Yup after an hour and half wait, I decided to give up waiting for the 'technical issues' to resolve themselves.

Why Paris, well I'd leave her standing.

Same happened in East Grinstead - a queue of about 30 people already by 7:40. The doors opened at 8:02 as promised with plenty of iPhones available. 25 minutes later and nobody had come out. The manager tells us that the system is b0rked and it's taking 15-20 minutes per customer. They had about 35 8GBs and about 6 16GBs. Needless to say, I had a cat in hells chance of getting a 16GB so I walked.

Carphone Warehouse in Grinny had similar system problems and they only had about 3 iPhones (were meant to have more but didn't come in). Was trying to "instant delivery" for Tuesday but they went out of stock at the warehouse during the process.

O2 were totally shambolic this week, particularly on Monday and Friday.

Bummer. It's gonna be a long long wait.

I have just picked up my shiny new 16GB iphone from the O2 store on the strand london, where they are just filing out all the paperwork and sending people off with UNACTIVATED phones.

apparenlty it coudl be a couple of DAYS before they get thru all the paperwork and data inputting and actually get around to activating our contracts.. this has been going on since 8:02 this morning and its 10:30 now.

how exactly is this "swimmingly" ? i have a brand new phone which i have paid for, that i cant use because their systems have crashed YET AGAIN

Just spent a very annoying 2 hours stood being bored in the Carphone Warehouse branch, High Street Kensington. I was maybe the 7th person in line and got straight to a cashier, everything went fine until the credit check started and then there was lots of shrugs, waiting around and general annoyance.

You'd think they might have had slightly more robust infrastructure.

Oh, and they're totally lying about the system problems not happening. The store I was in were trying to ring O2 and sat on hold long enough that it cut them off. Every other Carphone store was reporting similar issues.

I walked past a queue of 30 or so fanboys queuing outside an O2 shop this morning at 07:15. Absolutely pathetic.

What makes me laugh even more is the fact that all the Apple fans have been telling us for months (since iPhone came out) that the device is great, and how it doesn't need 3G, SatNav, etc. And yet now they're all dumb enough to queue outside a store for over an hour on a Friday morning to get a slightly enhanced device. Make your mind up, you muppets!

I waited 2 hours and was told it could be another 2 hours before my upgrade could be completed.

At the Chesterfield store (which opened at 8:00) 1 person managed to walk out the door with a phone at 9:36

The second was at 9:49.

meanwhile the other 20+ people (me included was still waiting).

Interesting approach to the problem, deny it exists!

I've just come from the larger of the two Milton Keynes stores, and can corroborate word-for-word all the accounts of problems in this article. The tills are slow, and the service registration system is glacial. The national point-of-sale system, which they call Gateway, is not technically *down*, but merely "having operational difficulties" - i.e. a transaction which should take 1-2 seconds is taking 15 minutes, and failing altogether 4 out of 5 times.

I was 10th in the queue. Two people in front of me gave up and went home, five got their phones, the others were still being seen to when I left at 10AM, by which time only six phones had successfully been sold. Fifty odd people behind me, who had been in a good mood having been told that this store actually had enough stock to supply their requirements, were turning sullen as I left, and extra security staff were just arriving. 5 of the 15 staff in the O2 store had nothing constructive that they could do but sit around. The staff in the store, who were generally professional and helpful, but apologetic and powerless, were furious at the problems, claiming they had already warned head office that this would happen, and were ignored.

Overheard conversations between staff suggest that they had been warned *not* to let unactivated phones go on pain of disciplinary action, however (according to a friend queueing in the other MK store) the other store was already doing it and the main store was about to start as I left.

No problems, O2? Try talking to your own staff!

[Flames, because that's what O2's Gateway server must currently look like.]

I waited in line outside o2 in Wilmslow in Cheshire, one of only a handful of people at 7:15 this morning. A sign in the window stated that due to demand they would not be upgrading any existing iPhone users and will only take new contracts! I spoke with the manager who informed me they had no upgrade sims? What upgrade sims? News to me and contradicts what I’ve read on the O2 and Apple web sites.

Up the road at the Carphone Warehouse they had taken pre orders during the week so if you’re name wasn’t on their list, you didn’t get a phone! So much for fair treatment for all and first come first serve!

An absolute joke and I have to say a huge disappointment for an existing O2 iPhone user.

I can report that Apple's flagship store of Regent Street was beset by the same problems. Lots of customers (myself included) left empty handed, much to the delight of hoards of journalists and news crews outside the store. I gave 4 or 5 interviews on the way out.

Better yet, O2's customer registration system (the one that went down) is web-based yet somehow only manages to run on Internet Explorer. As a consequence, all the of iMacs that were being used to sign up customers were running IE under VMWare fusion.

Off-message or what? I can't imagine that Apple corporate is going to approve. I can't help feeling that somebody at O2 is about to receive a new orifice.

I joined a merry queue at O2 Cheapside (thats London to the rest of you) at 6:20 as number 10 in line. By 8:02 there were a good 60-70 people in line.

Around 7:30 the lovely manager came out with coffees and teas - I think they did this for everyone in line eventually (their coffee machine must have been wheezing after a while though - it sure took a while).

They promptly opened the doors and let in 6 people at a time. Within minutes the manager came out and said the systems were crashed and that they would be doing it on paper so to expect it to take longer.

Well I walked out 45 min later with my new phone (16GB) - unactivated. Its now synced with iTunes but waiting for an activation of the SIM card. Flying spaghetti monster only knows when they'll get around to doing all that data entry...

Some muppets showed up without proof of adress and were turned away but otherwise they served both new contracts and upgrades.

Well I'm happy I got mine... but when can I use it????

i was a bit gutted that i wasn't able to queue up this morning for upgrade my old iPhone to a new one - but reading on the forums about all the trouble people are having and how quickly the stock is running out in the shops that are able to use the system, i'm kinda glad in the end.

think i'll wait till next week and try and upgrade then

odd that we've not heard from Webster yet - i guess he's stuck in a queue as well, waiting to get his one

As the title says. How can they mess things up several times in one week and not learn from any of the other mistakes!? Fools.

The Mothership is having problems, too. The shiny new Telefonica shop in downtown Madrid opened at 10... only to get their systems down a few minutes later. It seems only a couple of people got out with their iPhones working.

It's been said in several sites and forums that besides, there's almost no iPhone to be bought anywhere in Spain.

Why aren't we surprised at all...? ¡Bravo, Telefonica!

I was stood for an hour waiting to get mine - some people had been stood there since 6am. The local O2 store only had 21 units (5 of which were 16Gb models). They had no White versions.

