After what felt like a really long time the new iPhone 3G came out today. I had mixed thoughts of the first generation iPhone, even though I bought one the second day they were out. I also returned it two days later. I also tried again a few months later, and yet again returned it. The first generation phone had some limitations that I couldn’t get over. The new 3G version however is a different story. Really, it is a different story. I am writting about it in a future post so I won’t cover it here. Neadless to say when the new iPhone came out, I wanted to get it right away. I have been growing warry of my Nokia E61i as the weeks pass by. The launch of the iPhone 3G couldn’t have happened any faster!
My plan was to get up a little early and head over to an AT&T Wireless store near my office. I was hoping that the line at an AT&T store wouldn’t be too bad. If it was I could always just leave and goto work, since it was only a 3 block walk. All in all I was willing to commit about 2 hours to the ordeal, and if it looked crazy I would goto plan B. Plan B was to go the 5th Ave Apple store that is open 24 hours sometime later in the evening with the hopes of getting a shorter line at night.
I got to the AT&T store about 7:40AM and there was already about 50 people in line. I found out later that if I got there around 7 it would have been more like 5 people in front of me. I waited in line with everyone else for about 45 minutes. The line was moving slowly but I saw progress. Then an AT&T rep comes out and said that they were already out of 16GB Black models. Of course that was the one that I wanted so I was not too happy. I figured I could still get a White 16GB model and it would be ok. A few minutes later another AT&T employee came out and said that by the time they got to our area of the line they most likely would be out of all 16GB models. At that point I said forget this, and went to work. All told it was about an hour of time invested, but I made it to work before 9AM so all was well.
My original plan was to go home after work and come back to the Apple Store on 5th Ave really late (I figured 10-11PM would be late enough that most of the line would have dissipated). I hadn’t been sleeping much this week since I had some sort of minor bug. Nothing crazy but I didn’t really want to go back out again later. Instead I headed out of work a little early and went up to the Apple Store. Now this plan was only good for me since the day turned out to not be really hot. It was actually very nice and comfortable outside so waiting in line in the sun wasn’t so bad. if it would have been a scorcher day my plans would have been radically different. New toy vs staying cool, I am siding with cool. There is limits to my craziness.
The line there was really long (see photos below), but as the security guy said it was the shortest it was all day. The security guy I spoke to estimated the line from where I was to be around 2 hours. I didn’t have anywhere else to be, and I wanted the phone so I decided to see how long I could hold out on line. The thing about me is that I don’t like lines. I get that from my dad. If I could order something online I would, but if you want something right away you sometimes have to brave the lines. I once waited in an airport 11 hours, and stuck on a plane another 9 hours or so another time. That was just to get home, so waiting 2 hours for something I actually wanted was worth some time. It is crazy rationalization but not the craziest I have made, so what the heck.
To keep myself occupied I listened to my iPod, read the news via Avantgo on my E61i, and just did allot of people watching. A line like the one I was on really brought out the diversity of the city. It was interesting just to watch and listen to my surroundings. The security guy turned out to be right and wrong at the same time about the wait. It was about two hours from when I started until I got into the actual Apple Store.
Once inside however the process was no where near finished. The store itself was pretty empty compared to other normal days that I have been there. They split people into two new lines. One at each end of the store. Each line went just as slow as outside. At least now I was in AC and near a bathroom if needed. Of course it wasn’t so hot outside so the AC wasn’t such a big deal.
Once I actually got to a sales guy was when my problems really started. I knew going into this purchase that I might have a problem. The issue was that back in March I changed phone numbers on my AT&T Wireless account. Now what AT&T said they could do and actually do when they switched numbers wasn’t exactly the same thing. I was told that this could be a simple change and that it wouldn’t affect my contract in any way. Turned out it wasn’t. In the end most issues were resolved, but not everything. What had happened was instead of replacing my current number with the new one, they actually created a new line on my account and then removed the old one. That messed up my roll over minutes, contract end date, equipment replacement eligibility date, price plans, etc. The representatives I spoke to on the phone were actually very helpful in fixing most of my issues compared to the mess the people in the store caused. They fixed my contract end date back to when it was supposed to be. They got me back on the really good data plan that I had that was no longer offered. They could have tried to work on the roll over minutes, but since I was moving to an unlimited voice plan I told them it didn’t matter. I was more worried about the contract date than anything else. Unfortunately it turns out the date that was really important, the date I can get equipment at a discounted price wasn’t touched. I didn’t know it was important until later. In June I noticed that even though my contract was up in December I wasn’t eligible for a new phone until March 09. That didn’t make sense since even though my account was messed up in March, I never actually bought equipment at a discounted price. I called AT&T again and they did some research. They said that yes the date was messed up and that it was in fact an error on their end. They read me back the notes they put on my account basically saying that when I wanted new equipment it was ok to discount it for me. They did caution me that I may or may not need to call customer service when buying the new equipment. That was the reason I tried going to the AT&T store first, vs the Apple Store. So when I got to the end of the line and ran into a problem with AT&T’s computer it wasn’t a surprise. The question became, was I going to argue and end up having to call AT&T and wait on line for ages with them, or worse lose my place on the Apple line and have the last 2 1/2 hours of waiting be for nothing. I figured AT&T would have a huge queue on the phone on a day like today, so I opted to say screw it and just pay the extra money for the phone. I will call next week and see if I can get that money back, but I don’t think it will happen. I chalk the extra cost up to wanting to have immediate gratification!
After the issue with the AT&T price was over, my issues weren’t done. They actually had an issue approving my credit card. That was a total surprise to me, but the issue turned out to be the wireless credit card unit the guy checking me out used was having problems connecting to his wireless system. A few retries later I was all set. I browsed the store a bit more and bought a screen protector and a clear case. Once all my purchases were done, I headed home. The line looked a bit shorter as I was leaving, but it was at least a two hour wait at 8:30 at night.
All told my entire ordeal took about 3 hours. Was it worth it? So far I think so, but for me my mobile is one of the tools I use all the time so having a good one that works is critical. For the past several months I haven’t had one that worked right. I also got the model I wanted, the 16GB Black one! My thoughts on day to day use of the new phone will come after I use it next week. For now I am syncing it up with my stuff, and resting my feet!