Apple fans hoping to skip the iPhone 6 line on launch day were shocked to see preorder times plummet within the first hours of what Apple dubbed a record breaking weekend of preorder sales. Many started with shipping estimates of 7-10 days or worse for the iPhone 6 Plus, but if you ordered through AT&T, your shipping times may have just improved.
AT&T sales reps say the company has moved up shipment times on some orders by pulling stock from different regions that would normally be sold in-store.
As a result of the adjustment, some preorders are now shipping in time for arrival on September 19th.
One tipster informed Cult of Mac that their iPhone 6 Plus 64 GB “originally showed a ship date from AT&T for 14-21 days. It is now showing arrival on the 19th.” Another Cult of Mac staffer’s shipping estimate dropped 10-15 days, after originally being slated for late-October delivery.
We’ve reached out to AT&T to check if shipping estimates will continue to decrease over the next few days, but in the meantime you can quickly check if your iPhone’s shipping status has changed with this UPS tip.
Thanks: Brandon!
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
60 responses to “AT&T will get iPhone 6 in your hand earlier than expected”
Bah.
iPhone 6-64 that was showing late October is now showing as shipped today. My iPhone 6 Plus 128 hasn’t moved. Also, AT&T uses Fedex so that UPS tip won’t help you.
I think they are shipping by whomever they can ship with. I have received shipments from AT&T using both FedEx and UPS. On this one, I hope you are wrong, because i just checked UPS and it says i will have mine tomorrow.
They use both
They also use UPS. My husband’s phone will be delivered today via UPS — 6 Space Gray 64GB.
My shipment date was moved up to Oct 2.
T-Mobile’s doing the same thing, using stock meant for this coming Friday to fulfill preorders..
Probably a good idea.. donno…. We’ll see this Friday
I ordered my 16 gig iPhone 6 plus 4 minutes after the pre-orders started. I was originally schedule for November 20 but now it’s October 2. I called att and they told the same tale of there being super high demand. They wouldn’t respond to me asking if they expected me to believe that their initial stock was sold out in 4 minutes. I wish I was powerful enough to get it earlier. Ridiculous.
I ordered the same in 128gb and after refreshing the site so many times, i processed my ordered at about 3:45am EST. Using the information above, i just saw that mine is being delivered tomorrow, but AT&T has an expected ship date of 10/2/14 – 10/13/14. You’ll probably get yours earlier than you think.
How did you track it? Fed ex? I tried tracking it by reference or whatever, but no luck.
There is a link at the end of the abover article that says “This UPS tip.” Click on the link and follow the instructions. Track by reference, enter your cellphone number and delivery zip code and it should tell you a shipping date if, it has been shipped
Guess mine hasn’t shipped. Damn.
What information above? How do I check it through fed ex?
Go to FedEx. Click track. Then click track by reference.
That’s weird. I ordered mine at 3:00 Pm on friday and Im getting mine tomorrow.
I had the same thing happen to me, except it was just the basic 6 with 16gb. I had 2 phone reps tell me I WOULD have it on the 19th and not to worry because I ordered it right after it became available just like you did. If I would have known this, I would have stayed with Verizion and would have gotten my phone Friday as promised. Now I’ll be without a phone until they decide to send out mine.
Does anybody know the situation with Sprint? The online was a nightmare and telesales was a pill. I wound up going to preorder in the store when they opened on Friday.
Pre-ordered in person at a sprint store on Friday morning as well. Just got the tracking number for my order and it will be here by the 19th! I’m assuming your’s will too given you pre-ordered around the same time as I did and in store.
I have the exact opposite problem. My shipping time was quoted as 21-28 days when I ordered on Sep 12. Now it says Nov 9-27! (iPhone 6 Plus 64GB Space Gray on AT&T)
Ouch. I orderd the same phone through ATT mine just got moved up to Oct 2nd-13th.
I was told by AT&T that Space Gray was in most demand this year at least on the AT&T side.
I refreshed my screen so many times that when I finally got through, I totally forgot to change the color that I wanted. I didn’t want Space Gray, but that’s what I’m getting. =(
I like how they try making Gray sound like an interesting color by adding ‘Space’ to it… meanwhile there’s plain ol’ Silver or Gold. Sadly there’s no Luster Silver or Heavenly Gold.
lol space gray is actually the term a lot of companies including bmw use for dark gray.
mines been showing “Expected Ship Date: 09/17/2014 To 09/18/2014” for good while, friend of a friend had that however it changed today. tried tracking phone number and order number minus the last digits… not able to find shipment. ordered via at&t
Mine started with Friday delivery, slipped to sometime next week and is back to Friday.
Not mine. I got in minutes before 1:01 a.m., process was complete, and had an estimated ship of between 09/13-09/22 but when I checked this morning, it was 10/01-10/12. I ordered an iPhone 6 Plus.
