大象传媒

"The website... seems not to have been tested or designed well at all"

Could that be any more of an understatement? Have a look at the Apple discussion forums (and the O2 ones) and you will find pages and pages of disgruntled customers.

That was a real shocker from O2 and I would guess that had nothing to do with trying to create a "heightened sense of anticipation", the company is not well organised enough to think up clever ploys like that...

Apparently people have phoned various O2 stores, Carphone Warehouse Stores, Apple and O2 customer services and have been given different information each time. Seems there was no thought put into this launch whatsoever.

It was a complete debacle from start to finish.

Got a text at 8am telling me i could upgrade, tried on and off until 3pm (when it was supposedly out of stock..? what are they selling on friday then?) never made it past the SMS activation page to register my upgrade.

A complete joke, o2 should be ashamed of themselves, its not hard to design a site that can handle the traffic. Demand is no excuse, it was obviously going to be high!

I don't think it was a ploy at all. I think it was just stupidity on O2's part. Anticipation has been stirred up by the lack of information. The internet is a hotbed of rumour, especially concerning gadgets from Apple. By remaining tightlipped, Apple and their carriers allow interesting stories to be generated by hearsay. I think that there should be a new phrase 'No News is Apple News'.

What an absolute mess. My experience was similar to those above and the 14 page thread on the Apple support forum seems to indicate that many hundreds are affected by this customer service shocker.

I agree though that this was nothing more than stupidity on o2's part rather than a deliberate policy to hype the device. I would encourage those who were affected to air their grievances to o2 directly so that they know the scale of the problem, rather than adding to the reams of internet based complaints.

Text message received at 740 this morning, by 810 my phone ordered, by 820 wife's phone ordered, all very slick, well done O2.

I went online at 9:15 am, and by 9:25 my order was complete. I don't know why other people had a problem, it went through quite easily for me.

Upgrades for EXISTING iphone users was not 'slick' at all.

It has been a complete farce. I and many others didn't get out text telling us that we could order online until after the site was open and problems had started.

A complete joke. Fortunately I'm in no rush - I don't need 3G or GPS but it's the principle of how they have dealt with their existing customer base. New users seemed to be fine for much longer and seemed to get a shed load of the share whilst iPhone "upgraders" were left in the dark.

Nothing forthcoming from O2 keeping people up to date which was shameful. As soon as O2 lose exclusivity I'll be moving elsewhere.

of course it's a deliberate ploy. the entire iPhone saga has been surrounded by stupid hyped-up rubbish to try and make the iPhone seem like such an amazing, life-changing product... and to try and make iPhone customers feel like they're living on gold-encrusted cloud nine....

yes, the iPhone is good at what it does. and yes, the iPhone 3G is gonna be a pretty good phone. but get over yourselves, Apple!!

O2's procedure for upgrading existing iPhone customers was ridiculous! I got a message at 8.22am telling me I could upgrade from 8.00am. By the time I got on the website was already unresponsive and I spent the next 6 hours trying to order an iPhone to no avail! Now I have been informed that I cannot even queue up at the store for one on Friday as I am an existing customer and can only upgrade online where there are no iPhones left!

So much for their website telling me to register my interest for the past month to ensure I'm one of the first to get my hands on it!

Ooooh, another blog about the iPhone!

I'm very very angry about the lack of service today from o2. I'm an avid Apple-head, I queued up in Birmingham on day 1 of the original iPhone launch, got my iPhone and was more than happy with it. I wasn't going to upgrade to the 3G one, but I found out I could get a free upgrade and thought "ace, I'll do that!".

To get a text message at 8am with no prior warning whatsoever, only to leap to my computer and get rebuffed at every attempt to order my new phone on o2's website was met with "Ah, s'alright, I'll try at work". To be confronted with the same screen over and over at work was ridiculous. Whoever thought of that outrageous "upgrade code" system wants stringing up! (If anyone wants one I've got 8 on my phone by the way). I finally got through to the order screen, had an order accepted but with no confirmation. I called up o2 customer services just now to be met with "Oh, too many orders caused our system to go down due to demand"... Would that be the demand o2 themselves created by sending out 200,000 texts to people who'd registered their interest then?!

It doesn't surprise me one bit that new customers got through perfectly fine, whereas existing customers who have thus far shelled out at least 拢600 for their phones + contracts have been left floundering in this mess that o2 have created.

I'm not able to go to an Apple store on Friday, but there is an o2 store near me. With conflicting reports about how upgrading iPhone customers will be treated in store going round, I dread to think how much anger I'll have come Friday afternoon...

