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Apple Retail Open Early, Issuing Tickets
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Activation continues to be messy
I just got my iPhone 3G. I bought my first iPhone on June 29 2007 at the mall at the Millenia in Orlando FL and took me literally 10 minutes.
This time took 4 hrs.
I found out why. Pre approving and the little cards guaranteeing you an iPhone are pretty cool, hoowever once you enter the guy in charge of activating the iphone , also gives support to the new user and accompanies the costumer to accessorized the iPhone. That's crazy, one person can take an hour talking B.S. and asking questions and browsing the store for accessories . THE PERSON IN CHARGE OF ACTIVATION SHOULD DO THAT ,ONLY PERIOD. Then the customer should be allow to roam the store for accesories or go to the genius bar for support. THAT IS WHAT IS CAUSING THOSE LINES TO BE LIKE THEY ARE. IS CRAZY . 1 CUSTOMER TOOK TWO HOURS WITH THE ACTIVATION BECAUSE HE WANTED TO LEARN HOW TO USE ALL THE FUNCTION OF THE PHONE. OUTRAGEOUS.
It took me 12 min 32 sec with the concierge guy from the moment he took the ticket from my hand.
Inefficient, plain stupid. so not apple, but hey I guess Apple is turning like any other business out there. Who cares what the customer says , just look at the lines, one disgruntle customer, 10 join the line to buy an iPhone.
By the way this Iphone crashes a lot more than the old one , right now is hot as a pancake tryng to reboot and can't
I just got my iPhone 3G. I bought my first iPhone on June 29 2007 at the mall at the Millenia in Orlando FL and took me literally 10 minutes.
This time took 4 hrs.
I found out why. Pre approving and the little cards guaranteeing you an iPhone are pretty cool, hoowever once you enter the guy in charge of activating the iphone , also gives support to the new user and accompanies the costumer to accessorized the iPhone. That's crazy, one person can take an hour talking B.S. and asking questions and browsing the store for accessories . THE PERSON IN CHARGE OF ACTIVATION SHOULD DO THAT ,ONLY PERIOD. Then the customer should be allow to roam the store for accesories or go to the genius bar for support. THAT IS WHAT IS CAUSING THOSE LINES TO BE LIKE THEY ARE. IS CRAZY . 1 CUSTOMER TOOK TWO HOURS WITH THE ACTIVATION BECAUSE HE WANTED TO LEARN HOW TO USE ALL THE FUNCTION OF THE PHONE. OUTRAGEOUS.
It took me 12 min 32 sec with the concierge guy from the moment he took the ticket from my hand.
Inefficient, plain stupid. so not apple, but hey I guess Apple is turning like any other business out there. Who cares what the customer says , just look at the lines, one disgruntle customer, 10 join the line to buy an iPhone.
By the way this Iphone crashes a lot more than the old one , right now is hot as a pancake tryng to reboot and can't
Apple should have offered an hour free with their teacher (or whatever they call them now) employees at a DIFFERENT time for customers such as this.
Had I been crazy enough to wait in line behind someone who did this, I'd be pissed too, but Apple should have planned better.
I couldn't disagree with this more. I think Apple should have sent the bulk of the phones to the ATT stores. Think about it, more people to do more of the time consuming activations at more locations. Plus ATT stores are capable of doing family plans, work plans, etc. where Apple stores cannot. End of song.
On a different note, I had my phone on order at my ATT store starting Wed. 7/16. I tried my luck at an Apple store yesterday morning and was successful. Now, I hear my phone finally arrived at the ATT store, two weeks later. They called and I said to sell it to somebody else. I have to come into the store to cancel my order (they said I wouldn't be charged till I picked up my order, now that's apparently not the case). When I cancel my order in the store my phone apparently has to be shipped back to ATT before it can be sold to someone else. How dumb is that? Maybe this all negates my feelings in the above paragraph.
Sigh.
Side note #2, I thought it incredibly cliche to include a review on the Apple home page calling the iPhone "A joy to use." Seriously? A joy? Tacky! Turns out that's probably the best description.
Got mine today at the Town Square in Las Vegas. I was number 8 in line and there were about 300 it seemed behind me. When the lady handing out the tickets went by me she must have had 50-100 or each type. Not sure how long they lasted because from the time I walked in until I was out the door was about 15 minutes. This includes the time the lady took to explain the Mobile ME and how cook some apps were. I told her I knew about alot of apps and will be going online to look at what I like. Wasn't a bad expierence overall.
Kevin
Kevin
Again it's all about Apple leveraging people's desire for instant gratification for marketing purposes. They should shift more stock to ATT stores and offer the device for purchase online from ATT as well.
Purchased two 16GB's yesterday no line, no wait just handed tickets in the Crossgates Mall. If there were a line I would have stuck with my 2G phone.
You can accomplish so much more instead of waiting in this ridiculous line. Apple is leaving a lot of money on the table with the slow activation process
Purchased two 16GB's yesterday no line, no wait just handed tickets in the Crossgates Mall. If there were a line I would have stuck with my 2G phone.
You can accomplish so much more instead of waiting in this ridiculous line. Apple is leaving a lot of money on the table with the slow activation process
Agreed which is why I am waiting. I am very happy with my original iPhone and until I can just step into a store and get it (even with a little line), I am just going to stay with what I have
I'm stuck with a G1 iPhone for now...
