I think you are allowing yourself to excuse AT&T too much here. Yes things out of their control have happened, such as the tractor trailer accident, and they may have under estimated demand, but their order process is broken, their site works only half the time for me on a win 8 PC, and their order status is vague and leaves too many questions after seeing it. Example - my status says "Status: Attention" with no explanation. What does attention mean? Does this mean there is a problem with my order? They have no legend or other information available as to what the status means. No estimate on shipping, no information on if a phone is back ordered. Want me to keep going?
EDIT: Oh and when I try to login to my account see my order status the system still has no record of the order - this is after I had to place a second order because the first never netted me a confirmation email or it showing up in the system after 24 hours. At least on the second order, I at least got a confirmation email with it.