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Fri, 11 Jul 2008 UPDATE - iPhone 3G: UK gets long wait as O2 systems fail

Customers attempting to purchase 3G iPhones experience long delays as systems fail

Jonny Evans

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The UK iPhone 3G launch has begun, with queues of customers reported outside stores across the country - but there's been some bad times to temper the good.

At the O2 store on Oxford Street, 67 people were in the queue at around 7.30am this morning; round the corner at Apple Regent Street there were 100 souls.

Bluewater shopping centre saw 60 people waiting in line at the O2 shop, with maybe five hanging around outside of the Apple store there. North of the border in Glasgow, 50 people queued outside the O2 shop on Argyle Street at 7.30 am.

As 8.02 am approached, excited crowds began surging forward, and shops across the country opened their doors; the first shoppers walked in... and then came the big wait.

"Yeah the computers went down about 8.2oam," explained Hugh Donaghy from the line at the Glasgow O2 store. Having purchased his phone, Donaghy trudged to work, and now appears to be in iLimbo. "I have paid, and signed my contract, yet am at work waiting for the O2 authorisation, which they  (Carphone Warehouse) are going to phone me with..."

A person in the Oxford Street queue experienced the same thing: "The first people went in and it took 45 minutes - the credit check thing failed, the computer registration failed, same deal at the Apple store. It took maybe an hour before the first purchase came out. Twenty minutes ago they took to paper and pen.

O2's UK press office this morning confirmed that all its shops were affected by a system outage, "Systems were a bit slower than normal earlier in the morning," a company representative said, "but this due to huge simultaneous customer demand."

"There has been a phenomenal response, interest has been extraordinary," the representative said. Apple staff are saying the problem is with 02's servers being unable to cope with demand.

Otherwise ordering and processing time should be at around 20 minutes per customer, the PR explained. Macworld's man at O2's Oxford Street shop is currently seeing the location sort through approximately 15 people per hour, with O2 reps walking through the queue explaining they have plenty of phones. Upgrade customers are being served faster.

Credit checks also failed at Bluewater this morning, where our witnesses now explain O2 staff have resorted to plan B - using pen and paper to get customer details and bringing out application forms for those already in the queue to fill in while they wait.

Reports from iPhone launches outside the UK also confirm around a 20 minute period for each sale, as the iPhone is authorised and new or upgrading accounts approved.

Back in Glasgow, Macworld can also confirm the approval system continued to have faults, causing lengthy delays with reports of some customers becoming fractious as a result.

"One total muppet lost his rag with the manager," an eye-witness said, "there's always one," he added.

At the O2 shop on Argyle St, Glasgow, and round the corner at the Carphone Warehouse shop, reports suggest highly limited supplies of the 16GB iPhone 3G. "I was third in the queue at Carphone Warehouse. When we got into the shop, the guy in front of me bought the only 16GB iPhone they had in stock.

"The guy in the shop said that each Carphone Warehouse had received only one 16GB model," our witness added.

UPDATE: The system seems under considerable strain. iPhone shoppers at the Bluewater Apple retail store are being asked if they'd like to reserve their products for later collection, because, we're told, Apple has so far been unable to complete the approval/activation procedure for anyone this morning at its Bluewater store.

UPDATE: Reports claim Apple staff couldn't access the O2 phone network's activation system, and that the O2 system only worked with Internet Explorer.

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