Consumerist Says AT&T Site Won't Sell iPhone In NYC, Citing Network 420
cowp writes "A Consumerist tipster couldn't get AT&T's website to sell him an iPhone when he shopped using an NYC ZIP code, but could when he tried other cities' ZIPs. Consumerist asked an AT&T CSR and seems to have gotten confirmation that this is carrier policy: 'Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone. You don't have enough towers to handle the phone.' Considering Apple's gadget is currently the most popular handset in the US, its exclusive carrier's inability/unwillingness to support the device in the country's largest market is pretty huge news. If this proves true, I'd expect curtains for AT&T's exclusivity deal when it comes up for renewal." If you're in NYC, can you confirm or deny this outlandish-sounding claim?
Updated 20091227 1:03 GMT by timothy: Headline, now corrected, inaccurately named Apple rather than AT&T. Mea culpa.
Re:Spin (Score:2, Informative)
Fix the headline? (Score:4, Informative)
Summary makes it clear it's AT&T that isn't selling the iPhone in New York City. Headline says it's Apple, who last time I checked have iPhones for sale in their New York City stores. :)
Re:Most popular handset is false. (Score:2, Informative)
and even then its closest rivals are barely a tenth of a percentage point behind
Speaking of false, that's bullcrap. You could have at least tried a simple Google query for smart phone market share [google.com] before wasting keystrokes here.
Re:Most popular handset is false. (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. It's the most popular phone in the US based on units sold. 4% [mobilecrunch.com] of the market.
That's almost 10% better than the best BB. 75% better than the entire RAZR V3 line.
Re:Spin (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Spin (Score:2, Informative)
That chart is rubbish. They've grouped all the iPhones into one model, yet all the other phone makes are split up. Looks like Apple paid Nielson to do some fiddling.....
Re:Spin (Score:5, Informative)
People are wising up though. The Droid's marketing campaign just hasn't gotten people into VZW's doors, it has spurred interest in Android devices in general. I've talked with people who see the Droid, find it interesting, but prefer T-Mobile, and end up coming out with a Samsung Behold, a Motorola Cliq, or a MyTouch 3G. People on Sprint find that the Samsung Moment offers one of the fastest processors. The only carrier that has no current offering is AT&T, but supposedly they will be offering a Dell Android phone. AT&T also has the iPhone, so just business common sense says that Android devices will be second fiddle to AT&T's mainstay.
Re:Utter fantasy (Score:3, Informative)
Must be April 1, as there are more places to buy the iPhone in NY than in just about any other place.
Unless you're trying to buy one online via AT&T's site.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:4, Informative)
The same South Korea that took over two years to get the iPhone. And the same SK that still blocks any non-Korean approved unlocked phone from being used on their networks without paying a $300 "inspection" fee? And the same SK where the majority of domestic websites require Internet Explorer 6 (yes, 6) to function correctly?
For those of you who don't know, South Korea is not a technological paradise. We have fast broadband but that's about it.
Re:Fix the headline? (Score:5, Informative)
New Yorker and iPhone family (Score:1, Informative)
Zip Code - 10019. 50th Street and 8th Avenue. About as IN New York City as you can get. We have three iPhones. Got the third one from an AT&T store on the 22nd of this month. Sounds like total crap to me. Then again, it's a "consumerist tipster" reporting this...
Re:AT&T's service is crap (Score:5, Informative)
"AT&T's service is crap"
correct.
BUT...
You could be standing under the tower and your phone not work.
Its called site geometry you actually could have a dead spot in certain areas that are very close to the tower and even in plain sight, including directly at the site.
Just because you see one tower, its not ONE cell site. Depending on the location and the needs for that are it could be upto 6 sites depending on the sectorization used at that location. Most are 3 at a minimum, 120 degree sectorization. As you move into the urban area, and to meet other coverage needs it can go down to about 60 degrees.
this applies to all RADIO systems, which cell phones are nothing more than radio systems.
AT&T won't sell on-line to NYC because of frau (Score:2, Informative)
According to an AT&T CSR questioned in The Consumerist comments.
Joseph W.: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I assist you with placing your order today?
Joseph W.: Which one, the 3gs?
Peter: Yes
Peter: It says "There are no phones and devices that match your search criteria."
Joseph W.: It is because you are in New York City.
Peter: What does that mean?
Joseph W.: Due to massive fraud in online ordering, iPhones are not available online only.
Joseph W.: They can be bought in stores only.
Peter: Oh, ok
It's true (Score:3, Informative)
Try for yourself!
1. Go to http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/cell-phones.jsp [att.com]
2. If you're outside of NYC, you'll see "Showing 69 standard phones or devices" and the iPhones listed immediately below.
3. Change your zip code to 10101 by clicking Update next to your location in the upper-right corner.
4. Now notice that it says "Showing 65 standard phones or devices." The iPhones are nowhere to be found.
Now, the reason that the CSR gave for iPhone being unavailable might not be correct, but you certainly can't buy an iPhone from the AT&T website in NYC.
Re:AT&T's service is crap (Score:3, Informative)
I was in an Apple store over Christmas and watched 3 different people come in and complain about reception on their iPhones. All 3 were given new phones without any hassel from the Apple store employees. You should at least try that and possibly get a new phone.
Re:Don't bash AT&T (Score:2, Informative)
Again, it's not any different than a restaurant declining to take a reservation because they're full. Respectable businesses do this all the time. It's perfectly reasonable.
