How I Got an iPhone 3G on Launch Day
Written by thinkjim on July 12th, 2008Procuring an iPhone 3G on launch day is absolutely as hard as you might imagine. It’s been a rollercoaster of a week, an experiment to see what people will go through to get their technology fix. I was lucky, but many weren’t.
“ Monday July 7th, 8am. New email; O2 now accepting preorders. 8:34am my order is placed, I have a confirmation email. iPhone 3G will be delivered on Friday before 10am.” …was that too easy?…..
Monday
O2’s website worked flawlessly when I used it, but for many it just collapsed. Users were left wondering whether their order had gone through, and were pulling their hair out. By the afternoon the website was closed to pre-orders. iPhone 3G sold out.
Tuesday & Wednesday
Tuesday and Wednesday saw fever pitch speculation over on the O2 forums. Many users had orders in-progress, some [seemingly] failed orders were suddenly appearing, and others were having orders randomly cancelled. We weren’t happy lambs.
The mood was lifted when orders started to change from “in-progress“ to “complete”. I had a sudden addiction to the O2’s order status page and the refresh button.
Thursday
By Thursday we were flapping, many orders were still “in-progress”. Speculation was growing. Why hadn’t our order status changed? did O2 actually have enough stock to fulfill it’s preorders?
I spoke to O2 customer services on three separate occasions during the week and their staff were always polite and helpful. They reassured me the iPhone would arrive on launch day and I wouldn’t be disappointed.
By 5pm on Thursday it was clear it wasn’t going to happen. A final call to O2 confirmed it; they couldn’t fulfill my order and weren’t sure when they would be able to. Their website was talking about availability “by the end of the summer”.
Carphone Warehouse To The Rescue: At 5:15pm I phoned Carphone warehouse and explained my plight. It was a long shot. Their reply? “No Problem”, they would have an iPhone 3G delivered tomorrow …… and do you know what?…… They weren’t joking. I placed an order at 5:15pm on Thursday and received it at 8:30am Friday.
Thoughts
It’s been a difficult week for O2. Nobody is entirely clear how many preorders they took, but there were a lot. Many have criticised O2 for raising expectations and dashing them. It was always going to be hard for O2 to cope, but IMHO their order system should have been capped. They should only have accepted pre-orders for phones they could deliver. But could anyone really have coped with the insatiable demand? probably not.
“Was the iPhone 3G worth it?” don’t ask silly questions!
UPDATE: I’m disappointed to hear that my Carphone Warehouse order may have been fulfilled at the expense of other CPW users who ordered on Monday! in the same way that my 8:30am order with O2 on Monday was passed over for later orders placed at 1PM. Come on guys its not that difficult!
12
PM
“They weren’t joking. I placed an order at 5:15pm on Thursday and received it at 8:30am Friday. Good Job CPW.They weren’t joking. I placed an order at 5:15pm on Thursday and received it at 8:30am Friday. Good Job CPW.”
Yeah great job. I and many others placed an order for delivery with CPW on Monday for a promise of delivery by Friday, and it really gives me a warm glow to know that you were able to phone up late thursday and jump the queue to get a phone that was already promised to hundreds of others whose money they’d already taken.
They weren’t joking? They were obviously joking when they wrote this:
At the Carphone Warehouse, we believe in being totally honest with our customers. That means that when you see an item with the “In stock” badge against it, we guarantee that this item is in stock.
You can still ‘back-order’ an out of stock item and we will send it to you as soon as it is back in stock. We will also give you regular updates as to when the new stock is due to arrive.
Please note: When comparing our offers to other websites, be careful to check that they mean ‘In stock’ when they say it. Many websites will happily take your order for an In stock item, only to tell you that the item is not in stock but due in “any day now”, and then leave you hanging for weeks on end…
Meanwhile having been promised to get delivery on Friday, and then Saturday, and then Monday they say it will arrive on Tuesday. Maybe. Perhaps I should take a week off work just in case, or maybe the whole summer.
I think I would have a better chance of getting a an iphone by Monday if I put my current phone under my pillow and wrote to the tooth fairy.
12
PM
Hi Frank,
I moderate all the comments on the blog before approving them for post. I thought it was especially important that your experience was aired.
I’m sorry to hear that carphone warehouse have failed you in the same way that O2 failed me, and I’m even more annoyed to hear that my iPhone may have been received at the expense of users with existing orders! I genuinely didn’t realise that CPW had a horde of unfulfilled pre-orders when I phoned them on Thursday evening. From their attitude you would have thought they had iPhones coming out of their ears.
Both CPW and O2 seem have let their customers down badly, these preorders should have been dealt with on a first come first serve basis. It seems as though the mistakes that O2 made in order processing were repeated by Carphone Warehouse!
I hope you get hold of an iPhone soon, its a shame that so many apple fans have been let down by poor service.
please let me know how you get on. All the best,
James
13
AM
Oh I don’t blame you at all, but I am livid with CPW to the extent that I am now considering cancelling my order and finding out whether CPW have broken any trade description laws. I am not the only one who feels they have been simply lied to.
As well as your experience, CPW even took more pre-orders on the Thursday (still promising Friday delivery, but only if you ordered before 3.30pm Thu). You would think they would not do that unless they were 100% confident that they could fulfil and deliver on time all the orders they had already taken on Monday.
13
AM
what a nightmare. I did hear on the O2 forums that CPW were not chasing up orders that had ’stalled’ or had queries against them that would require staff to call the person that placed the order. For instance ID / address queries.
Everyone is stuck between a rock and a hard place because the only place you can get hold of an iPhone is direct from O2 (sold out) or through CPW.
22
PM
I had a similar experience to you, thinkjim - missed out on the O2 offer completely (picked the wrong day to stay away from my computer), then ordered via CPW online @ 3pm Thursday. Phone arrived 9:45am the next day. No activation problems and no doubt another disgruntled CPW customer not receiving an iPhone they preordered on the Monday… So please make that sorry +1!
Best,
Martin