It took some work - but I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 3G. The geek inside of me has been giddy with joy for the past 24 hours...I nearly spent all of Thursday night waiting in line to be among the first to get the phone on Friday morning.
I mean that quite literally - I threw a flashlight, my laptop, a book, some snacks and a camping chair in the car and had Amy drive me down the to Apple store on Boylston about 11 pm on Thursday. I would have been person number 19 in line, had I not decided, after speaking with the Apple employees there, that since: a) they get new shipments everyday and b) the apple website has a nifty iPhone availability indicator that tells you which stores will have iPhones for the next day (if you check it after 9 pm), I could just wait and get one Saturday morning without having to worry about getting to work on time
(I was especially glad I did this after friday's activation fiasco...)
6:00 am - I woke up
6:53 am - I parked semi-legally on Newbury street
7:04 am - I was person 27 in line
7:05 am - Returned to reading McMafia - a depressing book about the enormity of organized crime around the world. But very interesting...
8:00 am - The doors opened and we got to go inside! Hurrah!
8:15 am - My joy subsided as I realized that line was moving incredibly slowly
9:15 am - Finally, the front of the line! I met Michelle, the perky apple store employee who was to help me buy my new phone
9:32 am - I confuse everyone (even the manager!) by saying that I wanted the $45 enterprise data plan (so that microsoft exchange would work) instead of the standard $30 data-plan. It was clear that the word "enterprise" brought terror into these people's hearts. Apple remains consumer focused I guess... they didn't sell the plan there, but told me I'd have to go to an AT&T store afterward (which would be easy because "they don't have any iPhones left") to get it changed. (Fortunately, it was a snap to do online)
9:45 am - Michelle was on the phone with AT&T trying to figure out why there was an error in activating my account (the fault was mine - I'd accidentally transposed a couple of digits in my SSN)
10:00 am - All was supposedly settled, but in the final step of activation, (on Apple's end) there was another error. After another call to AT&T, poor Michelle looked a bit helpless. (The AT&T rep wasn't very friendly and self-described "unassertive" Michelle wasn't able to make headway)
10:05 am - Matt, another apple store employee swaps in for Michelle and begins to help me
10:06 am - I'm asked how excited I am for about the fifth time. These people really are enthusiastic about this phone/all things apple
10:10 am - Matt has resolved my AT&T issue
10:15 am - Matt gets frustrated as he watches me put the screen cover on my new phone (I uncaringly left a couple of air bubbles). He asks (sort of) if he can redo it. He takes it off and decides that he needs to clean the screen of my 5 minutes-out-of-the-box iPhone to remove the all fingerprints and dust before having another "expert" employee put on the screen protector
10:25 am - Matt comes back with my iPhone with the screen protector expertly installed. I'm appreciative of his enthusiasm (even if it does remind me of the mechanic in Seinfeld who steals Jerry's car because he doesn't think Jerry is taking care of it well enough)
10:30 am - I walk out of the Apple store with a working iPhone. Joy abounds
10:40 am - I mentally add $25 to the price of the phone to account for the parking ticket I received and shrug it off
11:03 am - At home, playing with the phone commences in earnest (I do realize that yes, it is just a phone... my life won't dramatically change... but it is still a really really cool phone and the app store will do wonders for it)
And that is the story of how Luke finally paid for a phone for the first time every (I've always just used hand-me down phones from parents, or the free ones that come with a new plan).
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