3 and iPhones: not so good stuff

So on Tuesday I finally took the plunge and ordered an iphone. They are normally nowhere to be found but thanks to the friendly tipsters at the whirlpool forums I was able to snag one. Or so I thought.

When I was ordering over the phone, the salesperson told me it would arrive on Thursday. Now, I have had a little experience with postal services in Australia and I have never received a package in such a short span of time. After I asked her to confirm that, I asked her what I should do if it didn't arrive on Thursday; I got the whole "It will absolutely arrive on Thursday" talk.

So along comes thursday morning and figured I would ring up 3 just to make sure that the package was still on track. The guy on the phone told me that it was, so I headed off to uni.

Now for ethical reasons mobile phones are not allowed to be used inside biology labs (or the ones I'm allowed in anyway) so I couldn't check my phone until about 1:30pm. When I left the lab, I had a text message on my phone saying something along the lines of "we apologize but your delivery will be delayed until after the 27th". Fantastic.

I called up 3 that afternoon and asked what on earth was happening. The only explanation I got was "there is a delay on our end" and that it will absolutely arrive Friday. Where have I heard that before?

Well, it is early evening on Friday and I have not receieved any iPhone, nor any more information. I rung up three and got the delay speech again and the absolutely next week speech.

3, I have no issues with your radio network (in fact it is rather good) but you really dropped the ball on this one. The waiting is not the issue, it is the fact that you are instructing your sales assistants to promise delivery times that are simply not feasable. Just overestimate the date and people will be pleasantly surprised when it arrives early.