T-Mobile users angered by iPhone 14 preorder failures

AppleInsider

An unknown number of T-Mobile customers continue to be unable to preorder the iPhone 14, hours after the carrier's site listed the range as available.

Apple started taking preorders for the iPhone 14 range at 8am ET, and so did carriers including T-Mobile. It didn't go smoothly for Apple, but it appears to have been worse for T-Mobile customers.

This iPhone preorder has not been fun, @TMobile. When I go through the Apple Store you can't confirm my number. Called, got connected to an agent who didn't have his headset on & hung up. Called back & it's an hour wait. @dsilverman

-- John Davis (@MrSnarkyPants)

September 9, 2022

Many users have been contacting T-Mobile's help account on Twitter with the same issue. In each case, T-Mobile's representatives ask the customers to move the conversation over to DMs, so it is not possible to see if any are resolved.

T-Mobile has, however, now acknowledged that there is an issue.

"Due to high demand, we are experiencing some technical challenges completing transactions," says a notice on the T-Mobile website. "Our teams are urgently working the issue. We apologize for the temporary inconvenience."

Separately, iPhone preorders made directly through Apple have started to see shipping delays. The 512GB iPhone 14 Pro Max was the first to be backordered, and it slipped back a week within 10 minutes of preorders starting.



Read on AppleInsider

chadbag

"High demand" is a cop out excuse.   Handling "high demand" is their job -- it is part of the business.  They're not  new to this and know what to expect.  

appleish

Boy. I remember when I used to buy from the carrier, while Apple was still having growing pains. People on Twitter would be screaming into the void about Apple, while I would be sipping on coffee and relaxing. One year, famously, Verizon started selling the new iPhone a half-hour early. I bought that time from them. Got my order in 15 minutes before Apple started choking on the hour.

These days I order from the Apple Store app. Been a breeze the last few cycles including this week.

Sip... Ahhh...

hoodjd73

This is why I will be jumping ship to another carrier once my iPhone 12 with T-mobile is paid off…

badmonk

Went very very smooth for me this morning within the Verizon app including my trade in process and arriving next week.

edited September 2022

siretman

This time the Upgrade Program worked flawlessly. I completed the enrollment on Wednesday and then this morning I was ready to place my orders for two IPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB units. 

The Apple Store on my iPhone was a little late to start but all I had to do press Checkout and the Place Order for each order and I was done in less than two minutes. Of course, my units will arrive on September 16. 

Kudos to Apple for simplifying the process and not requiring any data entry. Smooth as silk. 

lungfish

I had no issue ordering through the TMobile app. I ordered the 14 Pro Max 256GB model. BTW, I initially placed a call to their online ordering number. Rather than being placed on hold due "to experiencing longer than normal hold times..." I opted for a callback, which came through just as I finished placing my order. 

jamnap

I am a TMO customer and do like their 5G coverage as well as all the free perks (Netflix, Apple TV, Paramount, Shell fuel, etc).  But, for a tech company as big as TMO they really need to improve.  Their App sucks and seldom works.  I bought three new items today within 5 minutes after 0800 but all by using the Apple App.  Never gave a thought to use TMO's website.

jib

I may have been lucky, but my preorder for a 14 Pro with T-mobile (pre-pre order on Thursday) was completed in less than 2 minutes with absolutely no issues or problems. 

edited September 2022

panner_nudding

T-Mobile mixing it up a bit. They normally anger users with data breaches and service issues. 

entropys

The current generations learned helplessness mixed with entitlement and overly public bleating is never edifying.

the Queen’s generation were not like that.

zeus423

hoodjd73 said:

This is why I will be jumping ship to another carrier once my iPhone 12 with T-mobile is paid off…

Not to mention I can't get a signal anywhere with T-Mobile. I sometimes get voice mails or messages days later. It's not like I live in the boonies...I'm a quarter mile from the highway and work in a town of 200K.

rrrize

Here it is I thought it was just the call center I reached this morning. I called exactly at eight and was connected to the call center in the Philippines. Long story short I was on for a little over three hours!!!  The representative kept saying to me the systems are down and I keep rebooting but it’s not working for any of the reps here so I will call you back when the systems are up and going. But I kept pleading with her to just keep me on hold until the systems are up because I did not want to lose my place in line. So we stayed connected for three hours talking about life, food and weather in the Philippines. Honestly I feel like we might even get married now lol!! Seriously though, I got the 1 TB purple 14 Pro Max and according to her it will be delivered next week on the 16th! Hooray!

