Horrible experience with iPhone 4 lines today.

There was this guy that stood in front of me waiting to buy a bumper just like me. We talked about our new iPhones a bit and how we loved it. He got his yesterday via Apple pre-order. On the 15th, he tried to pre-order at 2am. Everytime, he would get a little closer and a closer before another error. Then bam! At 4pm, he got through.

Moral of the story - Be persistent. No excuses. It took him about 14 hours of his life and got rewarded a day earlier. He didn't give up. Ironic I say this because I also saw The Karate Kid at AMC after I bought my bumper. Jaden Smith's character didn't give up at the end either even with a bad leg.

I'm sorry to hear about it, but the key is to pre-order. The early bird does catch the worm. Life isn't fair either. You win some, you lose some.

As for my experience, I had a great one today. But yes, I have failed at launch too. C'est la vie. Live to fight another day.
 
Waking up for 10 mins in the middle of the night was the easiest thing I had to do for my iPhone 4. With my 3G, i waited for 4 hrs while I had to actually drive to the store to pick up my original 2G.:)
 
I tried two times today, in morning and it was bad idea to begin with - so went again in afternoon around 3pm - and boom I was out with phone in 45 mins - in afternoon they were letting 1:1 ratio - I kind of got lucky - there were only 7-8 phone left (non-reserved) after me and while walking out I saw apple rep declaring to in-line ppl that they ran out of phone
 
some people are just ridiculous. If you didn't get the reservation, and you decided to HAVE TO buy the phone on DAY 1, then why pissed off when you are in line? You are free to come back couple weeks later and grab one without waiting and reservation.
 
lomafor said:
some people are just ridiculous. If you didn't get the reservation, and you decided to HAVE TO buy the phone on DAY 1, then why pissed off when you are in line? You are free to come back couple weeks later and grab one without waiting and reservation.
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Agreed. While one might complain about them not just using a number system for reservations but wanting a big line so it's shown on the news this morning and tonight, complaining about not getting a phone that you didn't reserve is preposterous. Apple didn't reserve one for you and didn't owe you anything. You knew the risk coming into it.

Personally, I was very pleased with the service today. I was there and in line for about four hours, but the whole time they gave out water, water ice and ice cream treats, lemonade from Chic-Fil-A, Iced tea from Starbucks, and pretzels from Auntie Anne's. I'm sure it didn't really cost them much in comparison to the iPhones sold, but the average person in line probably had about $7 for food and drink. I was curious as to what the Starbucks, Chic-Fil-A, and Auntie Anne's emplolyees were getting for this (they were walking around in their uniforms).
 
Applejuiced said:
That interesting.
I dont know if I'd get pissed or just laugh at them while the talk their **** while my line is moving alot faster:D
What were they saying to you?
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I could totally sympathize though. The people in the walk-in line had been there twice as long as I had, they looked miserable. I hope they walked out with phones though. Ordering/making reservations was really messed up on pre-order night, just because they were walk-in customers doesn't mean they weren't up all night like the rest of us trying to log a reservation in the system.
 
not crying for you either. woke up at 8am on the 15th and error after error after error took until 3pm to finally get my pre-order thru, least u had people to keep you company....my fingers were starting to hurt from hitting refresh over 1,000 +++++ times.
nml, im anti-bashing but pre-orders worked as hard as you did...sry you didnt get a phone, but unless you were there camping out the night before you shoulda saw that one coming....wasnt rocket science doll.
 
I guess I don't understand this whole "need it the first day" thing. Wasting 8-10 hours seems like a horrible use of time. But to each's own. Then again, I don't see movies the first day of release either. Why anyone wants to put up with the crowds for such things is beyond me.
 
What about those with a 6/15 pre-order that has STILL not shipped?

I may try my local apple store today since AT&T has still not shipped my 6/15 pre-order. I have received no answers as to why and many promises that it has been shipped, it's coming, the tracking is down, and it'll be here by 6/25 at 430pm (probably just after said CSR is gone for the weekend).
 
Yet another reason why I'm glad I went with Best Buy. Got there in the 15th when they opened and there was no line. I made my pre order and put down the $50 deposit and was out in 10 min. Today I had an appointment to pick up the phone at 8am. Showed up at 7:55am and was out by 8:20am. Might want to think about going a different route next time. No way I would wait that long in line for ANYTHING! Honestly, why would people waste that much time. If you didn't pre order, wait a week and just walk into the store and buy one. That's what I did with the 3G. If you can't wait a week to get it, you've got a problem.
 
oplix said:
There was no reasonable explanation as to why they gave the reserved line such a large shortcut over the unreserved line. Reserved phones had not been paid for ahead of time. It didn't really make sense.
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Have you ever made dinner RESERVATIONS? Did you pay ahead of time for them? When you got to the restaurant did you not expect to be served ahead of a people that just randomly walked in off the street? Are you from Mars?
 
I think anyone who waits in line for an iPhone is a freak. Should have just ordered it online and had it shipped. If not, just wait a couple weeks. I certainly don't have that much time to wait around in a line.:confused:
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Have you ever made dinner RESERVATIONS? Did you pay ahead of time for them? When you got to the restaurant did you not expect to be served ahead of a people that just randomly walked in off the street? Are you from Mars?
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I agree with you except for the "When you got to the restaurant did you not expect to be served ahead of a people that just randomly walked in off the street?" part... Dinner reservations have nothing to do about being served food ahead of those without reservations. Dinner reservations are for the table or seat itself...
 
