O2 buckles under 3G iPhone demand

Shambles

By 10:30AM the Glasgow Apple store still hadn't managed to sell one iPhone. It was only then did they let us reserve a phone which we can pick up later once (if???) the O2 systems are back online. They said they had enough stock that they wouldn't run out today - was that because they won't be selling any?

Passed by O2 and Carphone Warehouse branches - they can sell but have no 16GB stock - they only got a few and not enough to meet demand. So the Apple store have loads which they can't sell and the phone shops can sell (just) but have no stock!

What a mess.

I had no real problems

I walked into Carphone Warehouse in Lakeside just gone 9:30 to sort out my upgrade from my 2G iPhone.

They told me there was a long delay but I said I didn't mind.

They put my details into the system, reserved my 16GB unit and told me they'd call me when it had gone through rather than make me sit there.

So I popped out for a coffee and a wander around the mall. An hour later I had my phone.

No real problem as I didn't have to wait in store.

Activated it at home, restored my backup and now browsing the net 2-3 times faster than the Edge version.

The aluminium backed old model felt better made though and I see no improvement in signal strength...

Success, sort of...

I went down to Camden at about quarter past eight, grabbed a coffee and paper and joined the queue outside the O2 store, where they were handing out tickets to mark your place in the queue - all slightly pointless, though, because the manager came back out a little while later and told us all that if we left the queue, we couldn't get our places back, ticket or no ticket.

After another half hour or so, he came back out and said that the "system had crashed" and that this had happened across all the stores, including Carphone Warehouse. At about half nine, I bailed and went to the Carphone Warehouse next door - with much shorter queues, but no one knew if they had stock - where I was dealt with in about half an hour. As I left with my phone, people who had been ahead of me in the O2 queue were still waiting outside the shop.

O2 has mismanaged this from beginning to end - first load issues with the online store, and now load issues with their in-house system. What's the betting O2 will be recruiting a load of replacement engineers after their current ones have been given their marching orders?

All this despite...

A rather clear message on o2's site saying (ahem)

" If you are new to O2 you will also need to pass a credit check if you sign up for an iPhone 3G contract."

RIGHT! So why the hell was I stood in line waiting for other existing customers credit check to complete at a CPW? - I'm not sure who's worse really, o2 for having systems that clearly don't scale when required or CPW for not having a clue! I suspect that o2 probably shipped the instruction manual to them at 7:02 this morning leaving them moments to learn the ropes...

In the end I had to leave beacuse it was clear that nobody was going anywhere in the store. what amazes me is that the other month I signed for a barclay card online and within about 7 minutes i'd been given 5k of credit!

I've read elsewhere that foxconn are producing iphone units and they've had some kind of problem with production, to me this seems like a problem with production which meant that really they (apple) were not ready to launch but decided to bodge it to limit the cr*p press.

Queued for two hours, but got one

In Richmond (on Thames, Surrey). Shot had about 100 iPhones, of which about 20 were 16G. There was a second batch delivered just as I got to the front of the queue, so I managed to get a 16G one.

It's still not been activated as far as I can tell, but I'm porting my number over so it's not really a big problem.

Where's my Jesus Phone?

Was one of the lucky few who managed to grind through the online pre-order clusterfuck that is the o2 website on Monday.

According to my online account, my phone left the DHL depot at around 8am this morning.

Faintly hopeful that it'll turn up in the next few hours.

BTW - can anyone confirm how long i'll need to charge the battery for before i can start using it properly?

Paris, cos she's an I.T. girl.

Worked for me

I went down to the O2 Cardiff store at about 8.30am - I was about 60th in the queue at that point. I think it was taking about 20 minutes a piece for each customer to get signed up and given their box. I finally got out at about 11.15. My iPhone is happily sat here using my old SIM, and will migrate on to the iPhone contract sometime in the next day or two when the paperwork gets processed by the store...

RE: You only have yourselves to blame

"O2 couldn't manage to provide a decent basic telecomms service before they landed the iPhone deal, so why expect them to come up trumps now?"

oh, i don't know. if you live in Leeds, where they're based, it seems to work fine. i have been enjoying having a rolling 30 day contract with them for a good while now. that said, if you need to speak to the sales/support drones, you're fucked.

Slight problem activating....

Got mine in the post - seems I need iTunes to activate. Which doesn't support XP 64bit. Which I have.

*sigh*

Where's my Jesus Phone - update

So my phone still hasn't been delivered by DHL, but whilst looking again at my online account details on o2 website, i noticed that i have 2 mobile numbers associated with my account - one of which i knew nothing about.

