Are AT&T Stores ONLY opening at 7 am for Pre Orders?

[Chessh2036]

I was planning on going to stand in line early for the 3Gs tomorrow morning but I read on engadget that AT&T Stores are only opening early for Pre Orders, the rest will have to wait until 10 am... only Apple stores are opening early.

Can someone tell me if this is true or not? thank you

 

[Blueline29]

Yes, AT&T stores are only opening at 7 am for those who preordered. Everyone else can queue up at that time; they just won't be allowed into the stores until whenever the store opens to the general public.

I honestly don't know what Apple's early-opening policy is 'cause I haven't been paying attention to it (since I preordered at an AT&T store). I do know that they're opening at 7 am now instead of 8, but I don't know who all is being allowed in at that time.

HTH!

 

[Chessh2036]

damn, so is there any point in going to the AT&T store or should I just go to the Apple store?

 

[Blueline29]

Beats me. I guess if you know that one or the other is more or less heavily-trafficked, then go to the least-busy one, maybe? Whichever, I'd double-check what Apple's store-opening policy is first so you don't end up frustrated and standing in line for nothing.

Sorry--this is my first iPhone, so I haven't been through launch day insanity before. I am SO looking forward to it, though!

 

[Chessh2036]

im curious though, if I go to AT&T tomorrow morning and don't have it pre ordered, do I get anything or am I just waisting my time?

 

[Blueline29]

im curious though, if I go to AT&T tomorrow morning and don't have it pre ordered, do I get anything or am I just waisting my time?

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that everyone who preordered has an actual phone with their specific name attached to it, so it won't be sold to anyone else by accident. So I'm assuming that each store also got a shipment of non-preordered phones in as well, which is what you'd be waiting in line for. So sure, it'd totally be worth it to wait in line to make sure you get one of the not-already-allocated phones!

Good luck!

 

[Chessh2036]

So after they get through all the pre orders, they will start selling it to people who didn't pre order?

 

[patrickj]

damn, so is there any point in going to the AT&T store or should I just go to the Apple store?

I'm pretty sure the AT&T line is only dealing with pre-order customers from 7-9:00am - then it's a free for all amongst pre-orderers and everyone else after 9:00.

If last year is anything to go by, you're much better off going to an Apple store if you want to be sure of getting a phone on Day 1. AT&T outlets just did not have that many phones - far, far fewer than Apple. I stood on line at an AT&T outlet in Austin for around 5 hours and did not end up with an iPhone. They ran out of phones. They had only been given around 40 in total (at a fairly large AT&T outlet) - and they happily allowed a little over 175 people to stand in line for 5 hours without ever once doing the math and saying 'whoa - tell some of those folks to give up now'.

Went to an Apple store (5 hours later in the day of course), stayed in line for several more hours, but did get an iPhone. And the Apple staff were much more clued up - they never gave exact numbers of phones left, but they were willing to say they had enough for us at our position in the line kinda thing - which AT&T staff never would. They also passed out cold drinks several times, and generally beat the pants off the AT&T bunch.

 

[JoeT]

I have stuff to do in the AM, so I will head to the Apple store around lunchtime.

 

[Blueline29]

As far as I know, yes. But they won't sell a phone that somebody preordered but hasn't picked up yet to somebody who didn't preorder, if that makes sense. From what I can tell, it seems like they have Batch A of phones, which are all ones that were preordered, and Batch B, which are available first-come, first-served. So at 7 am, they'll let in the preorderers and will give them their phones out of Batch A. At 8 or 9 or whenever, they'll start letting in non-preordering people, who will be sold phones out of Batch B. Mixed in with the NPO people will be additional late-arriving PO people who will be given the phones they already ordered.

If I'm wrong, somebody correct me please. That's the way I took things from the AT&T dude who explained them to me last weekend, though. And on that note, I'm off to attempt to get a little sleep before racing out to get in line myself.