Skip the navigation
News

Customers rant about bungled iPhone 4 orders

'What a fiasco,' says consumer; AT&T, Apple sites down for hours, now seem to be working

By Gregg Keizer
June 15, 2010 03:43 PM ET

Computerworld - AT&T's online ordering system for Apple's iPhone 4 was unavailable for several hours Tuesday, but now appears to be back in operation.

Frustrated customers were stymied by AT&T's online and over-the-phone ordering systems for much of the morning, according to potential buyers reporting woes on the mobile carrier's support site. Others had trouble accessing Apple's online store, or were prevented from placing an order.

"The [AT&T] site is unusable, the phone number tells you to visit a store, and the Apple site fails when checking eligibility," said a user identified only as "MikePA" on an AT&T support forum message thread. "What a fiasco."

"Apple's problems seem to be directly related to AT&T's," added "RBfKC10" on the same thread. "They can't sell you an iPhone if they can't connect to AT&T's servers and check your eligibility."

Blame was laid at the foot of AT&T's upgrade feature, which checks to see whether a current subscriber is eligible for the subsidized prices of $199 for the 16GB model or $299 for the 32GB iPhone.

Computerworld's editor-in-chief, Scot Finnie, spent more than five hours trying to order an iPhone 4, and was repeatedly blocked by the upgrade eligibility check. When others at Computerworld tried to place an order, AT&T's site returned the message, "Due to a system upgrade the site is temporarily unavailable, please try again later." At least one Computerworld editor managed to successfully place an order around 8:15 a.m. ET.

"I have tried to order about 50 times since 8 a.m.," said Finnie in an instant message exchange around 1 p.m. ET.

As of 3 p.m. ET, the upgrade check feature was working.

Consumers who went to a local AT&T store also said they'd encountered problems trying to pre-order an Apple iPhone 4. "I just got back from the store and their computers are down," reported "frazzledrazz" on the AT&T support site. "They are using the old credit card imprinters. It has me really worried about when my phone will come in."

Customers ranted on Apple's support form as well, with some saying there that they were unable to place an order using the released-today Apple Store App designed for ordering products directly from an iPhone or iPod Touch.

"I couldn't get through [to] the Apple website, nor the AT&T [site], I tried several times with the iPhone Apple Store app which kept on crashing," said "GLM_BUF" on the Apple iPhone support forum at 2:41 p.m. ET.

This is not the first time that Apple, AT&T or other carrier partners have been unable to handle the crush of iPhone orders. Just last week, AT&T's account management site went dark for several hours after Apple announced that the service provider would waive contract requirements to allow more customers to upgrade to the new iPhone 4.

In 2008, U.K. carrier O2's site crashed under the load of pre-orders for the then-impending iPhone 3G. Several weeks later, lines stalled outside Apple retail stores as AT&T's activation software collapsed under the load when customers picked up their pre-ordered iPhone 3G smartphones.

AT&T did not respond to a request for comment on the bungled pre-order process.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at Twitter @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed Keizer RSS. His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.

Read more about Macintosh in Computerworld's Macintosh Topic Center.



Additional Resources
Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
WHITE PAPER
Solving application issues over the WAN requires careful consideration. Based on their independent research, Forrester Consulting offers recommendations on how to tackle application performance issues, insufficient bandwidth and the inability to quickly restore users in a disaster.

Read now.

Security KnowledgeVault
WHITE PAPER
Security is not an option. This KnowledgeVault Series offers professional advice how to be proactive in the fight against cybercrimes and multi-layered security threats; how to adopt a holistic approach to protecting and managing data; and how to hire a qualified security assessor. Make security your Number 1 priority.

Read now.

Cut Communications Costs Once and for All
WHITE PAPER
New IP-based communications systems are being deployed by small and midsized businesses at a rapid rate. Learn how these organizations are enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications costs.

Read now.

Macintosh White Papers
Overcome Top 7 Admin Challenges of Active Directory
As Active Directory's role in the enterprise has drastically increased, so has the need to secure the data. Gain insight on creating repeatable,...
Insiders Can Ruin Your Company. Take Action.
Did you know that 80 percent of threats to an organization come from the inside? The threat from insiders is often overlooked in...
Top Solutions and Tools to Prevent Devastating Malware
Custom malware frequently goes undetected. According to Forrester Research, the best way to reduce risk of breach is to deploy file integrity monitoring...
Streamline Compliance and Increase ROI
Streamline, simplify, and automate compliance related activities; especially those that impact multiple business units. This white paper from NetIQ, outlines solutions that will...
X-Ray of the PCI Process-4 Proactive Steps
This white paper from Forrester Research Inc., helps break PCI into understandable components. Security and risk professionals will gain knowledge and insight into...
All Macintosh White Papers
Macintosh Webcasts
Optimizing Networks for the Cloud
Join guest speaker, Rohit Mehra, IDC Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, to explore current trends, discuss best practices for optimizing Data Center and...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and...
Customer Spotlight: How IPC The Hospitalist Company Implemented Oracle on VMware
Have you been looking to hear about customer's experiences with the new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager product? View this webcast to learn...
Virtualize Business-Critical Applications with Confidence
Virtualizing business-critical applications has become a key focus for organizations as they move along their virtualization journey. With the launch of VMware vSphere®...
All Macintosh Webcasts
Newsletter Sign-Up

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter
  1. View all newsletters | Privacy Policy
IT Jobs