Been trying to preorder an iPhone 4S tonight? Yeah, me too… I’ve been trying for the last hour and a half and have had to restart the checkout process just about 26 times now.
Well, guess the Apple store has finally given up. Only minutes ago, trying to order an iPhone would have gotten a never-ending series of page timeouts and error messages. But now, Apple is assigning reserved spots so you can come back later, once things are working, to get your order on. Looks like they might have expected this to happen this time around.
How can it be this hard to give a company $300?
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67 responses to “Apple Store Buckles Under iPhone 4S Order Pressure, But This Time Apple is Prepared”
Based on the information in my “reservation” email, it looks like the problem was linking to ATT to get the plan information for the purchase on Apple’s site.
Are you joking because 30+ million people are trying to order something, it happens to most major during the holiday season for black Friday sales. It’s not like we didn’t know this was gonna happen. Ever been to a pro sports game agains a rival team or got Michael Jackson concert tickets.. same experience Shut Up!
you might want to try again. i started over just now and was successful twice, went through the process for me and my wifes phone.
I have to agree with Matt. The link to AT&T was where I had a problem.
Hmm.. My reservation status with the number apple gave says thats ” The order can not be processed, Try again later”.. When I try again, it says an order already exists..!! ATT site is spitting me out every time.. Its not liking my FAN# .. You know what.. F*#& U AT&T.. You guys really Suchk..!!
interesting. i tried under different carriers just to check cause at first i thought it was just AT&T too, but i got this for every carrier i tried.
I got the same thing via apple. But with luck I’ve got 4 ordered via At&t….. I had been ignoring at&T’s front page that asked did I want to check the status of upgrade when I login into Myat&t….. if you click “continue” you go right to the iphone 4s ordering.
Well my pre order in the UK went well it appears – used the apple store app.
Just go to AT&T n order..that’s how I did it..
I tried earlier and was having constant problems, but now it seems to be working fine. Pre-order online went through smoothly.
My order went through on Apple.com after two hours of timeouts. No reservation, order fully went through. AT&T gave me my unlimited data plan but no tethering. Can’t wait to get it to use http://www.JetfireApps.com
I just ordered mine through AT&T with absolutely no problems
Just got my Michael Jackson tickets…..no wait….
Got 4 reservation numbers…. But took almost 2 hours first to the last the number had incremented 4,355,202….
Got mine with dumb luck…clicked on the apple store at 3:45et and got in… Ordered and left.
Site was JUST up… I like my dumb luck.
Now the real difficult wait begins…
BTW, i bought from Apple Canada since i live up there :)
As usual it’s AT&T dropping the ball here not Apple. My failures always occurred on that part of the connection.
Here in Australia the Store App went live around 6.40pm AEST. Two minutes later my order was completed. Ather two minutes later and the Order Acknowledgement was n my inbox. Couldn’t have been easier.
I just finished my order at AT&T site.. What to do… I had to do it.. It seems AT&T screwed over apple this time with the ordering thing… big time..
I was supposed to be grandfathered in to the $30/- Unlimited data plan, but I noticed that they renamed the pan as just “Data plan for iPhone” interestingly avoiding the word “Unlimited”.. I am still paying the same $30/-. Subtle but, I guess ATT&T is trying to be a smart ass here..! Watch out..!!
Big problems here in the UK. Site went live about 8:15, it took about 20 minutes to place the order, when it finally came to proccessing the payment, the circle of doom appeared and timed out after an hour. Now I do not know if my iPhone has been ordered, as cannot get back on the site. Not far off crashing me thinks….
After cussing AT&T and Apple multiple times over i decided to give the “Updater” app a try. To my amazement it worked flawlessly and i am now awaiting the delivery of my new iPhone 4s !!! In the end i think that both AT&T and Apple didnt expect the flow of traffic for this “minor” upgrade of an iphone that the media built up. KEEP TRYING GUYS……DONT GIVE UP !!!
Finally ordered mine after three hours of trying, delivery dates given as “Delivery — 21 Oct, 2011 – 28 Oct, 2011”.
Did you order on the Apple website?
I did the same thing but I think the $30 plan that you and I signed up for is indeed the Unlimited Plan. Because I tried clicking on “change my plan” and it brought me to a page with all the other plans except the unlimited plan. Then I clicked “discard changes” and it reverted back to the $30 plan.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens when we get our phones. My order said I’ll be getting it on October 14th. I ordered about an hour ago. Fingers crossed!
