The Precious is Mine...Continued, or rather my ordeal of getting an iPhone 3G - Part I

I apologize for the lack of any updates, but I have been pretty busy. But as they say, better late than never.

So here goes. Let's rewind to July 11th...

Well, there was no way I was gonna allow iPhone 3G Launch Day (07-11-08) to go by w/o me trying to get my hands on one. It didn't matter that I have a perfectly good 8G first gen iPhone. I had a score to settle. Last year on 06-29-07, I couldn't get one because I was still locked into a contract with Verizon which would not end until mid December of that year. It was torture, but I made it to December and then a week after my contract was up with Verizon I got the iPhone. Once the 3G was announced, I was hell bent on getting one.

So, I get up early in the morning and purposely walk Butch to the ATT store close to my house (Steinway Street, Astoria) where I see a line had formed of about twenty people. The time is 6:15 am. So I come home, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and kiss my wife and daughter goodbye and head off to the ATT store. I figure I'll be there by 7:30 am. Bad idea.

The line has since quadrupled. I walk to the back of the line and decide to wait it out. So 8:00 am comes around and the store opens but the line hardly budges. Apparently, the store only has four employees and they're taking a few people at a time. By 8:45 am, they are sold out. A manager comes out to make the announcement that we can sign up to reserve an iPhone from the next shipment. I don't bother to hear him out. I step off line and head to the subway.

I purposely get off at the 5th Avenue stop so I can see what's going on at the crack den err, the Apple store. Well, the line is around the block and is moving at a snails pace. I contact my friend Josh and we decide we'll try to get it later in the day.

My friend Louis texts me to tell me that Apple is having problems with activation. Lucky me. I head to work.

The day flies by. Josh and I agree to meet on the line. He informs me that if we get on line by 6:00 pm. It should only take 2 - 3 hours. I meet up with him on the line at 6:30 pm. We are somewhere in the middle of 58th street between 5th and Madison.

You see this part of the line lulls the sheep, err consumers into a false sense of security because it appears to move fast. You think you'll be in the store in no time. WRONG. Once you get to 5th Avenue and turn right, you end up entering the "Snake". This is where the line turns into one of those snaking lines you usually see at a bank. Problem is this line snakes around THREE times before ending up in front of the store. To put in perspective, we enter the Snake at around 7:30 pm. We would not enter the store until 11:15 pm. At this point all I care about is getting the phone before midnight.

Once in the store, we have to wait in line for another 40 minutes. This is the activation line. You get one on one service with an Apple store employee who gets your phone and any accessories and activates the phone. I end up getting the phone at around 3 minutes to midnight. The activation process is mercifully quick..only 15 minutes. So, I end up having everything done by 12:20 am. This includes the 16gb black and a new cradle.