AT&T preorder mayhem
My ordeal on Oct 7 Preorder day:
Well I spent a horrible 45 min on the phone with AT&T for just this issue. I got up a 4 am central time to order my phone and spent 4 hours on the phone with AT&T to get my 64GB phone on order. I was told I had to go through ATT because it was a corporate account. I also took the overnight shipping so I could guarantee I would get it on the 14th.
Today I check and I too see it was listed as backordered. I called AT&T and I was told something completely different than what yall are saying.
When I called to find out what gives, they informed me I would receive my phone in 21-28 days. I explained when I ordered and that I was told I was going to get it Friday. They said "I am sorry you were misinformed but we can refund you your overnight shipping." I explained that I should have gotten one of the preorder phones and it should not be almost a month before I get it. She told me sorry its not what I want to hear but thats the way it is. I then asked for a supervisor.
The supervisor then told me basically the same thing. I said why would I get up in the middle of the night to preorder if I wanted to wait a month to get it? She said she couldn't answer that but there was nothing special about the preorder, there wasn't a set allotment of phones for the preorder and that there is no difference by me ordering at 4 am on the 7th and if she just took my order today on the 10th. They are both insane! She would't listen to anything if I asked for her supervisor she would just start talking louder over me telling me I am sorry thats the way it is. I told her I will consider closing out our corporate account if this is the service we are going to get and she said well I am warning your that you will pay early termination fees. All but one phone on the account were purchased almost 2 and a half years ago and my 2 year commitment won't exist if I don't get the iphone 4S.
So the customer sales rep and her supervisor are saying that backorder is NOT simply how its listed but that it is the same as if we went online and ordered the phone on the 14th and that they won't even ship them out until the 14th.
Now I am NOT saying I believe these two snotty customer service reps (they really talk down to you and sound like they don't care at all, its like they are saying "deal with it or pay early termination fee and either way we win") You know this is the reason most of the time I buy my phones without contracts because it REALLY puts the customer at a disadvantage when dealing with customer service. I know why they do it to ensure they cover thier costs they invest in thier subsidies of the phones but it drives down the customer service. I know when we were with sprint if customer service treated me badly I would say fine transfer me to cancellations (they would then warn me about early termination fees before they would transfer me) I would get to the cancellation person who when they pulled up my account realized there were no fees to be collected and low an behold they would correct whatever I called about and give me a credit for my hassles to keep my as a customer.
At any rate, I am now peeved at AT&T (hence the long post)

but I am hoping yall are right and I will see my phone on Friday. If not, being I live in a small poor town, there may be a 64GB phone at the AT&T store that I could pick up if it doesn't arrive and if I decide to stay with AT&T at that point. Time will tell. Waiting for my corporate account rep at AT&T to call me to discuss the customer service at lunch and see what he does.