I think i had the worst luck of all Iphone 3G owners in the UK today

[colcass]

hows this for bad luck
7am, my wife and i (plus baby) arrive at trafford centre, 26 people outside one O2 store, similar outside the other O2 store, a couple of people outside each of the carphone warehouse stores,
we joined the queue outside the apple store (as they had the white one) and were 9th and 10th in the queue.
store opened at 8.02, lots of clapping etc, got to a terminal at about 8.10

to cut a long story short, left the store at,........ wait for it
16.40
8 hours 40 mins later with two 16gb iphones, 1 white, black

O2 are the ones to blame, their system was rubbish, and it was only when apple employees started to give the details to O2 over the phone that we got signed up

long day
i am off to get a curry now
P.S phones dont work yet

 

[t0mat0]

hows this for bad luck
7am, my wife and i (plus baby) arrive at trafford centre, 26 people outside one O2 store, similar outside the other O2 store, a couple of people outside each of the carphone warehouse stores,
we joined the queue outside the apple store (as they had the white one) and were 9th and 10th in the queue.
store opened at 8.02, lots of clapping etc, got to a terminal at about 8.10

to cut a long story short, left the store at,........ wait for it
16.40
8 hours 40 mins later with two 16gb iphones, 1 white, black

O2 are the ones to blame, their system was rubbish, and it was only when apple employees started to give the details to O2 over the phone that we got signed up

long day
i am off to get a curry now
P.S phones dont work yet

heard worse. Least you left with 2 iPhones! The tiredness will wear off, but the joy of the iPhone won't do half as fast.

 

[Sanzu08]

hows this for bad luck
7am, my wife and i (plus baby) arrive at trafford centre, 26 people outside one O2 store, similar outside the other O2 store, a couple of people outside each of the carphone warehouse stores,
we joined the queue outside the apple store (as they had the white one) and were 9th and 10th in the queue.
store opened at 8.02, lots of clapping etc, got to a terminal at about 8.10

to cut a long story short, left the store at,........ wait for it
16.40
8 hours 40 mins later with two 16gb iphones, 1 white, black

O2 are the ones to blame, their system was rubbish, and it was only when apple employees started to give the details to O2 over the phone that we got signed up

long day
i am off to get a curry now
P.S phones dont work yet

you spent 8 hours 40 mins in the store !?! that is dedication to the cause

 

[bigjnyc]

at least you didnt come home with yellow screens like alot of people did, be thankful for that.

 

[minga]

No I think I beat you, arrive apple bluewater store 6.30am, first in queue. First into store at 08.02am, first onto gateway and uru, leave apple store at 17.15. Staff were amazing, esp neil who kept me entertained all day. These guys love apple and their macs!

 

[Pointer]

Absolutely outrageous, I can't believe that you had to wait over 8 hours to buy a phone. I walked into an O2 store at 9am (having been 12th in the queue and having joined the queue at 8:30am) and walked out at 9:45am with the last 16gig iPhone they had. Looks like I lucked out big time.

 

[colcass]

No I think I beat you, arrive apple bluewater store 6.30am, first in queue. First into store at 08.02am, first onto gateway and uru, leave apple store at 17.15. Staff were amazing, esp neil who kept me entertained all day. These guys love apple and their macs!

thats so bad, but so funny at the same time
we must all be insane
about an hour before we left they started giving £15 i tunes gift vouchers to people

it is quite mad that apple released the phone worldwide on the same day, but the problems in the UK are with no one but O2, and their bad planning

i thought it was a little funny that apple kept the white one to themselves

O2, CPW and Apple should have had the people doing a credit check and taking a £1 deposit payment in the 2 weeks leading up to the launch date and this would have taken the strain off the system which fell over AGAIN

{{{OMG the iPhone 3G advert has just run on TV in the break half way through big brother}}}

 

[tony22]

They must spent a fortune on pastry and starbucks coffee.

 

[minga]

well we did get the £15 card, plus endless coffee, tea and muffins But still going to write a couple of emails as 10 and half hours wait for something that should of taken 50 minutes max and see what apple or o2 can offer! i really wanted one of the iphone 3g teeshirts!

 

[Joe23]

{{{OMG the iPhone 3G advert has just run on TV in the break half way through big brother}}}

I saw that, then proceeded to annoy my family by reminding them of my latest purchase

 

[April Dancer]

Your baby must be a lot more patient than mine! She's the only reason I wasn't in a queue this morning

 

[eyemacg5]

I'd have loved to get a white iPhone.
Went to o2 in Chesterfield at about 1pm, didn't expect them to have one, they didn't.
Then went an had lunch at yates's.

