Tuesday, June 15, 2010

iPhone 4 Pre Order Mania

With all the hype for the much anticipated, much discussed, much leaked iPhone 4, great lines were anticipated at Apple Stores.  With the learnings from launch after launch of ever growing proportions, and a great motivation to get as many new products sold as quickly as possible to stem the rising tide of Androids, Apple seemed to have opened the retail pipes for AT&T, Radio Shack, Walmart, Best Buy and of course, Apple to fill orders.  

By Monday night, the eve of pre-ordering, Walmart was iffy, and Radio Shack not taking pre-orders.  But not to worry, that left several good options.  I decided to go via the Apple store, as the mother ship should be the best at selling their product, and I like dealing with Apple.  I checked before going to bed, after midnight EDT on the morning of the 15th, but as many thought, this was too early.  

So I got up at 6:00 PDT, 9:00 EDT, and made a cup of VIA, sat down with the computer to get to work.  I was a bit excited at this point.  I expected some problems as the servers absorbed the hits.  After a few, is was almost like being in line at the store, kind of a vicarious party online.  I was patient and persistent.  

By 7:00 AM, it was apparent something has gone horribly wrong.  Every attempt (dozens), was rejected at the door of AT&T's approval gateway.  I went directly to AT&T, and it was even more erratic and rude in its failure to process my request.  All this time the error messages were vague, abrupt.  I finally hit a new wall at AT&T that suggested I call "Premier" service.  I did.  After a longish hold, the message told me to go to hell.  It was too busy for me to hold so it dumped my call.  Well, can't blame that on cell reception now can we?

At this point, I realized this was not going to go well, that the prospect of getting an order in this morning was dim.  Disillusioned and dejected, I robotically pushed the buttons on the web page, with little hope of success, but unable to abandon my attempt as easily as AT&T abandoned my call.  Onward I trudged in the morass of ineptitude.  Blindly responding to requests to select a field, knowing the result would be...rejection.  

This story is far from over,  human spirit cannot be squashed by inadequate server capacity!

No comments: