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.
I heard it will be released on July 11, 2008 starting at 8AM. Can anyone confirm this?
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.
plz tell about iphone futures and when be the release date of iphote plz i wait foe iphote tell soon thank you
I ment to say most of the reps did know it would be out in June but didn’t know a release date.
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.
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.
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.
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.