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How I pre-ordered 3 iPhone 4S's and had zero problems

No, really, I did. On 7 Oct. It was pretty easy. (Note: I normally hate, hate, hate the "pre-" affliction. However, in this case, the alternatives are not significantly better, so "preorder".)

First, this was for a business account, so when my boss, who set an alarm for 3am tried to do it via Apple, he couldn't. I wasn't surprised. Then, as I'm on my way to Krispy Kreme, (I pick up donuts for work every friday. It starts the weekend off right), and asks where our AT&T account info is. I tell him, and while i'm getting donuts, he's on hold, on hold. I say "look, there's an AT&T store RIGHT THERE, let me do this. It's got to be faster, there's no hold." I go in, and not coincidently, this is the AT&T store where I do as much of our phone business as possible. Not that I hate online, but they always do fantastic work for me. (It's the AT&T store on the corner of Magnolia and Park in Tallahassee. Go there, spend money there, they've been really good people to me.)

Absolutely they can hook me up. Since none of the phones we're ordering are eligible for upgrade, we just have to find three numbers to upgrade. (Because it's a preorder, the options here are smaller, this was the best one by a mile.) Dude takes about 5 minutes to do that, and then takes the time to make sure I understand how the SIM swappage will have to go. Since the numbers he's using may be on 3GS's, he makes sure I have a set of regular SIM cards, just in case. Awesome.

So, now we hit the only thing that might have been a problem. There's a limit of one per order. This is easy to deal with, once he confirms he can do this. He simply runs three separate orders. Boo. Yah. No redoing a web form. No worries about connection or server overload. He does all the work, I hang out and play Scrabble, and run my card when he says to. Simple, easy, and zero frustration.

While we talked, he also explained how AT&T stores get in new Apple product, and how I'd want to work things if I wanted to pick one up for myself from that store. Ah, the knowledge you pick up in face to face conversations that never make it into a web form. (I learned this from a book on Kevin Mitnick. His genius wasn't in computer skills as much as talking to people and getting them to drop these little tidbits of knowledge. A conversation with the (somewhat lonely) engineer who did a lot of design work for Bell got Mitnick the hard-coded root password for pretty much every phone switch in California. People skills kids, learn them.) I may have to bring the AT&T store folks some donuts some time. One never knows the returns a couple of bucks of sugary confection can bring.

So yeah. Web forms got you pissed off? On hold forever? Try actually going to a store, and being pleasant. Do this regularly, so when you walk in, they know you as a true regular customer. The real kind. Who actually regularly spends money there. Not some dipshit who buys something once every couple years and wants perpetual ass kissing over it. You'd be amazed at what you can get out of it.

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No, really, I did. On 7 Oct. It was pretty easy. (Note: I normally hate, hate, hate the \"pre-\" affliction. However, in this case, the alternatives are not significantly better, so \"preorder\".)\n\nFirst, this was for a business account, so when my boss, who set an alarm for 3am tried to do it via Apple, he couldn't. I wasn't surprised. Then, as I'm on my way to Krispy Kreme, (I pick up donuts for work every friday. It starts the weekend off right), and asks where our AT&T account info is. I tell him, and while i'm getting donuts, he's on hold, on hold. I say \"look, there's an AT&T store RIGHT THERE, let me do this. It's got to be faster, there's no hold.\" I go in, and not coincidently, this is the AT&T store where I do as much of our phone business as possible. Not that I hate online, but they always do fantastic work for me. (It's the AT&T store on the corner of Magnolia and Park in Tallahassee. Go there, spend money there, they've been really good people to me.)\n\nAbsolutely they can hook me up. Since none of the phones we're ordering are eligible for upgrade, we just have to find three numbers to upgrade. (Because it's a preorder, the options here are smaller, this was the best one by a mile.) Dude takes about 5 minutes to do that, and then takes the time to make sure I understand how the SIM swappage will have to go. Since the numbers he's using may be on 3GS's, he makes sure I have a set of regular SIM cards, just in case. Awesome.\n\nSo, now we hit the only thing that might have been a problem. There's a limit of one per order. This is easy to deal with, once he confirms he can do this. He simply runs three separate orders. Boo. Yah. No redoing a web form. No worries about connection or server overload. He does all the work, I hang out and play Scrabble, and run my card when he says to. Simple, easy, and zero frustration.\n\nWhile we talked, he also explained how AT&T stores get in new Apple product, and how I'd want to work things if I wanted to pick one up for myself from that store. Ah, the knowledge you pick up in face to face conversations that never make it into a web form. (I learned this from a book on Kevin Mitnick. His genius wasn't in computer skills as much as talking to people and getting them to drop these little tidbits of knowledge. A conversation with the (somewhat lonely) engineer who did a lot of design work for Bell got Mitnick the hard-coded root password for pretty much every phone switch in California. People skills kids, learn them.) I may have to bring the AT&T store folks some donuts some time. One never knows the returns a couple of bucks of sugary confection can bring.\n\nSo yeah. Web forms got you pissed off? On hold forever? Try actually going to a store, and being pleasant. Do this regularly, so when you walk in, they know you as a true regular customer. The real kind. Who actually regularly spends money there. Not some dipshit who buys something once every couple years and wants perpetual ass kissing over it. You'd be amazed at what you can get out of it.