Samantha has moved since registering for an account on Apple.com. That’s not unusual. Her problem is that Apple is somehow unable to deal with this reality, and she isn’t able to change her address in their system. This means that they can’t ship her freshly ordered iPhone 4S anywhere but her old address. “Maybe I will show up at the house and ask them to please not steal my new iPhone,” she muses.

Here’s the original e-mail that she sent on Monday:

On Friday I went online to pre-order my new iPhone 4Gs. My apple.com account had the wrong shipping address attached to it and it would not let me change this online. I called and the representative asked for my order number. I explained I didn’t have one yet because I didn’t want to purchase anything that would go to a place I don’t live anymore. The guy insisted I have to purchase it first, with delivery to the wrong address, then call back to change it. He said this wouldn’t be a problem and I could call back anytime before October 14th (delivery day…hmm…). He said it would actually be better to wait as they were being inundated with calls about this.

So, I waited and day and called back to change my shipping address. The woman I spoke to put me on hold and came back with a big, juicy “UNFORTUNATELY”. I knew the rest of the call wasn’t going to go well. She explained that it was too late to change the address and that my phone will be shipped to the wrong address.

I asked if there was ANYTHING that could be done. She said she could submit a request to change the address, but there was no way to guarantee this would be done. She also said, no matter what, the carrier will try the wrong address first. If no one signs for it, they MIGHT try the new address – it depends how busy they are.

I asked what would happen if someone else gets my shiny new iPhone. She said we may
be able to get law enforcement involved. She also suggested I go to the address and talk to the nice people.

Not what I expected from Apple. Four days until delivery – I am hoping for the best. Maybe I will show up at the house and ask them to please not steal my new iPhone.

Thinking that perhaps Apple had fixed the situation for Samantha and the other affected customers, we asked for an update. Nope. Occupy Samantha’s Old House is on for Friday.

Nope. I’ve called almost every day since I placed the order. Everyday they tell me, no matter what, the first delivery attempt will be an address where I don’t live anymore.

So, Friday I will be sitting outside of my old house, stalking the UPS guy.

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