Ordering a new iPhone with Apple’s Upgrade Programme

Not many people realise it’s even a thing but in the UK you can get a minty-fresh iPhone every year as part of Apple’s own iPhone Upgrade Programme. You pay a set amount every month and, with that, you can upgrade every 11 months (let’s be honest, you’ll do it every year when the new version of the phone comes out) and you get AppleCare+ included as well. You never have to worry about battery life again.

I’ve been on it for about 8 years now and, every year without fail, it’s a major PITA.

Why it’s so painful

First of all, unless you want to potentially wait weeks or months (depending on popularity of the release), you have to get in early for your order. So, like everyone else, I have to sit and stare at the Apple store webpage whilst it does or doesn’t let me in after the release date and time.

And then the fun. Going through the product screen doesn’t give me the option to upgrade via the programme and, in recent years, they’ve remove the link from the footer of their web page. If you use the app there’s an option for it in your user profile but, for the website, it’s not there – I do a web search for the link to access it.

Often, the Apple site will be crashing during the process. Sometimes switching from site to app or vice versa can get you through. Some years it’s been just horrible trying to get all the way through the process to the end.

And, lastly, because you have to hand your phone in as part of the process you can’t do this via post. I have to go to a store, and my closest is a 2 hour round-trip away. They give you a limited range of dates, and sometimes they only give you the release day, which is a nightmare of queuing, crowds and being bundled through as quickly as possible (one year, in the rush, we forgot to transfer my SIM card over and I had to order a new one).

This year

This year was different. But that’s often the case – Apple seem to like throwing a new spanner into the works each time.

This time, before the day of release, when accessing my upgrade programme details on the app, it kept telling me that the device I have registered for this “has been deleted”. Wait? What? However, head to the iPhone 17 product page, it recognises I’m on the programme, and a click takes me through and shows my current phone, saying I’ll be able to upgrade.

So, going into the release day, i wasn’t confident that the link in the app would work. Here’s how it went.

• 1pm, it should be live, but wasn’t. That’s usual. The holding page was on my laptop and phone. After about 10 minutes it let me into my phone.
• On the phone, for reasons that confound me, the link to the upgrade programme was now missing from my profile. The same link that was there yesterday. There are no links to it from the product page or anywhere else.
• On my laptop, it still won’t let me into the website so, back on my phone, I do a web search for the update programme, click on that and it opens… in the app. Correctly.

Why I have to resort to this method to achieve this, I have no idea. Each year is different, and I need to be armed with 1,001 different ways of potentially getting to where I need to. To say it’s frustrating would be a massive understatement.

One thing I have changed this year is the order date. Rather than just the Friday, I was given the Monday after too. I’m hoping that will be less busy and hectic.

What needs to be fixed?

Most of the issues are the ones that everyone goes through on the day of release and I understand that. Being on the upgrade programme, you’d like to think you’d have some kind of different experience, mainly because Apple could do this.

To then make it MORE difficult for those on the programme (by hiding access links, etc.) just then makes you wonder whether Apple are actually happy for your custom. Did you know they had an upgrade programme in the UK? Possibly not, as it’s not even listed on their website anymore.

At worst, Apple don’t want people on the programme and are doing their best to force people away from it. But there are better ways to do this. At best, they don’t care and are ignoring the user experiences for those on the upgrade programme. That’s, sadly, where my money is.