iPhone 3G: The Waiting Game: Part II: Redux
By Paul Miller 
posted July 12th 2008 2:16PM
posted July 12th 2008 2:16PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this stuff in]
posted July 12th 2008 2:16PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
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I was at the Northridge, CA mall for a couple of hours this
afternoon. The Apple Store line was 50-60 people long, and in the two
hours I saw it, those at the end of the line had only moved about
halfway up to the store. Yikes. Still, they probably will have a
shorter wait than I did yesterday morning.
Went this morning to Freehold NJ Apple Store an hour after they opened, got into line (was # 21) and an hour later (delay was waiting for delivery guy to show up with boxes of phones) walked out with two 16gb black fully activated units, one for me and one for my wife! No problem whatsoever with the Apple retail experience, from the greeters to the purchase and activation, very pleasant and professional...I refuse to walk into an AT&T retail store!
When I got home, tested the AT&T 3G coverage at my house and it's five bars full strength 3G, so I am a happy camper! Synced both phones and installed tons of free apps, everything is working great!
I was in line from 8:30AM ~ 1:30PM at Apple Store Brea Mall, CA. I didn't see it happens but there are people at the end of the line complaining to Apple about people who got vouchers yesterday. Apparently Apple employees don't take away the vouchers. When voucher people came out, some of them just went toward the end of line and selling those vouchers.
Apple employees were notified to take away the voucher, but it was already 1:00PM. If i'm in the back of the line, I'll definitely buy those vouchers to skip my 5 hrs wait =/
I could have gotten one from the Rogers booth at Costco yesterday, they had a good 20 of them and nobody seemed bothered to even look at it.
Must be because they don't want to take the chance and get caught paying for those expensive plans...
After 6 hrs of wait with Apple Fifth Ave NYC, they turned me away once inside coz they could not accept foreign passport as photo id not to say we had confirmed abt foreign passport when we were in line. (we did had SSN and CC).
So checked with AT&T stores(two of them), they where ok with any passport, doesn't matter. But they were out of stock.
Wonder why apple was so strict about photo id.
My bad.
Just cuz you're not Clak doesn't mean you're not a tool.
I was at the Apple store in Madison WI this morning at 10:30 am. I was the 4th person in line. I waited less than 5 minutes. I had no problem getting a white 16GB phone and car charger. The store was recently re-supplied Friday night.
The only items they were out of were Applecare and screen protectors, which were no big deal.
I was porting my phone number from Sprint which transfered without a hitch. They gave me a short tutorial on how to use my phone, and I was in-and-out in 10 minutes.
P.S. The phone comes with the battery 3/4 charged already !!!!
Apple servers are down for maintenance from midnight to 7am according to the rep at the 5th ave apple store. No phones being sold.
5th ave sucks
I was planning on swinging by around 5 this store, but I drove past and saw the line. I figured they were still having problems and being stupid. This is just insane how badly they have screwed the pooch on this launch.
I live in Stillwater,Okla We had to drive over an 1hr on Fri morning to go to Okla City,we got to an At&t store right before they opened,but there was already close to 100 people in line,i am disabled i have Lupus and i have degeneritive disk disease of my spine,i have 4 disks completely gone,a herniated disk and a pinched nerve,so i have to use a cane to walk.We waited in line over 3 1/2 hrs,my husband asked to make sure they were going to have enough stock,because it was to hard on me to stand in line for hrs if they were going to run out,so we wait for 3 1/2 hrs in the heat get to the front of the line and they said they had run out! All the other At&t stores were sold out,so i called the only Apple store in the state which was in Penn Sq Mall they had plenty but it was a 5-6 hr wait,so we went over there,at least it was indoors and there were places for me to sit,but after 2 more hrs i coudn't do it any more,i was in severe pain and i was just ready to go home,so we got out of line and went up front of the store to ask the Apple people a few questions,my husband was talking to a few people in line that asked why we were getting out of line and if i was ok,well anyways a guy that was near the front of the line who had been waiting 6 hrs offered to give his place up for me,he said felt sorry for me,he said he'd just come back in a few days,i said are you sure? he'd already waited 6 hrs! he said he wanted to do something good for another person,i couldn't believe it! anyways sorry for the long story but i finally got my 16gb white 3G had to wait another hr,they were having server problems and problems trying to activate,but i finally walked out with my phone,i've had the original iphone for a yr and i loved it,it was the first time i had kept a cellphone that long,so i really wanted the 3G.But anyways what a heck of a day! Thank God for compassionate people!