I call O2...somehow i have ended up with a 'new account' as opposed to an 'upgrade', via the fucked up pre-ordering shambles on their site on Monday.

I've had the same number for over 10 years and do not want to change it. O2 tell me that i now effectively have 2 accounts, and if i want to keep my existing number, i can either:

1. Accept delivery of the phone from DHL. Then wait 1 week for them to allow me to port over my old number and then close my existing account. then pay a £35 termination fee for closing my account 17 months into an 18 month contract. NB the fact that i've been a customer of O2 (and its predecessors) for 11 years seemingly cuts no ice.

2. Refuse delivery of the phone from DHL. Then re-order an iPhone...which sounds like it'll take a couple of weeks based on scarcity of stock.

What a joke.

@Chris McFaul, others

Whoops, forgot about that whole time-zones thing... my phones, computers and standalone clocks all automatically update so it's not something that's had to cross my mind for a week.

Specifically @GMTvsBST AC

Hardly trying to be clever, subtracting 9.45am from 10.00am and getting "bullshit". Especially from ACs- who frequently hide behind the "Anonymous" label so no-one will be able to ignore them based on name alone. Just turned out that I'd made a mistake.

In my defence, I DID ask whether I'd missed something or if they were just trying to make trouble for O2. I'm not that arrogant that I'd just assume there couldn't be another explaination other than mine.

Anyway, I'd like to apologise to O2 and the people who were queuing for questioning the veracity of your comments. Much as it pains me to do it, have an iFan icon.

CPW = Crap

I was heading to regent street but saw a CPW store on the way with only 5-6 people outside. I waited for 30 mins and then the guy filled in the details on the screen and explained that i would have to come back later to collect as the systems were having problems.

I went back later to find out that the sales man had made a mistake and had left the order "open" whatever that means... but because of this my iphone had been allocated to someone else. WTF. They are now sending it out to me tomorrow but what a bunch of incompetent gits!! I just hope the guy that was 1st in the queue was not served by the same numpty as he might not be quite so understanding.

mines the one without an iphone in its pocket....

O2 - Rubbish - Thoroughly unimpressed...

What can I say?

Arrived at my local O2 store this morning (around 7:55) and joined the end of a 30-40 person queue. Apparently, they had taken a raised hand count moments before I arrived which made me 21st in line for a 16GB model - 'don't like the sound of that' I thought to myself having read about stock levels expected at most O2 stores....

Shortly after, I asked one of the staff who came out to tell us that the computer system had barfed if I was wasting my time stood here in 21st place? 'I can't tell you how many we have, I'm afraid' she replied, 'ok but I asked if you've got at least 21?', again came the 'I'm really sorry but it's more than my jobsworth to tell you how many we have, I just can't I'm really sorry'. 'Ok, well would you stand here if you were me?' - 'Yes!' came the confident reply. 'Cool, good enough for me' I said. I think I also made some comment about fire-bombing the shop or wrecking the joint if I finally got into the shop (est. 2-3 hrs later) and be told they'd run out.

About 10 mins later she came back out and said to the whole queue 'We've only got 5 x 16GB models left'. I walked off... How rubbish can you get? What a total shower...

I called my local CW a bit later on having tried the two Oxford Street stores in London (neither of which answered the phone) and was told that I could have one delivered to the local store tomorrow. He reserved it over the phone and I just had to pop in and sign the renewal contract.

I remember on launch day for the original iPhone in November that all O2 shops were supposed to be open until 10pm but when I went down into town at 21:20 they were shut and no signs of life as though I'd just missed them either..... Rubbish....X2

My iPhone isn't comning :(

I arrived at work early on Monday morning eagerly wanting to purchase an iPhone. I logged on to the O2 site and after 20 minutes of form filling finally got my order confirmation at 9am by email.

I knew that I wasn't going to be home today, so I paid a tenner to have it delivered tomorrow so that I didn't have to spend this evening/tomorrow morning running around after it. I wish I had now.

It appears, that because of this decision I am not getting one tomorrow after all. I've just received an email telling me that I'll receive a refund for my delivery, and that I'll be sent an iPhone in the next five days. I am skeptical that there will be stock in this time though...

At no point in the process was I informed that choosing a later delivery would essentially push me to the back of the queue. What was the point of me ordering so early and choosing a delivery option that suited my schedule to be so bitterly disappointed.

@iTards - only yourselves to blame

You really are a bunch of sad fanboy retards.

Whilst O2 probably could've handled the release much better, their systems are probably designed with a peak transaction throughput of the kind you'd experience during a very busy saturday on the run up to christmas plus a bit more.

