Apple’s iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro pre-orders this morning did not go smoothly at all. The first lucky ones got their orders through on time, but as the full onslaught of orders piled in, the online store checkout crashed.
For those using Paybright financing for iPhone 14 models, the firm was once again unable to keep up with heavy demand.
“We are very popular today. Please wait 1 minute before clicking the back button on your browser and trying again with Paybright. Your order is on hold,” read the Paybright message.
Ugh… endlessly refreshing with the threat of cancellation after 1 hour from Apple. pic.twitter.com/eb3bQr1glb
— Blake Fisher (@ebfisher) September 9, 2022
This was the same story last year with iPhone 13 pre-orders. When a torrent of pre-orders come through, financing applications grind to a halt.
Were you able to get your Paybright iPhone 14 order through today? Many are stuck on the ‘terms and conditions’ page. Some are still dealing with Apple, which is telling customers to contact Paybright. Another SNAFU iPhone launch due to Affirm.
Overall, this was one of the worst pre-orders in recent memory, with iPhone 14 checkout just loading and freezing endlessly.
Sent from my iPhone at 6am
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You are right, it was the worst pre-order. Still waiting for Paybright to approve the loan. What a disaster.
Oh hey – it’s me… and yes, I’m still queued (until Apple either cancels my order after waiting more than an hour or extends their timeline).
Still trying to get through with paybright even though the hour is almost up. Ended up just buying one out-right as a backup but would rather this work. (even though the shipping now slipped a month which sucks… hopefully paybright goes through and I get it on launch day. What a mess. Noted for next year
has anyone gotten through with paybright at least? is there any hope?
I think I got my order in through PayBright. Nothing seems to be functioning properly, not PayBright, not the Apple Store. It seemed like everything went through for me. My credit card has been authorized by PayBright for the taxes, and my 14 Pro and AppleCare+ had shown up in my PayBright profile. But the order isn’t showing in my Apple account, and now PayBright profile shows no purchases which is definitely a glitch because I still have a few payments left on my MacBook Pro purchase. Hopefully it’ll all get updated soon and I will indeed have a phone on the way. It’s just so frustrating not knowing what’s actually happening with your order, or if indeed you even have an order!
well that’s one step closer!
Any luck? PayBright seems to be back online now. My phone and AppleCare purchases are showing under my profile again so fingers crossed.
Did you get your original shipping date?
No idea, when I checked out it said “Delivers Sept 16” but my order isn’t showing up under my account in the Apple Store. It does say, “Your complete order history cannot be displayed right now. Check back in a few hours to see all of your orders.”
If I enter my order number and email manually as a guest, it does show up and says “We’ve received your payment and will begin preparing your order soon.” but under shipping it says “Delivers: ” and it’s blank?!
Update: order is now showing up in my Apple account. On the website, delivery date is still blank, but on the Apple Store app, it says “Arrives Fri. 16 Sep by Standard Shipping” so that looks hopeful. Going to screenshot it in case it disappears or changes!
same has last year
Only if I had known this!!! Now I have to wait for a month…
Just hope Apple does not cancel our orders
They will lol.
I’ve got 3 orders canceled already. Trying one more time.
Bold. I gave up after the second.
Placed my order on Apple this morning, pending loan approval by PayBright. Tried refreshing PayBright link for about 45 minutes, finally connected just after 9 am. To pull up my file, PayBright asked for my phone number, then I received the PIN which I promptly submitted. Verification of the PIN stalled after >1 min and bounced me back to Apple, and because ultimately the process didn’t go through, Apple cancelled my order. Quite furious that I couldn’t even try again, and of course now delivery estimates are a month away with no in-store pick-ups available. I suggest not bothering with PayBright for pre-orders in the future.
Same here. 3 times
Same thing happened to me. Quite disappointed with the process. Ridiculous paybright and apple.
Same thing happened to me!
Contacted Apple Support who said that the order hasn’t even gone through their system yet and there is nothing they could do. They suggested calling back in a few hours
Same thing happened to me with my Sept 16 delivery. Ended up reordering with outright payment for Oct 4 delivery.
Same here currently oct 12-18 and its still not going through. Sometimes I get to enter a pin number and then it crashes.
yeah seems it doesn’t go to the paybright page anymore and just says “something went wrong”. I feel it just got cancelled even though it doesn’t say that. 🙁
yes, I have same message.
Same here. I think Apple cancelled the order. Paybright sucks and they don’t want to learn from last year’s same mistake.
