The iPhone 3Gs Debuts in the US
It’s been a bit of a circus, with people standing in long lines all over the country. Here in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Apple Store had lots of people waiting but sales were orderly. You can see a slideshow here.
I had an interesting time with the 3Gs rollout. My wife and I are splitting up, amicably, and we had to split her iPhone number off my account and have her open her own account. AT&T did their usual sterling job, buggering it up almost beyond belief. They got her number on my account, and vice versa. I called and spent over an hour with a rep, and on hold, and was told that all was fixed, but I had to fill out a form and send it in.
I called back for some additional info, and got another rep who said the first one screwed up, and that she could fix it right away. She did, after about 30 minutes on the phone. She spoke unaccented English, and knew what she was doing, so it was quite a relief.
In the process, I lost about 2300 rollover minutes, but that’s not critical. I also got a message that I could get the subsidized upgrade to the 3GS sometime in 2010, which was not good news. I could pay $399 for a 32GB iPhone, but not $599! I should have been eligible, but the new account seemed to mess me up. I was bummed, but resigned. AT&T had a horrible upgrade policy, and many, including me, signed Twitter petitions.
Guess what! It worked, sort of. AT&T loosened up it’s upgrade restrictions, which was good for me. I just ordered a 32GB phone, so I’ll have a 3G, slightly used, slightly scuffed but running perfectly, for sale in a week or 2.
Thing is, some of us were lucky, but some weren’t. An insightful article at Computerworld.com by Greg Keizer tells how AT7T botched it’s concession by “picking winners and losers, separating the two in some cases by just weeks or pennies spent on monthly bills”. If you are not eligible for the subsidized upgrade, read this article, make some noise, and you may get lucky.
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