On Friday 9/14, I decided to preorder the iphone 5 when I
heard my sister-in-law Crystal and friend Ella both had preordered theirs
(among a million other people). I
tried to preorder it online through AT&T but the website wasn’t working
right. I then had to call and order
it through a sales rep on the phone.
I felt so lucky I was able to preorder the phone and it would get
delivered within 7 to 14 days of my order date. I even asked to ship it to my place in DC instead of my
parents in MD and was told that was fine.
I received confirmation of my order via a text message and also was
given an order number.
On Thursday, 9/20, I was thinking oh I should check my order
status. I checked the AT&T
website and entered my order number, it wasn’t showing up. Hmmm, I thought that was odd. Next, I called the automated status
number and my order number wasn’t there either. I finally got through to an AT&T sales rep and she
figured out that my preorder was cancelled! WTF!
Apparently, because I was shipping it to another address that wasn’t the
billing address, it was flagged and cancelled. I admit that is a great security check but I wasn’t trying
to defraud someone. I was
legitimately ordering a phone for myself since I don’t live with my parents,
which is the billing address for our account. Also no one notified me that the order was cancelled; I had
no email, phone call or text to let me know. So I had to reorder the iphone 5 which led me to another
AT&T sales rep named Linda.
The only consolation I got was that my activation fee would be waived
since they had cancelled my initial preorder. It also sucks that now it’s going to be 14 to 21 days and I
probably won’t get my phone until the second week of October.
Today, Friday, 9/21, I had to go to the Honda dealership in
the morning to take my car for an oil change and meet my friend Cindy for manis/pedis
and lunch. The Apple store is near
the dealership and I saw the line wasn’t long. I thought maybe I can check to see if they have phones
available that day and I could cancel my preorder. I spoke to the Apple sales rep outside and they said I could
do that and get a phone today. I must admit, the Apple store employees were
great, they were giving out tickets to each person in line and offering coffee
or water. I only waited in line for about 30 minutes and was paired up with
Eric, an Apple sales rep. (By this
time my friend Cindy just arrived but went to get coffee.) Eric tried to help
me cancel my preorder online but there was no option for that. Then he led me to the AT&T sales rep
working at Apple, and that guy was going to process my cancellation. He said it would only take 5 to 10
minutes to cancel and 30 minutes for my upgrade to be available again. I waited…and waited… then he said it
would take 5 to 10 minutes again.
I didn’t want to be waiting forever and needed to meet with my
friend. They said I could come
back after lunch and Gustavo the Apple sales rep at the front door said to find
him when I got back so I won’t need to wait in line again.
By the time I got back to the Apple store, I was able to
walk right in despite the line and check with the AT&T guy inside. He gave me the thumbs up and said to go
ahead! I even saw Eric and Gustavo
again, they both remembered me but I was paired up with another Apple sales rep
to process my purchase. She was
processing it and found out my account was blocked and my upgrade wasn’t
available! WTF?! She checked with the AT&T guy in
the store and was told it might take awhile after the cancellation to remove
the upgrade block and make it available again. So I walk away with no phone but was told it could take up
to 72 hours. She told me to call
*639# to get a text to let me know when
my upgrade is available.
I decided to call AT&T customer service myself and got
through to Julie, a sales rep, right away. She checked my
account and saw my first preorder was cancelled but my 2nd preorder
was still in process. The AT&T
sales rep at Apple never canceled it!
She thinks he saw that the first preorder was cancelled and assumed it
was all done. She checks with her
manager and apparently I am unable to cancel my 2nd preorder. WTF again! At least I
still have my activation fee waived but it will be October before I get the
iphone 5.
I wish I had never preordered the phone 5 because I could
have just waited 30 minutes to get the phone at the Apple store today. So I have no new phone and now I have to wait 2 to 3
weeks! I will have to give credit for the great customer service I had because all the AT&T and Apple sales reps were really friendly, but I am not happy that no one seems to have knowledge about cancellation processes. FML!