I too had problems. Like many I didn't get the text from o2 until way past 8am, by which point the 16GB had 'sold out'.

The site was down for an age, and I just went round in very slow circles for the rest of the day, getting nowhere.

After a quick complaint on phone and email to cust services, I visited my local o2 store who assure me that they're doing upgrades instore on Friday. If they don't, i think I may inspire an 'iPhone rage' headline for Saturday's tabloids!

'winstano' the phone won't be available in apple stores - as far as I know. Only O2 and CPW.

Thanks rocktographer :)

Fortunately, I don't start work until 9:30, so it's possible for me to go into an o2 store before work, but I can imagine I'll be one of the ones joining you on the 'iPhone rage' headlines!!

I find it unbelievable that their website was so ill equipped to deal with this demand, despite creating it themselves!

Very poor from O2 - if it was 'engineered' then that's even worse.

Even an idiot could have worked out that some sort of queuing system was needed to prevent the server from crashing. The FA did exactly that (after the initial crash) for the tickets for the new Wembley. That only let in couple hundred at a time and queued the rest. No thousands of people refreshing 10 times a minute. Problem sorted.

My particular favourite was when I got to the payment screen, I tried to enter my Maestro details . You have to have an issue number - if your card doesn't have one then tough, use a different payment method. That's just amateurish stuff.

I'll be un-impressed if I can't get one in store on Friday. After that logic might take over my Apple obsessed head and I'll get something else and stick with my first gen + the 2.0 update

I too received my text after the ordering process was 'open'. I tried for over an hour to get through the system then had to go to work Tried all through lunch... each time I had to re-enter ALL my details. So infuriating.

Spoke to a customer 'service' adviser at o2 who said that, whilst internet stock was sold-out, o2 shops could take pre-orders. He helpfully called two stores (whilst leaving me on hold for 5 minutes) then came back and said one had sold out of pre-orders and one still had plenty. When I called the store direct, they said they hadn't heard from o2 and that they did not take pre-orders and have not been taking pre-orders.

Summary - over 2 hours of wasted time online and three phone calls to o2. I've been totally lied to. This is appalling customer service but we have to accept it as there is no freedom of choice when it comes to the market. Basically, o2 can do what they want with customers because we've nowhere else to go if we want to use iPhone. I am sickened.

O2 have a track record of cock-ups, so I suppose it is no surprise, and in my opinion, Apple made serious a mistake going with them.

I too received the text, tried to upgrade and hours later gave up after numerous crashes and error messages. I rang this evening and was told the 16GB sold out just after 12, and the 8GB just after 4pm.

I use a Mac and love Apple stuff, but I would really consider moving to another device and let O2 go to .. you know where.

I managed to order a 16GB iPhone or I think I did. After seeing that the 16GB version was sold out on the O2 site I went to the Carphone Warehouse's site where you could pre-order both models.

Then they send me a confirmation email and text then a 3rd message came saying it was out of stock.

Now I have no idea if I can go and get it at the shop or wait... as now it says that there will be more stock available on the 11th.

mmmm

I ordered with the Car Phone Warehouse and got one mail saying that my order was placed,
then a second saying that "Unfortunately, the item you ordered is temporarily out of stock. We do make every effort to ensure that only items that are in stock appear on the website, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

This in its self is confusing, is this because it doesn't come out until Friday or is this because I wasn't quick enough !

So now I need to phone them to get them to clarify this.

I wish that apple let other networks in on the game.

It was a complete shambles.

Still no idea if I'll be able to walk into a shop and get an upgrade on Friday or not. Still no idea if there'll be white versions or not.

And every time I get hold of someone at O2, I'm told the complete opposite.

Shambles, shambles, shambles.

I think there's a bit of both here - demand and hype.

I expect the iPhone 3G to sell considerably more than the iPhone because the pricing is agood deal more competitive. In addition we know that a lot of Apple fans are keen to get their hands on the latest iteration as soon as possible so that would contribute to demand too.

O2 would undoubtedly have had a certain quantity of on-line stock and would be fully aware that this would be insufficient to meet initial demand though.

Bottom line is that if you want one on the first day you're probably better popping down to your local O2 shop or CPW as I can't see there being that many problems with stock being sold out on the first day.

Oh dear lord it is a iphone...almost identical in every way to your existing iphone, except it is now on 3g and has slightly better sound...

and you couldnt possibly wait longer than a day to order it?

i think steve jobs could sell u guys dirt if he got on stage talked and stuck a little apple badge on it.

