The preorder experience for iPhone 13 proved less than enjoyable for many customers Friday morning, with Apple Store problems causing all kinds of headaches. Complaints quickly flooded Twitter as various errors plagued would-be upgraders fighting to get their orders in quickly.
If you ever preordered an iPhone before, you know you need to act fast to ensure that you secure the model you want for launch-day delivery. It doesn’t take long for shipping dates to slip. And once they do, you can end up waiting weeks for your new handset to arrive.
It’s incredibly frustrating, then, when you’re up, bright and early, to place your preorder as soon as physically possible and instead of breezing through the checkout process, you’re instead met with Apple Store errors.
Preordering iPhone 13 isn’t fun
Many customers took to Twitter this morning to detail their preorder woes. Some report loading issues and errors with the Apple Store online, while others ran into problems trying to process trade-ins. Others found glitches when paying with Apple Card and the iPhone Upgrade Program.
Right, the iPhone upgrade program absolutely does not work through App Store app pre-pre-order – go to your email about confirming upgrade eligibility and follow that.
— Stephen Warwick (@StephenWarwick9) September 17, 2021
My group chat are all having meltdowns cause the Apple Card isn’t going thru LMAOO I had to use another card to finally be able to check out
— Andrew (@AndrewDamien) September 17, 2021
Mark Peters called the preorder process the “worst checkout experience of any iPhone launch,” and said he ran into script errors, slow loading times, and buttons that simply didn’t work.
Well that was the worst checkout experience of any iPhone launch… website an absolute shambles! Errors, script errors, slow, buttons not working. AWFUL. @tim_cook #iPhone13
— Mark Peters (@MarkDotPeters5) September 17, 2021
DAMMIT. My iPhone isn’t set to arrive until October 5th because Apple’s trade-in system was flaking out. I had it in my cart for launch day.
— Jon Fingas (@jonfingas) September 17, 2021
Cult of Mac’s own Ed Hardy also ran into the online store’s button problems. He eventually called Apple Support on the phone but was told by the automated system that it couldn’t take his order and wouldn’t send him to a sales representative before hanging up. As I write this over an hour later, Ed still hasn’t been able to order iPhone 13.
https://twitter.com/ThisIsNoahEvans/status/1438839852649299975?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1438839852649299975%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.imore.com%2Fstruggling-order-iphone-13-apple-card-it-isnt-just-you
Got hit but the iPhone preorder bug/problem where, even though I did the setup beforehand and my Apple Card is in good standing, order wouldn’t go through until I used a different card. Weird problem.
— David Chartier (@chartier) September 17, 2021
Others had more success
Of course, plenty of other iPhone 13 adopters were able to sail through the preorder process without any problems whatsoever. It’s inevitable that when millions of people attempt to order the same product at the same time, a decent number are going to run into problems while the majority are just fine.
How was your iPhone 13 preordering experience this morning? Let us know down in the comments.