Mikey Campbell
Apple is providing earlier iPhone X delivery dates to iPhone Upgrade Program members who experienced an apparent loan processing issue that in some cases nullified original orders, prompting customers to reorder the device but with later ship-by times.
When the iPhone X went up for sale on Friday, some iPhone Upgrade Program members were denied an early preorder due to an apparent hiccup in the loan application process handled by Apple financial partner Citizens One.
Late Saturday and early Sunday, customers affected by the financing issue saw their iPhone X delivery dates upgraded to November, or in some cases revert back to an initial promised date. The move suggests Apple is rerouting launch day supply, perhaps from a stockpile slated to reach retail stores on Nov. 3.
Apple did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
On Friday, an unknown number of early buyers used Apple's upgrade service to place iPhone X preorders only to be met with a message saying the loan application process was taking longer than expected.
Apple instructed customers to wait for a verification notification, which in certain cases resulted in a denial letter received hours later. As such, original orders with early November ship-by dates were nullified, prompting some to reorder on Saturday. As iPhone X supply is in high demand, those second orders came with delivery dates pushed out to December.
It appears Apple is now attempting to correct the situation. Emails sent out to those affected by the loan processing snafu on Friday noted the problem and instructed members to provide their original iPhone X order number in a reply. Customers who supplied their information were directed to follow up on their order through Apple's Online Order Status webpage in three business days.
As of Sunday, a number of iPhone Upgrade Program subscribers are reporting upgraded delivery estimates, many of which reinstate shipping dates promised prior to the Citizens One snafu.
Apple kicked off iPhone X preorders on Friday to expectedly high demand, with launch day supply depleted within ten minutes. Shipping estimates subsequently slipped to 2 to 3 weeks, then 4 to 5 weeks until it hit the current 5 to 6 week wait time.
The first iPhone X units are scheduled to ship out to preorder customers on Nov. 3, with limited supply arriving that same day in the company's brick-and-mortar stores.
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
11 Comments
Nice job, Apple. It would have been easy to just say tough luck.
What about the "snafu" of the Apple Store App Apple instructed me to use taking 13 minutes to load pushing me in to the 11/17-24 delivery window? I get that this is a #FirstWorldProblem but when a company offers a way to "speed through checkout" and then prevents me from doing so for 13 minutes it's quite aggravating. It'd be one thing to get in at 12:01 and have the luck of the draw push out my delivery date but to have it be because I followed Apple's instructions and was powerless to act is entirely another.
Yes, I can confirm! I got the same email Saturday morning asking if I placed another order and what the order # was. Then today I received an email to say that they updated their records and I should check back in 3 days. Delivery went from 12/8 -12/15, now it’s back to my original order delivery time of 11/17-11/24 2-3 weeks!! At first I was ok having to wait till Med-December, but kinda excited now!! Although I also had issues with Apple servers and the apple app not refreshing and store did not come back online till 13 min past the order time, using both my phone and iPad ... that ticked me off more than anything, cuz the same thing happened last year with 7+ order...
well #firstworldproblems
Still no delivery update for those of us that were pushed into “reserve” status because the carrier’s system had problems.
I was able to order my iPhone on Friday morning as soon as the servers reloaded. I did the pre-approval earlier in the week so I didn’t experience any citizen one issue.
What I did experience was I was immediately redirected to pick instore instead of home delivery. I am not sure if this has been common for others.