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

So my dilemma is this:

I was able to finally pull up the web browser on Apple's site (after failing with the app) at 2:15AM CDT, but Apple couldn't verify my AT&T carrier information. But, they said my phone has been reserved and they would send me an email. No email comes, so I continue to try to purchase and am successful at doing so at 3:15 CDT with a Dec 5th arrival date using the AT&T Next program, which is what I wanted to do. An hour later, I get the email with my reservation notice saying they will let me know when they reach my carrier and I can proceed. Fast forward to 30 minutes ago and I get an email saying I can proceed with my reservation.

Curiously, I log in, and find that I can purchase for full price (not on the Next Plan) and expect a 2-3 week delivery (much better than Dec 5th!), but that my phone is not eligible now for the Next Upgrade.

My question is this.... If I cancel my existing order (Dec 5th), will it free up my AT&T Next upgrade and allow me to use it on the 2-3 week delivery option that I got the reservation for?

Any thoughts or similar issues or experiences? I don't know what I should do.
 
840quadra said:
I have some serious issues with ATT recently. I was somehow able to make it in time to reserve my phone for shipment October 3rd (purchasing for my relative), despite 4 roadblocks this AM.
  1. In order to reserve the phone, The Apple Store needed to communicate with ATT's servers, This timed out twice after I got into the store (2:04 AM Central), stating server connection could not be established.
  2. After it FINALLY got through, it stated that my ATT Account was passed due, 1st, it wasn't, 2nd Why the heck does it matter if I am paying full price for the phone. I had to Kill the store, and start over.
  3. I had to open the ATT application to check my account / billing status. I was clicking through to my billing status when their Application took me away, to tell me I could Pre-Order the iPhone X Today (Really, no kidding ATT!!)). So, I had to navigate Back to where I was, at my account status page, to confirm I was fully paid up, and in good standing.
  4. After I got back into the Apple Store application, it again had issues connecting to ATT servers, but, eventually did let me in to reserve my spot

With this occurrence, ATT not fully supporting my Pixel 2 (Wifi Calling, Mobile HotSpots, Number Sync), and the entire day of fighting them to Activate my Apple Watch 3 LTE, I am done with this company.

T-Mobile will be getting my business going forward, as, my test SIM with Pre-Pay service activated, has worked at all of my primary locations where I need service. Watching this forum, people with AW3 have had little issues, Pixel 2 is fully supported, and, there was little to no issues with X orders, It is clear that somehow T-Mobile is more established, and better suited to support the US Market than, Oddly, American Telephone and Telegraph.
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Sprint is worse if you can believe that...when they merge thank goodness john legere will run things
 
Stayed up until 3AM to order my phone through T-Mobile and also my grandmother has AT&T so I promised to push her pre order through. AT&T totally dropped the ball! As of yesterday every line of her account was eligible to upgrade. Right at 3AM EST I went to go process her order but it said she could only pay for the device in full because no lines are ready to upgrade. I heard on reddit this happened to a bunch of others as well. Ended up going to the online Apple Store, getting the "your iPhone is reserved we will email you when the carrier systems are up", and then as of 2 hours ago being able to finalize her pre-order. AT&T seriously needs to get it together!!! My T-Mobile pre-order took 2 minutes and shows a ship date of 11/2.
 
Nik said:
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.
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And then the outcry from the millions who just missed the 30 minute limit that it should be an hour, and then two hours, and so on. And how about those who had to work, etc. There's no way to please everybody and in the end the supply limitations guarantee there will be disappointed folks who have to wait regardless of what system they use. Ditto at the stores, some folks can't get off, or get stuck in traffic, or their store had less than others, etc., so the age old, first come, first served, seems to be the fairest.
 
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Not only is force quiting an app and reopening it over and over again a huge PITA, it sounds like the website stores for carriers and Apple were faster and easier to manage.
 
archvile said:
"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.
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Because most have succumbed to "Apple Reality." They simply except this type of half baked production company performance from Tim's Apple. It's really not hard to follow. Just make a few anti Apple, or Tim opinionated comments and you're a "Hater, or Troll."

If you think today was rough. Wait till 11-3. I'm going to my local Brick and Mortar with a chair, popcorn, and video to be a witness at any resulting assault trials. ;)
 
I really hope everyone can get their phone as soon as possible. Last night I was giving the option to choose 2~3 weeks shipping or go to nearest Apple store to collect my phone on Nov 3, in the end I chose collecting my phone on the day itself.
 
G4R2 said:
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.
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I had the iPhone out with the Apple Store App on cable internet via wifi and the iPad out running on LTE with the App. Plus the computer out with a web browser. I was refreshing them all. Finally the web site came up as available about 3:09am and I got in and ordered and it was the 2-3 week delivery window.

The Apple Store App on both the iPad and iPhone were still showing the site as down by 3:15am when I stopped checking. So, as a datapoint, it didn't matter for me for the Apple Store App whether I was on LTE or not.
 
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I used the Apple App and I am on ATT. App worked at 3:01, enrolled in IUP and was done by 3:07. Nov 3. East Coast.

Not sure why anyone needed to use the ATT site. I had a 12 min wait at ATT Site, and was done with Apple app before my time opened on ATT
 
anson42 said:
This is where a pre-approval process can set everyone up to just order when the store opens up. Unfortunately some purchase scenarios did not support a pre-approval like with the upgrade program. If Apple can work with the carriers to enable pre-approval for all or even most use cases, your experience would be much better. BTW, I blame the carriers, not Apple, for this bad behavior because carriers need to be open to the process. The last thing any carrier should want is for their servers to be overwhelmed and having IT staff rebooting boxes constantly because they can't handle the load :)
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Would agree as it appears AT&T opened late, after I got the message from Apple and tried a couple of other times only to see the order time slip I went to AT&T. My order placed at 12:23am was confirmed by AT&T and received a 11/3 delivery date. So it seems like AT&T was down for the first 10 minutes or so, and if you tried on Apple you got screwed but waiting for AT&T to open the trying right away got a launch day phone.
 
Personally my feeling is that Apple broke the internet last night. At 5 minutes past midnight, before the Apple Store reopened, I lost my broadband connection (Charter Spectrum). I ended up using the Apple Store app on my phone, and after many problems on the AT&T backend, I was able to get my order in. My broadband was still not up when I finally went to bed around 1am.

Personally I think heads should roll at AT&T. They've had plenty of time to prepare their infrastructure and this isn't their first rodeo.
 
login at 12:03am ATT premier site. Showing ship date nov 3 and selected the phone. Then moved to the next page won't let me upgrade at all. My phone is paid off and not on any contract.

ordered through apple website 10 mins later after unsuccessful through ATT.
apple ship 2-3 weeks
 
dcdandan said:
because i am sure most ppl would be able to get it sooner if the app were not having problems? i am sure ppl dont complain if they order after 5 hours and then it got delayed
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That's their fault then if they ordered it after 5 hours. I did the old school way, website.
 
rroach3753 said:
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.
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This EXACT same thing happened to me. 2-3 weeks. Here's hoping it ships early.
 
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