I could not believe the experience today. 8.10 am at my computer trying to order. I don't know of anyone who actually was successful despite the claims they have all sold.

The site was a disaster, I have 20 odd upgrade sms messages on my iPhone but no upgrade.

It seems the experience is different for new customers it was the upgraders who lost out. I posted on my blog and the site was swamped with Diggs and Complaints about the experience.

There is also confusion over the ability for current iphone users to upgrade in store... I hope this is the case.

Worst for me was I had an order go through (I have a screen shot as proof) but it had no ref code and when I phoned the girl said without a code there is no order.

Great stuff, I personally think given they didn't sell out of the 2G version and it was a bit damp this is a media frenzy generator.

O2 - you are without a doubt, the biggest blight on Apple reputation there has ever been.

You were unprepared, uncommunicative, uncaring and arrogant.

I truly hope the brand manager/s are reading this - you guys and gals, have made a right royal mess of this and created so much brand negativity in one day, you could almost be applauded, if this was your goal.

Shocking. A chocolate fire guard would be more suited to its task than your order service for existing customers.

Spoke to the car phone warehouse this morning, they said that they are not expecting to receive stock until Friday and they will not be dispatched until Monday.

Not quite what their web site said !

couldn't agree more. they havent run out at all - but if you tell people you have, the increase in sales on friday will be worth building a flimsy website for.

my theory: (will go up around lunchtime)

I recieved a txt from O2 at about 7:30am telling me that i could upgrade. I tried their site at work first thing and couldn't even get the page to upload.

Finally after a couple more tries, i got to the upgrade txt part only to recieve about 10 different codes, all unusable as the site never progressed past that.

Then after a few more unsuccessful attempts i got the 'Out Of Stock' message.

What a load of rubbish! The early upgrade was supposed to be for iPhone customers only. Surely O2 know how many iPhone customers they have. Why not stock that amount with the optimistic view that the majority will upgrade?

O2 aren't telling the truth about their 3G iPhone stocks. It now means that they will see a large quantity shift on release day which i'm sure they will use as a statistic in some form of marketing to show how great everything is.

I have a few friends who did manage to order a new iPhone as new customers with no problems at all.

It seems that only those of us who tried to upgrade were unable to successfully order.

I was really frustrated with it all yesterday. I called up O2 to ask if I could upgrade over the phone as their website just wasn't working at all. That was impossible apparently.

Once I saw they were completely sold out I phoned them up to complain again and I was told that due to problems with the upgradeing part of the website noone on upgrade has got an iPhone and all the pre-orders went to new customers only. Apparently none of the phones are confirmed until you receive your text telling you it is on its way. The woman I spoke to said that noone upgradeing should expect a text on the 10th. Its safe to say I was less then impressed by that.

A cynic would sugest that the problem was engineered in order to get more O2 customers.

It seems to me there's some blame shifting going on.

If the populace demonstrated a little patience, they wouldn't have to get angry about the fact that not everyone can be first in line.

If a mob descends on a website, of course it will run out of capacity. The same would happen if they all tried to get into a shop at once. Lemmings, the lot of them.

What's wrong with NOT being the first to own one? Is the inability to show it off first just too much too bear?

I feel sorry for anyone whose need to pose with the latest gadget causes them to sneer at the vendor because they can't get their hands on it.

I'm keen to have an iPhone, but I'll wait until the experience of obtaining one is not hampered by the mob. Maybe in a week or two. After all, they're not being discontinued as soon as the first batch are sold, we'll all get one if we want one.

@unanswerable. Hit the nail on the head there.

I feel sorry for the people who could not get it immediately. Any of you who feel anything like some of the comments that have been entered here must live very empty lives or need counselling.

Grow up and be patient and then next time when the iPhone 3.0 comes out you won't feel so let down.

This is easy for me to say being a new customer and having ordered the iPhone online at 11am yesterday with no problems, but cant everybody just calm down a bit! Yes, o2 made a bit of a hash of things, yes, they seem to be treating existing customers badly but is getting an iPhone a few days after its launched instead of Friday really a reason to get all wound up and angry, think of your blood pressure! Besides, did anybody really think it was ever going to go smoothly?

Keep yer hair on missus, it's only a phone !

Thank goodness for another iPhone story.

I was really missing them. It must have been all of a month since it was last reported on the Blog Network.

