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AT&T Vs. Apple Store At the iPhone Launch
MBCook tips an article at Gizmodo that begins with a reader's experiences trying to buy an iPhone yesterday at an AT&T store and an Apple store. Many, but not all, of the comments on the post echo this reader's experience: Apple good, AT&T bad. "Day one revealed what all Apple aficionados fear. That AT&T, through the depths of its incompetence, could derail the iPhone."
Honestly, I don't know WHAT THE F happened. Jobs himself said when announcing the iphone release date that those wishing to buy it should "go to an AT&T store.." there were questions about whether Apple would sell it at all on launch date. Then in the days before the release, I saw a lot of talk on the 'net about people lining up at Apple stores, and ZERO people lining up at AT&T.
As some who saw my posts 3 days ago may have noted, i was very excited for the release of the iphone, and i bought four of them. However, this was GROSSLY mishandled by Apple not making it patently clear that Jobs had misspoke (or whatever) earlier. My plan to go to the AT&T owned local store was thwarted when one of our guys went down there (I was in meetings all day) check the line, then reported to me that he was told the store didn't have ANY iPhones at all, but was giving out "vouchers."
By this time the local Apple store was a madhouse. I'd dropped in around noon on my way to a meeting, and it had around 150 people in line (this is a not-so-very-well-known one, inside a crappy mall). By the time I got out of meetings and adjusted the buying plan, it was almost 8. The store ran out with around 200 people still ahead of me in line.
I got up this morning at 8am, and went to the store when it opened. I was the 42nd through the door, and bought 4 of the remaining 18 4GB phones (the 8GBs were all gone). Everyone behind me in line was told a shipment would arrive "later today sometime" and they could wait. No one got out of line and left.
Now that I have the iPhone, i'm as impressed as I hoped i'd be (and glad I bought three more for my colleagues), although it certainly could use some minor software updates (minor tweaks to the UI.. adding of buttons, landscape mode for the keyboard in other than Safari, etc).. but the pinch/stretch zoom, animations, etc are all phenomenal. The phone is very impressive, but does give a few feels of "beta," and the fact that some of the software even between our 4 phones is different suggests to the phones are still "development build" and several major revisions will be pushed through itunes software updates.
Overall, I am very pleased with the phone.. and less than pleased with Apple's management of the whole thing (I mean, it's their reputation here.. not AT&T's.. if anything I feel bad for AT&T, as it seems they may have been screwed out of phones originally due them so that the Apple stores could garner some publicity)
I will also say that the Apple store employees were applauding for us as we entered the store this morning. Really people.. APPLAUSE? WTF. It's a fricking phone, I'm not shaving my head for charity or doing something noble... I'm an American jackass spending $2k on phones because they can play H.264, have a nice UI, and won't crash, LOL. Also, for what it's worth, T-mobile has had my monthly payments for 3yrs now, and I *NEVER* have service (and I live in a major, populated, affluent part of Los Angeles). My treo/blackberry constantly say "no service" in my house. Today I have 5bars on my iPhone. Now, maybe this is just luck of the draw, and i'll have crappy reception in place that t-mobile rocked, but so far, I have zero regrets.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
MY IPHONE DOESNT WORK.
I activated two yesterday, they both worked for 12 hours. This morning neither phone will make or receive calls; or browse on EDGE.
The GSM/EDGE modem is BRICKED -- STAY FAR AWAY. Apple blames ATT, and ATT blames Apple.
These guys are in way over their heads. Meanwhile, 15 hours of tech support hold time later -- still can't make a call.
That AT&T, through the depths of its incompetence, could derail the iPhone.
It's not that they're incompetent. It's just that they don't care. They don't have to. They're the phone company.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I need a new phone, I thought about the iPhone, but decided to wait for the OpenMoko if it emerges, if not then I go for a Nokia smartphone.
Firstly, being stuck to the set provider is not very cool, secondly the other two phones are far more hackable for us open-source geeks.
My little Linux and tech blog
"Day one revealed what all Apple aficionados fear. That AT&T, through the depths of its incompetence, could derail the iPhone."
I am sorry, but what the hell is this supposed to mean? For one thing, this is day one of the damn phone being sold, and it is no surprise that the AT&T monkeys were in a panic trying to get the phones to activate on the spot. If it hadn't occurred to anyone, those who went to the Apple stores got their boxes and then left and activated the phone via iTunes. Those who went to AT&T had their phones activated in-store, thus causing slower activations and the incompetence that you expect from your mobile phone carriers.
Does anyone see the difference here now? The summary of this article is pure crap.
I'm glad there's people who will put up with all the hiccups, problems, and long waits. Suffering through the frustrations for me. There's no way I'd wait in line for hours to get one of these things. Y'know it's a mass produced item. If you can wait a few days/weeks. Then you can go in at your convenience, no wait, get the phone you want, and hopefully all the activation issues/major bugs will be ironed out by then (if there are any). And v1.0 usually has some bugs/issues.