Can’t get my order placed through pay bright. Same screen your getting. Glad to see this article and that I’m not the only one. So sad they can’t get it together knowing a torrent of orders will come in.
I have my order pending but not sure how to pay. Hopefully I’ll get an email later to finish the order
I’m curious if those who said their orders have been cancelled – did you get confirmation of that? My order still says “we’re waiting for your payment” but its been two hours. Like many of you I didn’t get anywhere close to getting into Paybright’s garden
Yes. On the order status page for the cancelled items, it says the following: “Your order was not placed.
Your monthly payments transaction with PayBright was not successful so your order was not placed.”
Incredibly frustrating. I first found out this was an issue last year (I didn’t try to pre-order last year) by finding the virtually identical article from last year’s launch. Now it’s the same again this year. Hopefully Apple cans Paybright and gets a financing company that has a robust online architecture. That’s two in a row now for this disastrous company. The only reason I’m sticking around is the 0% part – hard to beat that.
My order was supposed to be delivered next week and I failed to place an order because of this! Will there be any chance to purchase one in retail next friday?
Paybright should be ashamed of their IT team.
Bold of you to presume they have an IT team based on the inability to scale their infrastructure for today’s event.
lol
4 orders cancelled so far because PayBright had some technical issue
They cancel my order 6x. I was online a 8:00AM. I was the first to order. pickup sept 16 at 9am. after 2h of crash, page not found…, no more pickup, shipping only after oct. 13. Finally go with Rogers and take it in 2min. but I don’t know when I will receive it. 1 day, 1 month, 1 year..
Did you buy it out right with Rogers?
yeah. im already client. so I bought it in 2 minutes. but they can’t give shipping date now… a guest before oct. 13 ?! :
Yeah! And get it by purolator at 1pm sept 16 🥳
Any plans on reaching out to Apple and/or Paybright for comment about why this happened for a second year, and why customers are getting orders cancelled for something out of their control?
They obviously didn’t learn from last year’s pre-order debacle. I hope Affirm’s incompetence is remembered. Apple needs to go with a different company.
Just chatted with Apple support and he said that they are in communication with PayBright, and our order won’t be cancelled !!! It does not match what you are all saying 🙁
Yeah, I wasn’t able to complete my most recent order via PayBright after 1 hour and it wasn’t cancelled.
Ugh, don’t say that I just cancelled my order because it said “Something went wrong”. This is a total disaster wth apple! I’ve been up since 8 am trying to order this phone.
Groundhog Day
When I check my order status the pay bright link isn’t even there anymore… At least we know they won’t cancel our orders based on Eric’s note.
Order placed at 5:10 AM is still open but not working. Order placed at 5:38 AM is still open and not working. Order placed at 7:58 allowed me into Paybright but timed out near the end of the process and received notice from Apple the order was cancelled. 4th attempt now and getting the “We are very popular today.” message, which is ironic. Spoken with both Apple and Paybright. Nothing either can do.
Paybright is an embarrassment for Apple. Given their financial resources I wonder if after another debacle like today they will run this service themselves.
Paybright is a typical backward draconian Canadian company like so many others in this country that has outdated technology and is sooo SMUG.
It’s embarrassing that it happened again. They truly didn’t learn a lesson the first time.
Just got off the phone with Apple. The lady told me that Apple is trying to resolve the issue with PayBright and to try again at around 1-2pm. Nothing she or anyone else could do.
Well, I hope Apple realizes how horrible Affirm is and do everything they can to start offering the financing service in-house instead. Would save us from so many headaches…
Thanks for sharing. I’ll give it a try at 2.
Are you guys seeing the same thing as me… The order is there and waiting for payment but no option to get to Pay Bright?
Yep.
Thanks for the info 🙂
EST or PST ?
I’m guessing EST, as I called for the French Canadian support here in Québec. Honestly, she probably doesn’t even know herself, as it seems to be a joint problem with Apple + PayBright…
Good news guys. 4.5 hours later I was able to get through the paybright process.
October 12 delivery
were you getting the “there’s something wrong” message prior, or the “we’re busy” page?
Something wrong for an hour until the order got cancelled then we’re busy. This was my 4th order.
The only time I got a cancellation notification was on the first one. After that I just restarted a new order each time the system seemed to have lost my order.
I was finally able to complete the order through Paybright. Have been trying since 9 in the morning and was successful at 12:15 in the afternoon. I will be collecting my 14 Pro Deep Purple from Square One outlet on 16th…yay!