All these complaints and you'll all still pay over the odds for tech thats still a step behind the existing major operators. Continue to keep up with the Jones' to everyone that continues to follow the Apple on the stick lacking any real individuality!

And this is the principal reason I passed on an iPhone: O2. Their customer service is legendarily awful and I'm not overly impressed with their network and services either.

It's not the only reason, of course. I'm not sure the phone is all that stellar in this European market. Good yes, but not the killer that it could have been. Apple are being US-centric again and forgetting just how much further things are on in Europe and particularly Japan

I qualify this by saying I'm neither Apple hater nor zealot. I use Mac kit quite a lot and rate it very highly, I also have an iPod. But I don't subscribe to all the ballyhoo and hype. In fact, to me it's counter-productive. This latest farrago is a perfect example of how not to do it...

Well it looks like Carphone Warehouse are up to something dodgy.

Both mine and my brothers orders for iPhone 3g 16gb's have been cancelled due to "security reasons". Ironically we were both going to collect it from our local store on Friday.

Both iPhones were ordered on different bank debit cards, registered at our respective home addresses and we both have impeccable credit history.

I have put a complaint in, and I'm awaiting a call or email from them to explain why.

Fishy? You decide

I think that O2 should already be ashamed of themselves!!!
I live on the Isle of Man, and the main telecom over here is a company called Manx Telecom. They are a sister company of O2 and they were selling the original iPhone in stores, if asked if it would work with manx telecom network they said ask O2, people did and O2 said "yes". What they didn't tell people was that you had to get it unlocked and once you did it would work as a phone; but upon plugging it back into your PC or Mac it would auto-update and lock back to O2. This isn't just bad marketing, its blatent lieing to customers! I think this shows exactly why these kind of partnerships are a bad idea. So even if you didn't manage to get a hold of the iPhone 3G, I would reconsider getting it! It is a hybred somewhere between a sony walkmen, and a blackberry, and is not as good a either!!! I would seriously look at a blackberry pearl over an iPhone, its cheaper, works better, and will work on any network now + the new one can be pay-as-you-go. This whole iPhone affair has been just another reason for me to loath apple, and now O2 aswell

I had the same problem as wh00pass in post 37. Yesterday I went through the online ordering and credit check for a 16GB version at Carphone Warehouse's website (I'm not a current O2 customer), then today I got an e-mail unceremoniously cancelling my order for "security reasons." I called them and they said it was because there was "fraud" detected in my area. What crap. I was looking forward to picking up my paid-for phone at the store on Friday, but I'm not obsessive enough to wait there on Friday morning on the off chance that they'll have enough stock for everyone.

These companies had a new customer, but now I'll wait till all the brouhaha subsides to make my choice.

Utterly ridiculous.

Am a new iPhone/O2 customer. Not a happy experience (online shop crashed whilst I was completing my 16GB order), have now ordered an 8GB iPhone which I'm sure will prove too small...

Just wait until tomorrow, Bill Warburton, and see if your order isn't cancelled! Good luck to you though, I hope it works out for some of us.

You would think it was the end of the world that you didnt get your preorders placed!

Come on people - lets keep a sense of perspective here.....so O2 were caught with their pants down over the demand....I rang them and apparently they had increased the website bandwidth by 250x but it still didnt cope with the demand....
But the point is - its not really a big deal.
I think people just expect way too much these days and just cannot accept that sometimes there are circumstances like massive demand that maybe are predictable, but not necessarily easy to tackle - you can only up the bandwidth so much for example.....

As for those that are thinking about leaving O2 over this.....plain crazy. My experience with O2 has always been good, much much better than when i was with Vodafone (although i have no experience of Orange or T-Mobile)

Let's all take a deep breath ;-)

A very happy customer here (But a new one, which seems to be crucial) After a seemless online ordering of a black 16GB process at 08.20 yesterday, made a phone call to o2 just now which was answered immediately where I was told it was all packed up and ready to ship Thursday night.
Oh the joys of being a new customer!

@Wh00pAss and @RickHolland

The Carphone Warehouse have a habit of randomly cancelling orders for 'security reasons'. I ordered a bluetooth car kit from them a while back, and I had the same thing happen. After phoning them, they gave me the standard fraud reason.

I then contacted my credit card company who said there was no issues at all, and in fact they had accepted the transaction...

Anyway, point being, its probably got nothing to do with the fact its an iPhone. They're online ordering system is just useless!

