Errors Mar Initial Sales of iPhone 4
6/16/2010 12:09:00 PM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Apple fans who were already unhappy with AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the United States, got another reason to complain about it on Tuesday when Apple and its partners began taking orders for the new iPhone 4.
Numerous people who went to the Web sites of Apple and AT&T to place orders for the phone, which will be released next Thursday, ran into error messages. While the cause of the problems was not entirely clear, many of them appeared to crop up when the sites tried to retrieve AT&T customer data.
Beginning early in the day, tales of exasperation flooded Apple bulletin boards and social sites like Twitter and Facebook. To make matters worse, a handful of readers of the technology blog Gizmodo said that when they logged into AT&T’s site, they found themselves looking at the accounts of strangers.
An AT&T spokesman, Mark Siegal, said the company was investigating those reports. “We have been unable to replicate the issue, but the information displayed did not include call-detail records, Social Security numbers or credit card information,” he said.
Tom Lustig, 41, a data analyst in New York, said he tried to gain access to the Apple and AT&T sites starting at 4 a.m. and had no success. He ran into similar snags when he called Apple’s customer service hotline, where a sales representative redirected him to AT&T.
“The preorder is a complete disaster,” Mr. Lustig said.
Many, including Mr. Lustig, resorted to venturing out to an AT&T store to place an order in person. He spent half an hour in line at a store in Midtown Manhattan.
Mr. Lustig said that because an AT&T computer system was not working, salespeople resorted to writing down his credit card number and photocopying his driver’s license. They told him his order would be processed at some point later on.
“It’s inexcusable,” Mr. Lustig said. “I might get it on the 24th, 25th or even the next week. Who knows?”
For longtime iPhone fans, the difficulties of the day were all too familiar.
“They’ve had the same problem with all three iPhone launches,” said Dennis Messier, 28, a clothing designer in Manhattan. “For high-tech companies as big as AT&T and Apple, it’s not a good look when your site doesn’t work.”
Of course, the most logical approach might be to wait until the crowds fade and the phone is readily available, but many people were not willing to postpone their iPhone experience. After several failed efforts online, Mr. Messier spent his lunch break in a stuffy AT&T store. “It’s worth it to wait in line, just so that I have my hot little hands on it Day 1,” he said.
At the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, workers were telling customers that they were unable to process orders because of problems with AT&T’s systems. Instead, they were advising customers to reserve an iPhone for in-store pick-up on June 24 and deal with payment and contract issues then. Apple did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Roger Entner, head of mobile research at the Nielsen Company, said that the early interest in securing an iPhone 4 may have been heightened by the release of the iPad, which has been plagued by shortages and shipping delays because of high demand.
Still, he said, it was surprising that AT&T was not prepared to handle the crush of customers.
“This is the fourth iPhone launch for AT&T, and demand has gone up every single time,” Mr. Entner said. “Yet something always goes wrong.”
Mr. Entner said the latest problems were likely to be another blow to AT&T’s image. Last week an AT&T security breach exposed the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 owners of the iPad 3G. The company has been criticized by iPhone owners who say it offers spotty service.
Mr. Siegal at AT&T attributed the difficulties to unprecedented interest in the iPhone 4. Demand was greater than on preorder days for earlier versions of the iPhone, and “today was the busiest online sales day in AT&T history,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Siegal did not say when the ordering problems would be fixed, but he did say that customers who preordered an iPhone 4 Tuesday afternoon were not likely to get their phones on the 24th.
Numerous people who went to the Web sites of Apple and AT&T to place orders for the phone, which will be released next Thursday, ran into error messages. While the cause of the problems was not entirely clear, many of them appeared to crop up when the sites tried to retrieve AT&T customer data.
Beginning early in the day, tales of exasperation flooded Apple bulletin boards and social sites like Twitter and Facebook. To make matters worse, a handful of readers of the technology blog Gizmodo said that when they logged into AT&T’s site, they found themselves looking at the accounts of strangers.
An AT&T spokesman, Mark Siegal, said the company was investigating those reports. “We have been unable to replicate the issue, but the information displayed did not include call-detail records, Social Security numbers or credit card information,” he said.
Tom Lustig, 41, a data analyst in New York, said he tried to gain access to the Apple and AT&T sites starting at 4 a.m. and had no success. He ran into similar snags when he called Apple’s customer service hotline, where a sales representative redirected him to AT&T.
“The preorder is a complete disaster,” Mr. Lustig said.
Many, including Mr. Lustig, resorted to venturing out to an AT&T store to place an order in person. He spent half an hour in line at a store in Midtown Manhattan.
Mr. Lustig said that because an AT&T computer system was not working, salespeople resorted to writing down his credit card number and photocopying his driver’s license. They told him his order would be processed at some point later on.
“It’s inexcusable,” Mr. Lustig said. “I might get it on the 24th, 25th or even the next week. Who knows?”
For longtime iPhone fans, the difficulties of the day were all too familiar.
“They’ve had the same problem with all three iPhone launches,” said Dennis Messier, 28, a clothing designer in Manhattan. “For high-tech companies as big as AT&T and Apple, it’s not a good look when your site doesn’t work.”
Of course, the most logical approach might be to wait until the crowds fade and the phone is readily available, but many people were not willing to postpone their iPhone experience. After several failed efforts online, Mr. Messier spent his lunch break in a stuffy AT&T store. “It’s worth it to wait in line, just so that I have my hot little hands on it Day 1,” he said.
At the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, workers were telling customers that they were unable to process orders because of problems with AT&T’s systems. Instead, they were advising customers to reserve an iPhone for in-store pick-up on June 24 and deal with payment and contract issues then. Apple did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Roger Entner, head of mobile research at the Nielsen Company, said that the early interest in securing an iPhone 4 may have been heightened by the release of the iPad, which has been plagued by shortages and shipping delays because of high demand.
Still, he said, it was surprising that AT&T was not prepared to handle the crush of customers.
“This is the fourth iPhone launch for AT&T, and demand has gone up every single time,” Mr. Entner said. “Yet something always goes wrong.”
Mr. Entner said the latest problems were likely to be another blow to AT&T’s image. Last week an AT&T security breach exposed the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 owners of the iPad 3G. The company has been criticized by iPhone owners who say it offers spotty service.
Mr. Siegal at AT&T attributed the difficulties to unprecedented interest in the iPhone 4. Demand was greater than on preorder days for earlier versions of the iPhone, and “today was the busiest online sales day in AT&T history,” he said in a statement.
Mr. Siegal did not say when the ordering problems would be fixed, but he did say that customers who preordered an iPhone 4 Tuesday afternoon were not likely to get their phones on the 24th.
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