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applehero

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2007
448
0
29º 25' 26"N, 95º 29' 36"W
Our Sony store pulled that lottery crap with the PS3. There were people that drove 100's of miles, some as far as Louisiana(as we have one of the few Sony Stores in South Texas), waited in line for over 24 hours and then a few hours before release, the store manager came out and had people start drawing numbers. I remember the news stories and how VERY pissed people were. That store got a lot of bad publicity as it was the only store in our area that did a lottery. I'm sure for the next big product launch Sony has, that store will not be packed with eager customers, they'll go to BB, CC, etc... Apple and AT&T don't need bad publicity, don't want bad publicity. Apple has too much riding on this to do it half-assed.
 

LizKat

macrumors 604
Aug 5, 2004
6,762
36,271
Catskill Mountains
coming home empty handed after 160 mile round trip

I personally cannot WAIT to see all the angry posts here from people who couldn't get one! I've got my popcorn all ready for the entertainment.

Apple Store in Albany is like 85 miles away. The one in Syracuse is 140-something. those are the one way distances. Even with a nice 5-speed Chevota (what my nephew calls my Prizm), that's a lot of gas money to find out that those stores had 40 phones apiece and fell 80 phones short...

This is a heck of a way to launch a product. I'm mad already, in anticipation of not getting one right away. The ATT store nearest me (62 miles one way) said they didn't know how many phones they'd get but they felt it would be, are you ready? FEWER THAN FIVE.
 

feelthefire

macrumors 6502a
Jun 13, 2006
836
0
Apple Store in Albany is like 85 miles away. The one in Syracuse is 140-something. those are the one way distances. Even with a nice 5-speed Chevota (what my nephew calls my Prizm), that's a lot of gas money to find out that those stores had 40 phones apiece and fell 80 phones short...

This is a heck of a way to launch a product. I'm mad already, in anticipation of not getting one right away. The ATT store nearest me (62 miles one way) said they didn't know how many phones they'd get but they felt it would be, are you ready? FEWER THAN FIVE.

Seems like you'd be a prime candidate for ordering one online, and sucking it up until tuesday when it finally shows up. Seems like that would be a lot less stress.

I can't imagine even considering driving 120 miles just to get something the first day it's out. Really, what's 4 extra days? no doubt even overnight shipping would be a lot less.
 

SirOmega

macrumors 6502a
Apr 17, 2006
715
6
Las Vegas
Our Sony store pulled that lottery crap with the PS3. There were people that drove 100's of miles, some as far as Louisiana(as we have one of the few Sony Stores in South Texas), waited in line for over 24 hours and then a few hours before release, the store manager came out and had people start drawing numbers.

Thats a tactical problem, not one related to lotteries per se. The dumbass manager should have had a sign outside saying that they were planning on having a lottery before people started camping out. Not coming out the morning of and saying then, after people at the front of the line that waited there for 24h they might not get one.

Also, I stopped by my AT&T store and they didn't have a list, in addition I noticed they sorta remodeled the store a bit and now have six or seven terminals from which to work - which should increase throughput the night of release.
 
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