John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

UPDATE: AT&T Now Dropping iPhone Calls and iPhone 4 Pre-Orders

June 15, 2010 at 11:10 am PT

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Apple began taking pre-orders for its new iPhone 4 this morning, though the process was far less seamless than the company had hoped. Availability was limited to the black model only and early morning order attempts were plagued by AT&T account-verification errors.

Early adopters hoping to pre-order the device ran into trouble at both the Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) Web sites, where the pre-order process failed between the “check eligibility” and “Please wait while we access your AT&T account information” stages. The situation was much the same at the companies’ brick-and-mortar stores, where clerks handling purchases ran into similar issues. Gizmodo reports that things grew so bad at one AT&T store, its staff began processing orders “on pen and paper.”

“They’re just using some Web interface, not the exact same customers are using online, but not much better. It’s probably the same servers. Basically, they were getting one pre-order thru every 20 minutes. They said the problem was system wide,” Gizmodo’s Kyle VanHemert reports.

“Here’s how it worked,” VanHermert explains, “They just kept mashing on the ‘submit’ button and getting error after error. On the umpteenth try, it’d go through and then the next step, whatever that was, would get error after error. After a long time, it would finally go through. What’s worse is that the first step of the process reups your 2 year contract, so you can’t walk away if you get fed up.”

It seems likely, then, that the problem here is with AT&T’s provisioning system, though obviously high demand is an issue as well. To wit, the outgoing message on Apple’s 800-MY-APPLE number.

“Thank you for calling Apple. Due to extremely high call volumes, we are unable to answer your call at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try your call again later. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in the future.”

In any event, today’s pre-order debacle isn’t going over well at all with iPhone owners already frustrated by AT&T’s service, as evidenced by this mock error message from Michael Aleo (click to enlarge):

Reached for comment on today’s pre-order pandemonium, AT&T declined to give one. Apple hasn’t responded to a similar request.

[Top image credit: Larry Legend]

Tagged with: Apple, Apple Store, AT&T, digital, Gizmodo, hardware, Internet, iPhone 4, iPhone 4 Feature, John Paczkowski, Kyle VanHemert, Michael Aleo, model, pre-order, telecom, Web site

comments so far. Add yours.

  • CimexDan

    Is it only coming in black to do with getting users used to the next glass / solar panel based back panel for iPhone4?

  • cyrilsimone

    been trying to pre-order all morning and site keeps crashing

  • res08hao

    ATT is good at stringing lines on poles. Anything else leaves them dazed and confused.

  • Jim Snowden

    Cmon John.. Can’t you give at&t a break? I mean why is this necessarily at&t’s fault? It almost seems like at&t is to you what George Bush is to the Obama administration. No matter what the problem is that the Obama administration faces, it is always George Bush’s fault!
    For you, no matter what the apple problem is, it must be at&t’s fault. This is almost as bad as the blogger who attributed Steve Job’s wifi woes to at&t even though it was apple’s building, apple’s wifi and apple’s policy. Still, according to him, it must be that notoriously incompetent at&t that caused all of the wifi issues.
    In this case it is unclear WHERE the issue is. To automatically assume that it is at&t’s problem and then reinforce a perception that at&t simply has terrible voice service is irresponsible and borders on being just plain mean. In the past 18 months they have poured millions into improving their infrastructure, launched the first and only 3G microcell that handles both voice and data traffic, has significantly more wifi hotspots and one of the most loyal subscriber base in the industry. If the service is so bad, why aren’t people jumping ship?
    It is time for you to be fair and end your vendetta against at&t.

  • arthur333

    Everything is George Bush and at&t fault

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/2FABOK57ZC33OY2BGWUOSRQG2M Michael Holmes

    Yeah, I think At&t is awful anyway and they have their own problems but I can't necessarily just shift all the blame to At&t in light of the previous iPhone release debacles. THIS IS NOT NEW. It happens every time apple releases a new product and it strains credulity to think it's just cause everybody wants them. They short sell, short ship and whatever else to create a buzz. It's disingenuios, and downright disrespectful to the customers. It's amazing that Mac users are so loyal!

    Even assuming most of this is At&t, how do you account for the product not being ready for the demand…every time? How do you account for no white iphones being available for pre-order after they clearly advertised it? No, this is not just an at&t probelm, this is just a greedy company using it's loyal clientelle for every penny they can sqeeze out of them and every ounce of publicity they can get, “WOW! The demand for the iPhone 4 was so great it exceeded our (incredibly well funded, market reseached) expectations and crashed all our servers…even though we had a whole conference around this product and touted it ourselves as revolutionary, we just weren't ready”. Come on. Give me a break.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/MHCXKTB5AEQCRJ3LW6FRDRS6PY brandon

    You are spot on man I totally agree. This is supposed to be one of the most innovative companies in the world, and there is always some bs to go along with everything they do. If AT&T is the problem, whey don't the super innovator's at Apple throw them a rescue line and help them improve their network a bit. Wait I know why, they can't even handle their own business. I definately think they should find a new marketing and release plan. They may be innovative, but they lack common sense; I don't know how much more apple customers can take, sooner or later Apple is going to feel is going to get a return slap in the face

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/MHCXKTB5AEQCRJ3LW6FRDRS6PY brandon

    Oh and just to be square I'm not a big fan of AT&T either. And as much as I hate Apple's shortcomings, I love their products, but this crap is getting old

  • http://blog.macb.net macbeach

    No, no, no. You all have the wrong metaphors. Nothing to do with George Bush.

    AT&T is the BP of the telephone business.

    Period.

  • gskorich

    the amount of hits a website like AT&T or Apple have to get in order to fail must be enormous. even with the mishaps, verizon/droid or sprint/evo would love headlines like this.