How was your purchasing experience?

[fridgeymonster3]

Date: Opening Day
Where: Apple Rancho Cucamonga (Victoria Gardens)
How Long: 4:15 outside, 1 hr inside (50 min in inside line; 10 min to purchase/activate)
People in Front: over 200 or so at beginning (who knows how many actual purchasers; lots of families together)
People behind: probably 250+
Customer Service: Apple was great - gave out water, ice tea, ice coffee, talked with waiting customers about everything/anything, even gave you quarters for metered parking
Bought: 16 GB Black

Waited for 5 hours behind hundreds of people at Apple in Rancho Cucamonga. Came home with only a note getting me to the front of the line tomorrow morning. They said the AT&T servers shut off at midnight or something. Not exactly the best experience and Apple better figure out a way for this not to happen in the future or end the line a lot sooner. Big let down, the line was kinda fun met some cool peeps. Sucks coming home with nothing after 5 hours. was in line from 7:30pm - 12:30am

Dude, I was right in front of you in that line at Rancho. I was in line from 4:30 to 9:30 and finally walked away with a black 16GB iPhone. I was lucky cause I had half a day at work...so I could get there earlier than I would have been able to. The apple employees and the people in line were pretty cool though. Did you get your iPhone yet??

 

[ShaqFu]

My Experience ATT Store

I went to my local ATT store instead of the Apple Store which was 45 miles from my house on July 11th. Arrived at the ATT store at 3:00AM and there were 6 people in front on me. The earliest person had been there since 6:00PM on July 10th. The ATT Store Manager arrived at 600PM to bring those iphone/att t-shirts for the employees and then he left. The guy who was first in line followed the ATT Store Manger into the Starbucks and asked him about upgrading since he have previously purchased an iPhone. The Store Manager said he would have to buy it at full price. So this guy who had been in line for 12 hours picked up all of his stuff packed his car and left. Instead of the "Walk Of Shame" this guy had "The Drive Of Shame". All that wasting of half a day for nothing. There were about 32 people in line. I was the fifth in the store and they could not activate the phones in store so I was the first to leave and go home. The really sad part was I asked the ATT store manager how many phone they had and he said a total of 20 units. But he did not go tell the other 12 people waiting outside that there was no chance of them getting a phone, let alone get the phone of their choice.

ATT seemed to be doing that at all the store.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

Where: AT&T Englewood
How long: 4 hours outside, 10 minutes inside
People in front: 30
People behind: 60
Customer Service: AT&T allowed 3 people in the store at a time. It took about 15 minutes per customer (although their system was down so they weren't activating anyone). They served water. Only thing I disliked is that they didn't tell anyone about their stock (which was low) and the manager didn't understand the difference between "early-bird pricing" and "no-commitment pricing"
Bought: 8 GB (there were 2 white and 10 black 8GB phones when I left)

 

[Mercuric Oxide]

I got my 16 GB White on launch day.

I wasn't in a rush to get it, I didn't care if I got it on launch - so I left my house at 7:20 and went to a nearby AT&T store, arriving 30 minutes early.

There were 80 people in line, I was 81st. Store workers wouldn't tell me how many phones they had.

At 7:45, they begin giving out tickets, one for every type of phone. With 8 people in front of me, they announced they had 8 16GB Whites remaining, so I ended up being behind the last person.

2 hours passed, and they had only processed 40 people. The person in front of me began to get impatient and decided to leave. I thought it was my lucky day, but no, the guy decided to give his ticket to the cute lady behind me. There were no workers nearby, so I couldn't protest, and I wasn't going to complain to the lady if she wasn't adult enough herself to give me the ticket.

So I stood in line hoping that someone would be ineligible or fail the credit check. One of the workers came by and told me that no one had walked away yet without purchasing. A family who failed the credit check even paid a $500 deposit per phone.

One hour later, the lady behind me decides that she'd rather have the 8GB and gave me her ticket (not over the fact that I was ahead of her and deserved it..)

So after getting to the store 30 minutes early, followed by 3 1/2 hours of waiting due to activation problems, I left the store with the last iPhone (had to activate myself at home, which luckily, took only 3 tries).

That's my story.

 

[pintnight]

I bought mine today. I showed up at 9:30 to stand in line (10th in line). Apple store opened at 12 PM, got inside. Had to wait about 5 minutes for a apple employee. Got the iPhone I wanted (well, it was reserved while waiting outside), took about 5 minutes to pay and activate the phone. Then I bought a incase for the iPhone and left the store. Total time once the door opened was 20 minutes.

 

[quagmire]

Got in line at the Montgomery Mall Apple Store in MD at 7:30 am. Maybe 130 in line. Line was moving pretty fast until 9:30 am and when I got to the front at 10 am, line stalled for an hour. Finally got in at 11 am and had a rep within the next 10 minutes.

Said I wanted a 16 GB black and asked if they had the 3G dock which they did and I bought it as well. Took 20 minutes to push our way through processing with the server dying. Person said I had two options. 1) Try to get it activated in store or 2) take it home to activate. I said home and high tailed it out of there with no greasy nerd touching my iPhone.

While in line chatted with two really nice guys. Though there was this annoying woman who saw my original iPhone and asked to buy it. I said no, but she kept on asking. The delay was tolerable since I expected it. But, the woman was the worst part of the experience.