:).
I for one am sick of bleeding on the bleeding edge. "Oh new and shiny today!". Tomorrow it's just old news "Yeah so what..." Good luck to all of you suckers. I'm on AT&T right now and looking to drop them after my contract is up. I'm hoping Apple gets a version out that will work with another provider... but I'm gonna wait and see. It's definitely not automatic but that interface sure is slick
I'm not sure what market everyone else was in, but in my small Tennessee town, it couldn't have been a smoother purchase. I walked into the AT&T store Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm, they had 4 8gb, 4 4gb iPhones in-stock. I needed to transfer my number form my dad's account (I've been paying the bill for the last 2 years) and possibly pay a deposit for a new contract under my name with my old number. It took me about 15 minutes on the phone with a transfer rep. and less than 5 minutes to confirm everything was correct (with no deposit) to get in and out. Got home, activated the phone in about 5 minutes; everything works perfectly with my new awesome phone. They couldn't have been more helpful at the AT&T store; looks like a case of YMMV.
As New England Telephone became NYNEX and NYNEX became Verizon, I continued to keep my long distance service with AT&T for no reason other than that I always had. At the time of the incident I'm about to describe, I had been an AT&T customer for approximately twenty-five years at the same address and the same telephone number. And I doubt that I had ever paid late even once.
About the only thing that changed was that, as an experiment, instead of mailing them a check, I used my bank's online bill-paying service. Things went OK for several months. The month of the incident I am about to relate, I authorized online payment of AT&T's bill about eight business days before the due date. The bank's online site said that payment would take five days, because apparently AT&T didn't accept electronic payments from them.
Then, one night, at dinnertime, I got a telephone call from a collection agency saying my account was overdue.
Briefly, the facts as they ultimately emerged were: a) the bank statement showed the bill as having been "paid" about five days before the due date; b) the image of the back of the cancelled check from the bank showed AT&T's bank as having received it several days before the due date; c) AT&T's own records showed the bill as having been paid one or two days late.
AT&T's billing office was perfectly nice and acknowledged having received payment. In a few days they sent me a written acknowledgement.
But the collection agency wouldn't stop calling.
AT&T kept saying they had told the collection agency they had received payment. The collection agency kept saying "This office has not received that information."
The collection agency refused to provide me with any contact information other than a post office box number.
I mailed them photocopies of the back of the cancelled check and AT&T's statement showing payment. The people on the phone said they had not received them. (Since they would not provide anything but a PO box I couldn't send the material by certified mail).
They continued to phone me every night at dinner time for several weeks.
Eventually the calls stopped, but I was extremely ticked off. I sent a polite, well-worded letter to the CEO of AT&T--who was it? Ivan something-or-other? Seigelman? Seidenberg, saying I thought I'd been treated pretty badly and I wanted them to at least refund that month's bill, about $65. Someone from Seidenberg's office called me, talked to me, listened carefully, apologized nicely, and said they would indeed send the $65.
A week passed. No $65. Two weeks. Three weeks. A month. No check in the mail.
I switched my long-distance service to another carrier. I left a message with whomever it was at Seidenberg's office, explaining why. I got a returned message from the same person, who sounded genuinely upset, saying that she had instructed some office or other to send me the check but that apparently it hadn't happened. A week later I did, in fact, get a check for $65.
But I had already switched, and needless to say I didn't switch back.
For the next year, I got periodic mailing and occasional phone calls from AT&T saying they missed me, and wouldn't I switch back.
Unbelievable. I'm very lazy. Absolutely all AT&T ever had to do to keep me as a customer was to exploit my inertia and not do anything to actively drive me away. They lost a 25-year customer by a) siccing a collection agency on me for one bill that was two days late according to AT&T... and on time according to the back of the check, and b) utterly screwing up the follow-up.
I'd believe you if you spelled corporate correctly.
This is not troll, but doesn't it strike anyone else as fairly crazy that people are lining up for hours and planning entire days around buying something? It's not like this is an AIDS vaccine or the cure for cancer. I've never really understood the mentality of lining up outside the store or the theater in order to get something or see something at the earliest possible moment. Can someone please explain this whole phenomenon to me? It seems a lot like a drug user itching for a fix, or some equally unhealthy and unhinged obsession with instant gratification. I'm very open to being corrected on this, but it doesn't seem normal to me.
A-Bomb
"Day one revealed what all Apple aficionados fear. That AT&T, through the depths of its incompetence, could derail the iPhone."
This post is not intended as a flame or some kind of universal truth...just my own experiences and observations.
I have purchased 4 ipods thus far (2 for myself and 2 as gifts). I bought my mother a mac mini for her birthday. I think Apple is the most innovative company in consumer electronics right now. I have disposable income and I like spending my money on gizmos.
