Apple randomly canceling some iPhone pre-orders? Update: AT&T pre-orders too?
By Nilay Patel 
posted June 19th 2010 10:38PM
posted June 19th 2010 10:38PM
Uh, yeah. We're obviously looking into the situation, and we'll let you know what we find out.Dear Customer,
We were unable to complete the authorization process for your iPhone order. As a result, we had to cancel your iPhone order. To complete the purchase of your iPhone, please visit an Apple Retail Store or an AT&T company-owned retail store.
We apologize for this inconvenience.
Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Team
Update: We're hearing that some people are getting cancellations from AT&T, as well -- curiouser and curiouser.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
@ageofdeception that's bs, and whoever told you that lied, plain and simple.
THEY WOULD NOT CANCEL ORDERS IF THEY WERE LACKING UNITS... they would delay them, that's just plain common sense,
I mean seriously, if anything I'm guessing this is related to the authorization issues ATT was having, so basically people who should never have been able to upgrade were allowed to are having their orders cancelled, or orders that were authorized for other peoples accounts because of the ATT bug, etc.
Regardless, no company will cancel an order because they don't have enough unit's at that time, and then tell you to call back in a few weeks to order again.
@Amnesia87
I am here to tell you. THEY CANCELLED MY ORDER FOR NO REASON. My contract is up this August, I ordered on 6.15. the money was taken out of my account. I called apple today to verify "Its shipping no problem" the rep told me. I check the status tonight And guess what CANCELLED!!!
The orders that are being cancelled are the ones where people hit the return button 10x when the system was running slow on the 15th.Every time they hit the return button it was registering .So those are the ones being cancelled.
I have never seen so many downranked replies in a single post. Good job guys!
I don't think I've ever seen so many: "This comment has been down-ranked into oblivion." It's everything I can do not to click on "View comment"...
Resistance is not futile.
Holy crap! Why are there so many down-ranked comments here?
Hmm
Best Buy is also calling people and canceling preorders.
I have ordered 2 iPhones on 15th at 8:30pm, got confirmation email at 11:25pm same day. Today we have got emails that our phones has been shipped wiht a tracking number from Fedex. Delivery date 24th June at 4:30pm. I am sure all these cancellation emails are about credit card or debit card issues as well as all dublicate orders. I remembers many poeple ordered mutiple phones one from apple and one from att. Also all business customers has to order by phone from ATT. So do not be redicilous!
uh oh what is happening to commens in engadget?
Heads will roll from this ....just as soon as a mob can call each other between the drop calls.
AT&T and Apple's customer supports at it's finest. Dropped calls, now dropped pre-orders? I feel sorry for you poor underlings camping outside for days, that in itself is just sad. It is only a phone people! When will you guys wake up? AT&T is a terrible network, the only thing keeping it alive is Apple. Honestly, think about it, if Apple was not in bed with AT&T, how long would they last?
@osk No wonder video conferencing is over wifi and iphone to iphone only. You sad sad people.
@osk Apple survived just fine without AT&T since the 80's, dude. They didn't need 'em then and they don't need 'em now.
@webjester Re-read my post dude, I am saying AT&T wouldn't last without Apple staying with them. Apple is fine on their own.
Just got the AT&T letter..... CANCELLED.
S'okay... if they don't want my business, I'll be happy to take it to another carrier in 6 months......
- Dustin
received two confirmations from ATT and my credit card is charged. I'm a new customer with ATT anyone else in this same boat? Hoping I'm clear!
To add to the fun, even though the phone was cancelled, they are kind enough to still have my contract extended 2 more years. FAIL.
(As a side note.... I ordered mid-afternoon from an AT&T store.... their systems were all down too, so they were doing paper orders..... got all of my notifications the the order was completed later that night)
My July 2nd shipdate order was nearly canceled because I overlooked an email from Apple after my receipt where I had to agree to some Terms and Conditions within 30 hours. My order was placed Wednesday and Thursday I checked on it to see an Action Required! alert. It took 3 days to get through to the 800 number and the rep gave me the URL to visit, fortunately my order was not canceled. The URL is http://abs2.apple.com/tcat/ and is some heavy reading.
Mine was cancelled. I can think of two explanations. One is, my existing iPhone account is a business discounted one. That caused difficulties when I had to have my existing iPhone 3G replaced. More likely, its because I was so excited about iPhone 4, that I cancelled my home phone service and ported its number to my existing iPhone on Thursday, changing my number post-preorder but pre-shipping. Damn.
@DavidFell I spoke to Apple. They say AT&T wouldn't authorize. I do know AT&T started a brand-new contract for me Tuesday when I ordered. Apple said I have to go to a store.
My order was canceled, but my brand spankin' new 2 year contract was not! Or at least I'm now not eligible for an upgrade until November of 2011! My story is more complicated then that though. On the day that pre-orders opened, I tried to get an upgrade pre-order in via AT&T's site multiple times and never had success. I later learned that I could make a pre-order purchase through Apple's site, so then I started trying to get mine in that way, and ran into a similar fate due to the need to connect to AT&T's authorization servers, or whatever they are, but eventually I did finally get a pre-order in, and it said it would be delivered on the 24th. I was happy. The next day I got a call from my credit union saying they were doing a routine security check. They saw two charges for the exact same amount, one from Apple, but also one from AT&T! The next day I got an email from AT&T telling me my order had been accepted, except I'd never succeeded in getting one through them! So I called AT&T and got that order canceled, figuring that it wouldn't arrive on the 24th. But then Saturday I got an email from Apple saying they couldn't authorize my purchase with AT&T and so they were canceling it. That was bad enough, but then I checked to see if I was eligible for an upgrade and that's when I found out I was now not eligible until Nov. 2011. What a mess. Now I have to call AT&T again and get this straightened out. On the other hand, now I think I'll wait until I can see the white and black iPhone 4 in person so I can decide what color to get, so it's not all bad. Just a major pain in the arse.
Phew...my orders are in transit.
My att order just received shipping confirmation
32GB ordered at 1:20am pacific on June 15th
I just talked to AT&T representative and he said that they had so many orders that they decided to charge the price of the IPhone (plus taxes, etc) to the next regular bill. I don't know if he was right or not or maybe he was just messing with me.
So my iPhone 16 gig order was mysteriously cancelled.
I called ATT her account is fine.
I called Apple earlier today to check on the order as the website said not yet shipped so i was concerned. "Not to worry it will ship".
and tonight i check and it shows cancelled. I love apple but this is just effing wrong. I ordered on the 15th. So what gives. why isnt there more news about this. WTF!!!!!!
@Uncle Screwtape
Same Thing here but right now my order still is active and Shows Not yet Shipped and Ships: Delivers on June 24th I have a feeling my cancellation is coming in the next day or so. I think there will be a lot of people who think they are getting one but when the 24th comes no device. Apple says they have one on hold for me just waiting on AT&T to Approve. AT&T says everyhting is approved on their side. Find it hard to believe NO ONE in Apple's customer service has Authority to Unblock a delivery when AT&T says everything is fine.