Were you getting something went wrong
on apple page when you click go to pay bright? Or you saw the paybright wait 1 minute page?
Mine keeps saying something went wrong
It always said Paybright is busy and wait for 1 minute. I kept going back and forth and finally it worked for me
same
I was on the store app right at 8:00am EDT and with a few hiccups, seemed to get through using PayBright. It was anything but smooth or certain. As mentioned below, order confirmation wasn’t showing up on Apple, then it was, then it wasn’t. Same with Paybright’s site. But just got an email confirmation from Apple, 4 ½ hours later, that my order is processing and will arrive on Sept 16! It was definitely not a pleasant experience and I hope Apple comes up with a better solution, but it seems I was one of the very few lucky ones who made it through the PayBright process with a launch day delivery. With my luck, UPS will screw up on delivery day!
The paybright still not working
This year for me was relatively quick. At 5am I kept refreshing the apple store page on my laptop and apple store app on my phone. The app finally popped up at 5:01am and easily went to my saved items and checked out. Got an email from apple at 5:11 saying they were processing my order. Glad I made it before the chaos. iPhone 14 pro max 512Gb. Good luck guys!!
I have an pending order since 8:15. It used to be directing me to “We are very popular today…” but it’s been 2-3 hours that directs me to “Something went wrong”. I called Apple a few times and they see the order pending (not canceled), they say try again later. I don’t think it’s going to work. I asked a friend to place an order and it directs him to the “We are very popular today…” page. Seems like my order got canceled but still showing up for no reason.
I was up since 8 to get the Sept 16 delivery and seems like I have to cancel and order a new one for a Oct-Nov delivery!
Same for me, still not working and trying every 5min
how the things go, I still couldn’t reach the paybright page.
Same !
I believe whoever has the something went wrong screen is out of luck !
Called apple asked them to switch payments and they said they cant !
Nothing can be done
Did they understand the Something Went Wrong screen?
Yes they did .. nothing they can do and they said its on paybright.
They see my order as pending and awaiting payment but cant change payment method. So its stuck in a limbo !
Order was placed on 8:04 am and email received on 8:05
What a shame
Thanks. I assumed so. Some kind of an issue with the pay service that Apple is trying to call.
Here’s hoping they extend this like the reports from last year!
Did they honour the original shipping dates last year ?
I used them last year again right at opening and went through first try, this year its been a mess!
Sept 10 evening now – I also have an order still in limbo. Hasn’t cancelled / timed out.
Got an early 6am pre-order for Sept 19 delivery date, but I couldn’t finish PayBright for 7hrs yesterday. Finally did in PM and it crashed on last page (nooooo), so Apple never got confirmation from PayBright that my payment plan was set up, but PayBright DOES have a payment plan for me. Apple stuck at status “waiting for payment” because they haven’t heard from PayBright.
QUESTION: Curious if you / anyone has recovered from this situation. I’m continuing to wait, to find out.
Can update with conclusion here if anyone indicates they’re interested. Maybe this is fully in the past for everyone now, but I’d rather have the Sept 19 date if it pulls through, instead of my Oct 4 backup order that worked out differently.
I think everyone will eventually face the “something went wrong” page if they can’t finalize payment within 1-2 hours!
I reached the paybright page like 5 times, but it failed every time :/ sometimes it would get stuck, sometimes it would straight out fail and cancel the order on Apple’s website
In the app I have no option to get to Pay Bright – Through the browser I see the button but it just brings me to the Apple “something went wrong” page… I’ll be shocked if my order doesn’t get cancelled at this point. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t yet.
Many of us on the same boat with you bud !
yeah in the same boat. trying to talk with apple now and see if there’s any help they can provide
talked to them already, no help (see below)
If you get different answers let us know
The same sinking boat. I called too. They don’t have any information to give (Apple and PayBright)
Hope they have it sorted out in time for the iPhone 15.
Hi. I talked with Apple Specialist. She was really helpful. I told her that I placed three different orders and all of them were cancelled after 1 hour of receiving email from Apple because of the Paybright issue. She confirmed the order numbers I told her and said they are still in system and you will get a chance to do proper payment once the system is up and running…
She said Apple is aware of this situation and is working with Paybright on this issue. She suggested me not to place anymore orders otherwise paybright will decline the transactions as it will exceed card limit provided by them! I told her if cancelling my orders other than my initial order helps, to which she said if you can do that.