Ordered mine on AT&T…. they didn’t charge me sales tax which is weird because I live in California where it is supposed to be like 300% (j/k.. its 8.75% and still high). Nevertheless, I had no problems ordering. The order also shows that the phone will be delivered on the 14th of October. But there is also a disclaimer from AT&T suggesting that that date is only an estimate and delays can occur. Sneaky SOBs.
Anyways, happy preordering and good luck.
No problems at 5:45CT
I noticed that AT&T’s site was having major issues last night when I was logged in to check my usage.
I ordered mine with Sprint. Only got page error once. Then the order went right through. I wasn’t due for an upgrade, so it would have cost $645 for the iphone 4s 16gb. But since I have a family share plan, I just added a line with new iPhone to get $450 off, final price $199. I plan to port my long time phone number(the ineligible for an upgrade one) to google voice for $20, pay early termination from sprint $110 now about 1 year left on contract and go about using new iPhone. Of course adding a line, porting, and like one month of an additional line adds about $200 to my “purchase” price of iPhone 4s, but I still saved about $200, I think, and i will be much happier with an iPhone,.
In Australia, just used the Apple Store app. Literally took 30 seconds (had express checkout set up). Was just like buying an app from the App Store.
As is typical with everything for me, this process has been comically frustrating.
Couldn’t get the Apple Store app to order the 4S. Tried for over an hour at 12:50AM PST (wouldn’t let me get past the “eligibility screen”) and gave up once I could no longer fight sleep. Tried the app again at 5:45AM, got to the “eligibility screen”, once again, and now it says I need to cancel my previous order… which doesn’t actuallly exist, so there’s no way to cancel. So, now I have to call Apple customer service (hold for 30min), explain the problem, repeat all the required information, and the operator puts me on hold, naturally. She finally comes back and tells me my situation is a known issue that Apple is trying to resolve but she has no idea how long this will take.
So, still no new phone order placed. Current 3GS is on life support and barely functioning. Meanwhile, who knows what kind of delivery date I’m looking at now?
Anyone else going through this? (I’m going to guess “no”).
And, of course, I’m traveling on the 14th and won’t be able to stand in line for hours at an Apple store.
I win again!
Arrgghhh…..I maneuvered my through the entire order process on the Apple.com site and then clicked the final step to actually pay. Then it crashed. Now, when I try to re-place my order (either on Apple.com or AT&T.com) it says that I am “no longer eligible for an upgrade”. PISSED!!! Anyone else experience this?
Time to blame Apple’s incompetence for building an inefficient ordering system that can’t manage to handle a measly five million or so transactions at once. Oh, woe is Apple. Deliberately trying to get millions of customers angry and frustrated.
I ordered 2 via AT&T, with no problems
I got 4 reservation numbers and was finally able to order 3 of the for phones. Every time I go to order the 4th phone it says can’t complete your order online please visit your local apple store for assistance.
I call 1800-MY-APPLE off and on all day finally get a hold of them around 2:00pm ET and I explain to the lady I have a reservation number etc. She goes through the entire process online and gets to the same place my order always comes up can’t finish. She puts me on hold for a couple of minutes then comes back and says their is a limit to the number you can get online. And I have hit it RRRR- and will have to get it at an Apple Store on or after the 17th. So I say what about my reservation number is it no good because. She quizzes me about my registration numbers I tell her I have 4 of them and 3 I went ahead and was able to purchase. She states if I have another code it is reserved for me and I will get a call from apple before tomorrow night. I am crossing my fingers but seriously doubt I will get that call. I ever tried to order the 4th phone on ATT’s website and it won’t let me either. I get to the select the number of lines to add and cant’ get any further.
I know be glad man you got 3 of them… But imagine how disappointed one kids going to be if she doesn’t get her phone when the rest of us do. :(
You might not have to go through all that. Sprint might do the same thing Verizon does which is allow you and another line to swap phones. On Verizon you have to go to your online account and detach the phones from both lines, add the iPhone to the one you want it on and then do @288 (or is it 228) to have the line and phone linked in the system. Then go cancel the new line. I believe the 30 days is actually a legal requirement. Or at least some period is. YOu might have to pay like $30 for the line activation but that’s better than the ETF and if you do it like the same day they might not make you pay the monthly on that line since you barely used it.
i don’t know that they are trying to be smart asses rather than stressing that this is for the iPhone. so like if you get a not iPhone, say a Galaxy whatever, you lose that unlimited
who pays the bill, you or a company. If it is listed as a company, Apple can’t handle those, only ATT can