Preordering is broken, and here’s how to fix the system – CNET

If you’re not happy with how the iPhone X preorder launch went, you’re not alone. Twitter, Reddit and other social media forums were full of complaints from the moment Apple’s preorders opened (or, for some people, failed to open) on Oct. 27.

Websites and apps stalled, crashed or hung; shopping carts mysteriously reset themselves; partner handshakes with carriers and financing companies failed. And that’s on top of the entire iPhone-buying East Coast of the United States getting up at 3 a.m. to fight the online hordes (West Coasters had it easier, they only had to wait up until midnight).

None of this should be surprising to anyone who has tried to order a hot product with limited supply, from past iPhones to the Nintendo Switch and NES/SNES Classic to the Oculus Rift. There’s an announcement of a preorder date, everyone rushes the same website or websites at the same moment and in the end it’s the overload of web traffic, rather than the limited supply of whatever you’re buying, that really causes the most headaches.

Best practices, worst results

For example, I followed the suggested best practices for trying to order an iPhone X promptly at 3 a.m. ET on Oct. 27, by going to the Apple Store app on my current phone. Once there, adding an iPhone X to the shopping cart was the easy part. Attempting to confirm my details with my phone carrier caused timeouts and errors, and once I’d lucked my way through that, Apple’s financial partner for the Apple Upgrade payment plan couldn’t process my order (it eventually sent me a follow-up email asking me to start my order again from scratch).