by Oh, yeah, I’m mad! Steaming! Burning! Janna and I preordered two iPhone 4S last week ago from Verizon for delivery today, and everything was going great so far — that is — until a curious FedEx delivery exception appeared on BOTH iPhone tracking pages at 11:52am this morning when the phones were supposed to arrive by 3:00pm.
How is it possible, I wondered, that a “Delivery Exception” could be simultaneously placed on both phones when they’d been “out for delivery” on the truck for three hours? The weather here is fine. I can’t imagine what happened.
What, exactly did this “Future delivery requested” mean? It looked like I was the one who requested a later delivery. I took the day off to sit here and wait for the FedEx truck. I did not make any request to delay the iPhones delivery.
The first thing I did was run to check my front door for a missed delivery notification.
Nothing.
I walked around the block a bit to see if I could find the FedEx truck.
No truck.
I picked up the phone and called FedEx. I told the customer service agent about my angst and she was helpful and understanding. She agreed that it looked like I had made that exception request and she decided to call dispatch to see what happened.
She told me dispatch told her to send a message to the driver and ask for an update since I was not the one who requested the delay. She said I’d get a call back from the driver with an updated time on delivery.
I told her I wanted the packages by 3:00pm as promised and she agreed with me that is exactly what should happen. Will it happen? I’m not feeling good about it.
It’s been 90 minutes and I don’t have a call back from FedEx with a delivery update. I don’t care if they’re swamped with iPhone deliveries today — and I’m sure the smart FedEx drivers called in sick today so they don’t have to deal with the deluge of iPhone deliveries — but I don’t care! I want my iPhone 4S as promised and I don’t want any faked “delivery exceptions” placed in my name.
I will update this article in the comments flow as this sorry saga unfolds.
Oh, no, so disappointing and everything was going so well. I hope FedEx gets this figured out and delivered today.
Yes, such a disappointment! It’s the sneakiness of the delay that really goads me.
UPDATE:
Just got off the phone with FedEx a second time. This new agent was also helpful and understanding. She checked with dispatch and had them send a note to the driver — who didn’t respond to the first inquiry 90 minutes ago — and she, too, was going to send a message to the driver to call me with a delivery update. This agent also said it was “suspicious” that it looked like I requested the delivery delay — when I did not — and she said that was not right and that FedEx was going to need to set it right for me.
UPDATE:
Now FedEx told me that Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, because of overwhelming demands to deliver the iPhone 4S today, have given FedEx a relaxed delivery time of 9pm tonight instead of 3pm today — funny how my exception says delivery by 7pm tomorrow! — and that nothing can be done to get me my phone any sooner than 9pm.
Do I think the phone will show up at 9pm? Nope. Do I believe this new line of b.s. from FedEx? Nope. When I asked the guy on the phone when this new “elastic delivery time” was implemented, he told me “last night.” Now that doesn’t jake with anything I was told in two previous calls to FedEx and it doesn’t explain why my iPhones were “out for delivery” this morning and then “delivery excepted” three hours later.
UPDATE:
Just got off the phone with Manny the Supervisor at FedEx. He said the iPhones will be delivered by 7pm tonight. That’s the word from the driver and from dispatch — even though they never bothered to call me as promised to tell me that. Manny said that if the iPhones don’t show up tonight by 7pm, he will intervene and call the driver for me. He seemed confident that the phone would arrive by 7pm — but that they deliver up until 9pm tonight.
I will keep you updated!
UPDATE:
Manny the Supervisor was nice, but he was wrong when he said that “all” the iPhone 4S deliveries were done by FedEx today. I know UPS is handling the load, too.
Then I asked Manny why FedEx wasn’t better prepared to handle the iPhone deliveries. FedEx should have known for at least a week how many packages they would have to deliver today. Why does it look like they were surprised by the overwhelming influx of iPhone deliveries? Manny didn’t have an answer to that, but he did tell me there are “guys on trucks doing only iPhone deliveries today.”
It seems like every iPhone launch there’s a goat — first Apple and activations, then AT&T not being able to handle the order load, and now it’s FedEx’s turn in the slaughterhouse. All of these goats could’ve avoided their label with better, and more prescient, planning.
UPDATE:
Two iPhones delivered. Done and done. Now time to play.
I am in the same situation. I have been told they are allowed to do that. Who allows such things. I am the customer and I did not allow to postpone the delivery. I am mad. sooooooooooooooo mad.
I feel for you, I really do. I just got the iPhones delivered from FedEx. They are beautiful. It was my regular FedEx guy. He looked haggard and swamped. He said, “there are a lot of iPhones to deliver.” He always takes care of me, so I know he got here as fast as he could.
Setting up the phone from iCloud was a breeze and Verizon activation was invisible and instantaneous. The phones are worth waiting for — just see if you can get some sort of delivery timeframe from FedEx. That will help ease your mind a little.
I know a new phone is exciting…
But you folks should really get a life.
Who should get a life, Ed? Me, who wrote the most popular iPhone article today in the history of this blog? Or you, coming at us from — GILSANZ MURRAY STEFICEK LLP — and who is taking time out of a busy workday to place a comment on an article you find lifeless?