philboogie

rrrize said:

Here it is I thought it was just the call center I reached this morning. I called exactly at eight and was connected to the call center in the Philippines. Long story short I was on for a little over three hours!!!  The representative kept saying to me the systems are down and I keep rebooting but it’s not working for any of the reps here so I will call you back when the systems are up and going. But I kept pleading with her to just keep me on hold until the systems are up because I did not want to lose my place in line. So we stayed connected for three hours talking about life, food and weather in the Philippines. Honestly I feel like we might even get married now lol!! Seriously though, I got the 1 TB purple 14 Pro Max and according to her it will be delivered next week on the 16th! Hooray!

Just curious, is the 1TB for ProRAW?

rrrize

philboogie said:

rrrize said:

Here it is I thought it was just the call center I reached this morning. I called exactly at eight and was connected to the call center in the Philippines. Long story short I was on for a little over three hours!!!  The representative kept saying to me the systems are down and I keep rebooting but it’s not working for any of the reps here so I will call you back when the systems are up and going. But I kept pleading with her to just keep me on hold until the systems are up because I did not want to lose my place in line. So we stayed connected for three hours talking about life, food and weather in the Philippines. Honestly I feel like we might even get married now lol!! Seriously though, I got the 1 TB purple 14 Pro Max and according to her it will be delivered next week on the 16th! Hooray!

Just curious, is the 1TB for ProRAW?

Well, personally, I opted for 1TB for the general purpose of having as much local storage as possible.  But, having 1TB will absolutely benefit anyone planning on shooting in ProRAW. That being said, it will still fill up quickly if you shoot a lot of photos strictly in ProRAW and keep those photos on the phone’s library.

kidrock2199

Appleish said:

Boy. I remember when I used to buy from the carrier, while Apple was still having growing pains. People on Twitter would be screaming into the void about Apple, while I would be sipping on coffee and relaxing. One year, famously, Verizon started selling the new iPhone a half-hour early. I bought that time from them. Got my order in 15 minutes before Apple started choking on the hour.

These days I order from the Apple Store app. Been a breeze the last few cycles including this week.

Sip... Ahhh...

Same here. Twitter blowing up about preordering issues with the Apple app while I was sipping my coffee and relaxing, too cause I went through the AT&T app. Always got my phone delivered early AM on release day. I would always ask for that Friday off work so I could be home for the delivery and then have the entire weekend to play with the new phone. Only once I went to the Apple Store to wait overnight in line. That was for the 5S.

I miss those days. I miss those phones, too. I’m so tempted to buy the SE3 cause I’m tired of carrying around bricks for the last 8 years. I stopped at the 11. It’s still a great phone, but it’s just too bulky. Plus, as I’ve gotten older, (and after that $1500 512GB 11 Pro Max sticker shock) my voice of reason has taken over LOL I no longer feel the need to buy their latest and greatest, most expensive model. I’ll either go with the SE or a 6.1” non-Pro numbered model. Most likely the 12 cause it comes in green, it’s cheaper than it was just 3 days ago, the 14 is <yawn> and I hate those diagonal cameras. Gross! I can only imagine Jony’s reaction when he saw that one. And Steve was probably calling someone a f***ing moron from his grave. I’d have to agree. “That’s s**t! Don’t ever show me that again!” Hahaha

larryjw

It’s interesting how common to have ordering problems due to high demand. I’d like to know the details. 

One would have expected these issues would have been worked out by now. 

But one thing is clear; It’s not really important. There is no emergency. 

strangedays

chadbag said:

"High demand" is a cop out excuse.   Handling "high demand" is their job -- it is part of the business.  They're not  new to this and know what to expect.  

Easier said than done. If they’re using an on-premises data center, the only solution is to buy more servers. However few business owners are going to invest in a ton of hardware that only gets used 1 day a year, for only a few hours of that day…and go unused and wasted the rest of the year. If it was your money and the reward in first-hours sales didn’t justify the cost, why would you?

Migrating to a commercial cloud provider is another option, which advertise themselves as being able to elastically scale horizontally to accommodate extreme spikes in load. Not all businesses have pulled the trigger on that, as you then become eternal renters of the data center infrastructure — for multiple environments (not just production, but your test environment and ideally dev too). But you replace up-front on-premise hardware & administration costs with an amount spread out over time. Each business has to do the math and determine what makes the most sense for it. 

edited September 2022