Their systems (and no doubt any moby provider) were probably not designed with the kind of one off locust effect that a swarm of fucking loser lemmings like yourselves create because you just have to be so fucking first and trendy and get one of these overpriced digital buttplugs. If apple announced an iCar and chose your local BMW dealership to sell it through, do you think they could handle potential tripling/quadrupling of sales transactions? Probably not because they're set up to sell x cars a day but you'd still manage to find fault there as well.

I am so glad I work from home and so seldom visit the highstreet these days so I don't have to watch apparently intelligent human beings behave like brain damaged sheep. I sincerely hope your gene pool dies off soon.

If you'd waited a couple of days, you could probably just walk into a store and get one in the space of 15mins.

Jeez.

smooth as you like

I got mine no problem at all, without having to queue. Marvellous!

I have a phone I think is brilliant, so if that makes me a moron, then so be it. I'd be more inclined to think someone who takes the time to be bothered in the slightest about what other people buy are the morons, but there you go.

Well I'm away to play with my new phone now, so have fun bitching.

MyPhone...

Makes and takes calls...

Allows me to send and receive text messages...

Allows me to take pictures, and to send them to other people...

Wakes me up in the morning, and allows me to snooze for half an hour...

Has real music ringtones...

Also has a torch (flashlight) on it...

I didn't wait for two hours to get it either!

Dumb Apple fanbois!

CPW Ordered and still waiting

I ordered my 16GB iPhone at about 12.10pm yesterday, pretty much as soon as the CPW site started offering them again. Was told that an order before 3pm would mean it would be delivered between 9am and 5pm today. I have taken the day off work but no delivery yet. After reading the comments above I now don't hold out much hope of it arriving anytime today. Just over 2 hours yet for it to arrive, here's hoping.

@ Dan Wilkinson

...except for the fact that o2's "Gateway" system has been a joke for years. It has never properly worked, and I clearly remember the amount of overtime I got on Saturday's being capable of helping another department to do "old-style" credit checks...on a system that actually worked.

o2's infrastructure has been, and will continue to be, a mess until they sort out the issues surrounding Gateway and related systems.

No real issues

Personally I spent 20mins on hold at 8am this morning with Carphone Warehouse and was able to order my 16gb model just fine but I did have to wait about 2 hours for the chap on the phone to get confirmation and authorization from o2 to allow my upgrade.

I waited, and waited, and waited outside the Apple Shop...

... for the 16Gb version, which the O2 shop didn't have... waited from 7:50am, 12th in the queue... only to be told at 10:40am, that they couldn't get the contract booking system working on their Apple Mac Safari browser because the O2 system is designed for Microsoft Internet Explorer.. At which point the O2 Shop guy came over telling us they just got delivery of the 16Gb Black version... we all ran over to the O2 Shop and got one within 10 minutes.

Apple need to sack whoever did their UAT of their system!

Had 3g iphone since 8:20am, but still unactivated

First guy to walk out the store with one, their systems were affected, but we signed up manually with paper contracts.

My colleague upgraded his and used his previous SIM, his iphone is working fine.

I had a new contract, but each time I made a call, it would ask me to 'top up' credit, and my SIM pack is a pay&go.

Phoned the store I purchased it from and apparently, my SIM card is not yet activated, so I still have wait until they do, and I guess make my pay&go into a monthly contract.

Also used my PAC code, and was told if I didn;t do this now, it would be a while till it was sorted.

Customer services replied to me pretty quickly, and well, I hope they can sort out this mess.

Not impressed so far with O2....

iPhone problems - home key dodgey?

Rumuors abound that a few iPhones have already been replaced today because the "home" key malfunctions!

F*cking carphone warehouse

Placed my order online yesterday at 3pm, 16GB in black, to be delivered to a store today.

My order status on the internet is "being processed", even though they promised next day delivery. Phone up store to check if it's in, "Raj" tells me that he is too busy to help me, and gives me no option but to hang up. I spend about 30mins on hold (twice) to cpw helpline, finally get through to someone who tells me my order is 'not on her system'. I have to call the e-whatever line, they have it on their system. I am adivised this is at least a half hour wait. I called the number on the confirmation email ffs. Who in this day and age has seperate online/offline customer databases?

I give up.

Got mine about half an hour ago - unactivated

So I went out late to grab a sandwich for lunch and discovered a handful of people still queueing outside the nearby O2 store. Asked the guy what was the deal and it seems they still had stock. This is the same store I walked past at 07:15 this morning to see about 60 people lined up outside. Seems the screwed activation system, the massive load on the credit check site and the sheer tedium of filling in the forms meant people had been waiting up to four hours to get their phone. Apparently loads of people gave up and pissed-off, so they still had stock left.