Carphone Warehouse up the road only had 2 units!

O2's payment gateway and something called URU or UIU was not working. In the end, they had to fill in a paper form and take my details (even though I was upgrading from the first gen iPhone).

I waited ages in line at my local CPW store, they then spent an hour doing the wrong credit check on me; as a new customer rather than existing CPW customer, despite me telling them many times. They then realise their mistake when the check goes through, and they tell me the system is down for existing customers and can I come back later.

No apologies, no attempt to put their mistake right, nothing. Is it any wonder the high street is dying when it's staffed by idiots.

They're basically saying they have you on a contract and they'll treat you anyway they like.

Same story at 10am in CPW Loughborough Road, Nottingham. About a dozen people waiting for credit checks (02 also require a credit check for an upgrade and the shop staff told me that credit checks for new customers are computerised, whereas for upgrades a real person has to approve it)

Anyway, there is currently a 4 hour wait for approvals, 02's internal systems are "down" and the pre--ordered phones (including mine) are on a Citylink truck "en route" with no ETA.

The shop had 2x16GB and 8x8GB (all black) in stock at 8am, all those are now sold to walk-ins as soon as their credit checks are cleared.

What fun. Ugly scenes abound elsewhere, so I read.

Tim

Similar experience....queue of folks outside an O2 store. Staff inside looking out at us all. Would have thought common sense from the O2 staff to go outside, quickly ask who wanted what i.e. 8gb or 16gb and to tell the queue how many of each they had in stock. But no....they're quite happy watching the lemmings wait outside.....great customer service as usual from O2. And what is it with ensuring their systems can withstand the expected volumes? Bad planning all round...infact it appears NO planning.

Terminal 5 culpurit didn't go to O2 by any chance ?

OR will there be another Operations Director receiving a large payout ?

O2 don't seem to be the only ones with timing problems.

"I experienced the same problems... "AC left the store at 10AM, 15 minutes after the comment describing his experience was left.

Gavin Berry suffers less, being merely [at least] 5 minutes out of sync with reality. He apparently "was still waiting" at 9.49am when he posted at 9.45am.

Am I missing something here, or are these guys just O2 haterz leaving comments to rile us up?

And those of us who were still waiting at 5pm next thursday for the O2 POS computers to come back online are the ones who really got it bad...

Gave up after queing for an hour (from 8.02) - at that point 3 iPhones had 'left the building', by my calculation I'd have to wait till after midday to even get close. Nice of O2 to send lucky individuals out with a distinctive bag - might as well have 'mug me for a free iPhone' on the side.

I think Mr Otway is a just bit peeved he didn't get in the queue earlier

O2 shop in peterborough were doing the paperwork and leave with it unactivated thing, i was only 4th in line so it didn't take long (although that little midget git off harry potter turned up when there was about 20 odd people in the queue and was let in before the shop even opened - and they let him buy 2!!!!)

Something about their network did crash as it was only about 5 minutes after the first lot of us had entered the shop before everyone was like o noes the gateway is down! queue lots of huffing and puffing and use of the word 'contingency' like it made them clever

Though I had to say they were all very pleasant, they brought us all orange juice, coffee and a bacon roll thing as we queued

Yes it's only an upgrade, but it you don't get one now you'll be waiting god knows how long, so I'm quite happy to get up an hour or so early to pick up a shiny new phone on my way to work, albeit one virtually identical to one i already have, plus the sooner I can sell my old one the better,

Having failed to upgrade my iPhone on Monday thanks to countless time outs of the O2 website in the final stages of upgrading I decided to go along to my local store this morning. According to O2 my local store wasn't opening early for iPhone sales. So I went along in plenty of time for its normal opening hours only to find out that it had opened an hour earlier than advertised. So I've wasted my time this morning. Thanks O2 for having an over complicated inadequate pre-order system and thanks for getting the launch details wrong for my local store!

I posted a few weeks ago that I wouldn't touch the iPhone with a barge pole as long as it was an exclusive to O2.

Glad to see I was right. :)

Paris, because I would touch HER with a barge pole (fnar, fnar!). ;)

Man, that's utter rubbish you've been lied to, they don't give you a new SIM when you upgrade from a 2g iPhone, they give you an empty sim pack booklet thing, i don't know what's in it but i assume it's useless, you just swap you old sim over

Same story here in Manchester. O2 manager sent all the iPhone upgraders packing (after queueing in the rain of course) as they had "not been sent any upgrade SIMs". The new customers were busy filling out paper forms but nobody had managed to get a phone by 8.30 when I left and the crowd of 30 or so people had dwindled to 10. I called customer services who can't apparently sell them online or over the phone as they have run out and don't have a mechanism to order at all at this point, "please try an O2 store". However the operator did tell me there was no such thing as an upgrade SIM and I should have been able to put my existing iPhone SIM right in. So either O2 are liars, incompetent, or my preferred option: both. Gah! A small comfort to me was a mate who was waiting in a Carphone Whorehouse tells me that nobody was getting any 3G loving there either due to similarly titsup systems...

There was nobody outside the Harlow o2 shop this morning. Good job too, because they closed for a 3 month(?) refurb on 3 July. The branch manager there must have a crystal ball and I bet he's chuffed to bits.

I really hope o2 get a good stuffing over this. They naffed me off the other day when I tried and then had the cheek to text me with an apology and a linnk to website that tells me all about the iphone but doesn't give the option of ordering the sodding thing.

Am quite loathe to hand o2 a large wad of money now - but what choice do I have?

Apple need to take this on board as well. They've pissed off load of potential switchers and customers.

(Rant over - I feel better now)

Ian

I queued up at 6am in Aylesbury, only to find no queue at the Carphone Warehouse. The O2 shop was closed for refit, and that's probably been for the best. I was in at 8.02 and walked out at 8.15 with 1 (of 2 in total) 16GB iPhone 3G.

No activation required (as far as I am aware, it certainly didnt seem to be done in the shop), just a single signature on a computer printed contract and a simple credit check to content with... Easy peasy?

I was first in the queue there, for some reason the queue outside O2 was already 16 people long but no one was at the CPW store, and managed to get in and out in about 15mins and activated the phone at work which is now working so quite pleased that I managed to avoid all the hassle.

Apple Regent Street now taking people in the queue's details and which iPhone they want, so that one is reserved and you can come back later to sign up. They'll be in touch when O2's systems are back working again. Thankfully it meant I could get to work safe in the knowledge there's an iphone with my name on it :) Apple were geared up for demand, they had >60 machines for doing the activation, but all suffered from the website not working.

