I am by no means an Apple fanboi, but until I see android phones crashing servers when trying to be ordered, Apple is doing things correctly.
Verizon's activation servers had delays during the first couple days of Droid Incredible sales. So anyone can be caught by surprise at least once.
In this case, it sounds like the ATT servers were primed to crash. Rumors say that new ordering code went in last week without any load or user or security testing. People are even reportedly seeing each other's credit card and shipping info.
I defended ATT's goof with the iPad email addresses, but now it's all looking like a systemic problem with their IT department. I wonder if they farmed this all out overseas.