Some AT&T and Apple Store Customers Faced Unexpected Delays When Trying to Pre-Order iPhone X

[1Zach1]

I got the "Pending 15 minutes" from the AT&T app on my phone, and my phone never loaded the Apple Store app to the pre-order screen, but my wife's phone loaded the Apple Store App just fine and I was able to get a pre-order for both of us through that with Nov 3 delivery dates without issue. Used Apple Pay with no issue either. I had my iPad cued up, but never went to it.

 

[ck2875]

"Walk into an Apple Store on Nov 3 and be able to pick up an X" MY ASS

You can usually walk in and pick up the demo units in Apple Stores on launch days. I don't see why it would be different with the X.

 

[mike1123]

This happens every year with both companies, since I've tried every year with both companies. Some pro tips for people in the future:
1. If the Apple Store app says it's down after pre-orders begin, it's not down. Force quit the app and try again. Rinse and repeat until you get through.
2. If you are put in the ATT queue, leave and try again. The queue is a nice way of saying

"Hey, you're not able to access the site right now because there's too many other people on it, so we're freezing access for X minutes proportional to how many people are attempting to access the site at the moment." That being said, if you keep refreshing, you'll get in, since more people will stop trying, thinking they have a "place in line".

Sad, but true.

 

[burgman]

"Walk into an Apple Store on Nov 3 and be able to pick up an X" MY ASS

Why do we let Apple lie to us? It seems all of the supply constraint rumors were true, at least to some degree, yet they flat out spun it around to make it sound like there would be plenty of inventory. Bull-****ing-****, Tim Cook.

You can see the future? And falling for clickbait articles as fact isn't Apple's fault.

 

[Danbrown521]

Why don't they just accumulate pre-orders for the first half hour and make it a lottery? Would make it more fair in my opinion.

It pretty much is a lottery. I had the att queue page up for 3 hrs. With 5-10 minutes left on the count down people were saying they were ordering. And then pages were crashing for some. Then the Apple store app was working for some and not others. Just a huge cluster

 

[DVNIEL]

And that’s why I pay for Verizon, I see it in their CSR responsiveness and call quality.

 

[Guda.FL]

X2 will be out in like 6 months by the time someone gets theirs. Might as well wait for the revision. It will have quicker face id. lolz

 

[blairh]

I had two tabs open in Chrome. AT&T site and Apple store. AT&T site crashed for me soon after 3 am and then put me in a 'line' for 8 minutes after I hit refresh a few times. I was able to place my order on the Apple site mere minutes past 3 am. 11.3 ship date.

 

[AustinIllini]

I skipped out of this year's iPhone insanity, but if you went through the carrier, this must have been your first rodeo.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I'm pretty sure they lotteried the initial batch and only let a very small number of people in at 8:01. I and a few friends were refreshing like mad to get in with the website on computers and iPhones and a friend of mine got in straight away and placed his order while the site said it was still updating for the rest of us. Then at like 6 minutes past or something (could have been later as I was in too much of a rush to get my order placed to check), the rest of us all managed to get in with 2-3 weeks availability on all models.

 

[Koobs]

Why don't they just accumulate pre-orders for the first half hour and make it a lottery? Would make it more fair in my opinion.

Because people would constantly bitch that its rigged.

 

[hexagenia]

This was the messiest pre-ordering experience I've EVER had. I was using the Apple Store app on my iPhone 7. First of all, the store wasn't even up until 3:15. Then, literally at the first moment I could access the store (and I was checking like every 5 seconds), delivery shipping times had already slipped to 2-3 weeks on all models. Both black models still had Nov. 3 in-store pickup, so I tried to proceed with that, but I kept getting error messages, either when I tried to press continue to get to the carrier check page, or when the carrier check actually tried to process. I FINALLY got the damn thing in my bag around 3:45. Then I tried to pay with Apple Pay, and I got an error I had never seen before with Apple Pay where it said the payment couldn't be processed. So, I tried to pay again, it seemed to work fine, and I reached the pickup confirmation page. I checked my email and had TWO separate confirmations with different order numbers, so it looked like the first payment processed just fine after all. I guess I bought two phones on accident. But WTF APPLE. Still got my check-in window on the 3rd to pick up at 10am, so overall I'm fine with that, but that process was absolute garbage.

First world problems for sure, but I had the lovely double whammy. Couldn't get into the Store with the iOS app until 3:20, so jumped to ATT and had the unending wait of their supposed queue management which never placed me in a position to order with them either. Finally, around 3:20, I got in with the app and ordered my X, with delivery around Thanksgiving. If this process is supposed to be customer friendly, ATT and Apple both should try their own processes.

 

[dancefreak]

The Apple App store would not come up for about 11 minutes for me. When it finally did, i was at 2-3 weeks out.

Same for me on the west coast.

 

[Gangalanga]

1 line with silver 256 gb went through no issues, pick in store Nov 3.

Then i tried with 3 other lines, 256gb Space Gray, same message, we cannot reach the carrier. All had Nov 3 delivery. Finally got the email to go back and complete the order and surprise:
1- one line it forced me to get ATT next. So I cancelled it.
2- One allowed me to pay the phone, so I did. Nov 3 delively.
3- one said 2-3 week delivery so I also cancelled.

I had also placed an order for a Friend for T-mobile 256GB Space Gray and got store pickup Nov 3

ATT constantly gives problems. What we were not told is that we could order Tmobile without carrier information.

 

[CarlJ]

yet they flat out spun it around to make it sound like there would be plenty of inventory.

