No cellular carrier has any control over the delivery of iPhones, only Apple does. Do you think that this is the first and only time that there have been delays in the distribution of phones? Don't blame Verizon or any other cellular provider for this when they are not to blame. I believe that in the first 24-48 hours of preorders, Apple take orders for approximately 2 million phones.
For those who may have preordered the iPhone5 from Verizon. Beware. I ordered at 4:30 AM on Sept. 14th and received an email verifying that my iphone would be delivered by Sept 21st. Today I was informed that the delivery window was now Sept 21-26th and that I would receive an email with a fedex tracking number today - still waiting for this. They also said that I can't cancel the order but they could re-route it, whatever that means. Since I am switching from Sprint, I had to give them my account number and cell phone. My guess is that even if I waited on launch day at an ATT store, that I couldn't get my numbers ported because I won't have any of the Verizon Account information needed to port the number.
Clearly this is a bait and switch on Verizon's part.
By the way I have been on the phone with Verizon to see if I can get the account information needed to port the numbers to ATT and I have waited on hold for about 20 minutes only to be booted off the line three times now.

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