My suggestion for Apple for when they redo their iPhone ad.
Twice as fast, half the price (2/3 your life)
I am not a line sitter. I just don’t understand the cultural phenomena of can’t wait to have something so I will wait 2 days in line to have it now. I digress. It is long story I won’t bore you with but basically I got caught up in the iPhone storm due to an overlap in my verizion and AT&T contracts. If I didn’t get an iPhone in the first two days it was out I was going to be contractually bound to a Palm Centro, not a bad Phone definitely not an iPhone.
Here is a brief snapshot of what happened that made me “temporarily” dissatisfied with Apple and AT&T.
6:30am – Arrive at the AT&T store Pastor Mark was waiting with baited breath all night and had a young person act as my line holder.
8:00am- Doors open – first 6 people are admitted I am next.
8:21am – I am let in. I go through the whole process. MY iPhone is 3 feet away. They ask for ID. I freeze I forgot my wallet at home was doing an even exchange with the Palm Centro. Was so focused on my return I forgot my wallet. I begged I pleaded I asked if there was anything I could do. Leave my Phone as collaeral, name my next child steve and the one after that jobs. Nothing.
9:45am – Wife brings wallet
10:00am – Second time in line
11:20am – Find out there are no more iPhones and they will not be getting more today
11:35am – went inside to return Centro and pre-order iPhone found out I couldn’t do that. And then to add insult to injury one AT&T employee said to me “you know you should have waited in the store and had someone bring you your wallet.” Again something you could have told me YESTERDAY!!!
5:00pm – Drove an hour to Syracuse to return my Centro to AT&T and buy a phone from the Apple store who still had “Plenty”.
5:20 – found out from AT&T guy that I have to return my phone and get an iPhone from AT&T because I have a return. I asked if I should return my phone tonight he said no do it all together. Come back tomorrow morning off the record they were getting quite a few iPhones.
9:20am the next day drive another hour to Syracuse stand in line for the 3rd time at the At&T store.
10:00am they open and assure all of us that they have “plenty” of phones.
10:30am – my turn. Yea! The store manager explains that I should have returned the Centro last night for the system to process the return. She returns it anyway. I then stand in line wait for the return specialist to call the “war room” and get my transaction approved.
11:45 – iGet iPhone iTicked iHappy
So needless to say. I was annoyed with the whole experience many people iStood in line with also received the iShaft apple needs to fix a few things before iPhone 3.0.
I was a little frustrated at Apple but Steve Jobs and I talked it out over a nice cool cup of cool-aid and all is right again.
Alright i have to call you on the “I just don’t understand the cultural phenomena of can’t wait to have something so I will wait 2 days in line to have it now.”… Its clear that YOU won’t wait in line with the other village idots (ps it was there so i don’t want any emails from any of my fellow village idiots) BUT you had no qualms with having one of my good soldiers do your dirty work for you lol… OUR JOB: wait in line for 10 hours tolerate discomfort, no bathrooms, the CREEPIEST people i’ve ever met(one that i swear was on to catch a predator) and no sleep… YOUR JOB: bring wallet to a store… end of story we all got our phones and can now use our map function to know EXACTLY where we are… How did we live without that before
Guilty as charged.
Thank you Mark for your sacrifice. I apologize again for my stupidity.
You were not the line sitter I was referring to, that would be guy #1 whose friends showed up at 2am with beer and Frisbee’s.