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Preorder from ATT vs. Apple

LFSimon

LFSimon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 13, 2010
193
22
Illinois
Is there any advantage or disadvantage from placing a preorder with one vs. the other? (I'm upgrading an existing line that is eligible for an upgrade so nothing unusual in my plans.)

In the past has one shipped faster than the other?
Do they normally start accepting preorders at the same time?
 
I searched the forum for the exact same question. Glad I'm not the only one curious. If anyone knows the answer to this, I'd certainly like to know. This'll actually be my first preorder/launch attempt. Does ATT usually arrive on launch day?

Thanks in advance.

- J
 
jpbeck76 said:
I searched the forum for the exact same question. Glad I'm not the only one curious. If anyone knows the answer to this, I'd certainly like to know. This'll actually be my first preorder/launch attempt. Does ATT usually arrive on launch day?

Thanks in advance.

- J
Click to expand...

order from apple if you can. if its down, go to at&t and see if you can get it in.

I remember the at&t preorders were behind the apple ones
 
assuming both start at 12:00 am PST, one will not be better than the other. I would keep trying them both until you get through.
 
Last edited:
id like to know the answer to this as well. ive seen on various forums that ordering straight from apple is better no one seems to go into any reasons why
 
Best to order from Apple. It was all hell with AT&T preorders last year.
 
I personally will be going to the carrier's website. The apple site will crash for sure the first few hours. Even though apple has a dedicated US website, apple is taking pre-orders from people across the globe. Going thru the carrier = smaller pool of people pre-ordering IMO.
 
There is NO way I will 'pre-order' from AT&T! Last year I pre-ordered from them as I was literally TWO weeks before my upgrade eligibility and ordering through them was the only way to get the discount. Well, after almost a month, the order had not even been processed and AT&T refused to let me cancel the order without calling MULTIPLE times.

I ended up walking into the Apple Store and buying one at full price and AT&T gave me bill credits to make up the difference (I easily had $500 in credit applied to my account).
 
jbachandouris said:
There is NO way I will 'pre-order' from AT&T! Last year I pre-ordered from them as I was literally TWO weeks before my upgrade eligibility and ordering through them was the only way to get the discount. Well, after almost a month, the order had not even been processed and AT&T refused to let me cancel the order without calling MULTIPLE times.

I ended up walking into the Apple Store and buying one at full price and AT&T gave me bill credits to make up the difference (I easily had $500 in credit applied to my account).
Click to expand...

This is going back to the iPhone 4 launch, but I remember having zero problems with at&t -- the apple website was bogged down so I tried the at&t site, order 2 phones and got them around 10am on launch day - easy as pie - this year I have a best buy gift card I've been trying to get rid of so I'll probably go through at&t for one and best buy for another.
 
mitsitsad said:
This is going back to the iPhone 4 launch, but I remember having zero problems with at&t -- the apple website was bogged down so I tried the at&t site, order 2 phones and got them around 10am on launch day - easy as pie - this year I have a best buy gift card I've been trying to get rid of so I'll probably go through at&t for one and best buy for another.
Click to expand...

Nope, sorry. This WAS the iPhone 4S launch not the 4. The pre-order status thread for AT&T was hundreds of pages long and EVERYONE on it was mad.
 
jbachandouris said:
There is NO way I will 'pre-order' from AT&T! Last year I pre-ordered from them as I was literally TWO weeks before my upgrade eligibility and ordering through them was the only way to get the discount. Well, after almost a month, the order had not even been processed and AT&T refused to let me cancel the order without calling MULTIPLE times.

I ended up walking into the Apple Store and buying one at full price and AT&T gave me bill credits to make up the difference (I easily had $500 in credit applied to my account).
Click to expand...
Wait - you weren't eligible for the upgrade / subsidized price when you tried to pre-order at the subsidized price. Why would you try to get something you weren't eligible for?
 
both sites will crash and you will need to scramble and preorder at which ever site you can. expect to be up late trying to get through. good luck and let the games begin...
 
Ben C. said:
Wait - you weren't eligible for the upgrade / subsidized price when you tried to pre-order at the subsidized price. Why would you try to get something you weren't eligible for?
Click to expand...

The order went through AT&T directly who authorized the discounted price.

My ineligibility does not change the fact that there were many pre-orders that were not delivered on launch day or even that same week.
 
I went through my local ATT store for the 4S. I was there early in the morning to pre-order and did. The following Friday, my phone never came, meanwhile the store had phones available for sale. The manager said there was no guarantee when I pre-ordered to get it on launch date(even though they said it was guaranteed when I gave them my money). What makes things worse is they wouldn't cancel my order and sell me one of the phones they had available because as long as my order was still processing I wasn't eligible for a new phone ! So I had to wait 2 more weeks for my phone to arrive in the mail, while all of my friends who didn't pre-order had their new phones. Ordering from Apple this time.
 
I remember when I pre-ordered the i4 with AT&T and it took quite a few tries as their servers were getting smacked. After that I vowed to only roll with Apple.
 
mcorf said:
I went through my local ATT store for the 4S. I was there early in the morning to pre-order and did. The following Friday, my phone never came, meanwhile the store had phones available for sale. The manager said there was no guarantee when I pre-ordered to get it on launch date(even though they said it was guaranteed when I gave them my money). What makes things worse is they wouldn't cancel my order and sell me one of the phones they had available because as long as my order was still processing I wasn't eligible for a new phone ! So I had to wait 2 more weeks for my phone to arrive in the mail, while all of my friends who didn't pre-order had their new phones. Ordering from Apple this time.
Click to expand...

And THIS ^^^^^^ is why I won't order from AT&T.
 
I've ordered through ATT Premier within the first hour it went on sale for both the iPhone 4 and 4s. I've got the iPhone 4 a day before launch day and got the 4S on launch day.
 
I have a grandfathered text and data plan with AT&T. (1000 texts for $10 and 2 GB of data for $25.)

Will I be able to keep these plans if I pre-order through Apple's site?
 
I was wondering the same thing, I've got the grandfathered unlimited text/data from AT&T since the 3G days. Will I still be able to keep this by ordering from Apple?
 
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