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Apple notifying iPhone 6 customers w/ reservations due to carrier issues to complete purchase within 24 hours

Pre-order sales for Apple’s newly announced iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus kicked off last night at 3:01 AM EST with the larger 5.5-inch model quickly seeing ship dates slip, but some customers were unable to complete the pre-order process on Apple’s online store due to issues reaching carrier systems.

Rather than receiving a purchase confirmation, these customers were issued reservation numbers for the iPhone model attempting to be pre-ordered with the promise that the order can be finalized with carrier systems were able to be accessed again. As of this morning, Apple has begun notifying these customers that the transaction for their desired pre-order device is ready to be completed as carrier systems have stabilized.

In some instances, these emails have informed customers to complete the order by tomorrow (within 24 hours) while others seem to be dated for the morning of September 14th. Apple will remove the device from its reservation system if the transaction is not completed before the assigned date in these emails.

Apple has already shared that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus pre-order sales have exceeded previous records, and AT&T has said that this year’s pre-orders have been bigger than each of the previous two years.

While pre-orders kicked off overnight, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will begin shipping to customers and appearing in retail stores on September 19th.

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Comments

  1. James R North - 10 years ago

    I got this email. The stupid thing is that I had a release day 6plus in my cart and the reservation that I received says that it is not going to ship for 7-10 days. Apple really screwed up royally on this one.

  2. Jason Yap - 10 years ago

    I got one while trying to pre order early this morning, but it said it wouldn’t process AT&T NEXT accounts. Glad I was able to use AT&T’s page even though my phone has a ship date of Halloween to Nov 11.

  3. Andrew Messenger - 10 years ago

    i wish they would just do the reservation system from the start. i feel like staggering the orders would save everyone the headaches.

    • Jason Yap - 10 years ago

      They should just give each carrier a set amount they are allowed to preorder and leave it at that. I don’t want to wait over a month past launch. That defeats the whole purpose.

      • Andrew Messenger - 10 years ago

        i’m just talking in reference to spreading out the pre-order processing throughout the first few days rather than a million all at once. we crash the servers every time. you’d think they’d learn by now. how about we put our email in, they tell us when they’re ready to take our order. just like they do now AFTER we crash the system and waste a bunch of time.

        this pre-order has been frustrating to say the least and at this point i’m kind of indifferent about getting my new phone. they really took the excitement out of it by not executing it in a way that provides a good customer experience. i don’t think thats what Apple should want and I can’t believe after this many years it’s still happening.

  4. Charles Stanley - 10 years ago

    At last, was able to pre-order the 6 plus No carrier, they had 15 pre orders left, check http://bit.ly/1qPTFV2

  5. chrisw52 - 10 years ago

    I was able to order a phone with no delays at 5am this morning PDT.

  6. Justin Williams - 10 years ago

    all good except somehow it reserved me a 16GB model when i never actually selected a model and wanted the 64GB.

  7. Scott Levitt - 10 years ago

    I was happy to get a reservation notice but then when I went to complete the purchase I was locked into the 16GB iPhone 6. When I tried to get Apple to help me to get the phone I actually wanted, the 164GB iPhone 6Plus, I was told that they could not change my reservation and that I would have to start all over again. So instead of getting the phone I wanted sent to me I now have to go stand in line on the 19th or wait until mid-October to have it sent to me. I would have rather had the system boot me out at 12:10 in the morning than to have it give me a bogus reservation and completely ruin the process for me.

  8. minigurlnikki - 10 years ago

    I still haven’t received the second email. How long should this take?

  9. dcj001 - 10 years ago

    “Pre-order sales for Apple’s newly announced iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus kicked off last night at 3:01 AM EST”

    Actually, EDT.

    Most people are better off using ET because they do not know the difference.

  10. Don Wise (@doncwise) - 10 years ago

    Disappointing pre-order processing by both Apple and AT&T. Got this reservation and saw my delivery date go from 9/19 to 10/13 in seconds. Also, none of my local stores (for 50 miles) had any “availability for in store pick-up” as advertised yesterday on this site, Apple’s site, etc. for 9/19 – meaning they didn’t update intended inventory for the local stores for that promise. Most disappointing was inability by Apple to reach AT&T’s servers to verify my existing phone information and process the order; hence, the reservation – which was better than nothing at all – still frustrating process and unlike Apple. Finally, Apple’s website was completely useless; i was only able to begin my order process via their iOS app. So, i’m sure others were just as impacted.