I got an email (no text in spite of registering) for business users (when I am not one). As for the "quick call to O2". How did you get through??? Can't you give the rest of us the press office number?

Seriously, O2 is beginning to make me wonder about Apple's judgement. The O2 website and customer service has been slow and awful all the time I have been using it for the last couple of years.

Didn't Apple actually try it - or other elements of very dodgy customer service - before signing up with them? (Maybe they were impressed by the 24 hour UK based customer service that enables you to try to decipher the speech of a broad Glaswegian at 2am...)

The O2 site is quite clear: existing O2 iPhone customers have the "privilege" of being able to upgrade to the new Iphone online only and at the same tarrifs as the new customers who seem to have had a slick queue jumping experience so successfully already. If stocks hold out before the dealine of October. No need to all rush at once then...

I suggest all existing users go to the o2 shops on Friday and tell them what we think of them. Maybe 大象传媒 News could cover the ensuing punch-ups!

On the bright side, at least Apple didn't give it to Orange...

maniacmat, people only expect so much because rattling corporates like o2 promise so much, then break their promises. No promise, no problem but they do it again and again.

Obviously there are a lot of people who haven't tried to use the mess that is the O2 website before.

The fact it ran slow/crashed is no surprise as it does it all the time, regardless of load.

Also the fact there are 'free upgrades' for previous purchasers iPhone shows just how much was blindly overpaid for the original unit in the first place.

You can do your upgrade at the O2 stores so whoever said you cant is wrong. However due to Apple launching the phone in 21 or so countries at the same time Im afraid that stocks in the store are limited to three or four dozen at most. You cant do your upgrade at an Apple store and when I contacted O2 in Birmingham about an hour ago they told me a queue had already started...if youre not there now dont bother. I called O2 to complain about the fiasco and basically was told that I should try again in a month or so. Theres nothing like good customer service is there??!!

I managed to order a 3G iPhone online on Monday morning at about
8.30am, at that time O2 took 拢59 from my account because I'd chosen a
16gig model.

They then did all the credit checks and took a deposit because I've
moved house recently - fair enough.
All week my order has been there until this morning where they've
cancelled it. Because of lack of stock.

Something is amiss; don't you think, where a company is taking orders
AND the money, without assigning a product unit to that customer.

I had no email to say it had been cancelled, I found out purely
because I checked my status online. They hadn't automatically refunded
my money either, I asked for this when I rang.

They said, well you could go to a shop tomorrow. 'Defeats the object
of being offered a pre-order online then doesn't it" I replied.

O2 really have messed this one up.

Of course it's a ploy, and you should expect much more of this.

Nintendo have demonstrated very clearly that consumers are stupid. Make something had to get ahold of, and regardless of how bad it might be, people will kill other people to get ahold of one.

I mean come on, the Nintendo Wii, basically a Gamecube in a new box with a gimicky controller, you would have to do some shenanigans to get people to want one...

Turned up the Tooting Broadway store at about 7am to be 4th in queue. The guy a the front had been there since 5.30am and felt a bit foolish, he said. But you never know how the queue will be. TSomeone else joined us from where he'd been watching us in MCDonalds. Soon the queue reached around the corner. The store opened on time but I feel very sorry for the staff. They had five 16gb phones and it looked like about twenty plus 8 gb. A lot of people were turned away.

I felt lucky. Then their intranet crashed and we had to wait another half an hour before they gave up and carried on with pen and paper. The staff are pretty angry with o2's IT department, they have to bear the brunt of customer frustation. They really don't know when there will be more in stock. It might be tomorrow, it might be next Monday, it might be Friday. And they have got to sit there all day telling people.

Take them in a cake if you are passing.

More 'wonderful' service from O2... last week we arranged for our company to move the mobile phones over to, ok only 6 but still business for them.
I orderd the i-phone and was told nothing could be done until Friday 11th when the phone would be launched, we could then move our account over.
This morning I had a call to say that no i-phones could go out from them and I have to travel to my nearest o2 shop, some 40 miles away!
I rang my 'local' store to be told that none can be reserved and they would only be sold on a first come first served basis
What an absolute farce and dreadful service.... is the i-phone really worth it?

@ mgillespie

"I mean come on, the Nintendo Wii, basically a Gamecube in a new box with a gimicky controller, you would have to do some shenanigans to get people to want one..."

Oh come on, your Sony bias is showing.

The Wii may not be the most modern of consoles, but its got something that the PS3 and 360 haven't.

Gameplay that non-hardcore gamers have discovered, and enjoy.