To: Gareth (email address taken out)
Sent: Tue Jul 08 11:39:56 2008
Subject: FW: POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE OVER IPHONE
Dear Mr Fradgley
Thank you for your email. Matthew has asked me as O2 Sales Director
responsible for iPhone to reply on his behalf. Up front, I would like to
apologise for the disappointing and frustrating experience you had
yesterday on our online shop.
At O2 we had said that we would keep all those who had registered their
interest in Apple iPhone 3G up to date with the launch developments. We
also used the registration data to keep Apple up to date on the
phenomenal interest and to support our orders for the phones with them.
We have been working continuously with them to get as much stock for the
UK as possible. Unfortunately, they have only been able to supply a
small proportion of the number of phones we asked for, because they are
launching simultaneously in 22 countries. We are confident that over
time we will start to get sufficient volume to meet demand, but it is
likely that stock will be in very short supply for some weeks to come.
We opened the online shop yesterday, having only told those who had
registered that it was available, to give them a chance to be one of the
first to get their hands on the iPhone. This also meant that successful
orders could be delivered to customers' homes on the same day as the
retail high street launch, 11th July. To put it in context we had over
200,000 people expressing interest and only a very small proportion of
that number of devices available. Faced with this dilemma, we made it
clear in the communications that to be fair to all customers the orders
would be managed on a first come first served basis, as stock was
limited. The response was so great that the online store completely sold
out of iPhones within just a few hours.
We did also take steps to ensure our own customers were not
disadvantaged by providing a stock allocation for them. We took as many
upgrades orders from O2 customers as we did from the customers of all
the other networks put together.
We run one of the busiest and most robust web stores in the UK. I
appreciate that it is little comfort to you given your experience, but
we had invested heavily to add a huge amount of additional capacity, 250
times its normal rate, and back-up systems. We tested this carefully in
advance. The massive simultaneous crush, partly created by our open and
honest communications approach with the registered community, exceeded
even our worst case assumptions. Demand was at 13,000 orders per second.
Frankly, we have to admit we just weren't prepared for this
unprecedented level of demand. No website is.
The next opportunity to get an iPhone will be when the device goes on
sale in the high street on 11th July. O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores
will be taking new orders and upgrade orders. Apple stores will only be
taking new customer contracts. Most shops will open at 8.02am but some
stores, particularly in shopping centres where early access is not
possible, will open as usual from 9am. The approach on Friday will also
be on a first come first served basis. The amount of devices will vary
depending on the store but will be on average a few dozen iPhones in
each O2 or CPW store. We are expecting early queues and, like the online
site, are expecting to sell out very quickly. Apple stores will have
more devices. We will be receiving deliveries from Apple roughly once a
week for the foreseeable future but it will be several weeks before
stocks increase. We will release stock updates for the online shop as
they become available.
I am sorry that you haven't been successful in getting your hands on the
new iPhone and once again I would like to apologise that the experience
you had wasn't as we wanted or you deserve. All I can do is reassure you
that we will continue to work closely with Apple to get as much stock as
possible for the UK. We will also continue to use the principle of first
come first served as stock becomes available for both online and in our
stores as we feel that is the best way to be fair and equitable to the
many tens of thousands of other customers also desperate to get one.
Thank you
Stephen Shurrock
Sales Director
O2