Hey Guys, it appears as though I'm stuck with my 1st gen iPhone. I thought I was in like Flynn today. In my previous attempts of picking up a phone from what appeared to be people in line for toilet paper in Cold War Russia, I again was denied. Even with Apple's new policy of opening up at 8:00 and getting approved in line. I have to buy the phone from AT&T because the plan I'm on is from my companies employee discount plan.
Now I know it won't be anytime soon before I get one because making a visit to an AT&T store is an adventure all its own. First, you'd think Jesus, Muhammad, and Moses were in there handing out blessings by size of the crowd and long waits to get to an associate, and that's just the way it is all the time, even before the iPhone came out. Second, you're at the mercy of the competence of the clerk who sees you. Trust me on this, not all of them bring the same quality of service. Lastly the dreaded insurance pitch, you'll have to hear a scripted sales pitch on services you'll never use or need.
I feel like the Beatles, longing for yesterday when I could walk into any Apple store buy as many phones as I wanted, go to the privacy of my home and activate the damn thing. I chose the plan I wanted, I kept my phone number, and clicked "NO!" to any service I didn't need. I felt like an empowered citizen of the free world!
Now the communist imperialists have their boot on my neck. OK, its not that bad, but you feel my pain!
Hey Guys, it appears as though I'm stuck with my 1st gen iPhone. I thought I was in like Flynn today. In my previous attempts of picking up a phone from what appeared to be people in line for toilet paper in Cold War Russia, I again was denied. Even with Apple's new policy of opening up at 8:00 and getting approved in line. I have to buy the phone from AT&T because the plan I'm on is from my companies employee discount plan.
Now I know it won't be anytime soon before I get one because making a visit to an AT&T store is an adventure all its own. First, you'd think Jesus, Muhammad, and Moses were in there handing out blessings by size of the crowd and long waits to get to an associate, and that's just the way it is all the time, even before the iPhone came out. Second, you're at the mercy of the competence of the clerk who sees you. Trust me on this, not all of them bring the same quality of service. Lastly the dreaded insurance pitch, you'll have to hear a scripted sales pitch on services you'll never use or need.
I feel like the Beatles, longing for yesterday when I could walk into any Apple store buy as many phones as I wanted, go to the privacy of my home and activate the damn thing. I chose the plan I wanted, I kept my phone number, and clicked "NO!" to any service I didn't need. I felt like an empowered citizen of the free world!
Now the communist imperialists have their boot on my neck. OK, its not that bad, but you feel my pain!
Apple has much more motivation to ship the phones to the Apple stores instead of the AT&T stores. AT&T is paying an extra $100/phone to apple above and beyond the regular subsidy for every phone that is sold in an Apple store. If Apple sells 1 million phones in their stores, that's an extra $100 million in the bank compared to the phones being sold at AT&T stores.
I'm vacationing for the weekend in NYC. Woke up this morning, took the subway to the fifth ave store and got a ticket in less than a minute. They only have the white in stock, at least as of right now (no idea when they'll be getting another shipment) but I wanted the white one anyway. If all things go according to plan I should have my iPhone in another two hours or so (8:00 appointment). In the mean time I'm inside the cube killing time by posting on macrumors. We'll see how this turns out, but so far I definitely like this approach better compared to having to wait in line, etc.
I went to the Costa Mesa, CA Apple store on Friday at about 2pm and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to upgrade from my Razr to an iPhone, so I decided to wait and think about it. At 2pm, there were only three people in line. After deciding I wanted it, I went back at about 5pm only to find about 25 people in line. I asked the guy at the head of the line how long he had been waiting and he looked at his watch and said "one hour, fifteen minutes." I went back home. I went today (Saturday) at about 4pm and there were even MORE people in line. Sheesh! I think I'll try Monday at 2pm (weekdays in the middle of the day seem to be "the magic number") 
We went yesterday to the Hingham, MA store to get my brother an iPhone and add him on my plan. I called ahead and waas told they had all phones and the line was "very short right now". When we got there, there were still only 3 people ahead of us, but they were out of the 8GB model. He got the 16GB black. Only took about a little more than an hour altogether. I guess that's the best you can hope for at this point.
store to get my brother an iPhone and add him on my plan. I called ahead and waas told they had all phones and the line was "very short right now". When we got there, there were still only 3 people ahead of us, but they were out of the 8GB model. He got the 16GB black. Only took about a little more than an hour altogether. I guess that's the best you can hope for at this point. Marketing stunt backfire?
I agree there is no real reasons for them to keep their customers waiting outside the stores for all these time besides from using them as marketing props. I went to the store twice (one was at 6:30am) and the line was at 5 hours wait time. No new phone for me.
After all that waiting and have more time playing with the 2.0 software. I truly feel that the 3G iPhone doesn't have that much more to offer me especially with $15 more a month on the bill.
Well, they lost 1 customer here!
I am keeping my 1st Gen iPhone!!
I agree there is no real reasons for them to keep their customers waiting outside the stores for all these time besides from using them as marketing props. I went to the store twice (one was at 6:30am) and the line was at 5 hours wait time. No new phone for me.
After all that waiting and have more time playing with the 2.0 software. I truly feel that the 3G iPhone doesn't have that much more to offer me especially with $15 more a month on the bill.
Well, they lost 1 customer here!
I am keeping my 1st Gen iPhone!!