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my 1st iphone-questions about pre-order

P

phillsam

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 27, 2011
8
0
So I have held out as long as possible and am going to ditch my basic phone for a smart phone for work and am hoping to get whatever iPhone (4s or 5) that they release.

My question is what is the best way to go about getting one?

I am on Verizon and have a $100 credit on my account to apply towards a new phone when I sign a new contract.

I do not have time to wait in line for hours (or days). If I were to pre-order one of the phones, im assuming thats through apple, how do I activate it on my plan and could I use my $100 credit?

If not, how long until the Verizon store has the phone to sell (and do they do pre-orders)?

I know "no one knows for sure yet" but I'm talking to those that tried to get the iPhone 4 when it was released.

If I do not have time to wait in line at the release, would it be best to just wait a couple weeks after it goes on sale? Anyone think there will be a shortage?
thanks in advance
 
phillsam said:
My question is what is the best way to go about getting one?

I do not have time to wait in line for hours (or days). If I were to pre-order one of the phones, im assuming thats through apple, how do I activate it on my plan and could I use my $100 credit?

If not, how long until the Verizon store has the phone to sell (and do they do pre-orders)?

I know "no one knows for sure yet" but I'm talking to those that tried to get the iPhone 4 when it was released.

If I do not have time to wait in line at the release, would it be best to just wait a couple weeks after it goes on sale? Anyone think there will be a shortage?
thanks in advance
Click to expand...

1. As mentioned in many other threads, there were no pre-orders for the iPhone4 and no one knows what will happen with the iPhone5.

2. No one knows if there will be a shortage.

3. My personal experience was both the Apple and the ATT site were worthless for upgrading to an iPhone4 because they were so overloaded. I tried using both of them the morning of the launch and gave up around 12:30 pm and went to an ATT store that while it was in a local strip mall, it was kind of out in the middle of no where. I waited 15 minutes before getting to a sales person.
 
I have the AT&T one and not the Verizon one. You'll have to wait for posts from people that went through ordering there.

However, I suspect that you won't be able to judge this release based off the previous release from Verizon. Assuming they even get it of course. Totally different ballgame and way, way too many variables.

Example: i4 release on AT&T and rest of world. Apple website was horrible. But if you were lucky, you got your order in and got it in the mail. Otherwise you got a pre-order and showed up on the first day and got it. Otherwise you waited multiple weeks to get it.

However, on the Verizon release, they had no lines in the stores and plenty of inventory. But this is because they truly believed that people were begging to leave AT&T, so they didn't offer any benefits to offset the AT&T EFT and could essentially screw them on the plans. So they sold less than they planned. Sure there were shortages here and there, but substantially better situation than AT&T. I don't believe Verizon had pre-orders.

Pure conjecture, my suspicion is there will be a Verizon version, and that there will be pre-orders, and that if you're lucky, you can get an order in and get it via mail. If you're not lucky, you'll get a pre-order and can pick up at a store (if you get there early enough). Otherwise you'll get it regularly late November once the backlog gets worked through.

----------
TC25 said:
3. My personal experience was both the Apple and the ATT site were worthless for upgrading to an iPhone4 because they were so overloaded. I tried using both of them the morning of the launch and gave up around 12:30 pm and went to an ATT store that while it was in a local strip mall, it was kind of out in the middle of no where. I waited 15 minutes before getting to a sales person.
Click to expand...

Hah, I was trying at 2am. :p Still couldn't get the order in, ended up doing the pre-order and picking up at an Apple store. All the stores around me were packed to the gills (no luck with small stores here). There was around 1k people in line with pre-orders and double that without at the store. My understanding is the pre-orders got their phones, 99% of the walkins got turned away that day.
 
Thanks for the replies. for those that did pre-order, how did it work with your current carrier agreement? Or were you purchasing an iPhone at full price from the store?

Im month-to-month on my plan and want to use my $100 upgrade credit, anyone know how that works with pre-ordering?

To those with Verizon experience, let me know how the ordering went for you.
 
I was apple to pre-order through apple.com after a few attempts. I even got my phone a day early. I'll be attempting to do that again when the next phone comes out.
 
phillsam said:
Thanks for the replies. for those that did pre-order, how did it work with your current carrier agreement? Or were you purchasing an iPhone at full price from the store?
Click to expand...

It's all coming back to me now.

It was the ATT site that was getting hammered. It was so bad that even the internal application used by the ATT stores could not handle it. Some ATT stores had to revert to handwriting orders and using the old credit card machines where multi-part carbon copies were created. The customer was told their information would be entered later that night when the systems came back online. When I visited my local ATT store, the systems were back up, but when others visited an hour later the systems were down.

The Apple site walked you through the process, i.e.,

1. New or upgrade
2. If upgrade, enter your phone number.
3. It was at this point the Apple site checked with the ATT site to determine your upgrade options and you waited and waited and waited.
4. I think you got the option for mailing the phone or store pickup

My personal opinion is, in your situation with the $100 credit, visit a store. You might be able to try online first, before the store opens, but be prepared to go to the store.
 
Last edited:
TC25 said:
It's all coming back to me now.

It was the ATT site that was getting hammered. It was so bad that even the internal application used by the ATT stores could not handle it. Some ATT stores had to revert to handwriting orders and using the old credit card machines where multi-part carbon copies were created. The customer was told their information would be entered later that night when the systems came back online. When I visited my local ATT store, the systems were back up, but when others visited an hour later the systems were down.

The Apple site walked you through the process, i.e.,

1. New or upgrade
2. If upgrade, enter your phone number.
3. It was at this point the Apple site checked with the ATT site to determine your upgrade options and you waited and waited and waited.
4. I think you got the option for mailing the phone or store pickup

My personal opinion is, in your situation with the $100 credit, visit a store. You might be able to try online first, before the store opens, but be prepared to go to the store.
Click to expand...

does the apple store let you add a line when pre ordering? do they allow adding a line at the store also?
 
metzy25 said:
does the apple store let you add a line when pre ordering? do they allow adding a line at the store also?
Click to expand...

Since I've never ordered at the Apple store, I can't answer.

Keep in mind, such detailed answers about what WAS done are no guarantee of what WILL be done.
 
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