Wireless I.Q.’s Weblog

My Journey For an iPhone Begins…

July 11, 2008 on 5:45 am | In Uncategorized |

It’s 5:30 and my journey begins for an iPhone. Although I am not as hardcore as these people, I am pretty excited to get my wife and her sister an iPhone when it releases today. Having a four year old daughter, I am not able to wait in line overnight to get my hands on one. Daycare does not open until 6:30, so this is as early as I could get started. Our daughter is not going to be happy when I wake her up this early. Heck, I am not happy to wake up this early. I will keep you updated as I arrive to the AT&T store (which I actually worked at for three years). I can’t wait to see the look on all the Apple fanboys when I show up blogging on my PC…

7:00: Daycare was a few minutes late opening but traffic was not too bad. I am number 59 in line. It just so happens that my spot has a bench to sit on. They won’t tell us how many are in stock. I got a free bottle of water. I wonder what happens if I have to go to the bathroom. I’ll take it easy on the water. Pictures below.

I just saw a person that was waiting in line last year for the iPhone and the Ms. Debbie Heroman, the lady that did our flowers.

7:22: The guy in the number 61 spot bought a first-gen iPhone two weeks ago and now has to wait in line to exchange it for the 3G version. What rock was he hiding under?

8:00: The doors are finally open. I ran to Starbucks to use the bathroom while someone held my spot in line. I talked to the first people in line and they said they got here about 11:30 last night. I also got a glimpse of the new phone. Pretty nice looking. The line is moving fast.

8:30: Pretty much at a standstill. I’m sure activating in store this year is going to make the wait a little longer. I’ve made a few business contacts while waiting in line.

8:40: Someone just came outside and said there was a “small glitch” in the system. Great.

8:44: I’m starting to hear a lot of cell phone conversations saying “I’m gonna be a little late for work.”

8:49: Some guy just shouted “Does anybody want to buy a BlackBerry Curve?!” My battery is about to die on my laptop. I’ll be back when I plug it back in.

9:29: Just saw a copy of an email about the system issues stating:

“Current Issues and Workarounds

These are the issues that are currently being worked. We do not have solutions for some of the systematic issues just yet. As many workarounds as are available are provided below.

Issues upgrading a FT line (CARE only):

Work around to get customer out the door: split line off of the FT, make individual and then put back on the FT account.

Tethering for Unbrick is slow or erroring (telegence and care)

Send customer home to tether. Reps will still be comped.

Cannot add a line to an existing FT account (CARE only):

New line Port-in Failures:

The vast majority of our port failures have been because the rep is not asking for the Pin/Password. This field MUST be populated if the customer has a pin/passcode on their account.

Cannot sell out the 16GB white device (69115)- not available for sale (care and telegence) on both new line (port) and upgrade:

Not showing as a 3G device.

The CSS for upgrades in CARE markets is not printing the Upgrade Fee for ANY phone sales. iPhone and non-iPhone.

Rep must be sure to cover the fee with the customer. Fix is not until Tuesday.

Feature Conflict with Existing FT Messaging”

I didn’t get the second page, so if anybody wants to fill that in, email me.

10:32: Finally in, out of the 92 degree heat. It is a little heated in here, with people frustrated by the system slowdowns and news that they are not eligible for upgrade. The combination of the two has caused a pretty long wait.

I’ve been told that I will have to activate the phone using iTunes. They also have to change my rate plan to the same rate plan??? It was easier when you just had to buy the phone and then activate through iTunes.

10:50: Got to play with a demo. 3G is pretty fast, but I noticed that the frame rate is lower than using wifi. i’m going to post a video review once I activate through iTunes.

11:10: I’m done. Not sure what all just happened, but I am getting out of here. Still have to “unbrick” through iTunes. I might wait until a little later to activate it.

11:23: As I was walking out, I heard a manager say they were out of 16GB in black.

Pictures below.