But O2 are a joke!

I figured the 02 store in the town centre would be busier than the CPW, so I went there instead. Sure enough, by 8.45 when I left, only 1 phone had actually left the store. However, the nice chaps informed us that once we had started the credit check process (which was indeed broken, or tediously slow) the phone you had requested was earmarked to you, and so "safe" from being resold until the credit check was abandoned or cancelled.

As such, we all left the store for them to complete the checks after the rush was over, and I just got a call saying mine was all finished, and I can pay for and pick up my phone whever I want.

Altogether, I'm happy with the whole process. Anyone who isn't, needs to get perspective. I heard all the people moaning in the queue (15 minutes for me, big deal) about how "you would have thought they would be prepared" etc is just silly.

This is a once a year thing, and unlike a website where you can buy extra bandwidth for periods of time etc, the scope of the systems for performing credit checks etc will be geared towards being just about good enough for general usage, plus say 20%. No-one is going to quadruple the capacity of their systems for a 1 day rush. It's not as simple as hiring more staff to flood the systems even more. It may require new servers, extra licenses etc, plus all the associated third parties doing the same. CPW don't do credit checks, they run it through experian, or equifax, and they pay for a certain SLA. It would be foolish and cost a fortune, just to stop a few people (relative, to the number of overall 02 customers) having to use patience?

Comments are timed from GMT/UTC.

British summer time = GMT+1

So waiting at 9:49 BST [08:49 GMT] and posting at 09:45 GMT [10:45 BST] are quite, quite possible.

Paris - because even she knows the difference between GMT and local time.

Steven R

I got to the Farringdon branch of CPW, it's off a quiet street so I knew not many people would be there. I was 6th in line. I got there at 8:15 was done, credit check and all, by 8:45. Sadly they had no phones in the branch, but they had been allocated a load being delivered on Monday. Suits me. The branch manager was quite concerned to process as many people as possible, so they didn't run out of their allocation.

Quite a pleasant experience. Even gave out some chocolates for us waiting.

@Adam Foxton: I was the AC you mentioned first, and my times and comments were genuine. I can only assume that either the Vultureclock is off kilter, or perhaps it's something to do with local timezones...

[Saint Steve because this one actually isn't his fault]

Well I got to Canary Wharf at 06:15 and there we're 7 people in front of me, by the time the store opened at 08:02 there we're about 130 people lined up waiting, I was there till 09:00 while the sales guy tried to submit my application, it kept busying out, in the end he said he would keep one aside for me, I have just phoned him 11:38 & he has just confirmed that it has been submitted ok, and I can collect mine now :), he said at the moment theres a 60% success rate for submitting applications all over the UK :(, also I believe they had 200 Iphone's in store, sure there all gone by now though :(

Three letters: G. M. T.

Why not wait a week and then buy one?

Never understood 0 dayers.

By 10:30AM the Glasgow Apple store still hadn't managed to sell one iPhone. It was only then did they let us reserve a phone which we can pick up later once (if???) the O2 systems are back online. They said they had enough stock that they wouldn't run out today - was that because they won't be selling any?

Passed by O2 and Carphone Warehouse branches - they can sell but have no 16GB stock - they only got a few and not enough to meet demand. So the Apple store have loads which they can't sell and the phone shops can sell (just) but have no stock!

What a mess.

New product comes out, high demand, difficult to get one initially, news?

Just read this:

http://the.firehou.se/2008/07/11/telefonica-movistar-completely-screws-up-iphone-launch/

and consider yourselves lucky! The way this launch day has been hyped for weeks, and the complete incompetence of whoever was in charge with shipping out the damn phones are equally huge.

I got outside my local O2 store in swansea at 8.02 on the dot, thankfully there were only about 20 people waiting. Yes there were delays due to systems falling over, but we were getting served. They were plying us with tea and coffee whilst we all waited patiently.

When i finally got into the store 2 hours later, i was told i could have my spanking new iphone, but as seems to be the common trend........it would not be activated.

They cannot enter upgrades onto the till due to a technical fault (which conveniently isn't effecting new sales)

There also seemed to be more iphones than customers rather oddly, they had roughly 50 iphones but the queue was nearly gone when i walked out of the store with my iphone in my sweaty palm.

It may not be working but at least i have one, if i have to wait to activate it, so be it. I still have one of the coolest gadgets ever made, happy days.

I queued for about 30 mins in the metro centre gateshead, got my phone (was an upgrade). The guy took some details, phoned up someone to check I was eligable for upgrade (System was down : there was an ASPX error message on screen - didnt get a chance to read it..). No credit check, no hassle.

Manager was totally in control of the sitauation.... Couldnt have gone better.

Just got this from the O2 Website

"Thank you for your interest in iPhone 3G. We are experiencing unprecedented demand for the device and whilst we are confident that all customers who want iPhone 3G will get one by the end of this summer"

Look on the bright side - at least it did not say next summer

My 16GB iPhone is on order with CPW. I toyed with the idea of taking the morning off to brave the queues at the local store, but I imagined it would be a nightmare.

How right I was.

I'm considering cancelling my order, due to this debacle. The inference being that if O2 can't even run an ordering/activation system competently, what hope of receiving quality ongoing service?

Also, my housemate turned up this morning with a brand new, just released, touch-screen Windows-mobile based phone on Orange which impressed the hell out of me. Then there's the impending deluge of Nokia N96's to consider (which I could upgrade to whilst retaining my current provider). Even the phone from Openmoko is an attractive offer.

Sure, the interface on the iPhone is slick, connectivity is excellent and features are good, but it doesn't yet seem to be worth going through all the hassle to obtain a unit.

I've had a successful pre-order since 8.12am on Monday for the 16GB iPhone - considering the problems I just thought I'd phone O2 to make sure my order is going to arrive today.

Turns out that despite me asking directly if I'd get my phone today and taking the day off work to be in to collect it they don't have enough stock for the pre-orders.

If anyone has a pre-order I'd phone to ensure you're still going to get it, as it sounds like, from what the guy said, I'm not going to be the only one in this situation.

I also asked if they are going to send out any notification to the people that are waiting - "we were told that emails are going to be going out to those that are unsuccessful, but I'm not sure if they will be".

Don't you love it when people try and be clever (looking at you Adam Foxton)?

Note the posts are timed using GMT (it even says it after the time), whereas we are actually operating on British Summer Time at the moment...Thus it is entirely possible for someone to have been leaving the O2 store at 10am BST, and then post a comment here 45 minutes later at 9:45 GMT.

