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Prepping for Preorder: Tips from a "seasoned vet"

I'm a new customer. I don't have anything to upgrade, any numbers to port. No old or current cell phone contracts with any company.

What do I need to do to prep? I want to preorder two 5s on a family plan on AT&T.

Do I need to set up an AT&T account before hand? Can I even do that without phones?

Thanks for the help guys. I'm drooling over this phone.
 
I've preordered before... fun times! but this time I want to upgrade two iphones on AT&T. Do I have to preorder one and restart the process or can I do both in one order? Thanks!
 
FYI, I was able to pre-order the iPhone 4 quickly with the Apple Store app (not the App Store) app on my 3GS when all the other servers were bogged down.
 
WannaApple? said:
Apple does not allow you to change the shipping address for an iPhone to a different address when ordering. They can only ship to the billing address. You can get a shipping address change done through Customer Service after placing your order, but that will inevitably take a lot longer to call and be placed on hold than to just update your address with your wireless carrier first.

Another tip. There is no reason to flood the site when the pre-orders first start or at prime time which will likely be between 6-9am. Wait a few hours to try again later and things will go much smoother for you. The phone will not sell out within an hour or two so just wait a bit until the rush dies down or else it only causes you and everyone else strife when trying to get the pages and checkout to load.

Lastly, do not flood the chat representatives with a million questions that you can easily find out on your own. The chat will also be flooded with people needing true assistance. Take it direct from the source :p
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I was able to change my shipping address and it's not the same as my billing address via Apple. With AT&T you can only get it shipped to your billing address.
 
pre-ordering off contract

Anyone know if there are any issues with pre-ordering off contract?

(I plan on purchasing the $650 16gb unlocked version)
 
Could you guys tell me if there is any other information I need when placing my pre-order with Apple tomorrow morning? Is there anything else I need to do other than change my ATT billing address to where I want my phone to be shipped? I am asking cause I am a college student and living four states away from my home and, my mother is the account holder to our ATT account so I really want to make sure that I have all this information to place the order tomorrow morning.
 
Hello! I'm new here, I have an iPad and iPod Touch that I love, but this will be my first iPhone. I was eligible for the upgrade when the 4S came out but waited in the hopes the next generation would have that bigger screen. I think my wait will be worth it.

Anyway, my situation is this: I plan to pre order through the Apple store. We have a family account through Sprint, which is in my husband's name. My apple account is obviously mine, my name on the credit card and the billing comes to our home, which is what is on our Sprint account.

I don't think there should be an issue, but wanted to be sure I didn't need for some reason to order through his Apple account and use a card in his name since the Sprint account is a family plan in his name. Trying to just cover all my bases.

Thanks!
 
I've had 3 iPhones in the past and never pre-ordered them. This one I'm really excited about and am going to try to pre-order. If you pre-order on the carrier's site (AT&T in my case) will they still deliver it on the 21st? Do they ship directly from Apple's plants in China or do they go through AT&T's channels, potentially delaying delivery?
 
1st time pre-orderer here, I'm just wondering what Verizon account info we have to enter on the Apple website when we pre-order?

I'm not the primary person on the account, my dad is I believe so I just want to be prepared. Thanks!
 
jonjohnson86 said:
1st time pre-orderer here, I'm just wondering what Verizon account info we have to enter on the Apple website when we pre-order?

I'm not the primary person on the account, my dad is I believe so I just want to be prepared. Thanks!
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This is basically the question I asked. We have family plan, my husband's name is primary on the account because he's had it longer than we've known each other. I have an Apple account and plan to do a pre order for my line (which is eligible for the upgrade) through my Apple account with my credit card information. I assume this isn't going to be an issue, but I'd love to have the multi line thing addressed when the one buying the phone isn't the one whose name is the cell account.
 
tbayrgs said:
Yup, same here. I'm usually up late (12-1 am) but thankfully am not working Friday so I foresee a nap after dropping off the kids at school. :D

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Yes. I have this problem every year as my wife's employer pays her bill so I just log in online, change the billing address before the preorder and switch it back upon delivery.
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Does changing the billing address on the AT&T account mess anything up with AutoPay? I would assume it would because they are no longer accurate.
 
