Filed under: Retail, Found Footage, iPhone
TUAW Video: Aspen Grove Apple Store on 3G Day
Last year, I put together a little 10-minute movie about the iPhone lovefest on June 29, 2007. This year, I did the same in between talking with Erica on the phone, and cleaning all the comments out of my email -- after reading them, of course. All of this was done in line at the Aspen Grove Apple Store in Littleton, Colorado. I know some people were critical of the employees at other Apple Stores, but this team is very professional and courteous, and I thought they did a great job considering the pressure they were under.
This video was literally thrown together in about 30 minutes, so don't expect a potential Academy Award nominee. You've been forewarned!
Direct link to video here.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Perceval said 7:36AM on 7-13-2008
At 2:43, you put July 10 as the date.
Otherwise, cool video! What time was it when you finally got out with your iPhone?
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Bernard Ramsey said 9:17AM on 7-13-2008
Awesome. Thanks for the video iPhone buying experience!
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MatthewRex said 9:20AM on 7-13-2008
So how many people didn't have to open theirs? I went Friday morning, and didn't get a phone, so I waited Saturday morning, too. When I finished the process, the employee sent me on my way with a completely sealed phone, saying it wouldn't be activated until I plugged it into iTunes.
So I'm curious how necessary the "opening it in the store" deal really was?
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lolgamoff said 9:33AM on 7-13-2008
At the Deer Park Apple Store in IL, the staff couldn't have been kinder. They talked to the people waiting in line, handed out bottles of Smart Water, and told everyone how to go in and be the most efficient. They didn't have to open mine up in store either, I just had to plug mine into iTunes at home. It was perfect for me, no activation problems at all. I only had to wait 2 and a half hours or so, too.
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Jeremy Lynnes said 10:12AM on 7-13-2008
The activation system is the same as last year. iTunes still activates your phone.
Why they decided to force people to open it in store and activate it - I don't know. Perhaps to make sure people buy X contract? To make sure people couldn't sell 'new sealed' iphones? To prevent 24hr+ activation issues that happened last year (uh no).
It really irritates me that the activation process is the SAME exact thing but you HAVE to do it in-store... so lame.
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Garrett said 10:37AM on 7-13-2008
I've been to that store - and your right, the staff are usually very good at what they do. Sadly, I chose the Park Meadows location for launch day. ENORMOUS line, but air conditioning and free Smart Water were provided. Also, all the eateries at the dining er...dining hall at Park Meadows realized the line was a marketing dream and showered us with free samples of chocolate mousse and bread sticks.
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YodaMac said 11:17AM on 7-13-2008
The Cherry Creek Mall Apple Store employees were awesome too. Free water and Starbucks for all! And WE didn't need any sunscreen in the nice air-conditioned mall (something you might want to think about next time...) :)
We arrived around 6:45 and didn't get into the store until after 11, but we did get in, and they seemed to have plenty of everything. Got my 16GB Black!
Since the servers had long-since taken a nap, the Apple store employee suggested I walk across the street to the AT&T store to get my service upgraded from Individual to FamilyTalk (yep, we're a two iPhone family now!)
That worked out great. I still wasn't able to activate them, but at least everything was in place to do so when I got home from work that evening. By 7:00 I had both iPhones up and running through iTunes.
That may sound bad, but last year it took me 3 days to get activated, and in the end I had to activate using Pay-as-you-Go just to get it working. The next month I signed onto the contract.
Been smooth sailing so far! Love both the new and old iPhone, and can't imagine being without one from now on! Thanks Steve! (oh, and you too, Steven...) :)
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Zews said 11:28AM on 7-13-2008
What a bunch of losers! Make that pathetic losers.
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Steven Sande said 1:33PM on 7-13-2008
Thank you. We all appreciate being called losers. Actually, I think the crowd at the store was far from being a group of losers -- at least we all have something in our lives we can get enthusiastic about instead of sitting in front of our computers all day trolling in forums and comments.
