I went to the Mountain View CA AT&T store today at 9:25 in order to get in line to pre-order an iphone. I was the 9th person in line. It took over one hour from the time the store opened until I was allowed to come into the store and start the ordering process. About 45 minutes into the process, when we had completed the paperwork, and the AT&T representative pushed the “purchase” button on the screen, the cart mysteriously ”emptied” just as the AT&T representative wanted to finish the process. Apparently there were so many AT&T stores ordering the phones that most of the representatives reported this problem. 15 minutes later after re-filling out all of the information, the order did go through.

People in line reported that it was impossible to get through on the website, and the AT&T representatives indicated that the queue for calling AT&T was over 1000 people long.

This was the day the Mountain View Store was having their air conditioning fixed, so employees went out an purchased fans in order to keep customers cool.

They also handed out glasses of water to people in line, and provided seating for those who were tired form standing in line for so long.

Although I had visited the store a week ago, they neglected to tell me that the primary person on the account HAD to be present and a part of the ordering process. I called my husband and he came down while I was still in line.

 People in line were very civilized.