3G iPhone Madness: Four Hours Later, Success

July 11th, 2008

After work I went to the Burlingame Apple Store at around 5:45 PM, to find a line going down the block. I got in line to wait for my wife, who was running late, so when she showed up, I had already waited long enough that I was essentially committed to seeing this thing through. After eating Mexican food while in line, we got in the store around 8:45. The actual purchase and activation only took about 15 minutes, and we were out of there around 9:15 or so. That’s a good 3 1/2 hours of iPhone madness.

An employee came out at one point and said they had tons of iPhones so there was no worry of them running out. But the store was only letting a handful of people in at a time. They had about 40 employees getting phones and activating the iPhones, but each customer was a different case (corporate discounts, multiple phones, plans, upgrades) which varied the length of the process tremendously. Combined with the “one person exits, one person gets in” procedure, one can see how the wait becomes lengthy.

Based on what I saw there, I don’t think things will go much quicker tomorrow. The process will go faster only when all the early adopters have bought their 3G iPhones, and who knows when that will be (a week from now?). There may actually be more people this weekend, since Friday was a work day.

I’m now messing about with the iPhone and it will take some time to digest. It’s a really slick device. But I have already run into one big annoyance - the AT&T reception in our apartment sucks (we had Verizon before). So I may have just bought a phone that I can’t make calls on while at home, which is possibly even more retarded than the three hour wait in line. But I’m happy.

RSS Feed Please subscribe to the Webomatica RSS Feed!

folder Categories: Apple, Technology :: Tags: :: Trackback URL
Back Previous Post: 3G iPhone Insanity: Activation Trouble, Plan B And C
Back Next Post: Link Sharing: 7/12/08
Back Related Posts: 3G iPhone Madness Begins: iTunes 7.7, FriendFeed Room :: iPhone Insanity: Palo Alto Line Update #3 :: 3G iPhone Madness: Lines, Apple TV Update, App Store :: iPhone Wish List ::

Viewing 4 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    Heh, I bet if you'd bought a Nokia or a SonyEricsson and couldn't make calls on it at home you'd be angry ... I know I would! But, such is the holiness that is the iPhone there are 101 other things you can use it for instead and not quibble over a little thing ... like making calls.

    As it turns out O2 aren't prepared to let me break my ten-months-remaining contract so I can get an iPhone myself, but the wonderful human being who is my live-in carer has offered for us to swap contracts and numbers, as her contract ended nearly eight months ago and she never got around to upgrading. Joy of joys!
    • ^
    • v
    Hey Timmargh, you are correct, I've been using WiFi to surf the web at
    home, and occupying myself with the app store, loading it up with
    music, etc. so haven't missed the spotty service in the abode proper.
    What's ridiculous is my wife has Verizon and her phone works just
    fine, so I feel like a schmoe for trusting AT&T.

    You're right I'd be angry if this were any other company. I'm
    definitely an Apple-phile and this line example yet another instance
    where I have tossed out my objectivity. I waited in line for OS X
    Panther, too, which was even sillier :)

    Glad to hear you're getting an iPhone too, I'd be interested to hear
    more about O2's approach and if it's any better than AT&T.
    • ^
    • v
    your apartment just is not in a 3g network so while at home shut off the 3g and use the edge and your reception will be 5 bars. i only use the 3g when i want to surf the web when im out of the house also if you keep it on the 3g it uses more battery power

    hope this helps
    • ^
    • v
    Thanks for the tip, although I tried that and it didn't help much -
    still 1 or 2 bars. I did find in certain rooms I can get reception and
    make / receive calls, but it comes and goes.
 

Trackbacks

(Trackback URL)

close Reblog this comment
Powered by Disqus · Learn more
blog comments powered by Disqus