Apple cancels some "successful" iPhone 4 pre-orders

After an extraordinary mess with last week’s iPhone 4 pre-order system, some of the lucky users who were actually able to get an order in are now being told their order was canceled.

Apple and AT&T opened up their respective Web sites to iPhone 4 pre-orders last week, but due to overpowering demand – demand that was stronger than 10 times that of the iPhone 3GS – customers ended up spending hours of waiting through unsuccessful attempts and site lock-downs.

After a stirring 600,000 pre-orders went through, Apple had to suspend all pre-orders, even for those who just wanted to place an order and wait until supply was available.

But now, even some of the people who sat through the constant pre-order rejections to get their order in in time are being told, “Sorry.”

AT&T sent out e-mails today to a fraction of iPhone 4 pre-order customers that said their pre-order was canceled and their credit card was not charged. According to CNN, this was supposed to be only directed at people who appeared to have accidentally submitted multiple orders, or for those who paid full price even though they were eligible for an upgrade price.

“We’re reaching out to many of these customers to answer questions, and are also happy for customers to call us with individual account questions,” said an AT&T spokesman in response to CNN.

The vast majority of those hundreds of thousands of customers, though, received a different e-mail today, notifying them that their phone was being shipped.