Incidentally I queued from 8am, store (Lincoln) opened at 9am, left store at 10am, but my phone is also not activated as the credit-checking system was down. They had about 8 16GBs and 30 8GBs.

Paris, cos surely even she'd have noticed...

Waiting.....

Still waiting....

Big Queue.

I was with Vodafone for 15 years and switched to O2 for the iPhone. Up until now O2 have been pretty good, but this week has been an absolute joke. Even if there is a stock shortage - which can be blamed on Apple, to a degree - everything else has been shambolic from the crappy website to the ill-informed staff and the shitty instore systems that crashed.

As soon as there is a way of getting a legit iPhone from another carrier in the UK, O2 can go and fuck themselves if they want my continuing mobile business.

Arrived at the local O2 store at 8.40 as it was due to open at 9am. Number 9 in the queue. After 3 people walk out with an iPhone, we get informed that they've only got 8Gb versions left. Disappointed, I decide to go ahead with it anyway. Turns out they only had 13 iPhones IN TOTAL, so I was one of the lucky few to get one.

But, computer problems meant I was able to leave the store with an unactivated iPhone, and was told to turn it on tonight as by that time I should have been given a number by O2. Reading this makes me wonder just when I'll be able to use it!!

Not a great start to my life as an iPhone owner. Though I think the blame needs to be shared by Apple as well. They clearly over stretched themselves to launch this simultaneously in so many new and existing territories, and it doesn't do O2 any favours to receive so little stock.

Oh, and how come Carphone Warehouse seem to have been allowing people to pre-register the phones this week? Hardly a case of first come, first served now, is it?

Just called my local Apple store and they've got loads of iPhones of all sizes and colours (yes - I was offered a white one). However, unfortunately they've been told by O2 they're not allowed to sell any of them because of the O2 system issues. The Apple guy sounded quite annoyed that their big UK launch had halted before anyone even managed to buy one.

Oh well guess I'll go in and get mine on Monday - by then I might be able to activate it while I'm in the Apple store, rather than relying on someone from O2 to type across all my hand written details correctly.

I queued up from 7:15 am at one of the O2 shops on Oxford Street (London). Just before they opened the doors, the shop staff gave everyone in the queue chocolate muffins and free O2-badged water.

I was about #30 in the queue and was finally served at 10:15 am. We weren't told the systems were down until we were inside the shop, but the staff happily took our details manually and let us all leave with (paid for) unactivated iPhones. Allegedly we'll be connected within 48 hours, and "hopefully" today. The lady who served me said it was exactly the same story when the first-gen iPhone was released.

The manager told me they had around 100 units, of which around 20 were 16 Gb. I guess I was one of the last ones to get a 16 Gb then ...

maybe its because we all (most of the posters in london/nottingham/milton keynes) live in the UK , which is currently on BST... and the comments timestamps are all in GMT, so are an entire hour different? so picking 5 mins here or there is stupid?

O2 couldn't manage to provide a decent basic telecomms service before they landed the iPhone deal, so why expect them to come up trumps now?

I used to have a pay as you go account with them and lost count of the number of texts I sent that were never received or took hours to arrive (with the recipient also on O2). And you could often find yourself unable to get a connection at busy times in parts of the city.

