Finally received an email from Apple on 6/24 6pm EST. Order was On Hold pending resolution of an unspecified issue with AT&T.
Called AT&T and they said there were SIXTEEN accounts created on AT&T. Reason: On 6/15 starting when the Apple Store opened at 1am EST I spent three hours trying to place the order. Apple site kept going down and there were a variety of errors. At 4am when the Store went down completely again I gave up. At 1:30pm I tried again and when that failed, logged into my Mobile Me account within the Store, found the (single) Apple Order in my Shopping Cart and completed it. Apparently I successfully navigated the AT&T credit check 16 times.
AT&T rep deleted 15 of the accounts. Soon after, an Apple rep was able to confirm everything was okay and released the hold. Today we received an emil from Apple confirming.
Ship date is now "by July 2nd". I.e., it will be shipped (from Taiwan?) next week and arrive 6/29 & 7/8.