ATT FANApple Provisioning Issue-Something Doesnt Make Sense iPhone 3G

We know that Apples been making a big deal out of telling everyone with a FAN associated with their account that they have to purchase at an AT&T store, or have the FAN removed from their account, etc. In fact, at the Apple Store in King of Prussia, PA, when I tried to purchase an iPhone, the Concierge told me that they were going through the line and removing anyone who either currently had, or ever in the past had a FAN associated with their account, even if the FAN had been removed, because they couldnt provision the phones in the store. Ive had a 16 GB Black on order at the AT&T store in the same mall since 15 July (and of course, all thats been happening is that the status bounces between backorder and not backorder on the AT&T website).
Heres what doesnt makie sense. Apple claims that its impossible for them to provision iPhones for any accounts that have, or have ever had FANs associated with them. Yet Apple and AT&T are close partners. Its probably a safe assumption that Apple has some form of corporate agreement with AT&T that includes some type of discount for Apple employees. How the heck are Apple employees (including those at the stores) getting provisioned??? Certainly THEY arent being told to march down to an AT^T store and go Direct Fulfillment!?
In fact, how was Apple able to provision all their enterprise customers during the beta program (companies such as Disney?) Surely they must have noticed this problem during the Beta when they went to provision the phones loaded with the beta software?
Even if thats not the case with the Beta program, I would still LOVE to know how Apple employees are getting their phones provisioned!
12" PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.5.4)