Online iPhone sales halted to residents of New York City
If you live in any of the five boroughs of New York City, and you’re hankering to buy an iPhone, don’t try doing it online at the moment.
Mass confusion seems to be the order of the day for consumers trying to purchase an iPhone from AT&T’s Web site if they live in New York City. On Sunday, The Consumerist reported that all sales of the iPhone, both online and in retail stores, had been halted. The reason people were being given when talking to AT&T reps was that “New York is not ready for the iPhone.”
There is no doubt there have been numerous complaints about the quality of coverage in New York City, but if this was happening there, why not also in San Francisco which has had just as many complaints? Things were certainly not adding up.
Monday dawned with a new excuse being given by AT&T. Sales in the company’s retail stores were indeed happening, as well as in the five Apple stores, but online sales still seemed iffy at best. According to All Things Digital, today’s excuse du jour is that online sales have been suspended for newer models due to increased fraud in that area. You can still by refurbished older models, but sales of new iPhone 3G S units is only happening in retail stores.
Fletcher Cook, a spokesperson for AT&T told All Things Digital via e-mail, “We periodically modify our promotions and distribution channels.” Well, cutting off sales to the city with the largest population in the country is certainly a modification of some type, we just aren’t exactly sure what type it is.
It’s easy to imagine with all of the press coverage of this situation that online sales will be restored in short order, but then the question will be if we will ever get a straight answer to what exactly happened.
UPDATE: Sales have started again online … still no clear explanation as to what exactly happened.
Related Posts:
