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.
This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:5, Interesting)
No problems last month (Score:3, Interesting)
I live in NYC under a 114xx zip code and had no problems buying one in person at an ATT store. I bought it the weekend after Thanksgiving so it was about a month ago. Maybe they changed it since then.
Re:Spin (Score:3, Interesting)
Everybody outside of the tech world knows what an iPhone is.
Not everybody outside of the tech world knows what the E55, Hero, or GW620 are.
True, but promisingly I've been seeing a lot of my non-tech friends carrying around new Android devices lately.
AT&T CSRs are hit and miss (Score:1, Interesting)
As with any company hiring from the general public and paying very low wages to its CSRs, the information you get from a particular CSR is not necessarily reliable. I have no specific information as to whether or not this claim about the iPhone in NYC is true, but one CSR's answer isn't worth a damn.
Utter fantasy (Score:1, Interesting)
Must be April 1, as there are more places to buy the iPhone in NY than in just about any other place. Here in Rockland County (across the Hudson from Westchester), I'm close to the Apple retail stores in West Nyack, White Plains, Greenwich and Stamford, not to mention the 3 in Manhattan (including Apple's largest retail store). Every one chock full of iPhones. Oh, and I bought both my and my wife's iPhones on the internet without a hitch.
News outlets used to believe that outrageous claims required outrageous proof. Now, "some guy said" or the typical bad info of an outsourced customer service agent is considered golden.
Re:AT&T's service is crap (Score:5, Interesting)
About 2 weeks later, I got this nice call from an AT&T droid who says he was asked by the FCC to look into this. After a few pleasantries, he suggested 1) Making sure the battery was charged (OK), 2) Turning off 3G (already done, don't have 3G here in the boonies) and getting closer to the tower. I explained that if I got any closer to the tower on the last dropped call, I'd have to marry it.
His final suggestion was to take it up with Apple, maybe I needed a new handset.
I suppose it's something of a start but AT&T isn't going to solve very much of the problem this way.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:AT&T's service is crap (Score:5, Interesting)
Go back to the FCC and resubmit your complaint. Obviously AT&T simply read you the script to meet the barest of "compliance" requirements...by sending you to some script reader in a call center. They won't do jack shit until the FCC requires them to. Or, you're able to find someone within the local ranks at ATT that are willing to listen to you, not just some corporate weenie.
Re:AT&T's service is crap (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Spin (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Spin (Score:1, Interesting)
Don't know. While the ad campaign might not be doing it, user experience definitely is. I know of no one (including myself and my wife) who have gotten Droids and dislike them. The phone is great. I no longer care whether I get an iPhone (which I previously wanted). The Droid is a great phone.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:4, Interesting)
Bullshit.
I called Wells Fargo before my last cross-country trip - They immediately locked me from $2,000 daily limit to $200, I got stranded because I filled up for gas and then had not enough left for the rest of the day to cover my hotel expenses - I had to sleep in my car in the freezing cold in a fucking parking lot.
And when they said they raised it back up - they lied. They cut it down to $150.
Of course, as soon as I got back, I withdrew all of my money and made a very loud statement in the lobby to all of the customers present. I think two followed my suit.
You tell them you're going around the country, they'll lock your shit down so you don't make THEM off-balance. They're the ones playing dirty with your money. What, you ain't seen the bailout?
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:1, Interesting)
I don't live in NYC, but I have to say it was very disconcerting the first time I encountered the MMS issue where a friend sent me a photo, and it appeared to come from some random number [engadget.com] 8 states away. The same occurred if I sent a picture, although it showed as coming from a local number, but still the wrong number. Fortunately or not, the random phone numbers didn't appear to get a copy of the messages, but if you weren't paying attention and just replied to the message, then that reply would go to the wrong number.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, the South Korea that wanted strong (128-bit) encryption back when IE was the only browser worth mentioning, but 128-bit encryption couldn't be exported. They implemented their own encryption scheme as an ActiveX pugin, and open source browsers have been really slow about implementing a compatible form of that encryption system.
To me, that sounds like a country that was quite tech savvy, but got screwed by US politics.
Re:Spin (Score:3, Interesting)
You might notice that AT&T commercials never promote the iPhone. They always promote some other smart phone.
I'm sure they'll get into the Android game soon enough.
And I look forward to the 4G iPhone in June.
And Google's new phone.
Boy, 2010 should be an interesting year.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:4, Interesting)
How far they have fallen. I used to be die hard AT&T. Between 93-98 I had an old Nokia TDMA cell phone with a freaking brick on the back for a battery.
My talk time was like 3-4 fucking days. I forgot my charger one time on a trip and it lasted on standby and just a little bit of talking two weeks. I shit you not.
I was once out on a camping trip in the middle of nowhere (probably 20 miles away from the interstate) and I was the only person with a cell signal. Made calls and everything. People were dumbfounded that I was on my cell phone considering how far away I was.
2009.......
I am ready to strangle people with iPhones on AT&T. It is such a joke. From Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Houston, and New York, I talk to people with crappy sound, disconnects within about 3-4 minutes (90% of the time), and pure constant frustration trying to communicate with these people.
They still love the iPhone though.
What I have learned is two things.
1) How far you can fall in terms of customer satisfaction and real world coverage and performance. (Not flaming here, these are my direct observations).
2) How much shit people will put up with for a shiny iPhone.
P.S - The iPhone does not look that bad. Jailbroken and on TMobile or Verizon (hopefully soon because CDMA will finally be available) it might be pretty nice to work with.
My prediction. (Score:3, Interesting)
In late January, when every pundit expects an Apple Tablet rollout, what will be rolled out is another Apple phone - perhaps not called an iPhone - which is not tied to the AT&T network.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:2, Interesting)
The ActiveX plugin dates to the days of IE4, long before Firefox, and pretty much contemporaneous with the open-sourcing of Netscape. This was the height of Microsoft's illegal tactics in the browser wars, and there were no mainstream open-source browsers.
Why the government didn't fund the development of compatible open systems, I don't know, but it was certainly many years before there was significant demand.
iPhone vs everything else (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, i got stung by an automated anti-fraud system when i tried to book a flight ticket (relatively large purchase), had to call up the card provider and explain that i really did want to go there..
Then when i arrived, my card again got suspended because i was using it out of my normal country, in the place i had just bought a ticket to and told them all about it. I then had to pay exorbitant phone charges to call them and explain again.
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:1, Interesting)
There's been a lot of coverage indicating problems with iPhones in New York, including one Gizmodo piece saying a 30% dropped call rate is apparently normal [gizmodo.com].
I work in New York, live in New Jersey.
AT&T is definitely spotty in New York. I sit in an innercore office of a large office building and I get zero service.
When I go outside, service sometimes will work, sometimes drops my calls. I have also experienced dropped calls in cabs in New York.
Verizon seems to have no problem here. AT&T needs to do something...
Re:This has been an issue for quite awhile. (Score:3, Interesting)