Maybe they've upgraded their networks a lot since then, otherwise when you do get an iPhone it won't matter whether it's activated or not!

~~~

Paris, cos she knows how to network properly.

I walked into Carphone Warehouse in Lakeside just gone 9:30 to sort out my upgrade from my 2G iPhone.

They told me there was a long delay but I said I didn't mind.

They put my details into the system, reserved my 16GB unit and told me they'd call me when it had gone through rather than make me sit there.

So I popped out for a coffee and a wander around the mall. An hour later I had my phone.

No real problem as I didn't have to wait in store.

Activated it at home, restored my backup and now browsing the net 2-3 times faster than the Edge version.

The aluminium backed old model felt better made though and I see no improvement in signal strength...

I went down to Camden at about quarter past eight, grabbed a coffee and paper and joined the queue outside the O2 store, where they were handing out tickets to mark your place in the queue - all slightly pointless, though, because the manager came back out a little while later and told us all that if we left the queue, we couldn't get our places back, ticket or no ticket.

After another half hour or so, he came back out and said that the "system had crashed" and that this had happened across all the stores, including Carphone Warehouse. At about half nine, I bailed and went to the Carphone Warehouse next door - with much shorter queues, but no one knew if they had stock - where I was dealt with in about half an hour. As I left with my phone, people who had been ahead of me in the O2 queue were still waiting outside the shop.

O2 has mismanaged this from beginning to end - first load issues with the online store, and now load issues with their in-house system. What's the betting O2 will be recruiting a load of replacement engineers after their current ones have been given their marching orders?

I was at the Northfield branch, about 40 in line at 8 am. They refused to let people leave with unactivated phones due to the instructions of the area manager. However they were able to process new contracts, but not upgrades. As a result, even though I was tenth in line, I left without a 16GB iPhone, because all the new customers got them.

So much for existing customers getting the same deal as new ones.

Not a happy bunny at all.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-%26-technology/apple-to-fool-public-for-207th-time-200806091008/

A rather clear message on o2's site saying (ahem)

" If you are new to O2 you will also need to pass a credit check if you sign up for an iPhone 3G contract."

RIGHT! So why the hell was I stood in line waiting for other existing customers credit check to complete at a CPW? - I'm not sure who's worse really, o2 for having systems that clearly don't scale when required or CPW for not having a clue! I suspect that o2 probably shipped the instruction manual to them at 7:02 this morning leaving them moments to learn the ropes...

In the end I had to leave beacuse it was clear that nobody was going anywhere in the store. what amazes me is that the other month I signed for a barclay card online and within about 7 minutes i'd been given 5k of credit!

I've read elsewhere that foxconn are producing iphone units and they've had some kind of problem with production, to me this seems like a problem with production which meant that really they (apple) were not ready to launch but decided to bodge it to limit the cr*p press.

In Richmond (on Thames, Surrey). Shot had about 100 iPhones, of which about 20 were 16G. There was a second batch delivered just as I got to the front of the queue, so I managed to get a 16G one.

It's still not been activated as far as I can tell, but I'm porting my number over so it's not really a big problem.

Was one of the lucky few who managed to grind through the online pre-order clusterfuck that is the o2 website on Monday.

According to my online account, my phone left the DHL depot at around 8am this morning.

Faintly hopeful that it'll turn up in the next few hours.

BTW - can anyone confirm how long i'll need to charge the battery for before i can start using it properly?

Paris, cos she's an I.T. girl.

I went down to the O2 Cardiff store at about 8.30am - I was about 60th in the queue at that point. I think it was taking about 20 minutes a piece for each customer to get signed up and given their box. I finally got out at about 11.15. My iPhone is happily sat here using my old SIM, and will migrate on to the iPhone contract sometime in the next day or two when the paperwork gets processed by the store...

"O2 couldn't manage to provide a decent basic telecomms service before they landed the iPhone deal, so why expect them to come up trumps now?"

oh, i don't know. if you live in Leeds, where they're based, it seems to work fine. i have been enjoying having a rolling 30 day contract with them for a good while now. that said, if you need to speak to the sales/support drones, you're fucked.

Got mine in the post - seems I need iTunes to activate. Which doesn't support XP 64bit. Which I have.

*sigh*

Whoops, forgot about that whole time-zones thing... my phones, computers and standalone clocks all automatically update so it's not something that's had to cross my mind for a week.

Specifically @GMTvsBST AC

Hardly trying to be clever, subtracting 9.45am from 10.00am and getting "bullshit". Especially from ACs- who frequently hide behind the "Anonymous" label so no-one will be able to ignore them based on name alone. Just turned out that I'd made a mistake.

In my defence, I DID ask whether I'd missed something or if they were just trying to make trouble for O2. I'm not that arrogant that I'd just assume there couldn't be another explaination other than mine.

Anyway, I'd like to apologise to O2 and the people who were queuing for questioning the veracity of your comments. Much as it pains me to do it, have an iFan icon.

So my phone still hasn't been delivered by DHL, but whilst looking again at my online account details on o2 website, i noticed that i have 2 mobile numbers associated with my account - one of which i knew nothing about.

I call O2...somehow i have ended up with a 'new account' as opposed to an 'upgrade', via the fucked up pre-ordering shambles on their site on Monday.

I've had the same number for over 10 years and do not want to change it. O2 tell me that i now effectively have 2 accounts, and if i want to keep my existing number, i can either:

1. Accept delivery of the phone from DHL. Then wait 1 week for them to allow me to port over my old number and then close my existing account. then pay a £35 termination fee for closing my account 17 months into an 18 month contract. NB the fact that i've been a customer of O2 (and its predecessors) for 11 years seemingly cuts no ice.

2. Refuse delivery of the phone from DHL. Then re-order an iPhone...which sounds like it'll take a couple of weeks based on scarcity of stock.

What a joke.

What can I say?

Arrived at my local O2 store this morning (around 7:55) and joined the end of a 30-40 person queue. Apparently, they had taken a raised hand count moments before I arrived which made me 21st in line for a 16GB model - 'don't like the sound of that' I thought to myself having read about stock levels expected at most O2 stores....

Shortly after, I asked one of the staff who came out to tell us that the computer system had barfed if I was wasting my time stood here in 21st place? 'I can't tell you how many we have, I'm afraid' she replied, 'ok but I asked if you've got at least 21?', again came the 'I'm really sorry but it's more than my jobsworth to tell you how many we have, I just can't I'm really sorry'. 'Ok, well would you stand here if you were me?' - 'Yes!' came the confident reply. 'Cool, good enough for me' I said. I think I also made some comment about fire-bombing the shop or wrecking the joint if I finally got into the shop (est. 2-3 hrs later) and be told they'd run out.

About 10 mins later she came back out and said to the whole queue 'We've only got 5 x 16GB models left'. I walked off... How rubbish can you get? What a total shower...

I called my local CW a bit later on having tried the two Oxford Street stores in London (neither of which answered the phone) and was told that I could have one delivered to the local store tomorrow. He reserved it over the phone and I just had to pop in and sign the renewal contract.

I remember on launch day for the original iPhone in November that all O2 shops were supposed to be open until 10pm but when I went down into town at 21:20 they were shut and no signs of life as though I'd just missed them either..... Rubbish....X2

I was heading to regent street but saw a CPW store on the way with only 5-6 people outside. I waited for 30 mins and then the guy filled in the details on the screen and explained that i would have to come back later to collect as the systems were having problems.

