Here begins my tale of iPad 2 woe:
Like the rest of you I was desperately searching here and there, I found one on the Comet site and ordered it, only for them to tell me the next morning they were out of stock and would hold my money until a new one came it, with no possibility of refund. After I pointed out to them that this amounted to theft they gave my money back.
Next I tried PC world, they took my money and again had no stock. They happily gave me cash back though!
After this I went to my local Apple re-seller. I live in Cheltenham and if they're any who lives there on here, you know how crap they are. There's one nice guy in there and he said I could put a 25% deposit down to get on their waiting list, if I found it anywhere else I could get a refund. That's a bit lame, but whatever beats waiting 3 weeks. So I did and walked out.
That night I was told that Argos had some in stock (I was after a 64 gig 3G in white). I ordered it then and there, thinking it was all done.
The payment was declined by my bank (most large payments without prior notice are these days to prevent fraud) but I called up the next day and Argos still had it, but would have to ship 2 days late. They promised it would be there by Friday, so I decided to try and get my deposit back from the Apple re-seller.
Turns out that no one had actually ever come in to ask for their deposit back, and when I asked, the staff all turned to each other in panic. A call to the manager later and I got my deposit back (on card, even though I paid in cash!).
The iPad was supposed to be shipped to my parents work, they own a restaurant so someone's there all day. Friday came and went. The delivery company for Argos (Home deliver network) first claimed that it was going to be delivered at 9pm, then that they couldn't find the place and had brought it back (it's the biggest building by far on the road and clearly a restaurant). This was around 8pm, when by the online tracking system it had gone back to the depot and the driver had finished his shift. The lady on the desk didn't even apologise, told me I must be reading it wrong (and implied that I couldn't read English well due to a foreign name).
Saturday rolled by, I called again and even though it was deemed a priority they forgot to load it onto a truck. The manager promised to call me back, which he never did. Eventually I gave up and threatened to burn down the warehouse and surrounding town to anyone who would listen.
It finally got delivered 5 days late. It seems this isn't anything out of the ordinary for Home Delivery Network, judging by the long list of death threats on the internet from customers who have either been ripped off or gotten their items very late. So If you're ordering your iPad online, ask for Royal Mail instead of these jokers!
Anyway I have it now and couldn't be happier! No backlight problems, battery seemed a little weak at first but it's been lasting well. I'm really surprised how much more data it eats compared to my iPhone. The only thing that's weird is I think the glass and bezel is slightly mis-aligned, I couldn't get the screen protector to sit straight and I think the glass has a bit more of a gap on the edge on one side. It's not noticeable so I don't care
Good luck to everyone trying to find one!