editor
hiraethified
Stop projecting please, there's a good chap.You seem outraged, as usual
The one-week iQueue. The saddest fanboys of the lot
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Gromit
International Man of Misery
Marius, I'm a "new user" and got an email notifying me that the order site was up at 7:30 this morning.
Their load-balancing seems to be fundamentally broken as each time I tried to put my details in I'd get a message that my session had expired or been cancelled.
I'd imagine someone at o2 will be getting their bollocks toasted for the mess this morning.
Still, it's only a phone
No offence to Lazy Llama who I'm sure is a lovely chap and deserves a jusus phone but a new user gets their txt way before a existing user. That doesn't seem right in the rewarding loyaty stakes.
As for nuts in a vice for the system not coping I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was planned so that the press can do the story:
Demand so high it broke the servers.
A nice little publicity ahead on in store opening days. Apple will love the press and so will O2 in the long term even if it does make em look like muppets in the short term.
The fact they didnt stagger orders I think proves that they wanted the epic fail.
How difficult would it have been to have had a page for existing users only on day 1&2, new pre-registered 3&4, everyone else thereafter? Then finally store release.
Lazy Llama
Suburban robots that monitor reality
Oh, I'm just delightful
Having worked on the precursor to what is now O2, I can say that I doubt they would have the forethought.
I believe the shop.o2.co.uk site is handled through Akamai, which should handle the volumes as far as handlers go, but I suspect their application and backend just aren't up to it.
It's their big chance to make a lot of money, they're not going to deliberately blow it, pushing customers to Carphone Warehouse (who, incidentally have stock of 16gig iPhones for pre-order at time of posting).
editor
hiraethified
As an aside, there was an interesting article in the Guardian a couple of days ago about PAYG deals becoming much more attractive:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/jul/05/consumeraffairs.internetphonesbroadband
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
That's not PAYG, that's SIM-only with a fixed monthly fee.
editor
hiraethified
editor
hiraethified
So O2 are going on about the "unprecedented" demand for the iPhone 3G squeaking that "demand for the revolutionary device is already at unprecedented levels, far in excess of the original iPhone."
Hmmm. I smell iBullshit.
Right. So the demand was so great that you only bothered to get a limited stock of devices and forgot to mention it? And had they really invested "several million pounds" just to cope with iPhone demand?
Hmmm. I smell iBullshit.
Er, because you don't have to sit on a cold pavement for a week to do that?
We are referring to the same thing, yeah?
editor
hiraethified
Not sure where to begin with that daft comment, I'm afraid.
editor
hiraethified
History dictates that O2/Apple don't "do" numbers.
Kanda
Diving wanker
No, we're now talking about pre-registrations and demand on a website.
Kanda
Diving wanker
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Not while they're crap, no.
If it really is a runaway success, then they'll be sure to boast about it.
editor
hiraethified
What kind of demand do you think it would take for one of the biggest telecoms websites in the UK to break down in a sizzling mess straight after "several million pounds" had just been invested solely to deal with these online iPhone orders?
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
I would call that sort of demand 'unprecedented' whilst staring straight into the camera with a stern look in my eyes
dogmatique
merde alors
It's absolutely no surprise that o2's crappy web service collapsed immediately. Their excerable website and user areas have always been barely functional.
The iPhone billing and invoice viewing / printing is illegal at best (no vat invoicing etc) and sends our accountant into conniptions of rage at it's limitations.
Therefore I wasn't nearly as disappointed as my boss when I had to tell him he probably wouldn't be getting the new phone couriered to the office on Friday as o2 had lamely promised.
I even popped into an o2 store to see if the upgrade could be done in person, only to be told that they have no way of processing existing customer upgrades - though I've heard rumours to the contrary.
So it seems that o2 have massively underestimated demand - no shit - and that all stock of 16GB 3G's are completely out of stock. Who's inventory that fact comes from is up in the air, as o2 seems to be increadibly fractured between divisions, ie online, business, retail, telesales - none of whom talk to each other, know what the other is doing or know who has stock of what.
I spoke to the iphone "specialist" line today and they didn't even know that those who'd registered a preference had been told they could pre-order.
So I'm not expecting to get mine for a couple of weeks at least, and considering the amount of countries they're launching in on Friday I suspect it could be a lot, lot longer.
The iPhone billing and invoice viewing / printing is illegal at best (no vat invoicing etc) and sends our accountant into conniptions of rage at it's limitations.
Therefore I wasn't nearly as disappointed as my boss when I had to tell him he probably wouldn't be getting the new phone couriered to the office on Friday as o2 had lamely promised.
I even popped into an o2 store to see if the upgrade could be done in person, only to be told that they have no way of processing existing customer upgrades - though I've heard rumours to the contrary.
So it seems that o2 have massively underestimated demand - no shit - and that all stock of 16GB 3G's are completely out of stock. Who's inventory that fact comes from is up in the air, as o2 seems to be increadibly fractured between divisions, ie online, business, retail, telesales - none of whom talk to each other, know what the other is doing or know who has stock of what.
I spoke to the iphone "specialist" line today and they didn't even know that those who'd registered a preference had been told they could pre-order.
So I'm not expecting to get mine for a couple of weeks at least, and considering the amount of countries they're launching in on Friday I suspect it could be a lot, lot longer.
editor
hiraethified
I'd like to get paid 3 million quid to build a website that collapses the second it's called into action please.
*sends pitch to O2 for iPhone #3 launch
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
All day I have been seeing loads of people on Twitter saying "wtf O2". Or, well, they usually expand on that, using swearwords as appropriate.
dogmatique
merde alors
I am finding the tagline "Only on o2" increasingly amusing.
Gromit
International Man of Misery
What am I chopped liver?
Lets be honest, if they had 200k pre-interested why the fuck didn't they order more phones?
Or take advanced pre-orders like Amazon and Games releases?
Hype fucking hype to be sure.
dogmatique
merde alors
Possibly a disappointingly bad allocation from Apple?
Who to blame, it's such a game, la la la la la laaah!
Who to blame, it's such a game, la la la la la laaah!
Lazy Llama
Suburban robots that monitor reality
I got an email that says "We're just currently processing your request and we'll be in touch shortly to let you if it's been accepted and when it will be dispatched.", but on the website that still shows as "In Progress".Anyone actually got a confirmation email, yet?
Someone I know got an email saying
O2 email said:
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