Who’s in charge over there, guys?
A peculiar website notice suggests that AT&T may be blocking New Yorkers from ordering iPhones online because New York isn’t “ready for the iPhone,” though the device currently remains available from brick-and-mortar stores. To make matters worse, AT&T seems to be dancing around the issue without offering a clear explanation for the decision.
The story started with a reader contacting the Consumerist, claiming that AT&T’s website would not let him buy an iPhone when he entered a New York area ZIP code for his location.
[…] A customer service representative verified that this was the case, explaining that the network couldn’t handle the iPhone.
“Yes, this is correct the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone,” the AT&T customer service rep told Consumerist. “You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone.”
They later posted this update:
It appears that the restriction on ordering iPhones online for New York ZIP codes has been lifted just as mysteriously as it appeared this past weekend. We tried a few ZIP codes ourselves just to be sure, and we weren’t able to get the warning that was being generated earlier today.
Apparently some knee caps got threatened. And wallah! The iPhone now works in NYC.
#1 Glenn E.:
Apparently some knee caps got threatened. And wallah! The iPhone now works in NYC.
Oh, if only that were true, none of this would have happened (probably). The problem is that AT&T’s network is overwhelmed — iPhone users account for sixty to eighty percent of their network’s data traffic, way out of proportion to their numbers, so everybody gets rotten service, slow data, dropped calls etc., etc., etc. AT&T either sold or were sold a bill of goods. “Yeah, our network can handle that load aces! No problemo!”
But then why should they be any different from all the other lying, lazy, under-delivering under-capable service providers who are more interested in enriching their top executives than actually performing the services their companies were spend millions promising to perform?
For the record I was an avid reader of consumerist until I discovered they do zero research on their stories and will cover up mistakes. They will often post stories that could be explained away by simple calling the 1=800 on the back of package and getting an answer.
For example they once ran a story about bones in canned Salmon, not realizing this was perfectly normal. After they banned everyone who criticized them in comments they then changed the story to make it look they knew all along that there should be bones in a can of salmon. A simple google search would have answered the question for them. They do zero research on their stories.
Read the comments.