Schenectady NY Out of stock, told me I could buy a voucher and it would take 3 weeks!!!! I passed.....
I was told the same thing from that store, 2-3 weeks. The other AT&T stores in the area though (Central Ave. in Albany & Crossgates in Albany) were quoting 5-10 days. The guy in Schenectady actually told me that all of the Northeast US was sold out until August. I don't know where he is getting his info from but thats what he said.
The Apple store in Xgates is showing out of stock of everything on the website. Anyone know if you can do a "pre-buy" at an Apple store and get it quicker than doing a "pre-buy" at an AT&T store?
At least it has a ton - I mean the ratio is like crazy - 4 girls for every guy ...
God I love shopping ... oh yea that food court sucks.
Anyone know what the Manhattan lines are looking like this Sunday?
There is a 3-4 hour wait at the Cube on 5th Ave today (getting info from a friend in line).
Called the NYC stores:
5th Ave: 3 hours
Soho: 4 hours
14th St: 7 hours
Thanks Justin, this is a tremendous help. I was thinking about stopping by today but I might just wait now. Why is everyone going to the 14th St store when they close at 7pm?
... and every ATT store in Manhattan is out of stock.
People, go to an AT&T store! The phone is the same no matter where you get it. Why wait in an absurdly and unnecessarily long line?
Becasue all ATT stores are out of stock....
I got one yesterday after standing in line for 1.5 hours. I don't understand why Apple stores didn't give out numbers and estimated time to return so you would know a) you would get a phone and they would have one for you in inventory and b) you could go do other things until it was closer to your time.
The other mystery is why AT&T had so little inventory after having more than a month to stock up prior to start of sales. They ran out so fast and after the first day were quoting a week to get a unit while Apple stores had inventory. Really bad planning on AT&T's part.
Finally, I am very impressed so far. It is better than I expected.
in line in Bellevue, WA and even though it said all flavors were in stock last night they are out of black 16, limited on white 16 and moderate stock of 8gb. About 60 people in line at 10:17am PT
Anyone know how SF stores are looking today?
my famo works over at saks 5th avenue in chicago and when i dropped him off at work in the morning there were people lined up still and then he said that when i picked him up alot of people were returning them!
my famo works over at saks 5th avenue in chicago and when i dropped
him off at work in the morning there were people lined up still and
then he said that when i picked him up alot of people were returning
them!
I was at the SoHo store at about 10:30 am and there was a 60 to 70 or so person line.
Ive tried calling the att store on Barrett parkway in Georgia 5 times now, noone even picks up! At least when i called the apple store i was able to wait in line to talk to someone, with ATT they dont even care if noone answers!
At all Apple NYC stores, they are closing the line at 3pm, so they can serve all the existing customer standing in line till 12am. rofl. that's what the orange guy said. They will open at 7am next day.
AT&T doesn't have phones, and apple cant distribute it properly lol.. they should know it, city like NYC will have larger crowd.
Each time you ask AT&T they say, we will be getting more phones, waiting for FedEx, but apple is not providing them i guess.
iPhone = Sexy gadget
Apple = Failed management
AT&T = Hopeless people, they care less... they are getting ready made customer thx to apple.
Just called the Durham, NC Apple Store. None in stock adn "cannot say" when more are coming. None of the AT&T stores I called in Greensboro, Burlington, or Chapel Hill had any as of today.
I was at the Manhattan SoHo store again today at 2pm and there were around 60 people in line. Shorter than yesterday amazingly. also a rep at the 17th St Union Square store said all Manhattan ATT stores are sold out. It was funny to stand and watch by the door at the ATT store as a person walked in every 15 seconds and asked if iPhones were in yet.