iPhone X Buyers Left Distraught Amid Apple Pre-Order Frenzy

It has been among the most highly anticipated devices of 2017 but consumers were left distraught over not being able to order their iPhone X when Apple opened the pre-orders for the device at 3 a.m. EDT on Friday.

The website and the app were said to have crashed soon after the pre-orders were opened, and even the customers who got the device in their shopping carts found their carts were automatically reset. The huge rush of traffic apparently overwhelmed the company’s servers. Many customers then received emails, asking them to start over the purchase process again.

This left many Twitter users complaining about not being able to get their hands on the device.

Apple had a much smoother run for the iPhone 8, which wasn’t as highly anticipated as iPhone X. The company’s tenth-anniversary phone comes with features such as Face ID — Apple facial recognition based device unlocking mechanism.

The demand for the device is such that the retailers such as Best Buy are offering the ulocked device at $100 premium. Even though other retailers don’t put such premium on the price, when asked about the practice, Best Buy told 9to5Mac, “Our prices reflect the fact that no matter a customer’s desired plan or carrier, or whether a customer is on a business or personal plan, they are able to get a phone the way they want at Best Buy. Our customers have told us they want this flexibility and sometimes that has a cost.”

Basically, Best Buy is asking customers to pay a premium on the top of the price, taking advantage of the demand for iPhone X. Essentially, customers may be paying $100 for services other retailers provide for free.

While Apple will start shipping devices only by Nov. 3, even network carriers who are generally at the forefront of 24 hour deliveries, haven’t pushed out such deals for iPhone X. The only company that is offering any significant benefits on the smartphone is Xfinity, which is offering a $500 gift card with the device.

While many people are blaming the company for having low stock of the device due to slow production of iPhone X, according to Cnet, that is not the only reason why pre-orders failed for many consumers. When a large number of customers try to pre-order a device at the same time, it creates a huge traffic. However, physical stores ration this demand and can provide a stock of devices more easily.