MacDailyNews reader continue to seethe as their attempts to give Apple and ATT money for new iPhone 4 units and “AT&T service” plans, which in major cities means pretty much “no bars for you,” fail miserably.
During iPhone pre-orders which began today, it seems that AT&T’s capacity has been exceeded. Again. And water is wet.
Apple’s website, although sluggish, seems to take the user’s info, but when Apple has to check with AT&T to determine upgrade eligibility, the process fails.
In our opinion, as the image above might indicate, AT&T is hopelessly overmatched and incapable of handling Apple’s iPhone business. They have no ability to adequately predict demand. They may also be hopelessly cheap in addition to being bungling amateurs. Inept AT&T, with their cobbled-together rebranded Cingular network, are holding back Apple iPhone sales and have been tarnishing the Apple brand for years now. Apple needs to add to their U.S. carrier lineup yesterday.
Apple and AT&T stand to make billions of dollars off iPhone 4 customers. For apple to not have adequate capacity or not have forced AT&T to have adequate capacity to take orders from current and new customers for hours now and counting is bush league.
But, don’t let our opinion cloud yours: Tell us below what you think of AT&T Mobility.
Now’s your chance; you never know, maybe somebody at Apple is actually paying attention as they, through their misguided exclusive-U.S. carrier choice, once again frustrate their customers, new and potential, to no end.
While you’re at it, let Apple CEO Steve Jobs know how you feel, too:
I wish they would at least add T-Mobile, if for no other reason to shift some of the users off of AT&T;’s overloaded network. Verizon and Sprint are both a joke and use incompatible networks as well, so they’re not really an option.
crap. I give up.
For me, it’s not a matter of network congestion slowing things down for my iPhone. It’s a matter of no coverage where other carriers have plenty. It’s consistent, repeatable and often. There are spots on the freaking Interstate where ATT has zero coverage. It’s ridiculous and ATT should be embarrassed. But they’re not. Why? Because they know that right now they’re the only game in town.
I can confirm that this is in fact AT&T;’s fault for the inability to order your iPhone. Apple’s servers send a request to AT&T;which eventually just times out and leads to failure.
When I am Stateside my AT&T roaming charges are north of $1 / min. However I don’t get any dropped calls where I roam.
The high roaming charges don’t come from AT&T, they come from my own cell provider.
Verizon… worst customer service ever. Will never go back there.
called att to sign up for service ordered a sim card was told it would be at my house by friday its now tuesday so im not going to bother with att i know in time the iphone will be on other networks ill just wait it out
The only significant problem that I have with AT&T;is my iPad 3G info was compromised. (I know what AT&T;claims to have been accessed from people’s accounts but I’m taking that with a lump of salt and see how things play out.)
Other than the problem with the iPad 3G, no other major problems. Started with Cingular back in 2003 / 2004(?) and been with them since (only on my 2nd phone). No problems with dropped calls, 3G works fine, and their customer service has always worked with us the very times that we’ve had problems – back when we had the “Super Home” calling area rather than national coverage. We do not live in a large city either – thank goodness!
One inconvenience that I just remembered. My employer has a company discount with AT&T;for our personal phones, voice, and data plans. When we purchase our iPhone 3G’s, we could not purchase them at the Apple store without losing the discount. AT&T;wouldn’t allow Apple to carry over the discount. Instead we had to purchase the phones at the AT&T;store if we didn’t want to have to reapply for the discount. Unfortunately the Apple stores were stocked with the iPhone 3G’s at the time while we had to patiently wait for the AT&T;store to get their stock. (But then again, the lack of inventory can not solely be blamed on AT&T;).
Cheers.
My ATT service is fine here in Knoxville, TN. Always fast data transfers. I have had a couple of dropped calls though.
My friend is trying to order her first iPhone and is having trouble. I told her to get up early but she didn’t want to.
Given that ATT is giving anyone who’s plan expires in 2010 a chance to have a no penalty upgrade, does Jan. 1, 2011 sound like the expiry date for exclusivity agreement with AT&T;. In Canada all the major carriers carry the iPhone, but it seems Rogers is the one that really wants to be the dominant player. Telus and Bell need to step it up a notch, for example iPad plans. We will see, at least in the US you get to already pre-order, we still are waiting.
Other than a flakey node around my home, AT&T;has been fine as a carrier, better than Verizon was in previous years. However this ordering situation is incredibly frustrating and hints at serious infrastructure problems at AT&T;(and, dare I say it, perhaps at Apple). Apple’s going to take a lot of heat for this, no matter whose fault it is. That the issues have not been solved, paths rerouted, or hardware augmented in 5 hours says its a pretty huge problem.
