Experience from the iPhone 3G Line & Beyond
July 12th, 2008 arthurfreydin
Oh man, where do I begin. This is going to be a long one.
I’m heading back from work on Friday, July 11th at around 3pm EST and decide to brave the lines at Menlo Park Mall in Edison, NJ for the new iPhone. I figure I should be in and out in about 2 hours or so, before my girlfriend even gets home. Even so, I call her and let her know what I’m doing just in case I dont make it home before she does.
This is my story in chronological order.
4:00 PM: I walk into the mall and start walking down towards the Apple Store. I approach the store and am immediately directed to the “iPhone Line”.
4:05: The line stretched across a shorter wing of the mall. Here’s a satellite image of how everything is layed out. Let’s refer back to this image for the rest of the post:
I know it’s a bit hard to see, but the red, open-ended rectangle is the iPhone line. The miniature Apple logo directly above it is the location of the Apple store.
4:20: I wasn’t really sure how long the wait could be so I was thinking 2-3 hours tops. A few of the people in line reaffirmed my estimation so I was in the clear.
4:45: Looks like the line starts to move a bit but it turns out that it was just the security guards condensing the line to make room for newcomers.
5:30: The shit starts to hit the fan. At the one and a half hour mark, a very nice Apple employee walks by with two gifts: one of them is free water. The other is a close approximation of how long our wait really is: approx 4 to 4.5 hours. Awesome. I’ve already been in line for an hour and a half so I just figured I’ll wait.
6:00: Uh-oh. Someone cut in line about 4 or 5 places behind me. This made one particular person somewhat agitated and he confronted the line-cutter. Mayhem insued. Security is called. Threats of arrest are made. Line-cutter exits the line.
6:15: An Apple employee decides to drum up some excitement and wake up everyone in the line by running the entire line holding out his hand for high-fives. I slap his hand. So do my new friends around me.
My friends on the line (can’t remember their real names so I will make them up):
Mike: He’s new to the iPhone world and is sporting a Blackberry Pearl. He’s constantly on the phone but seems nice, if just a bit on the slow side.
Jacklyn: She’s likely in her mid to late 30s and is holding a Palm Treo. She has a 2 year old that her mother is watching. The mother and her kid stop by to say high every now and again while remaining in the mall throughout the entire wait. Jacklyn and I joke about her priorities a few times.
Michelle: Michelle is younger and is originally from San Diego. This is also her first entrance into the iPhone universe. She only took out her cellphone once throughout the entire wait and I didn’t get a good look at it. Her boyfriend accompanies her but heads off to the bar in the mall every now and then to have a few shots and to catch the Yankees game. At one point, he was gone so long that he had time to watch 3 innings of the game.
Trevor: This one is very young - maybe 15 or 16 tops and will be paying for the 8gb iPhone from his own pocket. His mother instructs me to keep an eye on him because he is a diabetic, and then leaves to go see Hancock at the theater in the mall. She gets through the entire movie and then returns later.
7:00: Trevor’s mother comes back with a AT&T brochure in hand and questions him about the monthly fees. Turns out that Trevor did not know that the new iPhone required a $30 data plan. Trevor’s mother casually withdraws him from the line and Trevor did not complain. Approximately one hour ago, I overheard Trevor explaining to his friends that he will weather the line until he gets the iPhone, no matter what happens. Poor Trevor.
7:30: A rather annoying Apple employee named Karl walks down the line answering questions. We ask how much longer the wait can be. He says an hour and a half tops. Fine with me, that’s what I expected. Jacklyn and I joke about why we wait so long for a stupid phone.
8:00: Karl (annoying Apple employee from 7:30) tells us that things should move quite a bit faster now. They have shut down the Apple store for everyone but the people in line to get an iPhone. Spectacular.
8:30: An hour has passed since we asked anyone how much longer we will be waiting. Karl approaches and against my better judgement, I ask him how much longer. He looks to the people in front of us and his shiny new black iPhone (why?). “Only about another hour or so”. Refer to 7:30 and you should find that I was not amused.
9:00: I’m getting tired and begin to feel it. The mall starts shutting down. The AT&T store across from us closes (they have been sold out since noon).
9:30: There are about 7 or 8 people in front of me now. They are calling us one by one for the iPhone. Karl is back. He asks us if we had any corporate discounts because a few of the people directly in front of us have been refused or delayed because of this issue. Jacklyn speaks up. Karl says “come with me”. They go talk under a palm tree in the mall.
9:45: Jacklyn comes back after a hair-raising visit to the AT&T store. The store has been shut down for about 30 minutes now but employees were forced to remain to deal with iPhone technical issues. Jacklyn is glad they stayed. They were able to reverse their corporate discount.
10:00: I get called in. People clap and I thank them.
10:02: I walk into the Apple Store and am greeted with a very pleasant atmosphere. They’re treating people like kings and queens. I notice that some people that were called in 30 minutes ago are still in the store chatting up the Apple employees. My personal Apple employee approaches and asks what she can do to help me. I tell her that I want a white 16gb iPhone.
11:00: I am still in the Apple Store. It turns out that my personal Apple employee thought that I wanted to open up an extra line for my new iPhone instead of replacing my BlackBerry and has spent the past 45 minutes on the phone with AT&T customer service since she was having issues with activating a new line. I catch a glimpse of the conversation and reaffirm that I would just like to replace my existing phone as a simple upgrade. She sighs and hangs up the phone.
11:20: The Apple employee has had to go through 3 new iPhones since she messed up the activation on the prior 2 and had to start over every time. It becomes clear that she knows nothing about the Apple brand and this is likely her first week on the job. She finally succeeds in the upgrade and successfuly rings up my new iPhone and a Belkin case. I stumble out of the store only to find out that the entrance by which I parked has been chained off forcing me to exit through the only entrance still open - on the other side of the building.
Midnight (9 hours later): I get in my car and sit in traffic on the way home due to a lane closure on a major highway (route 1).
Would I do it again? Probably.
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