Verizon iPhone orders live, but crashy

Verizon iPhone orders live, but crashy

This morning at 3 AM EST, Apple and Verizon opened up iPhone 4 pre-orders for existing Verizon customers.

I was up a few minutes after the launch, and ordered my phone within 8 minutes or so, and ran into no problems with the online Apple Store. However, according to iLounge editor-in-chief Jeremy Horwitz, not everyone has been so lucky:

Attempts to order the iPhone 4 through Verizon Wireless’s web site failed for more than five hours, as some customers who attempted to sign in to the ordering page were presented with a broken “Sorry, an error has occured” page, promising to get “this fixed as soon as we can.” Other customers reported successes in ordering only after extended problems with the site; one noted that “Verizon’s web site was a disaster” with an early-morning order taking an hour to get placed. Separately, some customers attempting to order the iPhone 4 through Apple’s online Apple Store website were presented with inaccurate information denying their eligibility to pre-order the phone, despite confirmations from Verizon that they were in fact eligible.

This, of course, isn’t anything new. During the iPhone 3G launch (with MobileMe in tow), Apple retail stores and AT&T activation servers crumbled under the load. The 3Gs and 4 launches were better, but still not without hitches.

Have you ordered an iPhone 4 today? Have plans to? Let us know how it goes for you in the comments below!

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About Stephen M. Hackett

Stephen Hackett, formerly a Lead Mac Genius at Apple, now spends his days running the IT department of a large non-profit in Memphis, TN. He writes about Apple, design and journalism at forkbombr.net. Like all twenty-somethings, you can find him on Twitter. Oh, and he has a dogcow tattoo.

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User

I heard there were some new web programmer openings at verizon. They fired the idiots who couldn't even make one page work right. Who would have thought to test it and maybe get more than one web server. Everyone associated with the online site should be fired as a moron.

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Katie

I got up at 5:50 am Mountain Time today to order my iPhone. Didn't work, got the "Sorry, an error has occurred. We're working on getting this fixed as soon as we can." error and went to Apple to try and order it there. It won't let me order it there because I have a business account and for some reason is not letting me. I got back on at 6:30 and 7:30 and the error was still there. I came home from school, first thing i did at 3:20pm was try and order it. Same error message. It is now 5:50pm and I am still getting this error message! If anyone knows what to do, or it starts to work again, please email me at calierules@comcast.net Thanks :)

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Guest

The Verizon Wireless website has been giving me the "sorry, an error has occured" page all day. The Apple website gives an erroneous error about my billing address. No luck so far!

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Sean D

I tried at 3:00 a.m., again at 8:00 a.m., again at 11:30 a.m., and finally now at 3:00 p.m.
All I get is:
Sorry, an error has occured.
We're working on getting this fixed as soon as we can.
(Please try again)
Beyond rediculous (btw, Verizon also mispelled "occured") I think I am going to just throw in the towel and go DROID!

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Gerren

Ordered my Verizon Phone through Verizon website at 12am PST. A few glitches I encountered. If you choose to ship to a billing address, there isn't a field to enter in Company name, so when you hit next, it says that company name is required, but no where to put it. So your only option is residential. I put in my business address but it didn't take my suite number. Blah!!! I used Chrome and tested it through Firefox. Both had the same issue. I tried to report to customer service but they wouldn't listen.

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SoulCoughin

Good to see I wasn't the only one trying to figure out where to put the name of the business to ship to! Other than that glitch, it was a painless process for me. I logged in a few mintues before midnight Pacific time and was able to order with little trouble.

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Duffman_54

Exact same situation. Also, despite having shipped three different phones to my physical address over the years, Verizon's system maintains that my address does not exist and won't let me order. Apple's site says "Reservations are currently unavailable". ARGH!

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Prairie Gal

Was up and had ordered and received my confirmation email about three minutes BEFORE the official start ordering time, using Chrome and a relatively slow internet speed.

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Thisischeaper

I actually logged in to Verizon's website at 2:45 am Eastern time and was able to order my iP was impressed that I actually completed my order before 3 am. I enjoyed the thrill because it felt like Black Friday!!
hone in less than 10 minutes. The whole process was very smooth. Nicely done!
I

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Sailinmarmar

I keep getting the error messages and I've tried it on 5 different computers and 3 different networks... WTF Verizon?

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Pete McKinley

so here's another shock for the iPhone on Verizon. Apple in all their glory (translation = Arrogance) has decided that during this exclusive "pre-order week" Verizon customers will not be able to bill their account for a new iPhone but must pay for it in full with no discounts or using credits on your Verizon bill. All of this extra week in advance is doing is allowing folks like me the privilege to fork over a full price payment to Apple while we still can't get the iPhone until the 10th anyway. I'll wait...

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Dispatcher7

Clicked on the link at 03:00 Eastern, entire order went through first time with no problems at all. During the order process I even went back once to change a selection. Received a confirmation # immediatly and a confirmation email with in 20 minutes

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JK

I ordered one about 5 minutes after launch and had no problems at all. Sorry to hear others having problems with Verizon's website

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DL

I went on at 6:30 a.m. PT and went through Verizon's site. No problems. Took about 3 minutes to order.

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Sanjuanriver

4:30 AM Mountain time - logged in at V.W. site then had to re-enter most of my data to complete transaction (so I had to log in why?). V.W site has screwup in asking for use area. Wants to use billing address but only if it's not a PO Box. Why not the required delivery street address as an option? Agro, but survivable.

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Travis Stojanovich

i have failed everyone of the over 300 times i have tried

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DSG

Still not able to order one either. Errors

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Chris Smith

I wanted to order one. But I'm still getting that error messages. It sucks. I'll keep trying just til I can get one.

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Trackbacks

  1. Is Verizon Getting the Iphone » Blog Archive » AT&T strikes back at Verizon with voice/data ad – tuaw.com says:
    February 8, 2011 at 9:02 AM

    [...] iPhone has begunTechWeekiPhone on Verizon sets first day sales record in two hoursComputerworldVerizon iPhone orders live, but crashyMacgasmStartup Memeall 3,393 news [...]