TUAWSteve
andrew said 12:19PM on 7-13-2008
MY LOCAL STORE!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!! Not too sure why but that just made my day :D
anywhoo i never really thought that there would be that many people there. Sadly enough I am in Arizona. And I have to wait to get an iPhone, but cool cool. Steve Sande you just became my favorite blogger.
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Steven Sande said 1:31PM on 7-13-2008
Dude! Thanks for the nice comment! I think you just became my favorite reader! ;-)
TUAWSteve
c2one said 2:15PM on 7-13-2008
Mr. Sande sounds like Will Ferrell
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Steven Sande said 2:35PM on 7-13-2008
Will Ferrell is ten years younger than I am, so Will Ferrell sounds like me! ;-)
TUAWSteve
frankie said 1:30PM on 7-13-2008
I'm sure I saw a dog in there. I'm taking my ridgeback in today. I'll use this video as evidence.
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Steven Sande said 1:31PM on 7-13-2008
Yes, you did! All of the stores (except for places serving food) are dog-friendly, so you can bring your beasts in. There was an Irish Setter who was so excited I thought he was going to knock over the Apple guy.
TUAWSteve
dave said 2:31PM on 7-13-2008
great vid! nice quality too, what camcorder to you have?
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Steven Sande said 2:37PM on 7-13-2008
I actually used my Canon S3 IS digital camera in movie mode. I think it does a better job than my old Canon DV camcorder.
TUAWSteve
Rubbinz said 4:20PM on 7-13-2008
Nice hat and shirt Steve. I think we have the same tailor.
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AlphaDeltaVIII said 4:48PM on 7-13-2008
If only I didn't live in Springs I could have an iPhone now instead of ordering one through AT&T, oh well :(
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miltos said 5:36PM on 7-13-2008
Folks in the Boulder, CO Apple store were awesome!
- Stood in line for about 2.5 hours (got in line at 3:30pm).
- Got the 3rd-to-last black 16GB that day (Friday)
- During the sales/activation process the woman helping me (who was great) got an error on her wireless checkout unit that said she had to call AT&T
- Long story short I & the apple rep spent another 2 hours trying to get the 16GB black phone up and running. The AT&T store is right across the street from the Apple store so it went like this after the error: she called AT&T, we walked over to the AT&T store, we went back to the Apple store, we went back to the AT&T store, we went back to the Apple store.
- The problem was that my account got activated on AT&T but the phone itself was in some kind of digital limbo in Apple's system so she couldn't finalize the transaction, nor could void it or start over or ANYTHING. Apparently this happened to several people that day (in addition to all the other problems reported in the news).
- By the time all that was over there were no more 16GB black phones left, so in the end she gave me an 8GB black phone and said to just come and exchange it when the get more 16GB phones in (which they didn't have today (Saturday)).
As for that 16GB phone that we tried to activate - it ended up in a big tub in the Apple store's back room with all the other phones that couldn't be activated. They all had to be shipped back to some central corporate location to be dealt with. I assume this is all because AT&T is really trying to prevent as many unlocked phones from getting out there as possible. To me, that seems like a lovely exercise in futility which will waste a lot of their money and not make much of a dent in the unlocked phone trade.
All in all, I chalk most of the hassle I had up to the price I pay for going out on day 1. However, I am appalled at how both Apple & AT&T corporate gave their people in the field no ability to solve problems "on the ground." Once that error happened (in THEIR system), the phone was useless - to me, to Apple and to AT&T. Why would you implement a corporate strategy that renders perfectly good inventory useless? Maybe because you're Apple and AT&T and you just care about your bottom line more than you care about your customers and field employees. Sad but true.
Once I had the activated 8GB phone, all has been well. It's my first iPhone (first Apple product, for that matter). There are certainly some glaring omissions from the software, but at least those can be remedied by updates and 3rd party apps.
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