As a fellow addict, I decided to spend 4 hours today calling every cingular number known to man! Yes, I was able to (pre) order the unit from the consumer group. I was told that it more than likely won't ship until 28th...After reading all the posts about b2b shipping them today, my jealous, junkie side took over and I decided to get to the bottom of this...
While it is true that 90% of the customer service reps at Cingular are donkeys (for lack of a better word), if you keep hanging up and retrying, eventually you get somebody on the phone who has decent knowledge as to what is truly going on....one of the reps that i spoke with in b2b, happened to be a regular howardsforum, pinstack, and blackberry forums addict....he said that since 8a.m., he has checked stock through 4 different channels countrywide, and has not seen any 8700's showing in stock...he said that he's been reading the forums all day with people who think that there unit is being shipped today..yadayadayada...he said that unless hell freezes over sometime in the next few hours, it ain't happening! As far as the posts of people that claim to have them already, he said that if they are claiming to have cingular's version, then it would be safe to assume that they are Full of S---! Anyway, can somebody come up with some sort of proof (yes, tracking numbers will do?)

It will be interesting to see if people get them tomorrow. I will agree most Cingular reps don't know anything but want to make the commission.

my order still says in progress is cingular warehouses on the east coast. if so it is too late to ship

Originally, rumor had it that the west coast had 'em, than later in the day, people said "no, the east coast got 'em" i think it would be fair to say that nobody got 'em...I will be shocked if anybody actually receives anything tomorrow..I think this is one of those situations that when they started saying the 28th last week, they meant it!

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when i talked to a rep...she said clearly"yes they are in stock" to me
when i asked will it ship out today answer was" definetly"
f'n liars!they just did this to calm us down from the delay.

I placed my order earlier this afternoon via regular consumer sales after reading that several people on this forum had successfully ordered their 8700c. When I placed the order I asked for overnight delivery.

Later in the afternoon I received an order status update email from Cingular indicating that my order was in the system. In that email there was a link to check on the status of the order. When I clicked on the link it indicated "processing."

After reading more of the posts online I was growing more and more skeptical that I would indeed receive my 8700c tomorrow so I called Cingular Customer Service to confirm the status of the order. The representative stated to me that the order had indeed shipped via FedEx and I should expect to receive it tomorrow. She provided me with a FedEx tracking number. I attempted to track the shipment via FedEx and it did not show in their system. I'll have to keep checking later tonight I guess.

Sorry to add to the mix of confusion surrounding this unit, just wanted to share my experiences. By the way, I live on the East Coast in the Washington metropolitan area if that helps.

I'll be sure to check back in tomorrow to report whether or not I actually received the unit!

Well, we will see tomorrow. I called and got my Fedex tracking number, and it clearly says it left Texas already, so I assume its either the phone or an empty box

What a mess. I guess it boils down to how lucky you are if you get one this week or not. Fun.

Time will tell... I called Cingular. While they said that they did not have the FedEx number in the system yet, they assured me that it would be shipped tonight.

Any idea where they are being shipped from??? I am in TX.

They're shipping from their warehouse that closes early (in TN).

I placed two different orders. One said it was on back order and the other said it would ship today. I then tried to cancel the first order and was told that the only way to cancel is to call fedex and tell them you will not accept the order. Neither shows a tracking number only in process.

Seems like either I was lied to or their system is off kilter.

If your first order is unlocked consider it sold!

I would have no way to verify if it was unlocked since I only have Cingular SIMs.

According to UPS tracking system, two packages left Memphis this morning and are on their way to me in Atlanta. One is identified as handset, the other as SIM card.

So, I don't recommend believing the FUD in the title of this stream.

Well...I ordered mine last Thursday, 11/17 and got an order number. This morning I got a FedEX tracking number that is quite real. Unless an empty box is on it's way from Ft. Worth, I'll have mine tomorrow.
Enjoy...

Good advice. Keep in mind the order status is not an up to the minute view of your order. It's probably only updated once every n hours. If you are lucky enough to coax someone at Cingular into putting in an order for you then you'll have one soon enough.

I thought Cingular used Fedex for shipping.

I just checked and my first order is on its way via Fedex overnight. Yea! It left at 9:00PM from Memphis after being picked up at 7:38PM. Funny thing is this is the order they told me that they did not have it in stock and would put it on back order. The one they told me was in stock hasn't shipped. So I guess it is a good thing that I couldn't cancel my first order as I would have guessed wrong. Who knows, maybe the other order will still show up on the system later.

He probably meant Fedex since he mentioned it being shipped from Memphis and that is Fedex's hub.

I have no idea why mine is shipping UPS and others are shipping Fedex. But, mine is indeed in the UPS system.