My ship date was originally early October but improved to Sept. 17 or 18 and has read “Pending Confirmation” all day. Fingers crossed for launch day delivery. Through At&T to be clear.
full message on mine (at&t)
“Phone/Device: Apple iPhone 6 (16GB Space Gray)Data Unlimited for iPhone on 4G LTE (grandfathered)
Status: Pending
Expected Ship Date: 09/17/2014 To 09/18/2014
Last Updated: Sep 12, 2014”
My wife’s phone was showing the same thing. I just checked and now hers is showing a status of shipped. The funny thing is that it shows a”Shipped Date” of 9-13-14
Incredible. When I saw that 14-21 week wait for the phone at 3am ET, I just said ‘forget this!!’ Went with the official site…more like App. Crashed with a 9/19 shipping phone in my cart. Started over and it moved back to Oct 10, order is just sitting and “processing.” The ATT site was a buggy mess anyway along with Apple. (Not sure about Verizon?)
I think you meant 14-21 day…?
LOL. Yeah “days” I meant, my fault.
I had a preorder that said it would ship November 21st. Needless to say I canceled it. ATT is worthless.
ATT here – iPhone 6 Plus 64gb Gold – ordered at 3:01 EST / received a confirmation email initially at 3:07 from ATT Premier. Then received another order confirmation the next morning at 8am. That Saturday received two texts that my order was processing. Checking online I saw that I had a ship date of 10/13-10/21. A couple days ago the order status changed to backordered and yesterday changed to 10/2 – 10/13. Crazy to me that others who ordered way later are getting their phones shipped before mine, first come first serve bs.
Same exact for me except I ordered 6+ 128gb spc gry from ATT. Right now ship dates are expected 10/2 to 10/13
Same here.
Pretty much same here. Ordered the same model (6+ gold, 64gb) before 3am EST (the site let me in early to my surprise) and received confirmation email by 3:03am. Received the two processing texts and then proceeded to get the Oct. 13-21 ship date, then got backordered, then changed Oct. 2-13. I have no idea why I’m not getting mine tomorrow…
It’s true. Mine went from October 13-22 to October 2-13. Black iPhone 6 Plus 128gb.
at first it said 7-10 on confirmation page, then email said 21-28 days. then ATT status page said oct 31-nov 2. i them cancelled my preorder so I can wait in line. then email told me cancellation failed. then called ATT and they cancelled it for me. NEVER AGAIN.
same here
Sprint here… got online around 3:45am EST and placed an order for 3 128gb plus’s in gold from the apple store and Mine have been labeled as shipped and will be delivered by fedex day after tomorrow…Didnt realize there was such an issue
my iphone just shipped Arrived – Louisville, KY, United States, Wednesday, 09/17/2014
which one did you get?
Mine’s the same way. It was in KY now in DFW airport
Mine still says November 9-27 :(
2x 128GB 6+
2x 64GB 6+
I requested mine to be at the AT&T store when it comes. I don’t trust the shipping options. Home Drop Off – under a trash can, under a mat, or just left there. $600 iPhone, $1200 iMac or a $3000 MacBook. Just dropped off without a signature requested.
probably because they screwed up ATT Premier online so many of those orders never went through or forced people to cancel (CC declined and by the time i was able to get through my launch day phone became a Mid-November delivery)
Screw you att. Will never pre order from you again. Worst handling I’ve ever seen. Don’t even have words.
Lol Aww you pulled stock from stores to fill SOME of the pre orders from the FIRST hour of the FIRST day. You shouldn’t have!
Never again.
Order processed at 12:40am PST for the iPhone 6 Plus 128 through AT&T and my current order status states “Shipping date: 10/2/14 – 10/13/14”.
My dates are still the same, I have 14-24 shipping dates look at right now
10/13/14 – 10/22/14* I’ve also wrote an article of all the issues i’ve gone thorough this past week with ATT.. If your interested cake out http://bit.ly/1tplTYP
Log into att and check under orders mine listed as shipped but my email with premier still showed a pending shipment date in October.
I used the link in my email to check the order status and it was not updated, att site under order did
Since i didn’t feel like staying til 3am (or 12 midnight west coast time) I preordered mine (Iphone 6, 64Gm Space Grey) on Friday night after I got off work and now it’s showing my phone will get here tomorrow. Not sure why some many people who pre-ordered the iPhone 6 (not Plus) when they went on sale are getting theirs til October, weird.
64GB**
Would it say “preparing to ship” no matter what? Mine says that, but shipping date is still 11/9-11/27. :(
I was wondering this too. I have the same date for a iPhone 6+ Gold, 128GB.
I spoke to ATT rep and she said that it only means that the order was received at the Warehouse and is in line to be shipped out depending on model availability
This is ridiculous! I stayed up till 3:30am on a word day just pre-order my iPhone 6 plus 128gb!! And now to find out AT&T is furnishing stores first and some online reports says AT&T is not honoring the preorders as a first come first serve basis… I will be switching carriers and they can shove the cancellation fees up their a** as I will never pay them! All I can say is I better have a iPhone 6 plus in my hand before someone who ordered that evening! It would be the same thing as going to any store tomorrow on the release day and handing iPhones out at the back of the line…
Oh at mine still says “preparing for shipment” Ship date october 2nd – 13th..
Placed my order in the first five minutes but since ATT kicked many of us to their “Premier” site, we were treated horribly as they did not treat us first come first serve but instead made our orders wait until they could be hand entered at ATT. Will never preorder from ATT again. If you call them direct about the order they will lie over and over to you about your order. Apple for preorders from now on as they at least take care of their customers as I have never had trouble with them meeting their promises to me on orders.