Well, it was probably bound to happen sooner or later today. If you're an existing Verizon customer, and didn't get in on the fun earlier today, it looks like you're going to be out of luck until next week. Verizon is no longer accepting pre-orders for existing customers.
It only took less than 24 hours, but it happened. It is unknown as to what exactly the initial stock of the phone may have been, so it remains to be seen whether or not the sell out was due to high demand or a skimpy first supply. Or perhaps both?
And as you can see above, February 9th at 3 am EST will be when non-Verizon customers can start to order the phone, and then it will be available in retail stores on February 10th at 7 am local time.
Were you able to get your hands on a pre-order readers? Did you experience any lag time on Apple's or Verizon's site, a la AT&T last year? Feel free to leave your experiences below!
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ljb2
February 04, 2011 at 8:14am
I've read the horror stories about error messages and site crashes. I'm sure it was a pain. For me, it was a breeze. I went to the Apple website, which is the ONLY place to purchase Apple products, and ordered my phone.
I had already decided to BUY an iPhone so that's what I did. The system confirmed I am an existing customer and allowed me to make my purchase; that was it. I had trouble finding the AppleCare Protection Plan, so I got THAT on the VZW website; no problems there either.
I don't have any trouble with my Android PHONE now, the Android OS on the other hand leaves A LOT to be desired. Had Mr Jobs simply sold iOS to the general public then I would have kept my Android PHONE and bought iOS. It would be nice if vendors would talk WITH and listen TO their customers, it might save us all a lot of time and aggravation.
I'm looking forward to the shipped notice too...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
Cohomojo
February 04, 2011 at 5:41am
Awesome experience! I woke up at 0245 on the East Coast, went to Verizon's website, logged in and was able to order (2) iPhones in less than 10 minutes. Back in bed by 0305 and had already received a confirmation number.
Received another email later in the day saying "Your order is scheduled to be processed. Average processing time is 3 days. You will receive a confirmation email when processing is complete and your device has shipped."
I'm happy and can't wait for the notice of shipping with tracking numbers.
Zbrosmom
February 03, 2011 at 11:51pm
Horrible experience! Was on 10 minutes before "official" launch time. When I clicked on "start my order" I was taken to a page that said there was an error and to try again. Kept trying until 2am PST. Tried twice again this morning at different times...still no luck. Called customer service, was told to clear my cache, cookies and history...still no luck. Tried again this afternoon, same, even tried from a different location. Tried with Firefox, Safari, Opera, Camino, IE, Chrome and Netscape, (which crashed) still the same. Wasn't until talking to customer service for the 4th time this evening and re-registering my phone for "my Verizon", was I told that "oh, although you're eligible for an upgrade, it would be an early upgrade which you can't use for the pre-order, you'll have to wait until the 10th." (by this time pre-orders were closed anyway) It was a total waste of time for me. I've decided to just keep my Droid, this was too much of a pain and there's no saying how many they'll have on the 10th. NOT a happy camper! I feel that instead of the "error" the website could have at least told me that I wasn't eligible for the upgrade right off the bat so I wouldn't have wasted so much time for naught. All this is because last week a customer service rep. had told me that I WAS eligible! The website also indicated that I was eligible! {:(
psexton
February 03, 2011 at 10:58pm
I was able to get in with no problem at 2345 PST, fifteen minutes before the "official" time. All went well until I reached the shipping address screen. It kept bouncing back, telling me to fill in the business name for the shipping address, but there was no block for this. I tried going back, reloading, even switching browsers, but THERE WAS NO WAY TO INPUT THIS DATA.
Solved the problem by changing the option from a business to a residence address for shipping. Done by 0017, but should have been finished by about midnight. Knowing that they sold out today, I don't feel quite as stupidly geeky as I felt earlier, but it's still uber-geeky. I'm in my 50s, way too old to act this way.
jshim87
February 03, 2011 at 9:09pm
Ordered mine at 2:00am CT. Took only 5 minutes on Verizon's website. No problems whatsoever.
Received an email around 9:00pm that it has shipped!
