Just went to another AT&T store and they confirmed what the first store told me: In-store pickup will not be available for pre-orders and they will ship on the 19th with an expected arrival of 7-10 days.
I then called the AT&T national hotline just to make sure both stores weren't just talking BS...and after 20 minutes of the agent bumbling around looking for answers, I got even more ambiguous statements. AT&T has limited information on how exactly pre-orders will be distributed, but online orders will only offer postal delivery while in-store pre-orders will offer both in-store pick-up and postal delivery. The exact date of when in-store pick-ups arrive is up in the air, but the agent claims that they were available on release date every year before so I should expect to have mine waiting for me in store on the 19th.
Basically, AT&T has no idea what's going on.
So, I ditched my hopes of getting anything release day through AT&T, and called two Apple stores to see if I can get an iPhone 6 Plus via AT&T Next through them. They both confirmed that pre-ordering online will give you the option of in-store pick-up and postal delivery and that you can buy the phone via AT&T Next. In-store pick-up will be available on the 19th, but postal delivery ships on release date and will arrive according to the shipping you pick at checkout. Looks like Tim Cook wasn't joking.
Here's the problem...both stores could not confirm at what time pre-orders will begin online. I tried prying them to see if I could expect pre-orders to open at midnight, but neither specialists budged and just said the usual stuff about checking the website often.
No idea what I'm going to do tbh! I really want my phone on release day but I really don't feel like lining up at 4 in the morning. What do you guys think?
