back to article iPhone 4 Day: pre-orders and pregnancy cut no ice with 02

Today the iPhone 4 went on sale in the UK. Reg reader Miles Cheverton reports from the frontline, in his case the O2 store in Brighton. All reports and pics welcome! As a bit of a rabid Apple fanboy, I wanted to get an iPhone 4 on day of release. I know I know. As my wife and I have iPhones already, and both contracts have …

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  1. David Evans

    Loser

    Seriously. Queuing up for a phone.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Re: Loser

      Seriously. Reading an article you clearly have no interest in, then taking the time to post a comment?

      I wonder who the real loser is?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        @AC, let's play "Spot the touchy fanbois"

        David Evans may well have been interested in the article. I'm no fan of apple but I read it because I wanted to see what O2 had against pregnant women (wife being pregnant and an O2 customer and all.)

        I agree with David. It *is* sad to sit in line for 2+ hours to get a phone - *any* phone. Do you *really* need it right away? Aren't there more important things in life?

        1. LuMan
          Flame

          @David Evans & Arkasha

          I own a couple of Apple products (along with other stuff) and certainly wouldn't class myself as a fanboi, but even I can understand that it's horses for courses, fellas. Try telling ANY World Cup supporter that they're sad for travelling (in some cases) half-way around the world to watch some blokes kicking a ball around a field and they'll stare at you as if you were an alien.

          I REALLY hope that you guys have something in your life that causes you to exert the same amount of passion 'cos if you don't you're missing out.

          That said, I still wouldn't queue for a bleedin' mobile phone......

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            If you really can't see the difference...

            ...between attending a time-specific event that only happens every four years and queuing up for a consumer good to get the dubious kudos of being "first", you really net to get out more.

            I have no problem with earlier adopters, but at the end of the day its still a phone, and it won't change your life.

        2. Wize

          Any excuse to get out of the house

          I've known guys that had to move to the spare room when their wife was up the duff and blaming them for everything. It might have been a nice break to stand in the queue.

          1. TeeCee Gold badge
            Unhappy

            Re: Any excuse to get out of the house

            There's more to it than just blame. Have you any idea how difficult it is to get to sleep when the person next to you has a *serious* rollmop herring addiction problem?

            It was like sleeping in the hold of a disused trawler.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Re: Loser

      People are losers at all sorts of things. What about the nutters who go to their local car dealership at 12:01am on new reg day to drive away their new car (and hopefully get a few seconds on the telly).

      Or those losers who queued up for Harry Potter books. Or the losers who queue up over night to see a movie.

      We're all losers at something or other. Unless of course you spend your days wondering around muttering "Bah humbug" and having a face like smacked arse.

      Chill out and enjoy it...

  2. James Melody
    Jobs Horns

    Hove?

    I picked mine up in Hove instead. They still have plenty of stick. I arrived at 7:13 this morning and got served at 11am. They had no problem selling multiple iPhones

    1. mfraz
      WTF?

      Plenty of stick

      Yeah, you'll get plenty of stick for queueing up for an iPhone.

    2. Annihilator
      WTF?

      It took you 3 hours to get served??

      This would be O2's devious scheme to keep the hype up. The O2 store I saw today were letting people in 2 at a time, apparently for about 10-15 minutes.

      Funny thing is, when I got a 3G when the hype doesn't exist, they were able to upgrade me in under 5 minutes.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Wow...

    You are such consumers.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ut93YYZu8

  4. JasonW
    FAIL

    Ah, the disgruntled British customer

    Didn't tell them where to shove both the contracts then? No, thought not.

    Bigbiz™ will continue to shaft the public if they are not prepared to walk when they get pissed off by Bigbiz™

  5. Stef 4
    Welcome

    Surprise surprise

    The O2 net-monkeys disagreeing with the O2 shop-monkeys.

    Hopefully you got the name of both parties so one of them can be suitable chastised by El Reg at a later date?

    I for one welcome our new shop-monkey overlords, deciding how many of each product we are allowed to purchase. It is good to know that in these troubled financial times, O2 refuse to sell you more than one item at a time.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Stef 4

      It's Apple who makes the rule, no O2. They can't get them to everyone on day 1, so they decide to get them to as many households as possible (multiple people in the same household are limited to 1).

      Still, there would seem to be workarounds for this, and as one poster stated, he bought 2 at another store.

  6. Ian K
    Jobs Halo

    You have implied getting iPhones is a less than completely perfect experience...

    ...after reading other, real Apple fans', posts today I'm sorry to say this seems to make you a Hater. (No, I don't understand it either)

    All Hail Steve the Immaculate, and all of his flawless iGifts!

    1. Stone Fox
      Headmaster

      slight typo

      shouldn't that read "iGits" if you're refering to the buyers?

  7. Mark Jan

    This is a joke - right?!

    It's gotta be a joke - you can't really be married, therefore once having had a girlfriend whom you subsequently married and ADMIT to queueing up at 6am to buy a phone!

    Nice one!

  8. Captain Underpants
    Stop

    There appear to be several factors at play here:

    1) You have bought into the marketing-hype and concluded that you want/"need" this phone on launch date, and thus have put up with frankly ridiculous circumstances from the retailers involved in order to get your hands on the product.

