It’s last night at about 9:30p and I pull up Apple’s website to see what the availability would be for my Apple store at Willow Bend mall to have an iPhone 3G tomorrow. The website says it would be available in my flavor (white, 16GB) tomorrow so I began wondering what time I had to get there in the morning to be one of the first? They opened at 9am so what? 8:30a? 7am? 5am?!?
I decided on 7am and if the lines were too long then I’d just leave and go to my appointment early. Well, I rolled in at about 6:50a and only one car was in the parking lot and I ended up being number 3 in line. YAY! I had a book, magazine, and my current iPhone to keep me busy. The time went by really quickly. Everyone else waiting were really nice and we chatted each other up while we waited.
The store opened at 8am for those with Genius Bar problems or training and all was looking good that I’d be getting my iPhone 3G today when the store officially opened at 9am. That was until at 8:30a the store manager came out and looked up and down the line (up to about 50 at that point) and announced that despite what the website said they had not received any iPhones yet. WHAT?! She said the website said they were in stock because they had two iPhones on hold for others and it was a glitch in the system. This didn’t make people happy. Some were down right pissed. Come on, guys, what is this little girl going to be able to do about that? “Sorry for the trouble, free iPhones for everyone!” Negative.
She said what she could do is check with FedEx to see if she could get a better indication on when it would arrive today. After about 10 minutes on the phone, she came back and stated with confidence that some would come today no later than 12pm but she didn’t know what kind or how many.
12pm?!? I had a BIG appointment at 10am that I couldn’t miss so that wasn’t going to work. So after that realization I tucked my tail between my legs and headed to work. The only time wasted was my own and it was all ’sleep time’ so not much lost in my book. But I’ll tell you this, I’m not trying that again. I will either wait until the phone is readily available anywhere or just order it from a AT&T store and go pick it up when it arrives. Fool me once, shame of you. Feel me twice, shame on me!
UPDATE: I walked into an AT&T store this evening, paid & ordered what I wanted, they will email when it arrives (10-21 days), done deal. 5 minutes tops.
UPDATE 2: Ordered it on Wednesday night, it’s Saturday morning and got this email from AT&T.
Looks like they maybe underpromising and hopefully over delivering!
UPDATE 3: Picked up my white 16GB iPhone on Monday, got it all setup and I’m rocking! My wife is loving her new/old iphone, too. Kudos to AT&T on under promising and over delivering.
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David Gerbino
July 16th, 2008
Brad what a horrible story. My new cell phone experience was the total oppossite. First off I am a Verizon customer whose last 2 year contract expired on 7/11/08. I have found for where I live Verizon to have the better cell phone network. Since March 2008 I have been tracking the progress of the LG Dare, Verizon’s closest phone to the iPhone (not a clone). I was going to wait and buy in a store when it came out since I wanted it my hands first but I could not wait and I ordered the phone online 7/1. The phone listed for $249 and has an instant $50 rebate for ordering online. I also got an instant New Every Two Years rebate of $100 so my phone was $99. Two days after I got my phone I got a “if you renew your contract with Verizon for two more years you can save an additional $50. I called c/s and I gave them personal coupon code and I got discount and the total cost for my new LG Dare phone was $49. I was on twitter with my LG Dare followed your link here and made my post with my awsome new phone. Now if Verizon would change some of cell app dev policies they would many more mobile Flash enabled apps available. They have had Flash for well over a year.
Brad
July 16th, 2008
@David – I’m glad you like your phone so much and that you got such a great deal on it too. On the totally opposite side, I hate you for the same reasons.
The Banktastics » Blog Archive » The Burst - Prepare for a Lockdown (Ep. 25)
July 17th, 2008
[...] you want to read Brad’s recent experience trying to get his hands on one of the new iPhones, click here. It’s a shame, but there are probably countless others going through the same situation he [...]
Gene Blishen
July 17th, 2008
I had a totally different experience from Rogers. Had call from a salesperson about 6 weeks ago asking if we were interested in the new iPhone. Sure we were interested and would probably order 8 to 12. About July 8 he called again asking for specific information about phones, plans, transfer of numbers etc. We sent him a summary sheet and he said he would call us with an update.
On Friday morning he called and said when could I pick up 8. Late that afternoon went into the store and walked out 5 minutes later. Then on Monday he called stating I could pickup the other 3 the next morning. Same thing 5 minutes later all done.
We had temporary numbers on all of them until Tuesday morning when the old numbers were ported to the iPhone. No problems. That delay gave us all time to check out the phone and kept any problems out of the picture.
I don’t know why we came away with such a positive experience. Fluke? or maybe we just found a great supplier. Guess who gets a couple of Canuck’s hockey tickets this fall?
Brad
July 19th, 2008
I’m envious of your positive experience but more envious you have one right now. But things are looking up…just got my ‘it’s being delivered’ on email so only a matter of time.
Thanks for the comment Gene!
Alfredo Mack
March 3rd, 2009
Same as the new AT&T Microcell but it has only the details. It will come soon. Interesting thing is its support 3G.