  11. Andrew DenHerder - 10 years ago

    I got the first reservation email. Thus far I haven’t got the second. When I try to log into the buyiphone site for the status it tells me my reservation can’t be found…
    I did get in once this AM.
    Has anyone else had this issue? I can’t log into order status on the web or app of the apple store so perhaps they are still having server issues.

    • minigurlnikki - 10 years ago

      Yes! I had the same issue. What I did was get the reservation number from the email and put that in with 2 other pieces of information. I finally was able to make my purchase and i’m getting it delivered Friday the 19th! :)

      • Andrew DenHerder - 10 years ago

        Thank you, you have calmed me a bit.

        I can’t log in with the reservation number method either
        nevermind no longer calm.

      • minigurlnikki - 10 years ago

        That happened to me too for a long time. I just kept trying. Are you using the link from the reservation email where it says “you may check the status…”? My first reservation email was sent to me at 5:20AM EST, and I just now got the second link with the details for me to preorder it (and that was even after I purchased the item).

      • Andrew DenHerder - 10 years ago

        I got the second email just now. Still can’t log in even using the link in the second email. I’ll keep pressing the log in button…

      • Noel Mendez - 10 years ago

        they seem to have lost my reservation completely!

    • Alan Danby - 10 years ago

      this is being crazy.. i got the reservation number and everything and then i go to click on the link and it brings me to the page where i put the reservation number in and then i put all my information in and it says that already have an iPhone ordered or something on that number and it is ineligible through verizon..

  12. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    Hope this doesn’t happen to me.

  13. evilbachus - 10 years ago

    I’ve received the “Complete Your iPhone Order” email, but Apple seems to still be having problems.

    If I login with my AppleID, and input my phone number/zip/SSN I get:

    “We found an iPhone order for this phone number. There’s an existing order for the phone number you provided. You can only have one upgrade order per phone number at a time. You’ll be able to place additional iPhone orders once you receive and activate this iPhone.”

    With no way to “confirm” or “complete” the order.

    If I try logging in with my reservation number that Apple has sent me multiple times I get:

    “We’re sorry. We can’t find your reservation. Please verify your information and try again.”

  14. I refreshed my screen from 2:01am until 3:15am unable to make either apple nor sprint sites work. I finally was able to get a reservation for an iPhone 6 Plus 128G to replace my iPod and iPhone 5 through the iOS apple store. I got the second email to complete my order at 7am, logged into the link with my reservation number etc no problem, selected my existing plan etc for sprint and at the last screen of the process I got an error message asking me to try again later. After that I have no longer been able to use the reservation number to get in. Everything says “unable to find that reservation” as if it is a one time only link. By phone and chat, apple says its a known issue. Apple has NOT provided a smooth process at all. A token apology appears to be in order for the series of snafus. I have to assume Apple will fix this and honor the reservation order for those of us crazy enough to wake up and try to order.

  15. Brad (@bdkuhn) - 10 years ago

    I ordered mine through AT&T and my card was charged but it still indicates it will ship the first week of October so if people ordered it through the Apple store and can get one does that mean we who ordered it through the carrier are screwed?

  16. Same thing. The site on a desktop was a mess, also ATT. I ALMOST completed the order through the Apple Store App – with little problems..there was some lag in loading – I get “Delivery Date – 9/19 or Pick up at store.” I clicked “continue” to get the final payment page, App crashes! (insert profanity here!) I start over and nothing..finally got this reservation #, the email this morning. Little ticked when it now states “Shipping in 10-14 business days, Delivery Oct. 7-12 /not available in stores..whatever. Looking now at the wait, it could be worse. Now the question I have in my head now that I dropped this $, will it in fact actually ship in 10-14 days or will I get some last second Backorder “Sorry, we cannot fulfill shipment at this time” email? Eh, first time I did the preorder.

  17. After using the link in my Apple email, mine is still saying “We’re sorry. We can’t find your reservation. Please verify your information and try again.”

  18. Dave Cheng - 10 years ago

    I am a little confused, hopefully someone will be able to help me. The first order I made I selected a wrong pickup store, so I had to cancel it and reorder it. Between my second successful order and the first one, I ran into some error, and never went through.

