iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2 pre-orders are finally open, and already shipping dates are slipping for some of the hottest items in Apple’s next-gen collection.
As expected, the new black and jet black iPhones are proving to be some of the hardest handsets to get your hands on, with shipping dates slipping to 2-3 weeks and 4-6 weeks, respectively.
If you’re trying to order, follow our guide here — or our Apple Watch Series 1 vs. Series 2 and iPhone 7 vs. iPhone 7 Plus comparisons to help you make up your minds.
Did you get the device you hoped for? Leave your comments below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
39 responses to “iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 preorders open, shipping dates already slipping”
Nope. Been on the phone with T-mobile for over 45 minutes. They can’t get their computer system to put in a simple order. Meanwhile, the shipping estimates are slipping to 1-2 months. Can’t say I’m surprised with T-mobile though. You get what you pay for.
The same happened to me with AT&T. I woke up at 3 am to pre-preorder my iPhone, and because of a system issue I could’t complete my order. They opened their call center at 7 am… Now I have to wait 2-3 weeks to get the device delivered to me.
never order through the cell company. That was your first mistake. Always get directly from Apple online and try to do it as soon as they make it available.
i tried that for at least 20 minutes. i was still getting “error contacting your carrier” until i gave up at 320ish. even when it let me past that error and said we will hold your phone and contact you when we can reach your carrier, that next screen gave me “unknown error please try again”. it was very buggy. and i was doing it on my mbp running safari lol, just in case…
This absolutely may have been an issue with my carrier (verizon), but i have seen others mention these same errors with other carriers.
Interesting. I actually abandoned my MacBook Air and used the Apple Store app on my iPhone 6 Plus. That actually was real quick and seamless!
Sounds like some kind of glitch. I just clicked on my carrier (T-Mobile) and then it went to the next option. I wonder if the website was interfaced with the cell carrier and they had to confirm they had enough SIM cards to ship with the phone? I dunno.
i absolutely tried the app, and safari on my 6s+. same errors.
i’ll be happy if the day ever comes that i can just say “full retail” and they don’t ask me anything about a carrier……..
Just curious, were you getting into a “contract” or monthly plan with Verizon?
Nope, full retail. which is why i don’t like the fact that they need to contact my carrier at all whatsoever. when you choose full retail, it should just ask you which carrier model you need to buy….not check my plan or anything…..
9/16 wasn’t achievable. I was on at 12:01 and the preorder wasn’t even available yet. When the page became avaialable on Verizon the ship date was already 9/23 (never saw 9/16 for any color/size). When the page became available on Apple directly, it said 9/16, but was unable to contact Verizon and kept erroring out. These errors continued as I watched the dates slip deep into October. Rediculously lame for the year 2016…
I completely agree! I had the same issue by the time I got everything working, it slipped to Late October around 3:45 am EST. They usually update the shipping time up a couple weeks but truthfully I do not want to wait that long.
I am most likely going to do what I have done in previous iPhone releases in just wait in line at Verizon the day of the release. The surrounding area I live in has a pretty low population so usually if you start lining up 4 to 5 hours ahead you can get what you want.
Wife got 2 rose gold 7plus for 9/16 at 3:15 eastern. I ordered a black 7 plus at 3:08 am and i got 9/27. All 128 gb
on the verizon site?
Must have been 7 plus… Ordered black 7 32GB (don’t understand needing more when you stream everything) at 9:30 PT and delivery is 9/16.
on verizon?
WOW, seems worse than normal, I had app open on iPhone & iPad and the store open on the Mac…the phone refreshed within a few seconds of 8:01 (UK) and I was already looking at a window of 26 Sept – 3 Oct for Jet Black, slightly 27-29 Sept for the plain black, so no difference really.
I was trying to reserve a local pickup on launch day but no joy either.
Neither iPad or Mac refreshed for about 20 mins after the preorder date and are were showing November.
Lets hope Apple pull the dates back, that seems mighty fast to slipped delivery dates a over a week from launch within what would have been seconds!
same here… been up since 6am; and although at 0801 the mobile app store opened; the online apps store didn’t open till after 0808. wanted to enter into the upgrade program as then you get free apple care and 0% interest. no joy. Sat here now with the same 26th sept- 3 oct delivery and 2 phones on order (now need to cancel one just as soon as i figure weather its going to be the black or jet black).
bit shoddy and half baked really…
I have been doing the same thing for the last two iPhones I have purchased and I have had the same frustrations. I went through Verizon and I am showing Late October. I will probably will just wait in line on launch day then cancel my pre-order if I do not receive it in time.
It was worse for me. I had two iPads running the store app and an iMac loading Safari. I got on at 12:06am and placed an order for a 256GB jet black iPhone 7 Plus. I got an initial shipping date of September 26-October 3. By the time I got the order placed, my shipping date had dropped to October 4-10. Sigh.
I ordered two more rose gold phones for my wife and daughter, which were given arrival dates of September 16. I guess nobody wanted those phones.
I then checked on jet black versions, only to see shipping dates out to November. They ran out of black and jet black phones fast.
