

AT&T Stops taking iPhone 4 Pre-Orders - jason_slack
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-06-16-iphone16_ST_N.htm

======
jason_slack
I had so many troubles yesterday with placing my order.

Today, I see my bank account has been debited the wrong amount from the
invoice. I called AT&T and they say not to worry about it, they didn't
communicate the order total properly.....

When you take way more money than you invoice, I see a problem in that...They
offered me a $29 credit after activation....

~~~
seiji
The AT&T site wasn't calculating tax yesterday or the extra "phone tax" if
you're in CA. You are probably being charged up to $100 more than what they
said the total was.

------
bbatsell
If the reports are true, and iPhone 4 has generated over 10 times the pre-
orders that 3GS did, then I don't think you can fault AT&T or Apple a whole
lot for the screw-ups yesterday, or for the lack of inventory (the supposed
AT&T data exposure excepted). I would have predicted 2, maybe 2.5 times, but
1000%? That's unheard of.

------
hvs
_AT &T suspended iPhone 4 pre-orders Wednesday after demand overwhelmed
inventory._

Really? Are they incapable of predicting demand after four versions of the
phone, or are they unable to manufacture enough even though they knew demand
would be high?

Or are they just artificially limiting supply?

~~~
iamdave
The last option seems the most likely.

~~~
glhaynes
Why?

~~~
iamdave
The cellular/mobile phone industry in the US is probably THE worst when it
comes to treating customers like customers, instead of assets. When you
actually value customers through a four letter acronym (look it up/do the
research if you're unfamiliar with ARPU), it's not entirely unlikely that
there are things in motion behind the scenes to drive up demand artificially,
while on the books companies like AT&T and Verizon (the latter of which has a
well documented history of locking built-in features out of phones in order to
extract a premium fee from their use by customers-see below) look squeaky
clean.

\-----

[http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Verizon-
Wireles...](http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Verizon-Wireless-
Users-Sue-Over-Disabled-Bluetooth-Features/)

[http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/verizon-locks-
ou...](http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/verizon-locks-out-spectrum-
features-444)

[http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161019/verizon...](http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161019/verizon_locks_out_gps_competition_customers_complain.html)

[http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/want-droid-work-e-
mail-i...](http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/want-droid-work-e-mail-itll-
cost-you-extra-575)

<http://www.pencomputing.com/wireless/motorolav710.html>

------
malbiniak
I hope Apple is getting fistfuls of cash from AT&T.

From the failed WWDC demo (couldn't activate cell data) to the leaked iPad
emails to the iPhone preorder, I can't imagine Jobs + co are too pleased with
the negative brand impact AT&T is bringing to Apple.

~~~
IgorPartola
I thought the WWDC demo failed because they couldn't get on the WiFi, not on
the 3G. I might be wrong though.

~~~
malbiniak
No, you're right -- they were trying to use WiFi, but when he switched to the
backup phone, there was an error displayed about not being able to activate
the cellular data. The audience laughed, Jobs brushed it off, and the demo
went on.

~~~
IgorPartola
Thanks for the clarification.

------
smokey_the_bear
I tried all day yesterday to order. After maybe 30 attempts at going through
the buy process on Apple's site, I got to the final page of it and it said it
had to ship to my AT&T billing address. Which happens to be wrong now. For the
rest of the day I tried to log into AT&T's site to change it. I was never able
to. Now trying to log in on it gives me a 404.

I'm an app developer, and I need the phone for testing as soon as possible.

Update. I got one ordered. It will arrive by July 19. I predict we'll get
deluged with negative reviews.

~~~
thwarted
It sucks that Apple's secrecy makes it difficult for legit third-party
developers to have access to proper testing hardware and infrastructure so
their apps, which Apple touts as one of the reasons to have an iPhone, are
ready to go on the day of release.

~~~
smokey_the_bear
We've got it working in the simulator, but the device is always different. For
instance, before the iPad there were four possible device orientations.
Landscape left and right, and upright left and right. They added two, face
down and face up. So any code that if blocked between the original four broke.
A lot of apps were thrown by that when they got the device.

------
timr
It's really bothersome that so many people I know were unable to upgrade their
older phones yesterday. Now they'll have to wait for (presumably) months,
while the fanboy wankers who already have the latest phones pay full price to
be the first guy in their neighborhood bar to stare at a retina display,
instead of talking to women.

I know this will never happen, but it would be a thoughtful gesture toward
customer loyalty if AT&T were to give priority access to the latest hardware
by contract age, instead of just creating a free-for-all scramble on pre-
registration day.