I live in Boston. I had Cingular / AT&T for four years and verizon for three. I had terrible reception and frequent dropped calls with Cingular and nearly none (in the same place) with Verizon.
Based on my personal experiences I'm going to wait until I can use the iphone with another carrier.
You guys can't bash Apple for this shit, though. A few huge corporations have a stranglehold on the cellular networks in this country, and they're more than willing to keep selling you the same service they've always been pushing as long as they possibly can. Apple had to cut a deal with one of the providers, and why would the market leaders push a product which will force them to offer new features, expand their network, and increase consumer expectations? Thus we get this Apple / AT&T deal.
Bottom line, iphone early adopters are going to have to suffer with a second-best carrier for six months to a year or so, at which point other companies (assuming the thing hasn't flopped) will start making the modifications to support the iphone's data-dependent features. Cell phone carriers that aren't leading the market won't change a thing unless they think it's going to gain them market share, and ones that are won't change a thing unless they're already losing it. It's just the way the game works.
But I'm too busy waiting in line for Transformers.
There's a 68.71% chance you're right.
I did the AT&T line thing from around noon on and it went well. They had around 60 8G units and I was around #40 so my wait was worth it.
Quite a few people were holding places for bosses, parents and spouses. Most of the people seemed to be Mac users. Everyone was in a good mood and it made the time pass.
The Store was great, good attitudes all the way around, I gave them a credit card they gave me a phone. Can't get much easier than that. They told us ahead of time that the # accessories was limited and tried to set expectations. We were told ahead of time that they would only sell one phone per person which I think really helped.
Online activation was easy, note that I'm a current AT&T customer so that may account for something.
The phone is nice and it's easier to learn to type on than doing Graffiti (sp) on my old Treo. The edge works as I expected (note: I spend a lot of time in a non-3G area so that wasn't a problem). The voice quality is good according to friends I've talked to.
For those out there that don't like it, don't buy one. Most of the arguments against it (it's going to cost $$$ over 2 years, like I won't have a phone otherwise) are just silly but such is the world it seems.
Of course, today my Nokia 770 arrived (from the Woot last week) so now I have two toys to play with...
I call bullshit. Nintendo never had a widely popular console until the mid 80's and for that matter, the Nintendo 64 wasn't sold until 1996. I can't take you seriously until you get your facts straight.
This is slashdot and the facts are important, Sir!
The original comment was Jobs saying in passing to someone, that they woudl have "a better chance" at an AT&T store. That turned out to be wrong, but to my recollection there was never an official annoncement saying AT&T stores were the place to go.
You already knew everything you needed to know about which store being faster, based on how they operate day to day. I know; I went into an AT&T store a day or two before. Just a few cash registers? Simple math says throughput will be low, compared to how Apple handles transactions every day with emplyess that roam with checkout machines - whcih can be added along with more employees. AT&T simply cannot add more registers as easily.
Now, I do think AT&T employees should have been better about informaing the line as to what was going on - Apple store employees are great that way, and were really working the line I was in. But there again, you can go into stores ahead of time and judge the quality of line servicing you will get just by daily interaction with regular visitors.
I odn't think AT&T should get jabbed too hard for basically being like any other retail outlet, caught in a tidal wave they could ill comprehend. Instead this is an opportunity to realize just how good Apple store eomployees are, that they seem happy with the job and are also well prepared for epic sales events such as this one.
I filled out the feedback on my Apple store receipt commending the people that work there - I think if other people had a good experience, they should do the same and let Apple know just how special the front line employee base they've managed to grow really is!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
At 9:30 pm, I started the activation process using iTunes. An existing AT & T customer, I figured this would be no issue. I was wrong.
I saw the dreaded, "Your activation requires additional time to complete." and waited. and waited and waited.
I was told the following fun things from AT & T customer service:
I was sent an e-mail from AT & T giving me an order number. When I mentioned to customer service that number, I was told, "That number doesn't really mean anything to us."
It's 10:34 pm on Saturday night, and my iPhone is still an iBrick.
http://www.htcherocentral.com
Hate to nitpick, but it's no longer "AT&T". It's now "at&t", the new softer, friendlier telephone company.
☠
I had a similar bad experience with AT&T and good experience with Apple:
Executive summary
- AT&T Mgr. refused to give basic information (do you have enough iPhones for all 20 people in line?)
- AT&T Mgr. lied about availability (iPhones are sold out all through the city)
- AT&T Mgr. intentionally tries to hide Apple Store availability to get more sales for his store.
- AT&T screwed up the order for the first guy in line, who had been waiting for hours. By the time he realized they gave him a 4GB phone, there were no 8GB units left.
- Apple store had many iPhones. Completed quick, easy, efficient transaction.
