In and Out in Four Hours: Getting the iPhone 3G on Day One

Check out my review of the iPhone 3G here

http://moneyforgadgets.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-review-of-new-iphone.html

LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY. I had all types of problems.

http://26dayswithoutaniphone.com

I just noticed there's a big gap on my iphone. The gap is between the chrome and the white plastic, starting from the sleep wake button all the way down the right side!!!! ARGH!!! Anyone knows if I can exchange it? My other black one seems nicely fitted like the old one.

Northridge, California Apple Store. Arrived at 6:05 AM. 30 intrepid souls there before me. That number turned to about 40 as the morning wore on and the placeholders showed up to join their friends.

Apple Store opened a few minutes late, let 20 or so in, and they never came out....never! Well, actually, after about an hour the first one came out, and then they trickled out every 10 minutes or so. It was 11:15 before I ever got in the store, and it took 40 minutes to get things in order, but the typical person was taking about 20. I had issues with AT&T thinking I was a corporate account when I wasn't, but a quick phone call fixed that.

The 40 minutes I was in the store, they didn't seem to let in more than another 5 people. And my friend who stood in line with me had the same corporate account issues, but they couldn't resolve hers, so I offered to go to the nearest AT&T store and see if they could help her out. I was gone 25 minutes round trip while Apple and AT&T tried to get her activated. In the time I was gone and back, not a single person had been let into the store.

This clusterfrak was nothing like last year, where at least once the doors opened, you were in and out of the store with phone in hand in short order.

What a joke. I will never stand in line for a stupid phone again. It would have been fun; was fun, actually, meeting other geeks, but around the four hour mark, all the enthusiasm of the day was sucked out of me. And in the end, my friend, who waited six hours plus, walked out of the store with no phone in hand, and no chance of getting one now that AT&T stores locally are all out of stock.

When we finally left, there were still at least 150-200 people in line for the phone. They will be there until midnight tonight at this rate.

Is it sad that I recognized Sherman Oaks just from the picture (before reading anything)? Having only been there once in the last few years, I didn't even know there was an Apple store there!

Mine was not a good experience at all. I went to an AT&T store in kings plaza mall, brooklyn, NY, arrived at 11 am and there where only 15 people in front of me. I saw 5 leaving with iphones, then they said the system went down, we waited for 2 hours and then a manager came to tell us that they really did not have anymore iphones, if we wanted we could order it and come pick it up when they will give us a call. I feel being used by AT&T making me wait outside for 2 hours so everyone can see there's an attraction to their store. then went to the 14th street store and there was a line for 4 hours waiting time, no way. I'll do it the same as last year, will go saturday night to the 5th ave store, me, the only one in the line just waiting for someone to say "next!" .

Believe it or not, you don't necessarily have to get a 100% go from iTunes for it to work. I tried three times in the store, and while I got an error from iTunes all three times, I guess enough info got through to activate, because I am in 3g and GPS wonderland right now. Keep trying, it'll work.

5am: alarm goes off
5:30am: arrive at local AT&T store (had to go there since my account is on a FAN discount). i'm 13th in line
8:20am: allowed into the store after a few of the first 10 are finished.
8:30am: in the seat, signing the dotted line.
9:00am: iphone finally finished unbricking.
9:01am: getting cursed at by those outside who just found out they won't be getting an iphone today.

not a bad morning, considering i stopped into target right after and finally found a wii fit :)

well, as a shopper at the palo alto store, i got there at 7:45... stood in line and waited as we moved around the block and closer to the store. at about 10am we were able to touch the outside wall of the store, and at about 11:00 we were finally in the store! only to wait in another line until I got to meet my personal 3g seller at about 11:30... got the phone and got out, and now i'm sitting at home waiting for the sync to finish. so, almost 4 hours in line, and now i almost have a new 3g!

I arrived at the Toronto Rogers flagship store at 4am, and was approximately 65th in line. They were to open at 8am. After polling those in line, at 7:10am they announced that they would be out of the 16GB black model before I got one... so I walked across the street to the Eaton Centre, where there's a mini Rogers Plus kiosk. There was nobody there, but there was a guy at the counter. "Do you have any 16GB black iPhones?" and he replied "We have one left. I guess you get it!" But he couldn't sell it to me until they opened the kiosk at 10am :( So I waited. At 10am, the entire Rogers nationwide point of sale terminal system went DOWN. That meant they *couldn't* sell anyone an iPhone. It came up for about 1 minute around 12:00pm, during which time my ultra-helpful sales guy made my purchase. He couldn't activate it, of course, because iTunes was down... and he couldn't port my number over from a competing carrier, because the Rogers porting system was also down... but after 8 hours in line, at least I have my sweet sweet iPhone in my hands. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.