Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

Maybe we will have to come up with a new nickname for New York City!

AT&T apparently “caused a ruckus Monday morning <today> after it reportedly halted online sales of iPhones to New York City residents.”

The fortune.cnn.com article reads:

“Why did AT&T Wireless (T) halt online sales of Apple (AAPL) iPhones in New York City the weekend after Christmas? None of the answers AT&T has given so far make much sense.”

Is it any wonder that I said, over two weeks ago, “And it may be ‘just me,’ but when I hear pronouncements from telecommunications companies, I usually start from a position of BELIEVING NOTHING AT ALL..?” ANY of the telecommunications companies….

Choose the explanation that YOU like best for the halt in online sales of iPhone through AT&T’s Web site:

• Door #1 – “The phone is not offered to you,” a sales rep told Laura Northrup (of the Consumerist blog), “because New York is not ready for the iPhone.”
• Door #2 – Northrup posted AT&T Public Relations’ inscrutable official statement on the matter: “We periodically modify our promotions and distribution channels.” OR
• Door #3 – AT&T representatives told All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka and John Paczkowski, independently, that sales had been halted due to an increase in “fraudulent activity” in the “high-risk area” — specifically fraudulent orders made online.

NOBODY may be angrier than “Fake Steve Jobs,” in his December 27 blog entry! This, after his suggested Operation Chokehold failed to bring AT&T to its knees….

By this afternoon, the tech blog Gizmodo reported that AT&T’s Web site again was selling iPhones to New Yorkers. CNN also was able to access iPhone sales pages through AT&T’s Web site at about 3:45 PM Eastern.

I am seriously starting to wonder whether AT&T’s CTO, John Donovan, may be rethinking his earlier statement (according to CNET) that, “I’m well aware of what’s being said in the press, in blogs, and on Twitter. But I don’t base my network plans on what I read in blogs.” In recent months, I have written at least four blog entries (1, 2, 3, 4) on various aspects of the same general subject, in addition to THIS one.

It seems as though AT&T could not have gotten THIS much “bad press” if the company had consciously TRIED.

(Note added December 29, 2009: In “the story that just won’t die,” an article today in CNNMoney about “AT&T: The most hated company in iPhone land….”

Here is wishing AT&T a better New Year in its attempts to become more customer focused!

-Bill at

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