    The sequence of the email I received from Apple are,
    1. Your order is being processed (the first order)
    2. Your iPhone has been reserved
    3. Your iPhone has been reserved
    4. Your order is been processed (the second order)
    5. Important information about your iPhone reservation
    6. Important information about your iPhone reservation

    When I do try to click on “Complete Order” from the email of 5 and 6, I get,

    “We found an iPhone order for this phone number.

    There’s an existing order for the phone number you provided. You can only have one upgrade order per phone number at a time.
    You’ll be able to place additional iPhone orders once you receive and activate this iPhone.”

    When I sign in to the Check Order Status page, it shows “Processing Items”.

    My question is, where am I exactly in the process? Is the reservation referring to the failed transaction, or is it referring to the current order I see in Apple Store?

    Thank you very much!

  19. Corey McMullen - 10 years ago

    I got this, except it has been more than 14 of those 24 hours, and AT&T’s website still refuses to acknowledge I am eligible for an upgrade, even though 4 calls to them have confirmed I am….

  20. Kevin Siggard - 10 years ago

    I got the same email. I am still trying to use the link and complete the order (here comes midnight for the second night in a row), but I am still being told, “We’re currently unable to reach the carrier systems to process your order.”

  21. Carl Prescott - 10 years ago

    stuck in reservation limbo. I got the 2nd email nearly got my order completed and then it just got stuck on processing gave an error and went back to the main shop page. I have been calling, and trying to log on with no luck. The reservation is about to expire and on my last customer service call, the representative basically told me to just spam the system until it lets me in.

  22. Stayed up all night, at 4:30 got the message from APPLE that they could not contact my carrier but the phone wad reserved for me. Wait for an email from us and then continue purchase. Went to bed, woke up and there was the email from APPLE!!! Overjoyed was I. Start the process only to be told that AT&T Next was not available to people living in the NYC area for online ordering thru APPLE…what bullshit is this. Spent the day on the phone with APPLE and AT&T even three way calling with both several times. Apple was shocked, never heard of such a thing…AT&T underlings were clueless. Spoke to several supervisors at AT&T finally they owned up to this bullshit rule. Thing is I called AT&T all week to make sure I could order the phone and was told several time, NO PROBLEM….now, APPLE has to let my phone go, AT&T wont honor the order placed at APPLE and I have to go to an AT&T store and wait for a phone, or preorder one thru them and wait until November. They offered me an android phone for free that day if I wanted that. PASS….I’m F’d. and I buy a new phone every year, have three lines on my service no one could help me. So much for being a loyal customer who spends a fortune at both companies.

  23. Ryan Ellerbe - 10 years ago

    I had the same problem and was really mad at apple the next day. I called apple because the reservation email link told me there wasnt a reservation. Well I felt bad that I was mad at apple, because I should of been mad at Verizon. Apple was actually waiting on verizon to be able to finish the process. So don’t be so quick to blame apple.

  24. bluepacificrqf - 10 years ago

    I was up before 3:00 AM ET to make sure I was ready and fortunately was able to complete my iPhone 6 Plus 128GB pre-order with no issues at all. However, I did not go to apple.com for this because I absolutely KNEW it would immediately be completely swamped and overwhelmed (guess I was right). Instead I went to Verizon Wireless’ website and used my upgrade eligibility and it was a breeze. My only issue is it told me my ship date is September 19th (also repeated on the order confirmation email VZW sent me), but when I clicked on the “Check your order status” link at first it said October 7th and now it says “Not available at this time.” The last VZW rep I spoke to today said it still says September 19th on the screen he was looking at and I should get it a few days later. I don’t really believe it (much as I want to). We shall see, won’t we…

  25. Dave Cheng - 10 years ago

    I visited Apple Store today and asked the issue regarding to the issue of receiving both email of “Your order is being processed” and “Important information about your iPhone reservation.” His words were,

    If you received just the reservation email, it means the order did not go through, and you must follow the steps to complete the order.

    If you received both email, you are ok. as long as you received the W number, your order went through properly. And his answer for the reservation email came after the processing email was system lag issue because of the millions of transaction.

    Hope this answer some of the concern people had.

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.