At least you had FEDEX which can deliver on Saturday and they came through….UPS screwed the pooch on this one, College students were told they had to drive to the UPS facility by 9pm friday night or no phone until monday BECAUSE UPS DOES NOT DELIVER ON THE WEEKEND. FEDEX=delivered, UPS=EPIC FAIL…All because of these “delivery exceptions” when people were home to receive the package.
I know UPS will do Saturday delivery in some areas of the USA. Where are you located? It’s pretty bad that this delivery launch was so messed up. The amount of deliveries should have surprised no one in shipping and they should have been prepared.
Glad you eventually got the phones! Sorry you had to suffer to get them!
Loving the phones, Gordon! Such a massive upgrade from the 3GS! I’ll be writing a full review on Monday.
Yes. This iPhone 4s delivery was a mess. It is sunday now and I never received my phone from AT&T/Fedex. What a joke. Package never got updated from 0800 hrs on 10/13/11. Shown as being in Memphis, TN. People are walking in the store and picking up an iPhone 4s. AT&T is no help. They can’t even handle the call volume from people calling them with their problems. I am cancelling the package and cutting my ties with AT&T forever and will never use Fedex again. Walked into Verizon on 08/15/11 and picked up an iPhone 4s. What a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is such a disappointing and sad story, Rick. I’m glad you were able to get a 4S. Will you be refunded for the in-transit iPhone? I agree that Verizon is so much better than AT&T in every way.
According to AT&T they have to wait 5 days from when the item was shipped to refund me and allow me to get out of my contract. We will see how many people I have to talk to in order to make that happen. Good news is where I live I get much better service with verizon then I did with AT&T. 1 bar compared to 3 to 4 bars.
Thanks for that update, Rick! Please let us know what happens with AT&T. When I called to cancel my service on Saturday after getting our Verizon phones on Friday, they held me on the phone for 30 minutes trying to convince me to stay, or to give my phones to somebody, or to make my phones pay-as-you-go. It was incredible, unnecessary, pressure that I did not appreciate as a leaving customer.
I agree Verizon is already so much better than AT&T it isn’t funny. I’m seeing reports of these massive AT&T speed increases on the iPhone 4s, but I don’t believe them. I, too, saw some fast “Speed Test” numbers on AT&T, but that didn’t mean your call wouldn’t drop or that you could actually listen to Spotify or surf the web. On Verizon, you can, even with “slower speeds” that feel four times faster than AT&T.
Here’s my iPhone 4s review posted moments ago:
http://bolesblues.com/2011/10/17/the-boles-blues-iphone-4s-review/
I will let you know what happens with AT&T. By the way. Excellent review on the 4S!!
Great, Rick, thanks for the future updates and I appreciate you good words about my 4s review!
I pre-ordered as soon as pre-orders were taken from Verizon….I was expecting a delivery Friday; I checked the delivery status when my phone hadn’t arrived yet and It said something along the lines of “failure to deliver” because of incorrect adress. Long story short, I called Verizon, they said the printed label was incorrect, and while on the line with Verizon they said they had fized the shipping issue and my phone was being re-sent.
Here I am, Wednesday afternoon, still no Iphone 4s. Monday I called fedex and they said they had re sent the package to Verizon and it was in Verizon’s possession. I called Verizon, and they said they had to send it though inventory. They tried to get me to place another order(which wouldn’t be shipped to the 28th) while having been charged for two phones, one of which I haven’t recieved. Basically, they want me to pay for another phone when I haven’t even received the first one..I spoke to a supervisor and they said they would call back and have one shipped ASAP..that was a day ago….here I am..a couple hundred dollars poorer, no new phone, and having been talking in circles with verizon customer support,…
Ouch, that hurts! I can totally understand your frustration. Cross-shipping replacement product is always a hassle because the company wants you to guarantee payment no matter what and you don’t want to have to pay double without having any product in hand. Please let us know how this resolves for you!
ATT has failed to deliver once again- promise in one week and no iphone- ordered them the first day!
Crazy! What is the delay?
Wow, you have it lucky. This is nothing.
I live in Vancouver, Canada and I preordered my 4s online through Apple on Oct 11th.
I was told it would take 1-2 weeks and then a week or so to deliver.
Today’s Oct 27th, so far I’ve received four “Future delivery requested” notifications even though the damn phone is in my city.
I swear, if I receive one more “Future delivery requested” notification, I will throw a fit.
Thanks for sharing your story! Please keep us updated on your Canadian delivery timeframe! I’m curious to know how quickly you get the iPhone.
My iPhone from FedEx said delivered on the website. I ran downstairs opened the door and nothing was their. And the FedEx site said left at front door? I don’t get my FedEx packages until like 5:00-6:00 at night and when I called they said the drivers gone for the day. Now I’m thinking some scumbag took my iPhone from my porch. So 10:00 am the next day the driver called me all pissy and told me he threw my phone over my back yard fence into the yard. I went out ASAP and found my 150 pound Rottweiler ripping my package apart. Thank god it was ok. I have a 8 foot fence and he just tossed it over. And it was raining the night it was outside.
Now that’s a story! I’m so glad you were able to save the phone!
My Verizon overnight delivery was accepted on Thursday. I did not receive my iPhone 4s until Tuesday. Evidently, overnight Thursday does not mean Friday? The following Monday, January 2nd was a holiday for New Year’s Day. Still bitter!
I don’t blame you for feeling bitter! SMILE! This goes to prove how a bad experience lingers longer than a good one.