 

[yetanotherdave]

hows this for bad luck
7am, my wife and i (plus baby) arrive at trafford centre, 26 people outside one O2 store, similar outside the other O2 store, a couple of people outside each of the carphone warehouse stores,
we joined the queue outside the apple store (as they had the white one) and were 9th and 10th in the queue.
store opened at 8.02, lots of clapping etc, got to a terminal at about 8.10

to cut a long story short, left the store at,........ wait for it
16.40
8 hours 40 mins later with two 16gb iphones, 1 white, black

O2 are the ones to blame, their system was rubbish, and it was only when apple employees started to give the details to O2 over the phone that we got signed up

long day
i am off to get a curry now
P.S phones dont work yet

Hey, you got TWO 16gb iphones, and a choice of colour. Many of us left empty handed, despite being like 10th in line. That's a hell of a wait, but you got your hands on your goods.

 

[minga]

unfortunately most of these phones are nothing more than an ipod touch with gps, a camera and a glossy plastic back

 

[MojoWill]

i thought i was dedicaed it took me 5 hours! and a parking ticket!

 

[TurboSC]

unfortunately most of these phones are nothing more than an ipod touch with gps, a camera and a glossy plastic back

right, most of us are buying it for the "phone" aspect, and the fact that it can do everything the iPod touch can do, except more.

 

[fastbite]

In fact, reading through the forums all day about so many tales of misadventure was bloody hard -- no joke.

 

[markym07931]

hows this for bad luck
7am, my wife and i (plus baby) arrive at trafford centre, 26 people outside one O2 store, similar outside the other O2 store, a couple of people outside each of the carphone warehouse stores,
we joined the queue outside the apple store (as they had the white one) and were 9th and 10th in the queue.
store opened at 8.02, lots of clapping etc, got to a terminal at about 8.10

to cut a long story short, left the store at,........ wait for it
16.40
8 hours 40 mins later with two 16gb iphones, 1 white, black

O2 are the ones to blame, their system was rubbish, and it was only when apple employees started to give the details to O2 over the phone that we got signed up

long day
i am off to get a curry now
P.S phones dont work yet

I have to say, that is reasonably similar to my escapade today..

o2 dewsbury, get there early at 7.30, 8th in line. only 6, 16gb iphones, in black, were snapped up in seconds, at 7.40am, as they came out and allocated cards to everyone, for the stock..

drive to wakefield...

get to wakefield, hang around and wait... 9th line, and again, only 6, 16gb black iphones... read on macrumors, that the regent street store has the white ones.... decide against a 8gb, and drive to meadowhall, sheffield..

get to Apple Store, at 9.40am.. Queue only about 10 long for people that are waiting... o2 systems have crashed!

arse around, reading newspapers, playing on the computers and guitar hero, (awesome!) and at 1.15pm, o2 are going to call the store, and go on a manual basis so we can leave with our iphones..

3 pm rolls round, and no sign of these phone calls..

4.20pm, a phone call comes through, woohoo.. i'm 2nd in line for actually going via the manual method, as 2 people have walked out with iphones, sneaking in the spaces where the o2 system actually worked...

4.40pm, i have my iphone in a bag, i have a receipt emailed to me, and I can actually leave the store.... it feels so odd... i'd been there all bluddy day!!!

get home, activation not working...

i got bored of trying, so had a little nap...

i think i got my nice shiny white 16gb one activated at about 8.40pm.. my first attempt after my nap!

pity the sim card that o2 supplied me with does nothing right now... that'll take a couple of days to get working!

was it all worth it... oh yeah!

I have to compliment all the staff at meadowhall though, they were amazing... I have to say, it is probably one of the places that the words "customer service" is always in the forefront of their minds. They always kept asking if we wanted anything, magazines, newspapers, drinks, coffees, snacks... out of this world they are, and all credit to them too. It was a pity that the o2 systems couldn't handle it, and I have no idea what is going to happen now, but fingers crossed I'll get the proper sim card activated, and my PAYG number transferred.

i think i have to take this iphone back too, as i have a dull dot in the middle of the screen, which is highly annoying.. but that is just a small thing! i'll do that next week once everything has died down!

 

[minga]

right, most of us are buying it for the "phone" aspect, and the fact that it can do everything the iPod touch can do, except more.

What I meant is the way we had to sign up in the end meant that currently anything that requires the sim ie text messages telephone calls and 3g data do not work!

 

[kinster]

So you didn't leave the Apple Store for one minute? not even to walk around the shopping centre?

 

[bigandy]

I spent six hours in the Milton Keynes store. ±3hrs queuing and ±3hrs trying to get the O2 portal to get past the credit check without timing out.


...and they didn't even let me leave with my iPhone, because they didn't have any paper forms (surely they could have walked 2min to the O2 shop and get some).

So it's there, paid for, sitting in the bloody shop. I've got to wait for them to call me now and tell me the system's working again, so I can finish it off and take the damn thing out of the store.


I *will* be less patient next time I'm in. I will also be demanding some reimbursement for the £10 I had to pay in the car park - it would have been £5, but they took 15min to tell me I shouldn't hang around any longer. That 15min pushed me over the boundary of "being completely shafted" as I'm calling it.


*screams*