    2) You've been misled (either by the person you spoke to at O2 or the person in the store) about what rules were actually to be enforced for the launch, but since you "need" the product you have accepted what you've been offered even though it is substantially less than what you requested. You may or may not have kicked up a stink about this, this is not mentioned.

    3) Separately to this, you have upgraded older hardware to a newer more resource-intensive OS. Somehow this is also the retailer's fault, despite your stated intention of palming it off on someone else once it has been replaced.

    It certainly sounds like a frustrating, but the easiest solution to it would be "don't be so desperate to be an early adopter". In terms of buying the iPhone 4 - waiting a few days/weeks won't kill you. In terms of upgrading your old phone - waiting a few days/weeks would let you read about the performance issues without having to experience them first hand.

  9. Stu J
    Stop

    You sad loser

    See title.

    I wonder if, on the 2011 census, "The Church of sucking Steve Jobs' c**k" will be included as a religion, because there's surely enough sad losers to warrant it being on the form......

    Bloody fanbois/sheep.

  10. Subliteratus
    FAIL

    Enough's enough

    I paid my final payment on my 18-month contract to O2 2 days ago and I'm going to be asking for a PAC code today. Visual voicemail is not enough incentive to deal an entity whose official policy is waste my goddamned time. All the O2 stores I visited today had queues along the street and were sold out of the 32GB models to boot. The shop in Cannon Street was only serving one customer at a time even though there were about 2 or 3 guys standing in the store staring off into space. Let retards queue all they want for the iPhone - I'm done.

    You'd think that given the iPhone's star is waning and Android's on the rise, now would be the time to play hardball with Apple on pre-orders and stock allocations. But no... O2's legendary ineptitude in every field of endeavour continues unabated.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    WOW!

    OK, so you may have been miss-informed about the one phone one person policy for that store. It seems that different stores have different policies. This is a bit sad and perhaps everyone should have read the handbook before the phone was announced.

    But why bring your wife into it? The contracts are in your name, not you and your wife. Then to top it off she is pregnant as if that is some justification to get two phones. I find this sort of behaviour morally wrong, you are just trying to deny someone else in the line who turn up 5 seconds after you did from their phone.

    Your wife already has a contract and I am guessing an iPhone, so it's not the end of the world. Wait a week or so and you will both be able to get the new phone.

  12. Bassey

    Brave Man

    So, having failed miserably in your main function as a father to be (hunter/gatherer) you returned with only half the requested goods and chose to keep them - thereby denying both your pregnant-hormonal wife AND your mother-in-law.

    You are either clinically insane or the bravest man on the planet!

    Either way, I am scared of you.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Public service from El Reg

    Another real world Nathan Barley for the rest of us to take pains to avoid. The rise of the idiots indeed.

  14. F'tangF'tang

    Is Required

    Why don't the people queuing outside Mme Taussauds, or Hammersmith Odeon, or even Ikea on sofa sale day, get slated as much as those that choose to make an event out of the non event which in this case is buying a phone.

    Its called antici...pation. Quite a nice feeling really. And no need to take a pill, or drink or smoke anything.

    Even with the sun out it seems theres always a crowd ready to rain on someone elses parade.

  15. Gareth 18

    Oh dear

    What a most frightful experience. My heart bleeds for you.

    My mate pre-ordered from O2, apparently he is a priority customer or something. Hw was happily sat in his garden soaking up the sun this morning. Now he has it, synced it, and is back out in the garden soaking up the sun.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Five months pregnant wife? The lamest excuse!

    I wouldn't believe such a shitty excuse either.

    And if by any chance you are married for real, she ought to divorce you for not bringing the damn Jesus phone back home as you were supposed to.

    You, iLoser.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    To many people being rude

    Some of the posters here are really being nasty, so what if he wanted to stand in a line, and so what if he wanted to tell all on here? Seriously, if your all so backward that you don't understand someone getting excited about new tech, why read a techy website? wouldn't it be better if you read weekly knitting or something?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: people being rude

      Are you kidding? There are some on here that have no social skills whatsoever, and the coldest of hearts, it's truly an exploration into a nether world populated by Morlocks.

      I posted a story on here about a young man who waited in a queue in London (he was 17 years old and slept out overnight) to be the first through the door in the morning to buy a new iPad when it was released. He had saved enough of his own money to buy a 32GB version, but when his dad realised he was first in the queue he gave his son money so he could buy the 64GB version. Reading this story really made me happy and I shared it here and it actually got downvoted.

      Can you imagine what kind of twat thinks a story about a young man being so happy (can you imagine how he must have felt leaving the store with a better product he queued an entire day and night to get?) is worthy of nothing but a downvote? The twats didn't even have the social skills to say why it was downvote worthy. Fucking Morlocks and their fucking offspring downvoting anything that isn't attacking Apple - the utter irony is they say anyone who likes Apple products are mere sheep, but the fact is their acts of blind downvoting is the biggest sheep (aka Lemming) act I've ever witnessed in my life.

    2. Chad H.
      Grenade

      Its Because

      its because its an apple Product, it divides people into to camps. The Completely Irrational who insist that their beliefs and ways are the only way, and those that they insist on calling fanboys.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too many people ARE being rude

    But what "new" tech are you talking about?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    solution2

    Take a proxy to queue - I paid a polish girl, more than she'd earn at McDonalds.

    Plan the pregnancy better next time

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