I went back later to find out that the sales man had made a mistake and had left the order "open" whatever that means... but because of this my iphone had been allocated to someone else. WTF. They are now sending it out to me tomorrow but what a bunch of incompetent gits!! I just hope the guy that was 1st in the queue was not served by the same numpty as he might not be quite so understanding.

mines the one without an iphone in its pocket....

IPhone = the phone for thick people.

I admit that O2's website is crap but the service has been ok for me and miles better than Virgin Mobile ever were (who by their incompetence removed my ability to send messages via SMS while trying to correct a problem receiving them)

At least I'll be able to use my SE K800i to dial out as the network wont be overloaded by iPhone traffic.

Wake up you Jobs worshipping morons, its a phone and he's taking you for a ride.

You really are a bunch of sad fanboy retards.

Whilst O2 probably could've handled the release much better, their systems are probably designed with a peak transaction throughput of the kind you'd experience during a very busy saturday on the run up to christmas plus a bit more.

Their systems (and no doubt any moby provider) were probably not designed with the kind of one off locust effect that a swarm of fucking loser lemmings like yourselves create because you just have to be so fucking first and trendy and get one of these overpriced digital buttplugs. If apple announced an iCar and chose your local BMW dealership to sell it through, do you think they could handle potential tripling/quadrupling of sales transactions? Probably not because they're set up to sell x cars a day but you'd still manage to find fault there as well.

I am so glad I work from home and so seldom visit the highstreet these days so I don't have to watch apparently intelligent human beings behave like brain damaged sheep. I sincerely hope your gene pool dies off soon.

If you'd waited a couple of days, you could probably just walk into a store and get one in the space of 15mins.

Jeez.

I arrived at work early on Monday morning eagerly wanting to purchase an iPhone. I logged on to the O2 site and after 20 minutes of form filling finally got my order confirmation at 9am by email.

I knew that I wasn't going to be home today, so I paid a tenner to have it delivered tomorrow so that I didn't have to spend this evening/tomorrow morning running around after it. I wish I had now.

It appears, that because of this decision I am not getting one tomorrow after all. I've just received an email telling me that I'll receive a refund for my delivery, and that I'll be sent an iPhone in the next five days. I am skeptical that there will be stock in this time though...

At no point in the process was I informed that choosing a later delivery would essentially push me to the back of the queue. What was the point of me ordering so early and choosing a delivery option that suited my schedule to be so bitterly disappointed.

I got mine no problem at all, without having to queue. Marvellous!

I have a phone I think is brilliant, so if that makes me a moron, then so be it. I'd be more inclined to think someone who takes the time to be bothered in the slightest about what other people buy are the morons, but there you go.

Well I'm away to play with my new phone now, so have fun bitching.

Makes and takes calls...

Allows me to send and receive text messages...

Allows me to take pictures, and to send them to other people...

Wakes me up in the morning, and allows me to snooze for half an hour...

Has real music ringtones...

Also has a torch (flashlight) on it...

I didn't wait for two hours to get it either!

Dumb Apple fanbois!

I ordered my 16GB iPhone at about 12.10pm yesterday, pretty much as soon as the CPW site started offering them again. Was told that an order before 3pm would mean it would be delivered between 9am and 5pm today. I have taken the day off work but no delivery yet. After reading the comments above I now don't hold out much hope of it arriving anytime today. Just over 2 hours yet for it to arrive, here's hoping.

Typical of Windows oriented companies. Bloody idiots. Did they try out the activation process on IE (what a load of crap that is anyway)? Why did they not install Safari for Windows and set up the activation process through that? Somehow, I doubt that they even thought this through. O2 management have no bloody brains.

Personally I spent 20mins on hold at 8am this morning with Carphone Warehouse and was able to order my 16gb model just fine but I did have to wait about 2 hours for the chap on the phone to get confirmation and authorization from o2 to allow my upgrade.

...except for the fact that o2's "Gateway" system has been a joke for years. It has never properly worked, and I clearly remember the amount of overtime I got on Saturday's being capable of helping another department to do "old-style" credit checks...on a system that actually worked.

o2's infrastructure has been, and will continue to be, a mess until they sort out the issues surrounding Gateway and related systems.

When their MD gets a well-deserved Jobsian bollocking for screwing up one of the highest profile product launches of the year.

Something tells me O2 can forget getting the rights to the next phone. 3 years exclusivity will be out the window when O2 have shown themselves to be manifestly incapable of selling the product.

... for the 16Gb version, which the O2 shop didn't have... waited from 7:50am, 12th in the queue... only to be told at 10:40am, that they couldn't get the contract booking system working on their Apple Mac Safari browser because the O2 system is designed for Microsoft Internet Explorer.. At which point the O2 Shop guy came over telling us they just got delivery of the 16Gb Black version... we all ran over to the O2 Shop and got one within 10 minutes.

Apple need to sack whoever did their UAT of their system!

First guy to walk out the store with one, their systems were affected, but we signed up manually with paper contracts.

My colleague upgraded his and used his previous SIM, his iphone is working fine.

I had a new contract, but each time I made a call, it would ask me to 'top up' credit, and my SIM pack is a pay&go.

Phoned the store I purchased it from and apparently, my SIM card is not yet activated, so I still have wait until they do, and I guess make my pay&go into a monthly contract.

Also used my PAC code, and was told if I didn;t do this now, it would be a while till it was sorted.

Customer services replied to me pretty quickly, and well, I hope they can sort out this mess.

Not impressed so far with O2....

Rumuors abound that a few iPhones have already been replaced today because the "home" key malfunctions!

Placed my order online yesterday at 3pm, 16GB in black, to be delivered to a store today.

My order status on the internet is "being processed", even though they promised next day delivery. Phone up store to check if it's in, "Raj" tells me that he is too busy to help me, and gives me no option but to hang up. I spend about 30mins on hold (twice) to cpw helpline, finally get through to someone who tells me my order is 'not on her system'. I have to call the e-whatever line, they have it on their system. I am adivised this is at least a half hour wait. I called the number on the confirmation email ffs. Who in this day and age has seperate online/offline customer databases?

I give up.

So I went out late to grab a sandwich for lunch and discovered a handful of people still queueing outside the nearby O2 store. Asked the guy what was the deal and it seems they still had stock. This is the same store I walked past at 07:15 this morning to see about 60 people lined up outside. Seems the screwed activation system, the massive load on the credit check site and the sheer tedium of filling in the forms meant people had been waiting up to four hours to get their phone. Apparently loads of people gave up and pissed-off, so they still had stock left.

I picked up the last 16GB they had, although they still had 8GB phones. Seems the 16GB is the big seller according to the guy in the shop. They actually thought they'd run out and had told people so, but then they found four more under something shortly before I arrived. Unfortunately, the activation system is still hosed so they were basically doing the form-filling and selling the phones with an inactive SIM, with a promise to catch up the activations over the weekend. The guy reckoned there was a decent chance my phone will be working on Monday.

Ok....waited outside the O2 store in Buxton with my wife who was upgrading from her original iphone. We arrived at 6.55am, four people in front of us.

Staff began arriving at 7.30am, wouldn't tell us anything initially, Manager then arrived saying we would all be ok for a 16GB Iphone. (At least 8 people havearrived by this time)