So you did not pre-order, you did not even try to reserve one, yet you decided to stand in line for hours for something that you knew would sell out very, very quickly...

Sounds like you learned a lesson. Preorder or reserve one next time.
 
Munitalp said:
Dinner reservations have nothing to do about being served food ahead of those without reservations. Dinner reservations are for the table or seat itself...
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This is hilarious. This has to be the most bizarre interpretation of what a reservation is which was concocted in order to justify complaining about a bad Apple store experience you brought on yourself. Time to man up and take responsibility for your own actions and failure to act. :rolleyes:
 
Munitalp said:
I agree with you except for the "When you got to the restaurant did you not expect to be served ahead of a people that just randomly walked in off the street?" part... Dinner reservations have nothing to do about being served food ahead of those without reservations. Dinner reservations are for the table or seat itself...
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Perhaps I should have said "seated" but that it what I meant.
 
I just don't understand people like the OP. I went to my local Apple Store, grabbed a coffee with my girlfriend at the coffee shop on the level above the Apple Store and sat back and watched the madness below us for a few minutes. There has to be some kind of general understanding that you're taking a gamble by getting in line with no reservation.

I usually wait a couple weeks for things to die down, but this year i'll be waiting until the second half of July.
 
Slow line

That non reserve description was the same experience I had. I left after 5 hours when I heard about "priority list." from an Apple employee to some random person in line a few people ahead of me. I too attempted to reserve but the server was down that day. I don't know why Apple just didn't know how many phones to have available for launch day.

One other thing, at 7:00am the store was open and I noticed the same customers just yacking away until 7:45am. You would think the people that came in that early would know what they want and just pick it up. I wish they could have a line for people that ask lots of questions and separate them from the purchase people.

Reserve people must feel so superior to non reserve people.
 
I can see from the OP's post that parenting has become an epic failure in our society. Everyone has this sense of entitlement and the world owes me type of BS. I'm glad the OP got a healthy dose of reality check.

Guess what? In life, you win some, and lose some. The best condolences I can offer you is a little cheese to go with your 'whine'.

To someone else who mentioned they didn't understand anyone who waited in line. Guess what? Those who were porting their number from another carrier were required to go to the store. So if you wanted one on the first day, you stood in line for it.

I can say that Apple has really gone the extra mile to make people comfortable while waiting. We had tea, lemonade, and pizza while we waited. Not to mention there was that whole 'human interaction' thing. You know, where you meet people in real life instead of FB, YM, MSN, etc.
 
The problem at the store I went to was that people who reserved 1 phone were allowed to grab an additional one when they got inside, taking away from phones that could have gone to people waiting for a walk-in. They made a reservation to pick up one phone, but essentially got to cut in front of the walk-in line because they (by definition) got in first for their one reserved phone.

I'm sorry, but if they wanted two phones, they should have reserved two phones. Could only reserve one? Too bad, get in back of the other line after you get your reserved one.
 
YodaOfDarkness said:
I'm sorry, but if they wanted two phones, they should have reserved two phones. Could only reserve one? Too bad, get in back of the other line after you get your reserved one.
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I originally got in to reserve my phone briefly but wanted to reserve 2 phones (one for myself and one for my girlfriend). Just by undoing that action, I got the AT&T server error and didn't get to reserve my phone.

I could understand that because it wasn't clear if a Quantity (2) was an option later in the ordering process or if you would not be able to reserve 2 phones and have it treated as a duplicate order. A system should be in place to prevent a person from getting two phones even if they only reserved one phone like you said. Have them go to the back of the non reserved line.


I wonder when it will be possible to just walk into an Apple store and pickup an iPhone 4 without out of stock issues and long lines?
 
alana22 said:
I could totally sympathize though. The people in the walk-in line had been there twice as long as I had, they looked miserable. I hope they walked out with phones though. Ordering/making reservations was really messed up on pre-order night, just because they were walk-in customers doesn't mean they weren't up all night like the rest of us trying to log a reservation in the system.
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That doesnt give them any rights to bitch and talk **** to people that did reserve though.
I feel their frustration but no reason to take it out on other customers or Apple employees.
Thats ignorant.

Munitalp said:
I agree with you except for the "When you got to the restaurant did you not expect to be served ahead of a people that just randomly walked in off the street?" part... Dinner reservations have nothing to do about being served food ahead of those without reservations. Dinner reservations are for the table or seat itself...
Click to expand...

And sitting down at the table first while others still wait outside means that you will get served food ahead of them obviously:rolleyes:
Same exact concept.
 
The manager at our store said the ratio was 50:1. They let 3 people in from the walk-ins line in the first 2 and a half hours. We were 28th and 29th in line and got two of the last FOUR walk-in phones. That means fewer than 50 phones for walk-ins at a very busy mall with more than 1000 people in line.

Your experience was the same as everybody elses.
 
A man in the stand-by line actually assaulted the Apple employee who told the line they had no phone left for him! It was just insanity on the stand-by people's end. The employee was not hurt, and had the man arrested, but still...people never fail to amaze me.

To the OP, sorry, but as the PPs have said, I can't really feel bad for you. I got lucky and reserved my phone with ease, but I too had to wait in very long lines twice in one day. I get that you're upset, but oh well. You took a chance, and didn't get it, no use crying. I doubt many people here at all will have any sympathy. You're not entitled to get one just because YOU chose to wait extra time after they warned you. And the customers with reservations, like myself, DO deserve to go ahead of you for the simple fact that we have a reservation and you don't. If they had sold my reserved phone to a walk-in I would have been fuming.

Better luck next time.
 
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