Yes, I’ve happily had Space Grey previously which probably explains why I haven’t had such a big issue as I’ve not be looking for the ‘sexy’ new colour.
I understand that Space Grey was the most popular colour so whilst I’m happy to see the black options seems strange they didn’t foresee everyone who previously didn’t want the more fashionable colours wanting the nearest replacement for Space Grey along with all the fashionistas jumping on the bandwagon with the new colour options.
Thats said my desk is gong to look a bit of a nightmare…all I’ve ever wanted is a plain aluminium iPhone/iPad with a black screen…to match my iMac and MBP…no my desk will have Space Grey MacBook (replaced the MBP), Space Grey 9.7in iPad Pro. ‘standard’ aluminium iMac and a Jet Black 7+. Its always seemed a bit weird why since the 5 Apple haven’t out out the black screen/aluminium combo?
Thanks to AT&T I had to wait until 3am CST to even be able to upgrade. They had scheduled maintenance for some crazy reason for the hour of the iPhone launch. So, I sat in horror and despair as the ship times slipped from 1-2 weeks to November (likely thanksgiving) on Apple’s page and from next week to late October on AT&T.
Same thing happened to me! I had the iphone 7 plus 128gb saved as a favorite. By the time i had finished my transaction the shipping dates went from 9/16 to 10/4-10/10… LAME :(
Yeah 9/16 was impossible. I placed my order for 7 Plus, AT&T, Jet Black, 128GB at 2:09am CT and got a delivery of 9/26-10/3.
Yes! Got a black Verizon 7+ 128gb and an Apple Watch series 2 delivery date 16th
I ordered as soon as the store was back up. I had the two phones saved as favourites to speed it all up. I figured everyone would be after the jet black and also that even in a case it would scratch along the base so I ordered the standard black iPhone 7 Plus. Even doing that it won’t be delivered until early October.
Tried to order at 2am with no luck. Fell asleep and woke up at 6am. Was able to get the iphone7 256GB in jet black delivery date of 9/23 :)
That blows!! I ordered my 256G Iphone 7+ in jet black @ 2:33am and have a delivery date of 10/14-10/31.
I got on at 3:01:40 EDT. Started my order for a 256GB Black iPhone 7 Plus to be delivered on launch day 9/16. Got all the way to the “AGREE AND PLACE ORDER” carrier authorization page I tapped and it started spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning. Fail. The “carrier systems” thing again. By the time I was able to get back in, my account was locked for long enough that my delivery date was now 9/23-9/27. I paid for 2-3 day shipping to make sure I’m gonna get it ASAP.
On iPhone Upgrade Program. Went through checkout the second the website was up, when I picked upgrade it said to wait until the 17th to reserve in store. Immediately tried again on the app and the reserve in store part worked, but jet black was already sold out…
Ordered the iphone 7 plus 256gb black on best buy’s website with delivery date of 9/16…. I had multiple tabs up for apple and at&t but no luck on those so I just followed through with my original plan to go through best buy… hopefully the dates will change for those that did continue to have problems….
I gotta wait
Ordered 2 iphone 7 plus 128Gb through at&t website, I was ready to order by 3:00am EST and got done by 3:15am EST, I did not experience any major issues with their website other than having to reload pages a few times. For shipping info… First one (rose gold for the wife) shows that will be delivered on 9/16. Second one (Jet Black for me) Shows an estimated shipping date on 10/14. I am glad I didnt get any november dates, guess I got lucky.
Pulled up to ATT at 9am.. walked right up to a rep. ordered the matte black. Will have on Sept 16. However, I ordered the apple watch series 2, and it shows sept 30. I was surprised I was lucky enough to get one of the first orders in.. it pays to go in person and not be lazy at home.
there’s nothing lazy about staying up til 3am to do your best to ensure you are among the first to order. the fact that you or anyone could walk into a store at 9am (6 hours later) and secure a 9/16 ship date speaks volumes to how broken their launch process is.
Heads up, I preordered my iPhone 6 & 6+ through At&t and had them cancelled twice for no reason. In the end I had to order the phones through Apple and ended up waiting an additional month. Good Luck.
I thought android fans said that this is it for the iPhone, that it will have low sales this year, lol. They say that every year, and they are wrong every year, lol.
I ordered my 7 128GB in rose gold around noon cst through T-Mobile. Shipping date is Sep. 15th-16th.
Went on the myatt app to countdown around 1:58am Central time and for some reason the 2 new phones had blue preorder icons on them already Idk how but AT&T did not wait until 12:01am pacific time they had them on preorder a minute or two earlier on the myatt app. My 7 plus is preparing to ship. Funny thing is I got through with no hustle even though I had to answer questions about my 6 plus condition for trade in and enter credit card information for sales tax.
I had planned on staying up until 2am central time when preorders would open up, but I accidentally fell asleep and woke up it was 3am, an hour after it opened up! I put my order in for a Gold 7 Plus 128gb, shipping 2-3 weeks with a delivery date of October 4-10 :( oh well! It was my first time trying to preorder a phone haha
Apple does this on purpose and it just make me hate them more…