In we go at 8.02am...2 mins later system down and out comes the paperwork, by the time we had been attended to 35 mins have passed..no to bad but the answer they gave to my question about using a pay as you go sim in the original phone is answered with a "we won't have those until next week" hmm...ok.

Off we go home. (After giving up the 16GB we had just been handed for a 8GB as my wife couldn't in all conscience take the last one from a guy who was in front of us in the queue but had been delayed by the o2 staff, which means at most they had 3 16GB phones....)

Switch to the new Iphone....goes well. No problem there.

Right according to the Web site an O2 pay as you go should be fine in the original Iphone...call a different o2 shop, yes we can use a standard pay as you go sim....grrrrrr.

Back to Buxton to pick up a Pay as you go sim, much consternation from the staff and a hurried call to check that it will work and then I leave with a sim.

1 hour of repeated attempts to access itunes and we are now live on both phones.

To be fair the O2 staff were doing their best and I think are victims of a very poorly managed launch.....O2 senior Management really should carry the can for this....

Thought as I will not be receiving mine till tomorrow i would upgrade the current one. BIG mistake Apples activation servers are dead 30 mins of trying to activate and I still have an ibrick.

Doh!

Why oh why do we bother?!

1. O2 can't manage a proper online ordering system.. Goes belly up after 4 hours.

2. O2, CPW or Apple can't activate many of the limited stock that made it to their stores. This is mostly due to O2s web-based, IE only activation process.

3. Apple, in releasing globally to 22 countries, plus itunes 7.7, plus 2.0 firmware to all previous customers on the first day have crippled their own activation servers worldwide..

I suppose it'll make a good case study!

Looks like the numpty responsible for my old firms IT architecture did O2's as well :-)

Talk about not having a clue...

the ones who post on forums whining at other people to be more like them!

I didn't queue up to be 'first' with an iphone, what would be the point in that,

if you were sent a text message saying ANYTHING you've bought recently could be upgraded for free, to a better model, are you saying you wouldn't bother? The shops opened at 8 today, perfect chance to pick one up before work, I haven't even bothered to activate the thing yet, ill do that later and play about with the new features in my own time,

It's very easy for people to get the wrong end of the stick, i used to think apple was crap, that everyone with an ipod just wanted to bum steve jobs, but then i started using a mac to produce music instead of PC, and low and behold - it wasn't such a massive pain in the arse anymore, in fact it was almost effortless,

apple make decent stuff, if you gave it a go instead of just dismissing it because its clearly had a bit of thought put into its design maybe you'd actually quite like it, then again, im not going to tell you what to do, buy what the fuck you like, i have no allegiance to apple, it's just they've made the best phone i've used so far, so I'm sticking with it until i see something that does what i want it to do any better

...ha ha ha ha ha!

This'll teach you poncy technology poseurs, all so utterly soulless that you resort to buying yourself an identity by being one of the first few to have an item of consumer technology.

I just hope the whole o2 network goes down this weekend.

Spoken like a true fanboy, ya sad git.

I don't think Apple have been blameless, look at the cock up with Itunes.

No, not an Apple fanboy or 'must be' early adopter - but reached the end of a fraught contract with Voadfone a few months ago and have been hanging on for this launch.

Pre-ordered my iPhone from Tottenham Hale O2 store last week, and had a call yesterday to confirm one would be waiting for me today - they even asked what time I'd be there (10am) so they could have it ready. I arrived at the store at 9.45 and they were already in chaos. One of the senior staff told me they'd managed to do two upgrades for exisitng O2 customers before the entire upgrade system crashed, and they then had to turn away allcomers looking for upgrades.

However, he assured me new customers wouldn't be affected and I would get my iPhone shortly. Then queued up with around 10 others for two hours. Each customer was taking about 30 minutes to process because the system was buckling.

By the time it reached my turn, the manager was instructing his staff just to fill in paper contracts - they would do the activations later that day. So, I left the store with my iPhone, but no number, and no record of me on O2's system. That was around midday. My iPhone is currently totally useless. It hasn't been activated. I can't register with iTunes because I don't have a number. And I can't get help from O2 because I'm not yet on their system.

I'm sure it'll all be sorted by the end of next week, but the damage is already done. As Mike Richards said in his earlier comment: "Oh to be a fly on the wall at O2 when their MD gets a well-deserved Jobsian bollocking for screwing up one of the highest profile product launches of the year."

Our O2 store's systems crashed about 5 mins after they opened - and they did, the manager confirmed this to us. Those of us who stayed waited about 2hrs to get the phones. The whole job was done on paper forms with no computer involved, aside from photos of ID and a card I don't even think a credit check was done.

Everyone in the store took the phone to be activated via iTunes later. There appeared to be no provision for instore activation via iTunes anyway.

Oddly reports from the Carphone Warehouse store up the road said that they had no problems whatsoever.

Got to Meadowhell Apple Store at 7.45, about 18 people in front of me, was about 2pm that I actually saw someone get through the online registration process, though I had wandered off and only came back after being told 2(!!!!) phones had gone through.

I was then 2nd in the list and eventually left at 4.30 with an unactivated phone after going through the manual process. Why they couldn't have started doing that 5 hours earlier is a mystery.

Must say that the staff where great and as frustrated as us, but what a terrible experience, especially for those people coming to Apple for the first time.

Apple's MeMobile online service - which is what .Mac has transformed into - is supposed to be up and running today. But it ain't - at least not as of Saturday 00:30 UTC.

Go to <www.apple.com/mobileme> and you'll just get a splash screen advertising the new service - but no opportunity to actually login.

Meanwhile go to <www.mac.com> and you'll just be redirected to <http://www.mac.com/maintenance/>, which displays the following message:

"MobileMe web applications not yet available.

The MobileMe transition is underway but is taking longer than expected. While core services such as desktop mail, iDisk and sync are available, the new MobileMe web applications are not yet online. Thank you for your patience as we complete the upgrade."

The Wikipedia entry for MobileMe has a humerous account of the up then down then up then down nature of the MobileMe launch under the 'Release' subheading here <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobileMe#Release>

...at least it did until the Apple PR droids and - more to the point - the shiny-shiny happy Apple fanboistas deleted it because of course no rotten fruit emanates out of Cupertino.

I digress - point being, I'm not sure Steve is really in a position to give a Jobsian bollocking to anyone for screwing up, so I think the o2 MD shouldn't worry too much about getting a call from California. Not that the MD's new iPhone will be working anyway...

I queued from about 6.30am yesterday, reasoning that getting up a few hours earlier and talking to some strangers wasn't going to traumatise me. I couldn't give a damn about being first with the device, but didn't want to endure the uncertainly of when I would ever get hold of one. Although it would seem that's now unavoidable...

Entering the store sixth in line, my form was filled out and the device appeared, boxed up and fresh, awaiting activation. But then the inevitable 'system crash' meant my upgrade couldn't be processed. After about half an hour we were told our forms would be taped to our phones and them locked away, which was a relief. Some stores I believe just turned customers away empty handed.

Today (Saturday) I had a call to say the system still isn't working properly here, so it'll probably be Monday when I collect it at the earliest. On the plus side, all the staff in the branch were competent and dealt with the problems in a professional manner - I was quite surprised, to be honest! Leaving at about a quarter to nine, I have no idea of the fate of the remaining 50 or so queue members, but they weren't there when I went past at about 10am.

But still, quite why O2 hadn't forseen this I don't know. Perhaps it's just as well they only had such a small number of phones for sale - at least now they can prop up the 'no i-phones' boards outside and not have to endure frustrated customers.