The long version:
I wasn't about to wait in lines for more than 15-30 minutes, but I headed up to the closest AT&T/Cingular store which was in an area I thought might not get a lot of traffic (Kalamazoo Rd & Hwy 6, Grand Rapids, MI). There were about 20 people waiting in line at 5:55PM, so I joined in.
The AT&T rep came out and asked for a show of hands on how many people wanted 4GB vs 8GB. Almost everyone wanted 8GB, and by his grimace I saw that was going to be a problem. I asked him how many phones they had, and he said "I can't tell you that". I persisted, asking if it was worth while for those of us near the end to wait. He said "if we run out, we can process the order and direct ship to your home". So, now his intention was obvious.. keep as many people there as possible, and try to get more sales even after running out of phones. There were 4 or 5 employees, but for some reason they only allowed two people to enter the store at a time, and the transactions seemed to take forever.
Against my better judgment, I stayed in line. About 45 minutes later, they had slowly processed 10-15 people ahead of me. One of the earlier people came out and said they had run out. Shortly after that, the first guy in line returned. He had bought an 8GB iPhone and later found that they had given him a 4GB unit. Now all the 8GB units were gone.. The manager came out and asked if anyone in the line was paying cash and wanted a 4GB unit. One guy jumped at this, and they took his money, gave it to the first guy, and gave the cash guy the iPhone. Kinda shady to avoid a return..
The AT&T people said that no other stores in the city had iPhones left. (I had already tried to call the Apple store to see their status, but couldn't get through.) And they said they would do free next day shipping, and claimed that ordering in the store would be faster than online. I am in Eastern time zone, and I thought the online purchases might be closed until 6PM Pacific. So, I went ahead and ordered it there. The guy taking my order seemed like he had never used the sales system before, and it took 5+ minutes to complete my sale.
Shortly before I got in the AT&T store, some guy walked up and asked why we (the four remaining laggards) were waiting in line. He said "there's no lines at the Apple store at the mall, and they have plenty left". We had all seen coverage of the campers at the Apple store on last night's news, so we thought he was messing with us, or trying to get us to give up our spots in line.
On the off chance he was telling the truth, I drove over to the mall. There were a lot of people milling around the store, fondling the iPhones on display. I asked an employee if they had any left, and he pointed to the rows of iPhone bags behind the genius desk and registers.. there were over a hundred there on the floor. I picked up an 8GB iPhone, the Apple employees were plentiful, helpful, and efficient. The purchase took all of 40 seconds. Ithen zipped back over to the AT&T store to void my earlier transaction.
They voided my iPhone order without argument (I was a bit surprised at that). I explained to the manager that he was incorrect when he told me that there were no more iPhones in the city, and told him of the hundreds at the Apple store. He quickly called another AT&T store and began comparing notes with someone there.
While all of you morons were waiting on long lines for your iBrick, I was out listening to non-DRMed MP3's that I just copied to the flash card in my A-707 w/o having to use some god-awful buggy and inefficient middleware app.
You mean iTunes?
I used iTunes as the music manager for my non-iPod MP3 player: it handles non-DRM-ed MP3s just fine, and smart playlists are a really neat tool for managing your MP3 player's storage... I'm sure that they prototyped the iPod shuffle's smart shuffle that way.
I'll agree that the iPhone is overrated and overpriced, but when I criticize Apple (or any other company) I'm doing it as someone who uses... or at least researches... the products first. Not from a position of sloganeering or ignorance.
I went to the AT&T store in Santa Clara. I showed up at 4 and was about 40th or so in line. I estimate that by 6 there were probably only about 100-150 total in line. The line went very slowly once 6 o'clock came around. I attribute this to two things:
1. The staff was trying to upsell accessories and AT&T DSL service.
2. Their computers were bogged down due to the event.
I had (have) a Cingular RAZR already, and he identified me in the computer. I don't know for sure, but pre-opening announcements were made to the effect that they were going to set you up with an account in the store prior to your iTunes activation, probably as a means to prevent eBay arbitrage.
After I paid, he dropped the phone in a bag and actually sealed it. Not sure what the point of that is/was.
The last oddity was that a store employee was stationed by the door and was locking and unlocking the door as people would enter and exit. I pointed out to them (on the way out - I'm no fool) that the fire marshal would have a fit if he caught them doing that. Crowd control is understandable, but locking the only means of egress from a retail space when customers are present is a bit of a no-no.
When I got home, the iTunes activation procedure with the phone was everything they promised it would be. It was only a couple minutes before the iPhone was up and running.
A very old joke, that I heard years before I worked at Kaleida Labs, a joint venture of Apple and IBM. At Kaleida I experienced the full impact of being the butt of that joke. The funny thing about the joke is that it's actually true, and applies to AT&T now as much as it did to IBM in the past.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Free Software to the rescue. If that sucker takes a sim card and works with my provider and does ogg, I want it. iPhone is off the list.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.