Ya gotta read this tale of woe
Had a feeling this was going to out-sell predictions. However, I have had a laughable effort to buy one.
AT&T listed me as not eligible until December having bought two fully subsidized 3G's on launch day last July. I needed to pay full retail this year. I was going to do this, but decided to check with an AT&T store to verify my status on the Monday prior to Friday's launch. They said I was eligible for a pre-(something) then and there of $399. I had several Apple gift cards that I wanted to offset the price with and asked if and when I went to Apple, would Apple see this price? They said "yes, it's right here," indicating their computerized account system in my name. The web still showed me differently.
Then, on launch day, I stopped by the same phone store I bought the 3G's from and verified that the $399 was still the case. They said yes. I proceeded to the Apple store and waited in line for 100 minutes until I was directed to an employee. He went back and picked up a black 16GB and handed it to me. He got out his hand-held point-of-sale terminal and started the process. He told me I was not eligible for any subsidy and listed by the phone company as needing to pay full retail. After telling him the above, he sent me to a Genius and his manager.
The Genius made a valiant effort to call somebody at AT&T to rectify my situation. They said my account had several "penalties", etc. I told them, through the Genius, that on the contrary, my account was always paid in full ($230 monthly fees) and in fact, I had a small credit balance from overpaying last time. They ended up saying I was "eligible" for the $399 price on or after July 11th.
On the way home, I again stopped by the AT&T store and was told the $399 was available to me then and there. However, they were sold out of what I wanted. As an aside, the sales guy said I was one of a very small number of customers that was able to get a free upgrade to my DSL line to their fastest available offering.
So, if I am such a valuable customer, with everything under our roof through AT&T, then why was I listed as not eligible for ANY subsidy? Were it not for my efforts, this would have remained in effect.
I am still showing a full retail price this December when going through Apple's web ordering utility. And, I find it difficult to accept that AT&T would allow their inventory to deplete over a weekend with high demand from buyers. I'm still waiting for the shipment of more 3GS's.
It certainly makes the 50,000 Pre's sold by Palm on it's opening weekend look positively miniscule. lol