She also confirmed that behind the error page, Paybright and Apple are working on this problem and suggested to keep refreshing the page and try continuing with the payment after couple of hours and it will work. Also, the 1 hour email from Apple should be avoided as she said customers will get plenty of time (at least 24 hours) to go through with their payments.
After hearing all this from someone at Apple, I kinda’ hope that I will surely get my iPhone on Sep 16th, 2022 early morning. 🙂
what error are you getting? do you see the link to paybrright from the app ? or just desktop ?
do you get something went wrong when you try and go to paybright ?
Yes. When I click continue to paybright, for apple.. the next page is Something went wrong page..
Hmm….the apple specialist I talked to was the opposite of helpful. They said there was nothing he could do about trying to un-cancel orders that were automatically cancelled and that the only solution was the place a new order and deal with delivery estimates of mid-oct. He also said that he was with apple last year when the same issue happened with the iPhone 13 launch + PayBright issues and they never tried to contact existing order holders and try to get the payment processed after the fact to help everyone keep their same place in line?? He said to just keep checking the online site and trying to place a new order for delivery and/or store pickup?
For those of you who can afford pay-in-full, try switching to in store pick up and keep refreshing, you may be able to get one on sept 16.
cant change anything on my order
That’s fine, start a new one in the cart
And keep refreshing the pick up at store options
I finally got through after many hours but it was slow and I’m questioning if things were done correctly. Pay bright has my old address on file despite the fact that I changed it. Apple still says we’re waiting for payment despite completing everything with Paybright. There’s a link in the store to pay but it doesn’t do anything. If I go to my account, it looks like everything is good to go. Just waiting on an email from apple to relieve my anxiety. Maybe that’s (insert belief here) of telling me I didn’t really need a new phone.
Same I was finally able to place my order but like u still showing awaiting payment on my orders page.. we shall see fingers crossed
I just spoke to apple and they’re having some issues looking things up. Fingers crossed!
whoever is getting the something went wrong screen, just go ahead and place an order again with paybright
those orders are expired apparently and stuck in limbo
I just placed an order again (mid october delivery) with pay bright and everything went smooth
did not cancel my first order just in case something happens with that but i highly doubt it
Got past the pin check with Paybright and entered credit card info only to be greeted by a constantly looping terms and conditions page for almost 45 mins now..comedy gold.
same here
I called Apple for the third time and their only answer was: call Paybright, we can’t do anything on our side (even if the error page comes from Apple site and even if I don’t have the blue button in the App anymore (only on the website)
So I called Paybright. They said I was lucky that my order wasn’t cancelled after 1hour, and that I should wait and retry every 15min with no guarentee it would work at any time
getting different answers.
i was told by paybright that if the link is taking me to something went wrong form a desktop (and no button from that app to go to paybright) then the link has expired and to place another order.
I went ahead and placed another order, got the button in the app, clicked it and went through the order process smoothly (mid october)
didnt cancel my first order and still trying because that was pick up for next week… not hopeful
Ok, so I had the same as you. Order in limbo since 9am for pickup on release day. So what I did was I went into the store and started a new order for the exact same phone with the same trade in lined up but when I got to the delivery vs pick up screen it said not available for pickup at the 10 nearest stores to your postal code. So what I did was opened the old in limbo order in a separate window and hit cancel on it. As soon as I did, I hit refresh a few times on the postal code search and on the third refresh boom one became suddenly available at the store I just cancelled on for the same pick up date as my old one. Clicked it, hit continue super fast and boom… all went through, PayBright worked now.
Scared to cancel the first order in case paybright pulls through and does something ! Lool
Ill try what you did sometime today i guess
time 11:59 I cancelled my previous 2 orders (except my initial order — just in case) and placed a new order. while i was constantly refreshing pickup location page, i saw one is available,.. I immediately continued with it.. everything was smooth and quick (hardly took me 3-4minutes) till i reached the terms and conditions page. I’m now stuck here from last 25 minutes and still looking at a blank page buffering slowly….
I will update once i go to next step…
I did exactly what you just did… see my post a little further down. PayBright wasn’t fast, in fact by the time it completed my original apple session had expired when they returned me to it. But it did complete. Worst case you do the trick again to extend the 1 hour expiry to avoid the risk the limbo stops working.
But how long does it take on terms and condition page…. it feels like forever
Same here, stuck at the terms and conditions page!
