What 25 Cingular Reps Said About iPhone Release Date

I called 25 Cingular (now AT&T) stores around the United States today asking when the iPhone would be available. Of the 25 representatives I spoke with, none mentioned the June 11 release date that CNET claimed. Some reps said May, July, even “next month.”

Considering the responses I got from some of the people I spoke with, it’s possible the person who told CNET June 11 was just theorizing or didn’t know what he was talking about.

Decide for yourself. Here’s the list of the 25 Cingular stores I called and what they said (word for word) when I asked, “Do you know when the Apple iPhone will be available?”

1) 1 Eldridge St.

New York, NY 10002, USA

Phone: (212) 343-3838

What they said:

Rep: Mmm, I don’t know, sorry.

2) 9 Division St

New York, NY 10002, USA

Phone: (212) 343-0696

What they said:

Rep: In June probably.

Me: There’s no specific date?

Rep: No, don’t know yet.

3) 113 SE 1st Ave

Miami, FL 33131, USA

Phone: (305) 373-3873

What they said:

Rep: In June, sir.

Me: Is there a specific date?

Rep: No

4) 1589 Monroe Dr Ne

Atlanta, GA 30324, USA

Phone: (404) 685-9494

What they said:

Rep: During summer

Me: There’s no specific date?

Rep: I believe it’s going to be July, but I don’t have a date for you.

5) 14 Kane St

West Hartford, CT 06119, USA

Phone: (860) 231-8282

What they said:

Rep: Um, no I don’t.

6) 731 Route 33 atClothing Company Plaza/hamilton Sq

Mercerville, NJ 08619, USA

Phone: (609) 584-9393

What they said:

Rep: June or July

7) 5 S Lasalle St

Chicago, IL 60603, USA

Phone: (312) 977-1100

What they said:

Rep: They say June in the states, sir.

Me: There’s no specific date?

Rep: No, sir.

8.) 920 Studemont Ste 700

Houston, TX 77007, USA

Phone: (713) 802-9950

What they said:

Rep: Sir, probably end of May or first week of June, but it will most likely be here by the end of June.

9) 5120 Broadway

San Antonio, TX 78209, USA

Phone: (210) 509-8027

What they said:

Rep: Uh, no I don’t. Sometime in June.

10) 2153 South 700 East

Salt Lake City, UT 84106,

Phone: (801) 478-0380

What they said:

Rep: The iPhone’s gonna be coming out in the middle of June to the first of July, somewhere in that area.

11) 1500 Appalachee Pkwy 2145
Tallahassee, FL 32301, USA

Phone: (850) 877-4103

What they said:

Rep: In June.

Me: There’s no specific date?

Rep: Uh, middle of June but there’s a wait of ridiculous amounts of people and it probably won’t be in stores for a couple months after that. You could get on the waiting list.

Me: How do I do that?

Rep: I could give you a corporate number to call.

Note: The corporate number is (850) 671-1535. I didn’t call, but AT&T’s Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson said this week that there would be no advance iPhone orders, so I don’t think there’s actually a waiting list.

12) 2719 SW 29th

Oklahoma City, OK 73129,

Phone: (405) 606-7012

What they said:

Rep: They’re saying it’s sometime in June.

Me: There’s no specific date?

Rep: No not yet, it’s too far out still.

13) 301 Market Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106,

Phone: (215) 923-8202

What they said:

Rep: Probably around June or July.

Me: So there’s no specific date?

Rep: We won’t know until it’s launched.

14) 3801 E 10th St

Indianapolis, IN 46201, USA

Phone: (317) 375-1750

What they said:

Rep: We’re not getting that in here, but I think it’s out next month.

15) 781 Washington Blvd

Baltimore, MD 21230, USA

Phone: (410) 244-6162

What they said:

Rep: I’m not really sure, no.

16) 803 W Oklahoma Ave

Milwaukee, WI 53215, USA

Phone: (414) 482-2766

What they said:

Rep: Hopefully in about a month. (Psh, yeah wouldn’t that be great?)

17) 1518 3rd Ave

Seattle, WA 98101, USA

Phone: (206) 587-3306

What they said:

Rep: Not until sometime after June.