Picked an 8Gb IPhone up at an o2 shop yesterday. It still has "no service" and the O2 site s saying this will take 2-3 days!

... That O2 are allowed to have an unfair advantage to other networks by being the only company in the UK where consumers can buy an iPhone?!

Why on earth Apple decided to work with this business model is beyond me, O2 being the only supplier means not only are consumers charged whatever O2 see fit for a shit service plan, but are also able to limit choice for consumers as to which network the phone is available on, and have full control and monopoly of the UK iPhone market!!

Any other phone providers which offer exclusive deals with network providers also allow the phone to be sold unlocked, therefore STILL allowing consumers to purchase the phone outright and use on the network of their choice if they wish.

The EU shit on about competition, consumer protection etc and do nothing to sort this out, but if it was MICROSOFT that did this, the EU would be on their backs before you could say 'Bill Gates' funny that!

If you want the freedom and choice to buy an Apple iPhone unlocked, without being forced to take a contract on ONE network, which limits consumer choice as well as minipulates the current mobile market do summit about it?

ComplaIn to the EU Competition Comission at:

comp-market-information@ec.europa.eu

They were completely oblivious to the fact i said "IT'S ASKING ME TO TOP MY MONTHLY CONTRACT PHONE WHEN I MAKE CALLS! I PAID FOR A 18 MONTH CONTRACT!"

O2 customer support said they would deal with my PAC code no prob, BUT NO FU*KING MENTION OF ACTIVATING MY PHONE!

morons.

the lot of them

Well what can I say..

1) Ordered the phone via their website to be sent to their gateshead store (MetroCentre) and eagerly checked the tracking of the parcel the following day but to no avail as at 6pm it said delivery failed. Rang up said courier - they said the address that they've been trying to deliver to doesnt exist. Muggins here checks the address and sure enough they've attempted to send it to a store that closed down 12 months ago!

So then.. I toddle off down to CityLink in an attempt to retrieve the parcel even though my name wouldnt be on it (addressed to a non existant shop y'see) but CityLink were pretty understanding and with a bit of phoning they handed the goods over so top marks to them.

Roll on 8pm last night..

Activate - Fail

Activate - Fail

Activate - Fail

Activate.. get the final stage.. works.. no FAIL. Problem being is that iTunes seems to think its now activated (as I dont get the option any more) but the phone sure as hell doesnt.

So then.. I decide to stop swearing and take it down to the shop it should have been sent to the following day (today).

I arrive - tell them the story and politely ask them to fix it. However the sales guy hits an immediate snag - they are unable to close the account as its assigned to a shop that performs the web sales so he duly rings them up but guess what - so are about another 60 shops in the UK so he is in a queue of 60 with about one numbskull dealing with all these enquiries. 2 hours later I just the bloody phone with that lot and as far as I'm concerned if they dont sort it buy tomorrow I'm cancelling the damn contract.

What a complete bunch of utter incompentant fools.

Well, i thought i was one of the lucky ones, had my iphone at 10am on launch day, all going well until my visit into my local O2 shop today to question why they are yet to put my upgrade through the till (they actually gave me a phone without doing any thing coming close to an official transaction) the assistant's bit of news was "we may ring you next week" - what an absolute joke this has been from start to finish. I thought i had done quite well, i now know that is complete rubbish. Oh well i may now have a very expensive paper weight but hey i got one ready to activate, at some point over the next month

I am usually quite anti-apple, although their hardware cannot be mocked for build quality, I find their software and prices are often laughable. Anyway, there Is no denying, even by a vole-lover such as myself, that this new iPhone has it all (inc the restrictions of iTunes). With both my beloved iriver and my calculator phone on the blink I wandered down to the Oxford street store at about noon, and was out of there in under 20 mind with an 8gb! Couldn't download iTunes when I got home, but older versions are everywhere and the autoupdate feature works fine. I guess this is just a fluke case, but everything went swimmingly and in writing this post I think I have tripled my typing speed on this bad boy! Anybody else tries the lightsaber app?

I spent 10 hours in the Apple Store on Regent Street yesterday, eventually leaving with my iBrick at 7pm. The entire experience was a shambles. Clearly 02 decided to get the guy who oversaw the Terminal 5 opening in to mastermind this launch!

Ended up phoning CPW this morning as my Thursday order with next day delivery still hadn't turned up. They informed me that their website had messed up, quite a few of the orders and not taken payment details and in some cases the delivery address correctly. They had no record of my order number relating to an order but seemed to have my name and address on their system. They didn't have my payment details. This sounded fair enough as no money has left my account. I gave my payment details again over the phone. My account now shows a payment of £159 waiting to come out.

I was told my phone was sat in the warehouse assigned to my order and delivery is now going to be Tuesday. I will continue to wait and see what next week brings. Maybe then I will decide whether I really do want a £35 a month O2 contract.

Like 'Dark Ian' above, they couldn't complete my upgrade so they put my paperwork and my iPhone aside. Unfortunately they still couldn't process the upgrade today - O2's computer system still isn't working, I'm told it might be tomorrow.

I tried complaining to O2 by phoning their upgrade centre. Yesterday they didn't understand the problem, saying everything was fine. Today I rang and complained again, and this time they told me that the department that deals with O2 shops is different to the upgrade department that customers can phone. I asked to be put through to that department to find out what was going on but was told only O2 shop staff can speak to them.

From my limited knowledge of data centres I'm imagining that the building must have collapsed and crushed all of the servers for them to be taking this long to get back online. Presumably they don't have backup servers at another location?

But like O2's spokesperson says, everything is running smoothly.

I pre-registered online weeks ago, I then pre-ordered at the beginning of this week with no problems shortly before the system borked.

My order was in progress until Thursday when finally at about 4.30pm I got 2 test messages from O2, one explaining the situation and telling that not all orders placed had been successful, those that were would be informed by the end of the day. The second text just ten minutes later informed me that yes my order was indeed successful and would be delivered by courier on Friday.

I had the day off work already so that wasn't going to be a problem (before I get mocked for being a fanboy I'd booked the day off because it was my birthday... And perhaps 5% because of the iPhone ;o)), DHL arrived at 8:50am and I was activated and restored from my iPod touch backup by 9.30am.

I hit the App store and downloaded a few games etc. played them until I drained the battery about 2am and let it charge to full which only took about 3 hours.

The only issue for me is MobileMe, I can log in online but not via my Mac meaning I can't yet push my email and calendar.

Overall a very positive experience for me.

.. well I sauntered down to the shop today to find out they havn't done a damn thing with my noPhone so I picked up the kit and headed up home to call CPW Customer Services direct.

After a 5 minute conversation with someone who actually seemed to know what they were talking about, I was then informed I need to go back to the shop so they can transfer 'the stock' (ie the phone) to their store (from the CPW website store code) so they can close the order down! Totally opposite to what I was told in the shop and apparently the noPhone *will not* activate until the order is closed.

Roll on Monday evening, or Tuesday if I dont want to skip the gym again.

Sigh.

Failed credit check for on line purchase from O2 on Monday. Ordered from CPW. Told Out of Stock, then got an e-mail saying new stock had arrived. Delivered at 10.30 am on Friday. Follow activation instructions. Nada. Ring CPW help line. Helpful operators. Transferred to O2. "phone will be recognised by end of today". It wasn't. O2 web site now says recognition may take up to three days. It's now 2.5 hours left and counting. I ain't holding my breath. Why on earth did Apple go with O2?