3Grrrrrrr

Bloody o2.  Seriously.  What a waste of space.  Tasked with launching the new 3G iPhone, they created a total frenzy among current customers.  Texts were sent out telling us that the new iPhone was going to be limited stock, so head on over to o2 and Pre-Register for information!  Once that was done, emails came out saying more information would be sent at the beginning of July.  As of this moment in time, there was apparently no reason whatsoever to pre-register. 

This morning just before 8:00, o2 emailed and sent texts to all its customers, saying iPhone could be ordered online as from this morning.  Impact?  System crashed within about 1 minute.  They created a really complex process where you had to enter a mobile number and wait for a code to be sent to you (why?) then go through lots of confirmation pages.  It took me 17 attempts to generate a code which would get me into the system.  By 8:30 the whole system was frazzled and taken offline.  Nobody had managed to order a new iPhone at this point.  Great job.

Cue much gnashing of teeth and shaking fists at a vengeful god.  Eventually, by some fluke of nature, I managed to get to the order confirmation stage just after lunchtime and shortly after that the website went down again.  By 2pm o2 were saying all iPhones had now sold out.  I keep checking my order status just to be sure it's real. 

So what can we learn from this?  Lesson one: If you want to sell a product, make it possible for people to buy it.  The 900 or so posts on macrumors.com show that 99.9% of people who tried to upgrade today were unsuccessful.  They are not happy, and neither would I have been, in their situation.  Lesson two: Don't make people do pointless sign up for information things if there is no benefit whatsoever of doing this.  Lesson three: Don't have your customer service line tell people that the only way to buy is online, when the website has been taken offline.  Lesson four: Don't scare people into a panic by sending texts about limited supplies, 2 week waits and first come first served, and then blame 'overwhelming demand' for crashing the system.  You created the demand, so be prepared for it.

I feel nervous about jinxing my order, but am glad I can (fingers crossed) sit back and wait for a delivery on Friday.  All this chaos today will simply increase the number of people who feel forced to queue for hours outside o2 shops on Friday morning. 

Clever of them isn't it.

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