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June 29, 2007
No iPhone, Just a Bottle of Water.
By:
The Dude on the Right
So here it is, the big day, probably the most important day in recorded history,
and this morning I decided "Screw it, I'm going to try and get an iPhone."
Having too many things to do during the day meant camping out wasn't an option
for the 6PM on-sale time, but around where I live there were three stores I
could show up at, figuring around 5:30 should still be safe to get one.
Store A was in a developing community where I figured demand shouldn't be that
huge. Store B was by the mall, and I figured that store would probably be
packed with all of the crazies who took off work to buy a phone. Store C
was similar to Store A in terms of demographic, but further away.
So I finish with the things I needed to do this Friday, I get back to the dude-pad around 5PM, do a quick read of the newspaper, eat some grub, and then decide that I'm going to take my chances at Store A. Arriving around 5:40PM there's a line around the side of the store, putting me at about the 40th in line. "They should be stocked fairly well" I tell myself, and even the people that started arriving after me figured getting a brand spankin' new iPhone shouldn't be a problem. It's 6PM, the doors open to the promised land, and they begin by letting in 6 people, and then as one leaves, another enters. The line isn't moving that quickly, but I'm still confident I will be home this evening, iPhone in box, then in hand, then activated, and then I'm cool. In the meantime the nice AT&T employees (of which it seems they were overstaffed by about 5 people for the way they were selling the phone) came out offering bottles of water. It's now about 6:15 PM and the manager-looking AT&T dude comes out and announces, looking at the number of people left in line, that he wasn't sure if supply was going to meet demand, blurbs a little about the "direct fulfillment program" if they do run out, the ducked back into the store. The next round of bottled waters comes out, I decide to grab one, and then the manager-looking dude comes back out and announces the 8 Gig versions are sold out. He starts to talk about how they still have some 4 Gig versions left, the "direct fulfillment program" again, but I'm already heading to the dude-mobile, mumbling "At least I got a bottle of water."
What to do? I decide that since I'm already out I might as well head to Store B, the one by the mall, on the slim hope they got a monster shipment of phones. I arrive, there are about 20 people still in line, and as I take my place the AT&T employee starts pushing that "direct fulfillment program" again, and I pretty much know that tonight, unless I really wanted to take a hell of a chance and head to The Apple Store, I would go to bed iPhone-less.
And so, tonight, I go to bed alone.
But wait, I could order it on line and have it early next week? That would be good enough for me. I log in to the Apple web site, click to buy one, and there's a little note that says it won't ship for at least 2 weeks.
I read somewhere that there would be plenty of stock to keep everyone iPhoned, thus killing the eBay market, but if the AT&T stores pretty much sell out of the phones in about an hour, Apple won't ship the phone for a couple of weeks, and those stores don't get replenished, like, tomorrow, I'm thinking I really should have camped out last night and seen if some fool would pay me $1,500 bucks for a new iPhone.
I suppose I should blame myself because part of the reason I am iPhone-less is because I decided dinner and reading the news was just as important as getting in line, and had I actually just gone to the store by the mall, well, I'd probably have a phone this evening, even taking the time to eat my dinner and read the news. But you know what - I'm not blaming myself - I'm blaming the Apple and AT&T people because I'm guessing the only reason they are selling the 4 Gig iPhone is because they sold out of the 8 Gig, and if they had only had about ten more 8 Gig versions at Store A, I would be cool.
Instead I just got a free bottle of water.
That's it for this one! I'm The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!
Posted by Rightdude at June 29, 2007 8:40 PM
Comments
You should have stayed and gotten the direct fulfillment!! You get the phone before the online Apple store starts shipping and before the outlets get more, so you have first priority over everyone else.
Posted by: Caleb at June 29, 2007 11:20 PM