Maverick1337 said:
Does changing the billing address on the AT&T account mess anything up with AutoPay? I would assume it would because they are no longer accurate.
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No idea but it's only changed for about 8 days. I'd guess as long as you're autopay doesn't occur in that window, it shouldn't matter.
 
dccorona said:
It's one per line, but you can throw multiple lines into the same cart and checkout together. There may also be unlocked/full price units available (not sure), and if there are, you should be able to buy those like buying any other product, though I'm sure there will be a limit on how many you can get
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Don't think this is true. Yesterday, I ordered 2 iPhone 4S's from Apple to upgrade 2 family member's non-smartphone lines. I ordered each phone separately and went thru the eligibility step for AT&T. At checkout, with 2 iPhone 4S's on 2 AT&T lines, a big red message appeared at the top telling me something like I couldn't order multiple phones "on contract" at the same time. I removed one from the cart and completed the order. Then processed the 2nd phone/line in a new order. And yes, the 2 iPhone's were not "accidentally" for the same line.

Just an FYI for those ordering multiple iPhone's on contract.
 
Thanks for all the tips, guys.

I'll be using my mother's credit card and paying her back when I get paid later tomorrow, so hopefully that doesn't cause any issues. (I'll just have it shipped to my parent's house).

Anyone else use a parent's/girlfriend's/spouse's card when buying on Apple's store and make it through the process?
 
mikelegacy said:
Thanks for all the tips, guys.

I'll be using my mother's credit card and paying her back when I get paid later tomorrow, so hopefully that doesn't cause any issues. (I'll just have it shipped to my parent's house).

Anyone else use a parent's/girlfriend's/spouse's card when buying on Apple's store and make it through the process?
Click to expand...

It does not matter what card you use.
 
im so confused after reading through this thread.

Getting it shipped to my AT&T account billing address but using a credit card tied to a different billing address, for the apple order itself I place, is OK. Is this correct?

I dont want to stay up late for nothing!

(east coaster)

I haven't pre-ordered an iPhone online since 3GS. 4 I got preordered at best buy, and 4S I got off craigslist months later.
 
thadoggfather said:
im so confused after reading through this thread.

Getting it shipped to my AT&T account billing address but using a credit card tied to a different billing address, for the apple order itself I place, is OK. Is this correct?

I dont want to stay up late for nothing!

(east coaster)

I haven't pre-ordered an iPhone online since 3GS. 4 I got preordered at best buy, and 4S I got off craigslist months later.
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People were saying above that the issue with the different addresses (billing vs shipping) was happening on the Apple.com site. I didn't really read anything about people having issues on Verizon or ATT's sites.

Apple is just difficult, that's all lol
 
So I called to change my Visa billing address, but the app store is still asking for my old address. I was told by Visa it's supposed to be an instant change, but clearly it hasn't. What's everyone else's experience?
 
Something I'm still not clear on is what happens if you're ordering two phones that will be under one (brand new) billing account. Do you have to do two separate transactions? If so, how does that work if you're trying to set up a single family plan (as opposed to two individual plans)? Thanks for any info!
 
basketball762 said:
Could you guys tell me if there is any other information I need when placing my pre-order with Apple tomorrow morning? Is there anything else I need to do other than change my ATT billing address to where I want my phone to be shipped? I am asking cause I am a college student and living four states away from my home and, my mother is the account holder to our ATT account so I really want to make sure that I have all this information to place the order tomorrow morning.
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^^This.

I'm in the same boat and not really sure what information i need to get from my father prior to tonight's pre-ordering. I plan on using Apple.com and we are on AT&T Family Plan. Thanks in advance.
 
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