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Well That Was a Fiasco

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Well that sucked.

I woke up at the regular time, and intentionally didn’t look at the Apple Store. I knew things would be going haywire, but I figured I’d put my paranoia to the side and just focus on the task at hand. I had a doctor’s appointment for my son, so I had to get up to do that, and the plan was to go to my folk’s house to do the pre-order so I could help them out as well. At 9:45, I pulled up to my parents house, an hour and 15 minutes before the appointment. I sat down at my mom’s computer, logged on to store.apple.com and went for it.

As you may or may not have heard, the entire process was a giant cluster. You start off ordering the phone on Apple’s site, then you have to verify your plan with AT&T. That’s when the problems start. The screen above shows up and doesn’t stop. If you’re lucky enough to get to the next screen, it verifies the price of your phone, then tosses you to the above screen again. For hours, that was the furthest I had gone, with no luck. I read about AT&T stores imprinting credit cards just for a place in line. How the Apple retail stores were screwed too, because it was all through AT&T. I even read that AT&T was using servers that were only allowing 256 users at a time. Needless to say, that was a bad call.

I log in later – halftime of the Celtics/Lakers game – and I get through. Now it’s problems with the Apple Store that start showing up, because now it won’t recognize my Apple ID. I try again a little while later and get the same effect. My cart disappears, then comes back. Finally, after 30 minutes or so, I finally get in and place my order. On June 24th, I’ll be receiving a 32GB iPhone 4 and a blue Bumper.

Flush off my success, I decide to order my wife’s phone. Why not do it on the same tab? I ran the gauntlet once and didn’t want to risk losing it, frankly. This time, it goes a lot smoother, but with one change: My wife wants a 16GB model. Shipping date changes a few times on the slip, but eventually, it shows as shipping on June 24th on the final receipt.

So what’s this all mean? Well my first guess here is that the 16GB model is selling better than the 32GB model, which is not particularly shocking. It also tells me that if you haven’t pre-ordered yet, you’d better do it soon. It looks like some of the issues with AT&T might have been worked out, but the servers are still being hit pretty hard – even Apple is having problems. But at the end of a long day, I can sit here and happily say that I have a pair of iPhone 4s on their way to my house come the 24th, and I can’t wait.

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Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

3 thoughts on “Well That Was a Fiasco

  1. Glad you got through! It took me 7 hours of constant trying to get my order of the 32 GB placed. I have it set up for delivery, supposedly on the 24th. Of course activation on the 24th will be a whole new experience, likely the same as yesterdays. Finally around 2:30 p.m. central time my order was placed and I got my confirmation email around 7:30 p.m. central.

    At one point I had 3 browsers on my MBP, and 2 on my netbook going. I decided that wasn’t helping the matter any, so I went back to 1 browser. At about hour 2, I did get to the “ADD TO CART” page, but Apple.com crashed as I was trying to add it.

    About hour 4 or 5 I had almost decided just to wait until today (the 16th) and try again. I’m glad I didn’t because it looks like Apple and AT&T are both sold out. Apple.com is saying shipping by July 2. And with the July 4th holiday weekend, I’m sure it will be mid week after the 4th before those iPhones arrive.

    Now to wait on the 24th and hope activation goes more smoothly……..yeah right. LOL

  2. I had NO problems at all ordering directly from AT&T’s website around 9am Central. I got the 32GB and kept the unlimited data plan.

  3. Actually got through twice via my iPad. Didn’t pull the trigger and decided to wait until after an upcoming trip. Changed my mind and tried through the iPhone later that morning but it just set up a reservation. Decided I would wait since I’m pretty happy with my 3Gs and would like to see what iOS 4 will do for it. This plan worked well for me when I skipped the 3G and moved directly to the 3Gs.

    Like my next iPad, I’ll be looking for support for a higher speed cellular data network and greater storage when flash memory goes down in price. That screen and battery life has me itching to move now though.

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