Skip to Content

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.

Categories

Retail Found Footage iPhone

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...
 

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

22 Comments

Filter by:
King Kong

I didn't think that anyone who blogged, especially on Mac blogs, had grey hair. The world just got a little bigger for me.

July 13 2008 at 9:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
(01)

I feel bad for the Apple employee who you almost called an AT&T employee...besides that, good stuff!

July 13 2008 at 5:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
miltos

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.

July 13 2008 at 5:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
AlphaDeltaVIII

If only I didn't live in Springs I could have an iPhone now instead of ordering one through AT&T, oh well :(

July 13 2008 at 4:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Slartibartfast

Nice hat and shirt Steve. I think we have the same tailor.

July 13 2008 at 4:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dave

great vid! nice quality too, what camcorder to you have?

July 13 2008 at 2:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to dave's comment
Steven Sande

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

July 13 2008 at 2:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
frankie

I'm sure I saw a dog in there. I'm taking my ridgeback in today. I'll use this video as evidence.

July 13 2008 at 1:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to frankie's comment
Steven Sande

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

July 13 2008 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
c2one

Mr. Sande sounds like Will Ferrell

July 13 2008 at 12:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to c2one's comment
Steven Sande

Will Ferrell is ten years younger than I am, so Will Ferrell sounds like me! ;-)

TUAWSteve

July 13 2008 at 2:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
andrew

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.

July 13 2008 at 12:10 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to andrew's comment
Steven Sande

Dude! Thanks for the nice comment! I think you just became my favorite reader! ;-)

TUAWSteve

July 13 2008 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Zews

What a bunch of losers! Make that pathetic losers.

July 13 2008 at 11:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Zews's comment
Steven Sande

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

July 13 2008 at 1:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.