order? I believe this is the sense of "entitlement" I keep hearing about. Like you deserve to have it on day 1 just by virtue of wanting it, and therefore Apple is wrong to not accommodate your desires.

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metzy25 said:
Any info on if you'll be able to pick up in stereo friday if you order online?
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Sorry, all pickups are in mono.
 
eastercat said:
Not as many as the apple store. Granted, the apple store gets more people too. Go through the posts for the 5. That'll give you an idea of what to plan for.
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I live in somewhat of a small town, compared to Dallas or Austin (I think my nearest Apple store is in Austin), and have about 4 AT&T stores including authorized dealers. So I'm hoping it won't be too crazy.

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bpcookson said:
I think this is pretty cool. The times I've spent waiting in line for new iPhone releases was always a blast. You meet fun people. Plus, this makes the 5S just a little bit more special. If you see someone with it on day 1, you know they really wanted it and they did something special to get it.

To those complaining... what, did you think Apple owed you the right to pre-order? I believe this is the sense of "entitlement" I keep hearing about. Like you deserve to have it on day 1 just by virtue of wanting it, and therefore Apple is wrong to not accommodate your desires.

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Sorry, all pickups are in mono.
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Lol, that's hilarious.
 
jianglai said:
Interestingly, on Apple's Chinese website it states that you can order 5s starting from 9/17 and pick it up from an Apple store on the 20th. But I guess this is more due to limited supply in China, and whoever plans to go to Apple store on launch day better secure one online first if he/she doesn't want to wait in the line for nothing.
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I noticed this also and this is actually been in place for a few years to try to stop the scalpers and reselling of the phones. In previous years, people would by several devices and sell them all at a much higher premium.

This was more prevalent in Hong Kong (where I currently live), where people from Mainland China would flock down, queue up outside the only Apple Store (at the time), which would create a HUGE line that ran down by the ferry pier, and each person would buy many phones just to bring back to China and sell at a giant premium.

They have now instituted a lottery system in Hong Kong that makes each person enter the lottery and if they draw your name you can come the next day (or on launch day in this case) and pick up the phone -- limited to 2 per person. Additionally, they make you have your Hong Kong ID Card (which they didn't do before).

I noticed that Hong Kong wasn't on the launch country list (which made many of my local Hong Kong friends VERY mad) but after looking at Apple's Hong Kong website, it still mentioned reservations to be made on the 17th for in-store pick-up on the 20th.
 
dmaxdmax said:
I dropped my 4s today and the screen broke! (seriously, it wasn't accidentally on purpose - I love my 4s and there were other toys higher on my lust-list)

Verizon is buying it back but I could be phone-less for 3 weeks - ugh. I'll be swiping my wife's a lot.

Maybe I'll swipe my mother's never-used dino-phone and forward my number to it for a temporary fix. What a pain.
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You don't want to know how much I care...
 
They are doing this for the media attention. Last year I was able to have the iphone 5 delivered to my work on launch day, perfect. Bi*ch move IMO.
 
bpcookson said:
I think this is pretty cool. The times I've spent waiting in line for new iPhone releases was always a blast. You meet fun people. Plus, this makes the 5S just a little bit more special. If you see someone with it on day 1, you know they really wanted it and they did something special to get it.

To those complaining... what, did you think Apple owed you the right to pre-order? I believe this is the sense of "entitlement" I keep hearing about. Like you deserve to have it on day 1 just by virtue of wanting it, and therefore Apple is wrong to not accommodate your desires.

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Sorry, all pickups are in mono.
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Sorry meant store
 
-js- said:
WE KNEW that stock of 5S was going to be limited and tight due to limited supplies of the fingerprint sensor. We know that it will release in a bunch of countries on launch day--no special treatment for the USA.

So, doesn't it just makes sense that they wouldn't want to make them available for PRE-order?!?
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Hmm, weird. The PS4 has limited stock too, but I still preordered that...
 
With any luck at all they will overnight the phones ordered at 3AM Friday morning (12am PST). They may already have the phones sitting in their distribution centers (for instance the one closest to my home in Pittsburgh is Lewisberry, PA). When I ordered my iPad on black friday at 3am from Apple's website, it was delivered to me just 8 hours later from UPS, and shipped from Lewisberry.
 
Jimbo47 said:
With any luck at all they will overnight the phones ordered at 3AM Friday morning (12am PST). They may already have the phones sitting in their distribution centers (for instance the one closest to my home in Pittsburgh is Lewisberry, PA). When I ordered my iPad on black friday at 3am from Apple's website, it was delivered to me just 8 hours later from UPS, and shipped from Lewisberry.
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So will orders open the 20th at midnight so 3 EST?
 
bkribbs said:
So will orders open the 20th at midnight so 3 EST?
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That's my guess. Again that was black friday, but typically preorders started at midnight (3am est). 3AM was when the store came back online for their black friday sales, so I assume it will be the same. IF NOT, they will lose a mass amount of sales judging by previous year preorders. 4S had 1 million preorders. 5 had 2 million preorders. I know I sure as hell won't be standing in line friday, and I know I'm not the only one. If they don't even have enough supplies to run a pre-order program, there is no way they will have enough for mass amounts of people on launch day. Meaning, people will be upset.
 
PaulOBrain said:
Dick move by Apple.
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Such an intelligent turn of phrase. :roll eyes:

Here is the likely scenario -- if anyone recalls last year's pre-order, it started at 12am Pacific and by about 3am Pacific it was sold out. ATT, VZW, and Sprint similarly sold out of pre-order stock within hours. To add to the melee many people who got in at the last few minutes were told days later that, well, they wouldn't be getting launch day stock. Soorrrry.

This left a lot of people annoyed and P.O.'d and complaining to Apple and the cellos, tying up staff that couldn't do anything about the situation. So why o why would Apple want to repeat that fiasco again if it knows it doesn't have enough pre-order stock on hand to last more than a couple hours?

Yes, it's disappointing, but no one is pointing a gun to anyone's head to have an iPhone 5S on launch day. It won't get you 72 virgins or even a free slurpee. Well, OK it probably will get you free food because Apple usually hands something out to campers. But the point it its a phone. If you don't like waiting in lines order one on the 20th or just pop into an Apple store an hour before closing to see if they have any stock.
 
iRockApple said:
It was just a rumor, that's what happened. There are too many people taking the rumors as absolute facts.
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And I feel that is why people get so PO'd when news is official. They build themselves up on rumors, and when they don't pan out, they get upset and whine on the forums.
 
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