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Some AT&T and Apple Store Customers Faced Unexpected Delays When Trying to Pre-Order iPhone X

Friday October 27, 2017 11:41 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iPhone X pre-orders began at 12:01 a.m. on the West Coast and 3:01 a.m. on the East Coast in the United States, with throngs of Apple customers rushing to purchase the device as quickly as possible in the middle of the night.


While many customers were able to complete their order quickly enough to receive a delivery date of November 3, the day the device launches, some using the AT&T app to pre-order faced unexpected delays of 10 to 15 minutes or longer.

One AT&T subscriber, for example, tweeted screenshots of the app showing that her estimated wait time was 18 minutes until she could pre-order an iPhone X, but once she got down to one minute remaining she lost her position in the virtual queue.


A second AT&T customer Chris tweeted a screenshot of the app saying "there's been an error tracking your place in line" with a "try again" button. When he tried again, he said he was placed into another 35-minute queue.


Meanwhile, some customers attempting to pre-order on Apple.com or with the Apple Store app said the storefront remained offline for around 10 to 20 minutes after iPhone X pre-orders officially began.

iPhone X shipping estimates slipped to 2-3 weeks for most models within just 15 minutes, and to 4-5 weeks within 30 minutes, so these hiccups mean that some customers might not receive their iPhone X until early December.

Apple typically underpromises with its shipping estimates, however, so some customers may receive their iPhone X earlier than expected.

A bit of good news is that some customers who received a message from Apple stating they "can't reach the carrier systems" have received an email with instructions to complete their order for delivery as early as November 3.

iPhone X shipping estimates are now holding steady at 5-6 weeks in the United States.

[ 264 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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SaintsMac
25 months ago
The Apple App store would not come up for about 11 minutes for me. When it finally did, i was at 2-3 weeks out.
Rating: 27 Votes
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o9ski
25 months ago
Get life or girlfriend, or both.
Rating: 20 Votes
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Codyak
25 months ago

"Walk into an Apple Store on Nov 3 and be able to pick up an X" MY ASS

Why do we let Apple lie to us? It seems all of the supply constraint rumors were true, at least to some degree, yet they flat out spun it around to make it sound like there would be plenty of inventory. Bull-****ing-****, Tim Cook.

Oh wow, you've been to the store and tried to get one already? How were the lines?
Rating: 13 Votes
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BvizioN
25 months ago

Get life or girlfriend, or both.


Says someone who spends time on a forum board.
Rating: 10 Votes
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kevhackett
25 months ago
Waiting for preorders to start like


Rating: 8 Votes
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AudiA4
25 months ago
I am an AT&T customer and used the Apple Store app...finally allowed me to begin the process about 4 minutes after start, and it even said "delivery or pickup by Nov. 3" but when I went to activate, I got the "can't reach the carrier servers" error...which ultimately prompted an alert from Apple that my iPhone X reservation was made, but that they would follow with an email later to complete my order. I just received the follow-up email an hour ago, and now delivery is scheduled between Nov. 17 - Nov. 24. Frustrating for ordering 4 minutes after availability, and frankly, as SOON as the app allowed me...
Rating: 6 Votes
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Vol7ron
25 months ago
Yeah, once again, At&t really screwed up! You would think that this would be pretty simple now. It happens once a year!
Rating: 6 Votes
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Return Zero
25 months ago
This was the messiest pre-ordering experience I've EVER had. I was using the Apple Store app on my iPhone 7. First of all, the store wasn't even up until 3:15. Then, literally at the first moment I could access the store (and I was checking like every 5 seconds), delivery shipping times had already slipped to 2-3 weeks on all models. Both black models still had Nov. 3 in-store pickup, so I tried to proceed with that, but I kept getting error messages, either when I tried to press continue to get to the carrier check page, or when the carrier check actually tried to process. I FINALLY got the damn thing in my bag around 3:45. Then I tried to pay with Apple Pay, and I got an error I had never seen before with Apple Pay where it said the payment couldn't be processed. So, I tried to pay again, it seemed to work fine, and I reached the pickup confirmation page. I checked my email and had TWO separate confirmations with different order numbers, so it looked like the first payment processed just fine after all. I guess I bought two phones on accident. But WTF APPLE. Still got my check-in window on the 3rd to pick up at 10am, so overall I'm fine with that, but that process was absolute garbage.
Rating: 5 Votes
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Codyak
25 months ago
I mean it's AT&T, you'd think people would have learned by now.
Rating: 4 Votes
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SOLLERBOY
25 months ago
2-3 Week wait at 6 past the hour when the app came back up for me for Silver 256GB :( 13-20 Delivery.
Rating: 4 Votes

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