OnePlus has apologised after the pre-order system for its much anticipated OnePlus One smartphone buckled under pressure, leaving many potential customers without an order. It's also announced that it'll be opening up its pre-orders again on November 17.
Earlier this month OnePlus announced that pre-orders for the OnePlus One would go live on October 27 for one hour.
Before then, pre-orders had been confined to people who were lucky enough to receive an invite. But unfortunately the combination of a highly anticipated device, lots of eager potential customers and a limited time to make the order proved to be a perfect storm.
When the OnePlus One pre-orders went live at 15:00 GMT (08:00 PST, 11:00 EST) on October 27 the pre-order website's servers began to fail due to the increased traffic. This resulted in many people not being able to log in (you had to create an account in the run up to the pre-orders opening to be in with a chance) or complete their orders.
The pre-order window was supposed to be open for just one hour but due to the server problems it was extended to three hours.
OnePlus One equals zero?
While tens of thousands of people managed to complete the order, this still wasn't enough and prompted OnePlus to announce apologetically that the pre-order event "left far too many users frustrated, disappointed and order-less."
To help rectify the problem OnePlus will re-open pre-orders for the One on Monday November 17 at 14:00 GMT (07:00 PST, 10:00 EST), giving people who missed out on the first round another go at pre-ordering the phone.
More servers will also be used to make sure that the website remains functional during this time. The FAQ on the OnePlus One blog is worth checking in the run up to the pre-orders opening to make sure you have everything ready on November 17.