Sorry, could you provide a link for where you saw Apple state, "we will have plenty of inventory"? I heard Apple saying it will be possible to get one on November 3rd, not guaranteed that you can get one that day.

 

[imola.zhp]

Yup, took my sister an hour to get it done. She was pissed, but had access to the account through ATT, did not have her hubby's SSN (how does she not know this after 15+ years of marriage?) to order through Apple.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

My issue seemed to reflect a lack of order processing thought for those wanting to buy the X and give it as a Christmas gift. Here's the tale...

Awoke in the middle of the night to buy one to be a Christmas gift: Verizon 256GB either color, pay in full ($1149). Apple's website requests 3 pieces of information as a seemingly last step:

• Wireless number
• Billing zip code
• Last 4 digits of Soc

It didn't matter if I entered the recipients or my information for these 3 pieces of info: either yields a red-text error message:

We're sorry. We can't find your account information with Verizon.
Please verify your information and try again.

...presumably because neither the recipient nor I are set up with a Verizon account yet.

Apparently there is NO WAY to give Apple $1149 via site or app to buy a iPhone X as a gift to someone not already on Verizon.

The app store app includes some extra text on this screen that says: "If you don't have an account PIN enabled on your Verizon account, we'll send a text message with a one-time passcode to the number you provided above. No text messaging fees apply." but no text arrives.

Also tried ordering on Verizon's website but they demand that 1 of 2 plans are chosen as part of the purchase- seemingly no way to buy a Verizon model from Verizon to give as a gift and then let the recipient select the plan they want after Christmas. The phone is going to sit in a wrapped box until Christmas- I don't need a Verizon plan today.​

Now, I can't be the only person wanting to buy one of these as a gift for someone else. In fact, I have to think that that may even be a popular reason for dragging oneself out of bed in the middle of the night to try to increase the likelihood of actually having one before DEC 25. So I'm pretty surprised how it appeared to be impossible to give Apple or Verizon $1149 to buy one outright. Apple has been through this for 10 years now. Does it make any sense that the order flow for a simple gift-giving purchase could still be impossible in 2017?

Ultimately I solved the problem (hopefully) by buying from a third party retailer, but that shifts some cut of the sale to that third party that could have been Apple's or Verizon's if either would have considered the workflow of those buying for Christmas to give one of these as a gift.

 

[htvicar]

I had so many errors last night that I gave up. I woke up this morning and was able to get Nov 3 delivery! Weird

 

[ccrunner_tj]

The Apple App store would not come up for about 11 minutes for me. When it finally did, i was at 2-3 weeks out.

Exact same situation for me. And I was forced to order this way because I had been pre approved on the iUP.

I had the store loaded in Safari on my iPad at 3:10 AM and my model (64GB silver) was still showing Nov 3, but then a minute later when the app loaded on my phone, 2-3 weeks.

 

[Guda.FL]

First world problems for sure, but I had the lovely double whammy. Couldn't get into the Store with the iOS app until 3:20, so jumped to ATT and had the unending wait of their supposed queue management which never placed me in a position to order with them either. Finally, around 3:20, I got in with the app and ordered my X, with delivery around Thanksgiving. If this process is supposed to be customer friendly, ATT and Apple both should try their own processes.

I noticed years prior the IOS app would open minutes before initial launch...this year when i experimented with both ATT web portal was much quicker and dependable than the apple store, also came one exactly at 3pm sharp, while the apple store app was 4-5 minutes delayed.

 

[PJWilkin]

Tried web and App here in UK, no access until 8:10, then all iPhones X's had 2-3 weeks

 

[G4R2]

Just another data point here- I also kept refreshing my iPad and iPhone Apple Store app but it took a little over ten minutes into the order page. I succeeded getting on the page with my iPhone but several minutes after my order was placed the iPad still couldn’t get past the Apple Store updating page.

It didn’t occur to me to try one of my devices over LTE, something I’ll try if I ever wake up at 3 AM for a phone order again.

As is, I have a 2-3 week delivery window. Not the end of the world by any means but simply frustrating that there doesn’t seem to be a good reason for this delay and it was the luck of draw.

 

[jbachandouris]

I had so many errors last night that I gave up. I woke up this morning and was able to get Nov 3 delivery! Weird

Must be nice. I woke up this morning after a 3:10am pre-order only to find out Citizens denied my second IUP. Ordered using Next, Dec 11-18 ship date.

Which one did you order?

 

[backontwo]

I had the  Store app on my iPad open where I had saved my favorite ahead of time, the AT&T app on my phone and the AT&T website on my desktop. Couldn’t get into the  Store app, AT&T on my phone had me in a 16 min queue and their website had me in a 7 min queue. I finally got in on the website but it was more like 10 mins and still got a Space Gray 256 for 11/3 delivery. I finally got in the  Store app about 3:15 and it was 2-3 week delivery. Fortunately, I was already successful with AT&T.

 

[rroach3753]

I was one that received the "We reserved you an iPhone" message and it was still showing I would receive my phone on 11/3. This afternoon when I finally got the email to complete my order... "Shipping in 2 - 3 weeks" was my delivery option...yes, I have AT&T. Yes, it was because of Apple's inability to connect to AT&T that I was put into this "queue." We've been doing this for years now...why do we continue to have these hiccups and glitches. Apple and the carriers know it's coming. Just be prepared. Add more servers to the cluster. Set the internet connections from the providers to "burstable" for pre-order day.