If you're close to getting your phone, skip this message.
If you want to get a phone now and live near an Apple store, you might be interested in this.
I gave up on my ATT preorder of a MB 128 7 Plus scheduled to arrive Oct 14-21. The reason I didn't want to wait is because 1) I wanted to start the clock because I'll probably get the 8 next year and more importantly: 2) I wanted to trade in my 6 Plus for the (up to) $650 credit. ATT announced just this week that in the US you have to purchase your phone by the 25th (tomorrow) in order to be eligible for the trade in (along with a lot of other requirements).
Then you have 30 days to do the trade-in. It wasn't clear about the difference between ordering the phone and receiving it - if the purchase was in Sept but you don't receive the phone for two months, then you're past the 30 days. I didn't want to gamble that if I got my phone Oct 21 I might not be eligible. We've all been told different stories about the rules on this and they are obviously fluid as they never set the US end date until recently. And yes, it was driving me crazy not to have the new phone in hand (I had problems during the first midnight online reservation or I would have just ordered through Apple as usual).
It was my first time ordering a phone from ATT and I missed the kind of connection I'd gotten with Apple pre-orders in the past. I've been in two Apple stores in the last two days and I've seen how people are coming in the store, walk-ins, and getting lucky. Others are purchasing theirs online like I did (this is not the IUP reservation system), checking Apple at midnight, early in the morning, and throughout the day. I was able to check the box that I wanted to buy it on the Next 24 month plan, so all this was set up before I went into the store. There still was a wait when I arrived for my appointment time, but I walked out with my phone in hand. It was a lot better than waiting until mid-October and maybe missing out on the trade-in for me.