Apple and AT&T attempted to take pre-orders for the new iPhone 4 yesterday and boy was that a mess. Servers going down, White iPhoen 4 not available for pre-order, people being shown other people’s AT&T accounts, even incorrect or someone else’s credit cards showing up during the process. Yesterday was not a great day for Apple and AT&T.
Apparently there is a huge demand for the new iPhones. So much so in fact that pretty much every place that was taking pre-orders for the new phone sold out on the same day. Even with all the problems with the servers that Apple and AT&T were having.
MacStories has an article that quotes Gizmodo describing a few of the many problems that plagued the attempt to take pre-orders yesterday:
The iPhone 4 pre-orders were plagued with an incredible mess of mis-payments, wrong account information, and overall bad juju. Yesterday Gizmodo readers sent the infamous blog details (rather, complaints) of the day’s events. It became an incredible security issue, as people ended up logging into others accounts – which allowed customers to purchase, change, or update information in their name. What’s worse is that of the customer’s who were successful, some were overcharged for their orders, or others had completely screwed up order information ranging from the wrong phone to weird plans.
As Charles who wrote in to Gizmodo puts it, “AT&T Sucks.”
A later article from MacStories states that Apple took 600,000+ pre-orders yesterday:
In an official PR statement, Apple reports, “It was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions.”
I am sure glad that I decided to hold off until after most of the rush of buyers get or attempt to get their new iPhones. I’m thinking mid-July or even the beginning of August to get mine. I’m wanting to get the White model and I’m hoping by then that the White one is available. If not, I’m not going to wait until it is. I’ll be just as happy with the black model. In fact, it might be better for contrast with the screen. The 3G and 3Gs White models still had a black faceplate on the front of the phone. The new iPhone 4 has a white faceplate, so that might not look as good next to the screen as black. I’ll have to see it in person to make a final judgment.
What was really surprising and amazing to me was that there were actually lines of people waiting. Not to get the actual device, but to make a pre-order! That is just astounding to me. I would NEVER ever wait in line to PRE-ORDER anything.
Update: 9:16pm To make matters even worse, apparently today AT&T is actually canceling pre-orders even after they sent out confirmation emails. AppAdvice.com has an article describing how AT&T is sending out emails to customers who had attempted to pre-order via AT&T and had received confirmation emails stating that their pre-orders were accepted!
OK, later in the article, AppAdvice.com claims that the canceled orders were “duplicate” orders that the customers placed thinking that their first attempt failed. Apparently, AT&T went through the orders and every order that was duplicated they canceled. Let’s hope that this is really the case and that this is not a new screwup on AT&T’s part. If it is a screwup, you have to wonder if Apple isn’t taking all this into account and looking into other carriers.
There isn’t much that Apple can do now about their carrier. They are stuck with AT&T and all it’s screwups, like it or not. However, the next product released that needs a cell carrier will probably be with a different carrier unless AT&T can get it’s act together.
