iPhone X Pre-Order Cancelled

Apple's system was behind this morning as well.  I ended up just ordering directly from Verizon and was able to order with email confirmation.  Took a total of about 5 minutes. 

having the same issue i waited up last night ordered my phone at around 12:01 woke up this morning and was told that my order had been canceled spoke with 2 different supervisors said that this is an ongoing issue but that it should be fixed within 24hrs they advised me to wait out that time and after 24hrs the order will be shown back in reinstate status. i have called AT&T at least 20x times today it takes them about 1hr to find the information that my order will be reinstated. i feel this is so wrong i mean i wanted this phone so bad and now i might not be getting it i will never use the AT&T App ever again. i should have trusted my gut and gone with the Apple Store App. never again. AT&T you better fix this issue and get me my phone on time. i am not one to take time to be wasted and nor lack of system errors your fault you fix it or else i swear to god i am going to come down on you guys. JUST FIX MY ORDER PLEASE.... its not ok... its not ok. fix it 

Alright everyone. I think I understand what is going on.

Stephen Randall, you still haven't responded to my email but if this gets to you somehow, I spent about 7 total hours with the credit team, sales team, e-commerce team, and store managers at AT&T, and at one point with multiple people on the line speaking to each other. I pretty much did a small McKinsey study for you so you're welcome for me sorting out your company's inefficiencies.

I believe the problem is different for each person so I can only speak to the problem I am facing.

The Context:

The problem I am facing is that they cannot verify my identity given that I was not previously a customer of AT&T and that my SSN is not in their system, or their system is not able to process my SSN. To be fair, this issue is not limited to AT&T. Verizon also has the same issue for new customers. However, when I decided to give up on AT&T (given that people just kept reciting me policy with an accent and no reasoning) and ordered on Verizon, they immediately on their website gave me a "Credit Reference #" and the credit team's phone number. When I called, a friendly guy picked up in 2 minutes, spoke english, and explained to me very clearly the situation and that all I had to do was go to a Verizon store and show them my SSN, W2, and my Driver's License. Given that this was the issue I faced with Verizon, I reckoned that perhaps this is the same issue with AT&T, except for that they are too incompetent to (1) realize what's going on, (2) communicate my message to their own internal teams, (3) find a solution, and (4) communicate to me what actions I need to take. You know, like what normal people do, like what Verizon does. So once again, I took matters into my own hands because my Nov 3 date is with AT&T, not Verizon, otherwise, I would never deal with AT&T again. Stephen, if you're reading this, you should buy some roses for Laurene Powell (Steve Job's wife if you didn't know), because without Steve, you lost many customers. Let me do a market sizing for you. The store manager in San Francisco told me that 5 people spoke to him about the problem. There are two stores in SF, so 10 people in SF. SF has a population of 850K, so you likely have 10/850K*300M/50% = 1,700+ people with this problem across the US (this is with a 50% discount, it could be upwards of 3,000+ people.

The Solution:

There are two solutions for two types of people: (1) people with their physical SSN card and (2) people that lost their physical SSN care (like me). If you are Type 1, all you need to do is call AT&T, again and again until you get the domestic US team that speaks english (my guy was from Tennessee), ask for them to call the credit analyst and get a "Credit Reference #". Then with this number, and your SSN and Drivers license, go to an AT&T store, find the store manager, and tell him that the credit team was not able to identify you and that you were requested by the team on the phone to come show you your SSN and Driver's license so that they can push the order through. The store manager will likely tell you it's not possible, but before you give up, remember there's always a bottom decile in every group. Just tell him to "chat" with the internal credit analyst team and they will slowly come to realize it's actually possible to fix. My solution was to simply record my call with the domestic US team (after telling them I'm doing so) and playing the call back to the store manager.

For the people like me who lost their physical SSN, you're in a bit more trouble, but there is still hope. What you need to do, is call the e-commerce team. Ask to speak to a manager, ask for them to explain to you whether or not you can hold your place in line. Most of the people who know how things work will say yes. Concurrently, make sure you are at an AT&T store, and then ask for the store manager to speak to the e-commerce manager on the phone, the e-commerce manager will tell the store manager that because you placed an order initially, if you open a new order, somehow (this part still seems magic to me), the e-commerce team will automatically flag your new order and keep your initial order date within 24 hours after you place the new order. So now that the store manager knows what's going on, you can now create a new account with AT&T with what they call a "generic SSN", and ask the store manager to reference your initial order number on the new order.

This is the stage I'm currently at, and my plan is to call in tonight and confirm with an e-commerce manager that they can swtich my date back because "automatically" in AT&T language means "not automatically".

Best of luck to all, I'll post my outcome and followup with Stephen Randall if he ever gets back to me for you all.

This is all exactly what happened to me. The part that is most frustrating is that the e-commerce department’s only option was to cancel the order. When they realized that upset me they then began telling me “we’re only updating your order” and repeatedly assuring me that “you will still have your original ship date.” I feel like I’m being made to play a fool and I don’t like that there is no accountability for their blatant lies.

I have been a loyal customer for over 10 years. After multiple calls and multiple transfers, I realized no one actually had the answer or the power to make anything right. Which leads me to believe they really don’t care about their customers, only their customers money. What a shame.

Don't think Stephen cares about their customer's money either. If he had a good team, like the one at Verizon, and made the right IT investments, he wouldn't need to try and save costs by relocating his call centers to Asia and having them flood up, then making all his customers angry, and then needing to spend more money on advertising to counteract that effect.

Same issue. I have called twice, chatted and gone to the store. NO ONE CARES. And it’s driving me crazy. I don’t want to hear that there is nothing you can do. First off, you can stop lying to me about all the reasons. The best one was that I didn’t accept the terms and conditions. Bull. You can’t move forward until you click that button. The worse part is that a woman named Karen on the chat confirmed that my new order ship date would be moved up and I chatted later for a status update and she lied. They said no one has access to make that call. Ok, maybe you over sold the Nov 3rd dates, in that case just push my date back a week. Also, I know the confirm identity thing is a lie because I have not and I will not confirm my identity. That’s how I know it’s a made up excuse. How can a company do this to people and not even offer a $2 discount on a case. Gosh. No one even offered to call back and follow up. This is your mistake ATT. Fix it. I just switched back to ATT last Tuesday and now that I’m not attached to that ATT next, I will be switching back if there isn’t a new iPhone on my front steps on Friday. 

same thing happened to me. she told me my delivery date would stay the same but when i checked it’s in mid december 

they really dont care. i’ve been having the same issue