Submitted by Chad Shmukler on
Well, that didn't take long. Only hours into the iPhone 4 pre-order period, US pre-ordering is down. Whether you're attempting to pre-order through Apple or AT&T, for the time being, you're likely to find yourself unable to complete the process. What's the reason? Overload. As has happened multiple times in the past, either Apple, AT&T or both, underestimated the technical requirements necessary to handle demand for the iPhone.
Many of you who have recently tried the Apple Online Store route have like found yourselves staring at a spinning cursor as the Apple store attempts to contact AT&T to determine your eligibility for an iPhone upgrade, which in turn determines the price that you'll be charged to complete your pre-order. Unfortunately, after what seems an eternity of staring at that spinning cursor, most are met with the message seen above, which apologetically informs you that "Your request couldn’t be processed. We’re sorry, but there was an error processing your request. Please try again later."
Attempting to pre-order directly from the AT&T website isn't offering any more pleasing results. After logging in and selecting a line to upgrade, customers are met with a somewhat less apologetic message stating "There was a problem with your request. P1015: We're sorry, but we are experiencing a system error that prevents us from completing your request. For non iPhone related upgrades, please call Customer Care at 1-888-867-4384 and provide the error number at the beginning of this message."
The somewhat curious part, though likely indicative of little, is that AT&T is able to conclusively determine and display your account eligibility only for the process to fail subsequently, while ordering through the online Apple store bottlenecks at the eligibility determination point of the process.
Please share your pre-order experiences with others in the comments below. Were you an early-comer that successfully placed a pre-order earlier this morning? Have you been able to squeak an order through the volume backlogs? We'll keep updating you throughout the day as the situation develops. Good luck to all you iPhone 4 hopefuls out there.
Comments
Anonymous replied on Permalink
Was online continuously from about 7 45 til about 11 am with no luck. since 11 am i've tried off and on every 15-20 minutes, no luck. also tried the apple store app, no luck with that either, it either crashed or more recently says can't connect to server and direct to make a reservation for a genius bar appointment at a store. FRUSTRATING.
Anonymous replied on Permalink
Waited in line at the Apple store for 9 hours for the 3G. Working on hour ten now of trying to pre-order with no end in site.
Anonymous replied on Permalink
After trying for about 4 hours to pre-order online I just went to radio shack and did it in about 5 min!!!
Anonymous replied on Permalink
I was able to get my order through via AT&T's website this morning at 4:07 am central time for a 32gb iPhone 4. I had previously tried via Apple's store and never got very far. I haven't received a confirmation email yet--but I have been able to log in and check my order status via my order number and it is processing. Also, on my wireless accounts landing page it now lists my upgrade date as June of 2012 which makes sense since I ordered the new phone.
Anonymous replied on Permalink
I finally decided to get my first smart phone. After checking out various phones coming out back in May, I decided I would wait until the Iphone 4 comes out. All I could do was look at any info coming out and get my hopes up it would be soon.
Working at night has it advantages. I first noticed around 0040hrs iphone 4 pre-orders go live at the apple store. I tried for over an hour. Some times I was able to get into the screen to select what phone plan I wanted, only to get stuck at what I wanted for text messaging. I decided to check out AT&T around 0245 hrs. I was able to select everything without any hang ups. It shows first comes first serve for pre-orders. Hopefully being up at 0245 in the morning payed off.
Best wish to everyone trying to pre-order.
Anonymous replied on Permalink
I was on this morning at 4 am but it took me till 5:36 to actually finalize the order. I got stuck at various times at the eligibility spot and when i got past that I got to the screen of either in-store pick-up or shipping it to my house, except they said shipping was unavailable at the time. You would think Apple would realize after so many years of doing this that a TON of people are going to be ordering at the same time and they should actually prepare for the stress on their website.
Anonymous replied on Permalink
I tried pre-ordering through the Apple Store from 10am Central until 2pm, I gave it a rest until 4:30pm when I tried and finally completed the process.
I did get the confirmation page but no confirmation e-mail (it never asked for an e-mail).
It was amazing how many different problems I encountered - including a page that said my pre-order was accepted but showed no pricing for upgrade, voice, data or messaging plans.
When going to pick up the phone I'll bring the printed confirmation page in case there is any difficulty.
Good luck to everyone who is still trying.
Buzz Mega replied on Permalink
I tried several times starting at about 10 AM EDT. It failed, but partially completed most often. Then when ATT stopped taking orders, my last attempt (5 to 7-ish) went through for a June 24 delivery.
I wonder if it had something to do with verifying the order status for upgrading an existing phone which would involve ATTs servers?