I picked up the last 16GB they had, although they still had 8GB phones. Seems the 16GB is the big seller according to the guy in the shop. They actually thought they'd run out and had told people so, but then they found four more under something shortly before I arrived. Unfortunately, the activation system is still hosed so they were basically doing the form-filling and selling the phones with an inactive SIM, with a promise to catch up the activations over the weekend. The guy reckoned there was a decent chance my phone will be working on Monday.

Shambles

Ok....waited outside the O2 store in Buxton with my wife who was upgrading from her original iphone. We arrived at 6.55am, four people in front of us.

Staff began arriving at 7.30am, wouldn't tell us anything initially, Manager then arrived saying we would all be ok for a 16GB Iphone. (At least 8 people havearrived by this time)

In we go at 8.02am...2 mins later system down and out comes the paperwork, by the time we had been attended to 35 mins have passed..no to bad but the answer they gave to my question about using a pay as you go sim in the original phone is answered with a "we won't have those until next week" hmm...ok.

Off we go home. (After giving up the 16GB we had just been handed for a 8GB as my wife couldn't in all conscience take the last one from a guy who was in front of us in the queue but had been delayed by the o2 staff, which means at most they had 3 16GB phones....)

Switch to the new Iphone....goes well. No problem there.

Right according to the Web site an O2 pay as you go should be fine in the original Iphone...call a different o2 shop, yes we can use a standard pay as you go sim....grrrrrr.

Back to Buxton to pick up a Pay as you go sim, much consternation from the staff and a hurried call to check that it will work and then I leave with a sim.

1 hour of repeated attempts to access itunes and we are now live on both phones.

To be fair the O2 staff were doing their best and I think are victims of a very poorly managed launch.....O2 senior Management really should carry the can for this....

ITunes activation dead too

Thought as I will not be receiving mine till tomorrow i would upgrade the current one. BIG mistake Apples activation servers are dead 30 mins of trying to activate and I still have an ibrick.

Doh!

3 stages of failure

Why oh why do we bother?!

1. O2 can't manage a proper online ordering system.. Goes belly up after 4 hours.

2. O2, CPW or Apple can't activate many of the limited stock that made it to their stores. This is mostly due to O2s web-based, IE only activation process.

3. Apple, in releasing globally to 22 countries, plus itunes 7.7, plus 2.0 firmware to all previous customers on the first day have crippled their own activation servers worldwide..

I suppose it'll make a good case study!

Architecture

Looks like the numpty responsible for my old firms IT architecture did O2's as well :-)

Talk about not having a clue...

Ha ha ha ha ha...

...ha ha ha ha ha!

This'll teach you poncy technology poseurs, all so utterly soulless that you resort to buying yourself an identity by being one of the first few to have an item of consumer technology.

I just hope the whole o2 network goes down this weekend.

O2: oh dear...

No, not an Apple fanboy or 'must be' early adopter - but reached the end of a fraught contract with Voadfone a few months ago and have been hanging on for this launch.

Pre-ordered my iPhone from Tottenham Hale O2 store last week, and had a call yesterday to confirm one would be waiting for me today - they even asked what time I'd be there (10am) so they could have it ready. I arrived at the store at 9.45 and they were already in chaos. One of the senior staff told me they'd managed to do two upgrades for exisitng O2 customers before the entire upgrade system crashed, and they then had to turn away allcomers looking for upgrades.

However, he assured me new customers wouldn't be affected and I would get my iPhone shortly. Then queued up with around 10 others for two hours. Each customer was taking about 30 minutes to process because the system was buckling.

By the time it reached my turn, the manager was instructing his staff just to fill in paper contracts - they would do the activations later that day. So, I left the store with my iPhone, but no number, and no record of me on O2's system. That was around midday. My iPhone is currently totally useless. It hasn't been activated. I can't register with iTunes because I don't have a number. And I can't get help from O2 because I'm not yet on their system.

I'm sure it'll all be sorted by the end of next week, but the damage is already done. As Mike Richards said in his earlier comment: "Oh to be a fly on the wall at O2 when their MD gets a well-deserved Jobsian bollocking for screwing up one of the highest profile product launches of the year."

O2

Our O2 store's systems crashed about 5 mins after they opened - and they did, the manager confirmed this to us. Those of us who stayed waited about 2hrs to get the phones. The whole job was done on paper forms with no computer involved, aside from photos of ID and a card I don't even think a credit check was done.