It finally worked !! Tip for those with Apple something went wrong orders. Cancel it and immediately go to the Apple Store and grab your phone on the 16th. Then make your way through Paybright’s system
You mean once we cancel our order, it will open up an available spot for a pick up at a particular store?
Yup! It worked for me twice!
I tried it, it became available
Continued went to pay bright inputted the code and waited for like 15-20 minutes
Then got a message saying order expired.. and now no longer available at store and order of canceled 🙁
(paybright failed the first time)
Sweet. This worked. Very slow paybright but eventually completed the order.
I placed the order via apple website at 9:30 am. I was finally able to
select pickup location closer to my house. Ever since then, I have been
waiting for paybright link to work. Now the link doesn’t even take me to
paybright page, it will show the error “something went wrong please try
again”. Now if I am trying to make a new order, there’s no location at
all that I can select for pickup. I have been refreshing the page from
past 4 hours. If someone knows, please let me know 🙁
read my most recent comment..
I was able to go through the paybright link but unfortunately I am not qualified :'( I have only a limit of $571 to spend and it exceeds that limit by $1000 🙁 I am so sad today has been such a waste day
How did you find out what your limit is?
Finally Finally THE ORDER IS PLACED .. apple confirmed..
Don’t wait for terms and conditions page if it takes more than 2 minutes just go to the previous page and do it again before the session expires. Took me 5 minutes after I figured this out..
Told ya!
Edit: happy for you.
Told ya!
Edit: happy for you.
Now I am wondering if I can call them and change store location to the nearest one, if possible.
Anyways thanks guys it was hell of a journey… hope everyone in this forum gets their iphone on 16th.. peace out
I got declined via email, even though my credit score is very good, is it just an issue or they actually decline my application.
you have to call paybright to get answer for that. I was already using paybright from previous year so for new applications best way to get answers is call em’
Any updates? I’m having the same issue. It’s weird because I didn’t have any issues in the past with using PayBright for a 14-inch MacBook Pro order that I ended up cancelling last year.
I did the same thing you mentioned canceled my previous pickup order which allowed me to place new order for the pickup time I canceled and now I am on same screen saying “We are very popular today”. What should I do from here as for other orders I placed in morning it saying me something went wrong on apple page.
keep opening the link from email… it will work in between … you have to find the gap and then the webpage will load..
I even opened the link from email in multiple tabs and one of them works others don’t.. so have to figure this out .. its all hit and try..good luck
so keep on refreshing multiple links which we get after clicking continue to PayBright, for Apple button?
This helped AF!! thanks @disqus_hFV9LjGjq7:disqus
From 5:30 AM to 2:15 PM – it was hell, lol
@disqus_hFV9LjGjq7:disqus when did you got your confirmation from apple?
I did the same thing that has been mentioned – canceled my previous pickup order which allowed me to place new order for the pickup time I canceled and now I am on same screen saying “We are very popular today”. What should I do from here as for other orders I placed in morning it is saying me “Something went wrong” on apple page. Any help guys!
My order was saying “something went wrong” for a few hours, now it’s back to “we are very popular today”. Insane.
Keep opening link from email to complete payment multiple time, you will get through it
I just got through! Never cancelled my original 5:13am PT order, even through the “Something went wrong” issues. The Paybright site had an error on the very last screen after “Creating payment plan” and their site was very slow throughout, but I just waited and my Apple order has been updated and I have a charge on my credit card for the taxes.
I was emailing with Paybright support and after I sent them screenshots of the “something went wrong” and my order number the link started working again and I was able to finish my order from this morning.
I’m not sure if email support did it or if they are slowly going through the orders from this morning and re-enabling the payment links.
Finally the wait is over order is placed for pick up on Sept 16, thanks everyone all these comments really really helped.
How did you placed? For me its showing unavable
unavailable for pickup you mean? If that’s the case I canceled my previous pick up which opened same time slot for new order
Yeah I was finally able to get my order through that I did right when preorders launched (9.5 hours later!). I had the “something went wrong” after clicking paybright, and then it changed to being in the queue again… and then got through. Launch day delivery! don’t give up!
Same, I feel really bad for all those that cancelled their orders and started over.
I started refreshing the Apple Store app at 7:58 AM but couldn’t get into PayBright. I kept refreshing and making new orders dozens of times, but only got in at 4:30 PM. The delivery date has been pushed to October 12-18. Since I purchased through PayBright, can I still visit an Apple Store on September 16th and pay through PayBright?
Finally completed my transaction !!