I’m not a day one iPhone buyer. In fact, I’ve only ever bought an iPhone twice. Once for me about a week after the 3GS launch, and again a week or so later for my girlfriend. I got mine from Best Buy and she got hers from the Seattle Apple Store. Neither of us had problems with activation, though mine was a bit more convoluted than hers thanks to Best Buy.
Also, I was a customer of Cingular for about 3 years before AT&T;purchased them. Until about the last 6 months, I’d never had a problem with the reliability of their network. Then again, I may just be noticing it more since I have a phone that can be used for more than just voice, but I doubt it. I have gotten more dropped calls than before (about 1 every month or so instead of every 6 months or so) in addition to the connection timeouts for internet.
All in all, I think AT&T;has been handling everything nicely.
For all of you living in larger cities (I’m in Olympia, WA), I’d suggest you not hold your breath. I for one doubt we’ll see an iPhone on any carrier other than AT&T;in the US until the end of the original 5 year contract, AND until 4G rolls out across country from the likes of Sprint and/or Verizon. And frankly, with what I’ve heard about Verizon’s shitastic customer service, I think I’d rather stick with AT&T;anyway.
Rush just railed on AT&T;- he and “four other associates” have been trying to order iPhone 4 from Apple web site (after even more abortive and pathetic response from AT&T;server) all morning with no success. At least we’re not alone. (Go ahead, start flaming…) Farkin’ AT&T;.
HATE AT&T;. They CONTINUALLY tarnish Apple’s brand. Have been trying for the last 5-and-a-half hours to pre-order the iPhone 4, and thanks to AT&T;, I can NOT pre-order the iPhone 4.
I gave up too.
The iphone is a rarity – no one can match it, so if ATT cannot handle the iphone overload, doesn’t mean someone else can handle it better, nor should someone else be given the chance. I don’t know about Verizon or T-Mobile, but I came to ATT from Sprint and . . . enough said!
I had no problem with AT&T;on my iPhone. But this weekend they actually changed the expiration date on my credit card in their computer system which stopped my iPad unlimited June payment and then there was no option to continue unlimited. They sent an email about it and I called and went through 6 reps, took HOURS, who claimed “no grandfathering” and sent me screenshots and emails before dropping the call. So AT&T;breached my data and refused to honor their advertised agreements. Not happy with them now. The plan ran out and I was able to reselect unlimited but am taking action.
You may want to check your shopping cart. I was running into an error that looked like a problem with ATT but was the result of having 2 iPhones in my caret when I was only trying to get 1. After deleting 1 I was able to complete the transaction.
I had a few choice words about this…about 1200 of them! Here’s my take on it:
The Great iPhone 4 Pre-Order Fiasco
http://jimlynch.com/index.php/2010/06/15/the-great-iphone-4-pre-order-fiasco/
You are living in a dream world if you don’t think this would happen with a different carrier. Sprint couldn’t activate the Evo flawlessly, Verizon can’t get it’s act together either, and I don’t even think I need to say anything about T-Mobile, they speak for themselves. The best option is to get out of your chair and go breath in some fresh air and go pre-order at Best Buy. I pre-ordered mine in 10 min. Unless you have a time machine and go back in time a few decades and tell Verizon and Sprint that CDMA is a terrible decision and will be old and out-dated, you are going to have to deal with it.
Been trying for 5 hours on the web. Tried the new Apple Store App and went through in a minute, first try.
I love my AT&T;service. I never have dropped calls. I wish 3G was faster, but I guess no-one else is any better in the US.
Having said all that, it is VERY frustrating this morning that I can’t pre-order my iPhone 4. But, hey, it’s the first day of pre-orders and I’m sure they’re slammed. I keep telling myself, “they can’t run out of pre-orders on the first day, right?”.
Hopefully my pre-order will go through this afternoon. I’m hoping I can pick it up at my local AT&T;store at 7:00 am on the 24th, since the nearest Apple store is 30 minutes away.
I can’t believe I even stay with this company. If it wasn’t for the iPhone, I’d be gone. I am so angry. They’ve had weeks, hell, years to prepare for this and it’s always the same old crap. They really could careless. They know people will order and not take their business elsewhere so there’s no reason for them to improve I guess. It’ll be the same thing when we receive the phones on the 24th, their servers won’t be able to handle the activations and people will be ticked all over again.
There will be a day of reckoning for AT&T;and I will be there for it.
ATT doesn’t want our money obviously. Whoever said” let’s not invest in additional server capacity because in a few days we will catch up” doesn’t deserve to keep their job. Many people are pissed and deciding to wait for Verizon etc. I think that will cost ATT much more than the extra servers would have. F YOU ATT
Yep, when apple checks my account with ATT I get an error.