Well, if the the restaurant is required to find some place for you to sit or stand quietly while ordering what you want and eating it, then this is an accurate analogy. In the US, cell phone providers are not allowed to refuse service - even for creditworthiness - unless you already owe them money. Since the iPhone is the biggest reason for AT&T subscriber growth over the past year or so, this is simply their way to cope with a drastically overloaded network and limit the number of new subscribers in NYC.
Re:Spin (Score:3, Informative)
Just to be a bit of a fanboy, but I got a Moment because it has an OLED screen. I was sick of my previous phone being unusable in sunlight. The slide out keyboard with primary number keys is also nice.
Re:iPhone Market Stats (Score:3, Informative)
Oh wait, they do [nokiausa.com].
Utterly false article (Score:1, Informative)
I live in New York, and I can say from personal experience that the AT&T store here definitely lets you buy IPhones. Or at least they did last June when I friggin' ***stood in line*** with a bunch of other people who were also buying IPhones.
I can also say from personal experience that while the AT&T network in new york isn't perfect, I've been on all the major carrier over the past six years (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile) and judging by the number of dropped calls I get and the number of times I can't make a call, AT&T is at least as good as Verizon, maybe even better. That only applies to New York and other big cities though -- I will admit that when I travel to rural areas, AT&T service is much shoddier there than Verizon.
The only way this article could possibly be true is that maybe the guy's particular zip code was in a section of New York that doesn't yet have good service -- like maybe one of the "still developing" neighbors in the Bronx or something. But as for New York city as a whole? They are definitely selling Iphones here.
no problem in store (Score:1, Informative)
I bought an iPhone sunday afternoon in astoria (NYC) in an AT&T store, no problem at all...
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
It's about fraud prevention (Score:4, Informative)
Not all AT&T phone reps are equally versed in what's going on, as Consumerist later admits on their site. AT&T will sell you the iPhone in their stores throughout NYC. They won't sell you the phone online within NYC. Apparently this is because of fraudulent resales as people order the phones online, take delivery and then ship them overseas. Skipping out on the contracts in the process, as they never intended to honor them in the first place.
I wonder why NYC has more of a problem with this than other locations. Large transient international population I suppose...
Re:iPhone vs everything else (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:3, Informative)
If telling them I was going on vacation got them to not cut off my card I don't know what you did to piss off the gods of banking but it looks like the problem may have been with you.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:3, Informative)
I also call bullshit.
When I went from the US to Australia in 2002, all it took was one phone call to Wells Fargo (via an international toll-free number) to sort things out. After the initial lockout and re-enabling, I used that card in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Italy without further issues.
I continued to use the account for another 4-5 years after deciding to stay on in Oz. Got WF to change my statement address to my place in Brisbane, and they even automatically sent me a replacement card a month or so before the old one was due to expire.
Sounds to me as though someone maybe got their knickers in a knot over having to prove their identity to the bank's satisfaction — providing info that WF almost certainly already had in any case.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:1, Informative)
Japan is NOT more advanced, it seams that people fall for this so easily these days.
Do they have any reputable universities ? Do they have cutting edge biotech, nano or healthcare facilities ? Do they walked on the moon or have significant space presence ? Yes, they do have some neat electronics, but it runs our licensed tech. like those CPU chips, Wii runs IBM-CPU and ATI chip, similar PS3 uses IBM and nVidia technology. They licence most of the stuff from the west.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:2, Informative)
I don't usually bother replying to AC's, but this guy has that peculiar mix of naivety, stupidity and arrogance that just really gets up my nose.
Japan is NOT more advanced, it seams that people fall for this so easily these days.
I agree. It's so easy to look at the newer motorway infrastructure, the artificial islands for new development, the brilliant, wonderfully advanced and incredibly efficient public transport systems that the US can hardly dream of matching and of course the newer comms infrastructure and be fooled into thinking Japan is an incredibly advanced modern nation.
Do they have any reputable universities ?
Ummm, well, yes. Only problem is that they teach in Japanese - so they can't really be teaching anything important, could they?
Do they have cutting edge biotech, nano or healthcare facilities ?
Don't you keep up with tech news?
Do they walked on the moon or have significant space presence ?
Well, yes actually, they do have quite a significant space presence [wikipedia.org].
Yes, they do have some neat electronics, but it runs our licensed tech. like those CPU chips, Wii runs IBM-CPU and ATI chip, similar PS3 uses IBM and nVidia technology. They licence most of the stuff from the west.
Standards are standards and cheap readily available chips are a sound commercial decision. You will also notice however who many big Western companies use Motorola chips for instance.
I live in NYC with my iPhone 3G. No complaints. (Score:2, Informative)
I've had my iPhone 3G since release day. I've generally been very happy with the service that I get from AT&T.
The first few months, I kept 3G service off and kept to the edge network because there were major issues with the 3G service bouncing on and off. The constant switching from 3G to Edge would severely drain the phone's battery. After that first period of time, there was a marked improvement in signal strength throughout the city. Within Manhattan, I have no problems with 3G service for making phone calls. I can't even remember the last time I lost a call.
Unfortunately, for me the iPhone is a lot less about having a phone, and more about having a little internet device that's always connected. Having full signal strength does not equate to being able to use 3G data, or fast 3G data speeds. There are many times that I've got full signal strength, but can not use the internet because of the poor signal to noise ratio. Poor SnR is something that anyone, on any carrier will experience within a heavily populated, dense, and electrified city.
Do some Google searches on every carrier in every major city and you will find that there are a LOT of unhappy people regardless of the service they have.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:3, Informative)
Standards are standards and cheap readily available chips are a sound commercial decision. You will also notice however who many big Western companies use Motorola chips for instance.
What does that have to do with it? Or were you under the impression that Motorola was Japanese?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorolla [wikipedia.org]