My iPhone Pre-Order Saga Continues
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My iPhone 4 Pre-ordering Experience
Yesterday was a quite a day. I'll attempt to give a play-by-play of my iPhone 4 pre-ordering experience with approximate times.
0530 Went to Apple.com and found out the site crashed while attempting to verify eligibility requirements (AT&T fail). Next, I logged into my AT&T account and the site actually ran pretty smooth. Unfortunately, when I tried to pre-order, AT&T only listed iPhone 3GS for purchase. FAIL
0700-1300 Periodically attempted to navigate to Apple.com and AT&T site from work and got the page cannot be displayed every time. I think this was a failure of my employer. I'm sure the network center blocked all traffic to those two sites yesterday.
1300 I leave work early. Hoping to pre-order my iPhone 4. Also, planning to pre-order Krystal's (@MrsMickle75) iPhone 4 when she gets out of work. She was supposed to meet me at AT&T store at around 1715.
1345 Arrived at AT&T store in the Lebanon Valley Mall, Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Absolutely no lines. Manager was very nice and mentioned Apple Care (I told him I've never purchased Apple Care and don't plan on it this time) and then he blew my mind. He told me that I couldn't pre-order an iPhone 4 if I didn't have a "real" credit card. Meaning a credit card that isn't attached to a bank account. I only have a Credit/Debit card, mainly because I don't like paying fees on credit cards. The credit/debit card draws money from my bank account. I was like WHAT?!? This was an incredible roadblock he set in front of me. My hopes of getting an iPhone 4 on launch day completely evaporated. I was utterly depressed and confused. I asked him for more details. He told me that regular bank accounts put holds on purchases and after about 5 days if the charge hasn't been finalized, the hold disappears and the card won't be charged and because the card won't actually be charged until the product ships (probably next Tuesday or Wednesday) that's why they can't use any card associated with a bank account. To cut a long story short, I left the AT&T store without pre-ordering my iPhone 4.
1400 I start tweeting very upset, emo-like tweets.
1930 I discover Rule #1 of deal with AT&T: Never trust AT&T. The explanation I was given didn't compute, so I went to Apple.com and tried to pre-order my iPhone 4 using the same Credit/Debit card I had tried using at the AT&T store. The site ran smooth and guess what?!? It worked! According to Apple.com, my iPhone 4 should arrive at my house on 24 June. The $210 charge is a pending charge on my bank account. The only thing that worries me is what AT&T said about the hold being released after about 5 days. I'm pretty confident though that my bank will handle this like any other charge I use with the credit portion of my credit/debit card.
2040 I take Krystal to the AT&T store to change her last name. I wanted to make this change ASAP because I wanted to get back home and attempt to pre-order her iPhone 4 before Apple ran out of the phone and told me her iPhone 4 wouldn't arrive on launch day.
2200 Apple.com continued to give me "Oops" errors while trying to pre-order Krystal's phone. Finally after about 20 attempts, I was successful! Delivery Date: 24 June.
I've received confirmation emails for both phones and bank account has pending charges for both phones. I guess we'll find out next Thursday if this actually worked. I read this morning that Apple ran out of the phones overnight and in order to get them on launch day (if you didn't pre-order or reserve) you'll have to wait in long lines. Any pre-orders from now until launch day will have a delivery date that could be as late as 5 July. Praying my orders went through.
Tell me about your pre-order experiences. Please leave comments.
Weekly SITREP (14-20 June 2010)
Currently...experimenting with Nambu for Mac Twitter app and watching Netherlands vs. Denmark on ESPN3.
This morning...I'll be going to the bank with Krystal to add her to one of my bank accounts.
This evening...I have a golf league match and will come back home to watch Virginia vs. Oklahoma college baseball game on ESPN3.
Tomorrow...I'm going back to work. The three day weekend was awesome. Just wish I had been able to spend more time with Krystal. Also, it's the first time for pre-ordering new iPhone. Will need to check into the details.
Wednesday...is the first episode of Top Chef season 7.
Thursday...is Krystal's birthday! We plan on spending the morning at Molly Brannigans watching World Cup and drinking beer. LOL.
That's about it for this week. Haven't really thought about plans for the weekend.
@jesslynham @TristanRose Looks like this person forgot to log out. Just standing there. #RedDeadRedemption
My Dinner Vote (Leave Blog Comment to Vote)
2. Taco Bell
3. Subway Please vote by leaving comment. Thanks,
Mickle75
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Will be watching this game today. Interested to see how he does against AL batters. #MLB #Strasburg
Whrrl vs. Foursquare vs. Gowalla
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