Everyone in the store took the phone to be activated via iTunes later. There appeared to be no provision for instore activation via iTunes anyway.

Oddly reports from the Carphone Warehouse store up the road said that they had no problems whatsoever.

Got it, but it's not much of a phone until activated

Picked an 8Gb IPhone up at an o2 shop yesterday. It still has "no service" and the O2 site s saying this will take 2-3 days!

Why Is It...

... That O2 are allowed to have an unfair advantage to other networks by being the only company in the UK where consumers can buy an iPhone?!

Why on earth Apple decided to work with this business model is beyond me, O2 being the only supplier means not only are consumers charged whatever O2 see fit for a shit service plan, but are also able to limit choice for consumers as to which network the phone is available on, and have full control and monopoly of the UK iPhone market!!

Any other phone providers which offer exclusive deals with network providers also allow the phone to be sold unlocked, therefore STILL allowing consumers to purchase the phone outright and use on the network of their choice if they wish.

The EU shit on about competition, consumer protection etc and do nothing to sort this out, but if it was MICROSOFT that did this, the EU would be on their backs before you could say 'Bill Gates' funny that!

FIGHT FOR CONSUMER CHOICE!!

If you want the freedom and choice to buy an Apple iPhone unlocked, without being forced to take a contract on ONE network, which limits consumer choice as well as minipulates the current mobile market do summit about it?

ComplaIn to the EU Competition Comission at:

comp-market-information@ec.europa.eu

STILL UNACTIVATED AFTER 30 HRS!!!!

They were completely oblivious to the fact i said "IT'S ASKING ME TO TOP MY MONTHLY CONTRACT PHONE WHEN I MAKE CALLS! I PAID FOR A 18 MONTH CONTRACT!"

O2 customer support said they would deal with my PAC code no prob, BUT NO FU*KING MENTION OF ACTIVATING MY PHONE!

morons.

the lot of them

F*cking Carphone Warehouse II

Well what can I say..

1) Ordered the phone via their website to be sent to their gateshead store (MetroCentre) and eagerly checked the tracking of the parcel the following day but to no avail as at 6pm it said delivery failed. Rang up said courier - they said the address that they've been trying to deliver to doesnt exist. Muggins here checks the address and sure enough they've attempted to send it to a store that closed down 12 months ago!

So then.. I toddle off down to CityLink in an attempt to retrieve the parcel even though my name wouldnt be on it (addressed to a non existant shop y'see) but CityLink were pretty understanding and with a bit of phoning they handed the goods over so top marks to them.

Roll on 8pm last night..

Activate - Fail

Activate - Fail

Activate - Fail

Activate.. get the final stage.. works.. no FAIL. Problem being is that iTunes seems to think its now activated (as I dont get the option any more) but the phone sure as hell doesnt.

So then.. I decide to stop swearing and take it down to the shop it should have been sent to the following day (today).

I arrive - tell them the story and politely ask them to fix it. However the sales guy hits an immediate snag - they are unable to close the account as its assigned to a shop that performs the web sales so he duly rings them up but guess what - so are about another 60 shops in the UK so he is in a queue of 60 with about one numbskull dealing with all these enquiries. 2 hours later I just the bloody phone with that lot and as far as I'm concerned if they dont sort it buy tomorrow I'm cancelling the damn contract.

What a complete bunch of utter incompentant fools.

I'm one of the lucky(ish) ones i think (Update)

Well, i thought i was one of the lucky ones, had my iphone at 10am on launch day, all going well until my visit into my local O2 shop today to question why they are yet to put my upgrade through the till (they actually gave me a phone without doing any thing coming close to an official transaction) the assistant's bit of news was "we may ring you next week" - what an absolute joke this has been from start to finish. I thought i had done quite well, i now know that is complete rubbish. Oh well i may now have a very expensive paper weight but hey i got one ready to activate, at some point over the next month

Karma seems to have forgotten me...

I am usually quite anti-apple, although their hardware cannot be mocked for build quality, I find their software and prices are often laughable. Anyway, there Is no denying, even by a vole-lover such as myself, that this new iPhone has it all (inc the restrictions of iTunes). With both my beloved iriver and my calculator phone on the blink I wandered down to the Oxford street store at about noon, and was out of there in under 20 mind with an 8gb! Couldn't download iTunes when I got home, but older versions are everywhere and the autoupdate feature works fine. I guess this is just a fluke case, but everything went swimmingly and in writing this post I think I have tripled my typing speed on this bad boy! Anybody else tries the lightsaber app?