Me: So there’s no specific date?

Rep: No, there’s not a specific date yet because the FCC still has to approve the release of the phone.

18) 240 Old Colony Ave

South Boston, MA 02127, USA

Phone: (617) 269-9500

What they said:

Rep: Yes, in June. At the end of June.

Me: So there’s no specific date?

Rep: No, not yet.

19) 500 16th Street Mall
Unit 188
Denver, CO 80202, USA

Phone: (720) 214-4062

What they said:

Rep: June.

Me: There’s no specific date?

Rep: No. (So terse. Sounds like he gets this question a lot.)

20) 5504 Menaul

Albuquerque, NM 87110, US

Phone: (505) 888-1504

What they said:

Rep: June.

Me: Is there a specific date?

Rep: We don’t know exactly. It could be delayed. They could be back-ordered. We know the first ones are going to be a little bit hard to get ahold of.

21) 1899 E Willow St
Ste 100
Signal Hill, CA 90755, USA

Phone: (562) 997-9898

What they said:

Rep: That won’t be available until the end of June. That’s when they’re coming out.

Me: So there’s no specific date?

Rep: Nope.

22) 2067 Mountain Blvd

Oakland, CA 94611, USA

Phone: (510) 338-9900

What they said:

Rep: The iPhone will be available sometime around June or July.

23) 304 Armour Rd

North Kansas City, MO 64116, USA

Phone: (816) 474-5544

What they said:

Rep: Probably around June or July. The latest we’ll have it would probably be in September.

24) 5640 E Kings Canyon Rd
102
Fresno, CA 93727, USA

Phone: (559) 253-2830

What they said:

Rep: You know, they say June but I really don’t know when they’re going to be available at the stores.

25) 1210 G St NW

Washington, DC 20005, USA

Phone: (202) 628-2337

What they said:

Rep: Um sometime in June.

Me: So there’s no date?

Rep: No.

Today’s lesson: Take everything you hear with a grain of salt. The responses as to what the date will be varied between informed guesses and completely ignorant “Let me just say this to get him off my back” responses.

Apparently, though, a lot of the representatives felt that the stores wouldn’t have them in supply even when the iPhones were expected.

8 thoughts on “What 25 Cingular Reps Said About iPhone Release Date”

  1. It seems as though a lot of AT&T reps don’t know a lot and the things they tell you are not necessarily true. We were told that everyone on our family plan must have an iPhone and that we had to change our minute plan completely. After a lot of research, we found out both were not true. It’s amazing the things those reps will do just to get you to buy a phone. I’m not sure if it was ignorance on that reps part or if he was just trying to get us to buy two phones. Either way, we’re not going back into an AT&T store to get our phones next month. We’ll just hit up the Apple store in the mall.

    Reply
  2. I work at the Boulder Colorado store and I can say this, they don’t really tell us release dates. The reason being for example the Cingular 8525 was sold out in stores for over a month so even though the phone was out we couldn’t get it.

    As for the iphone release date most of the the reps did know that it would be out in June but we have not been told by any offical At&t channels a relase date. This is due to the lack of information from Apple. So shoot the messanger but straight from a very insightful rep at Cingular we don’t know anymore then you. I’ve been asking my manager for months are we going to get trained on the iphone and it being May 29th and no answers I’m guessing we’re not.

    Reply
  3. I can tell you when I waited for the Cingular 8525 release, none of the stores new the release date. The Cingular Website had more information than any of the stores. The day the Phone was released the Store Rep had to check there inventory to see if the even had it. They had no clue about the phone until it arrived at there store.

    Reply
  4. In-store sales reps aren’t exactly well known for thier insightfulness. Not one of your sources mentioned any date. So I don’t think this discredits CNET’s source at all.

    Reply
  5. You’re right. As you can see in the post, some of those in-store reps make you wonder why they’re working there at all (iPhone coming out next month??)

    I posted this in the midst of the Internet craze over “the iPhone is coming out June 11!” so I wanted to show that the date was not a for-sure thing.

    Just ’cause some unidentified rep (no matter who it is) says so, doesn’t mean it’s true.

    Thanks for your comment.

    Reply

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