Yesterday was the release of the new iPhone 3G. All of my friends and family who know me well, knew I was going to be upgrading even though I denied I was going to. I ended up getting the white 16GB version and love the new look, the fast 3G speeds, more natural looking screen and A-GPS. I have been dreaming about the release of the iPhone 3G ever since Steve Jobs announced it. I patiently waited for the release and in the mean time I read any blog that muttered iPhone 3G. My day came yesterday but what I thought would be a quick buy turned out to be more waiting.
I decided to wake up at 5:30 A.M. Friday and drive over to the Irvine Spectrum Apple Store. I thought it was the perfect plan to be able to get enough sleep, get a decent place in line, and get back to work on time. The previous day I had told my boss that I wouldn’t be in till 10 A.M. or 11 P.M. thinking it would be sufficient time. By the time we got there we saw about 150+ people in front of us. I had read a couple days ago that they were reporting there would be 30-40 employees activating phones at 10-15 minutes per customer and I thought that was a worst case scenario.
I found my co-worker Chris was in line 50 people ahead of us. He came over and we both spoke excitedly about the new iPhones until it was time to start moving. I got excited as I heard cheering in front of the line as the doors opened only to realize 15 minutes later that cheering turned into people impatiently waiting to get their hands on one. 30 minutes passed and only 1 person walked out with one. What is going on? The answer to that passed down from the front of the line down to me. Apparently, the AT&T activation servers were down and my heart sunk a little as I knew I’d be in line a little longer than I anticipated but I didn’t really think that it would be that much longer.
1 hour had passed and my friend Chris got frustrated and decided to go back to work selling his place in line to the kid at the back for a measly $20. In the meantime Apple was trying to be understanding and comforting by coming around to everyone with “Smart” Waters, coffee and doughnuts. I happily took a doughnut knowing I would be standing in line for awhile. I started to get frustrated and tired from standing and all I could think about was how I wish I had my phone already.
At 10 A.M. my co-worker called me asking what time I thought I would be in. I could see the Apple Store right there in front of me about 50 feet away so I told him “another hour.” That was me saying “another hour” in denial. At around 11 A.M. we were so close to the store that we could feel the air conditioning coming out of the store. It was getting hot and the shopping plaza was getting crowded. Apple employees were nice enough to run to a nearby Target and buy everyone at the front of the line popsicles. 30 minutes later someone sells their spot in line for $280! That was quite the talk for awhile.
Finally at around noon I was right at the door. “I did it!” I was thinking to myself as we were a greeted by an Apple representative. I sat down near the genius bar and happily told the rep exactly what I wanted. “2 white iPhone 3G phones please.” As the guy punched in all the information via the portable register I was told that we were not eligible to buy the phones at all because I had a business discount attached to my plan. I panicked and thought he would kick us out of the store but said he would wait patiently while I called AT&T to detach the business account from my plan. I dialed 611 and was surprised to see there was no wait time at all for a customer service rep. I told the rep what I wanted and she did everything within 4 minutes.
“You got lucky!” exclaimed Dave the Apple rep. He told me that several people were not able to detach their business discounts and walked out with no iPhone. However, I walked out of the store with 2 iPhones but with several problems. What problems? I was late for work, didn’t have time to play with my new toy, and Nytra’s iPhone somehow got added as a new line instead of replacing her current phone number. The wait was not over.
I went back to work and rushed to catch up for all the missed time. While doing work I called AT&T to try and fix the problem only to be told they can’t do anything and I had to return the phone to Apple. At this point I’m so tired and frustrated that I felt like throwing out my phone. I remain calm and call the local Apple Store only to be greeted by one of the best acts of customer service I’ve ever witnessed.
I was transferred to a guy name Freddie and I told him the problem. Freddie took down my information and noted all my problems and told me he would call me back soon. I didn’t think he would but the man treated me as if I were a family member or a friend. He called AT&T to try and fix my problems and constantly called me back to tell me the status. He finally told me that I would have to bring the phone in and return it and buy a new one. He put a brand new white iPhone 3G aside just for me. You’d think due to the demand that they wouldn’t be putting anything on hold. Not trusting Freddie I called in an hour later to ask another Apple rep to see if the phone was indeed on hold. “Is your name Michael Narisko?” she asks. No one ever says my last name right by the way (hence the name of the blog). So I found out Freddie is the real deal and indeed put the phone on hold for me.
I arrived at the Apple Store at 9 P.M. only to still see just as long a line. This time they had barricades up and it looked like they were figuring out how to handle this new system. I went up to the girl in orange Apple shirt and told her I needed to see Freddie. She asked “Are you Michael?”. I happily said yes and passed through the orange Apple bouncer. Freddie came up and greeted me a few minutes after waiting and he was still just as friendly in person as he was on the phone. He got me first priority service and had another cool guy named Joshua to help us. I wasn’t exactly in and out of the store due to fixing the problems but it was done so well that I could not believe that even though there’s a huge mob of impatient customers out there, they still treated each and every customer with speed and respect.
I then finally realized why it took so long for a customer to get activated. It’s because Apple’s customer service is so above the rest that they would walk every customer through the process of activating their phone or answer any of their questions. They did not simply ring customers up and let them go. They gave each customer that walked into that store 1st class service. After seeing that display of service, the wait for the iPhone didn’t seem so bad after all.
