My Trip To The Apple Store

Today is the third day of possessing my prized iPhone 4. Let me tell you, even with all of the signal loss reported, the faulty proximity sensors and the death grip flaw, I can only find pros with MY iPhone 4. No Cons yet. Do I lose signal when I cover the left side of the phone (mostly the bottom portion).. Yes, but this only occurs on command; I don’t hold my phone like that any other occasion other than to test if I will lose signal strength.

That’s quite enough of iPhone 4 analysis. So anyone who follows me on Twitter (@liljiggajlm) knows I’ve been raving for months about getting my new device. I was up quite early on the 15th to pre-order it, 2 am PST to be exact. When I woke up to see that pre-orders were available on Apple.com, I rushed to get my order in. I was determined to be one of the first. The very first prompt asked me to verify that I was eligible for an upgrade (I knew I was). I was greeted by a strange message that basically told me that I could not upgrade my phone until the past due amount was paid on my phone bill. Let’s back up a little bit and let me tell you a bit about the AT&T family talk plan I WAS on.

It was with my mom and dad & I was on it to basically cut down on cost for all three of us. It cost less money for a family plan from AT&T than a single cellular line. I gave my mom 60$ a month and she attended to making sure the bill was paid. She had gotten behind on her phone bill and I was upset to say the least. I had been dreaming of this day for weeks – months (it’s ok mom, I still love you). So by the time I got around to talking to her about the bill, the AT&T / Apple websites were running slower than dial up. By the time the bill was paid in full the pre-order date was pushed back to July 15th. I couldn’t imagine what I’d be doing waiting for July 15th to swing around. So I devised a plan.

I had to come up with a way to get my device on launch date. So I called all the nearest Best Buys, only because I heard that Best Buys were going to be having the white iPhone 4′s available. This rumor was false, they informed me that they had all of their pre-orders spoken for and that they could take my name and telephone number. I declined their offer. Now where? So I called Radio Shack, same thing: all their pre-orders were taken as well & I was offered the same thing. So I had almost put all my eggs into Wal-Mart because there were no other places near me. I called them to get as much information as possible. Not very promising. I cased the place out & even tried to eaves drop on the Sales Associates in the the electronics section of the store. I still didn’t feel very confident about Wal-Mart. So I Called my nearest Apple Store, which is in Tigard and just about 5 hours away from me. They informed me they would be having the i4 in stock for walk in customers. They also said they didn’t know how many phones they’d be getting in. This was a little disappointing to hear, but I felt a lot better about it than WAL-MART!! Ok, pending on my fiancés response I was going to the Apple store to camp out over night in Tigard.

YAY!!! Road Trip!! I got off work the next day (Wednesday) and got an oil change and rushed home to pack. We packed and started on the road about 12:30 P.M. The roads were good, it seemed like it took forever but we finally made it! I had never been to Tigard, but I was determined. First mission: to case out this bitch! We asked a couple people and landed right in front of the Apple Store (picture on my twitter page). It was in an out-door mall and I immediately went in and started asking questions. Here was the scenario in a nut shell: The mall security was not allowing people to line up till 5 A.M. This meant that people would be standing around, hiding in bushes, creeping around corners, waiting for the clock to strike five and then jetting to the door. I could do it. It wasn’t the best scenario, but I’ll take it.

Next Mission: Food!! So I let my fiancé pick where we ate. We went to “Sushi-Ville” and had dinner. The closest one was in Portland, so that’s where we ate; in Portland. We were supposed to meet up with a friend to hang out. I couldn’t cross into the Washington border, as it was against my parol. So they decided to meet us at Jamison Park in downtown Portland. For whatever reason they couldn’t make it so we planned on breakfast the next morning. There was an Apple store in Portland and I wanted to case it out as well. It was a mile away from where we had parked so I decided to just walk there. This Apple store was in an in door mall. We showed up a little after 8 P.M. I went inside to talk to security and find out which door they were opening and if it looks more promising than the store in Tigard. I was informed of the exact door that was going to be opened, what time, and was told we were allowed to wait in line all night long! This sounds way more promising!!! So without further a due, I headed straight to the mall exit that the mall security had just told me about. There was already some people waiting, five! I was 6th and my fiancé was 7th. The first guy in line had been waiting since noon. I told her to stay in line while I grabbed the car. I literally ran to the car to get it. I was pumped!! So the fellow iPhone enthusiast directed my car where to park, offered an extension cord to keep my iPhone and iPad stay charged and welcomed us warmly. What was 5 people, slowly turned into a line stretching down one side of the block.

I couldn’t sleep. I tried, but Portland was awake and wanted me to be awake too. I even tried taking a nap in the car – not working. By 12 mid-night the line was stretching around the other side of the block. There were Mac Book Airs/Pros, iPads, iPhone 2G/3G/3GS and anything with an Apple logo everywhere! The guy, Bruce, behind us even had an old school rainbow Apple Logo tattooed on his wrist. I was in the midst of some hard core Apple fan boys and girls!! It was a great experience! Most of us just conversed throughout the night. Some of us slept, but very few. A group behind us watched movies and read books.

The doors opened at 6 A.M. Just for us to go down to the Apple store and wait another hour for the Apple store to open. By 6:00 the line had wrapped around the entire block and some 300 people were ready to get their iPhone 4′s! So some people had notice that four Asians (two guys & two girls) that were at the very end of the line, had left a large gap between them and the people in front of them. The only explanation that we could think of was that they were going to try to push their way in once the doors opened. That’s exactly what they did too! Bastards! So, the Apple Sales Associates formed us into two line: “walk ins” and “reserves”. We were 6th in line and now somehow we became about 11th in the “walk-in” line. The four Asians were there in front of us and a large majority of people were giving them strange looks. A big argument broke out. Their defense was “first come, first served”. I spoke with an associate just to be told, “We can’t point fingers, sorry”. Fuck that! After playing a few scenarios over in my head a few times, I decided if they can’t do anything, then I will. I claimed my spot back in line. That was the only spark that blazed a fire and many people followed suite. The four Asians probably got pushed back in line to about 15th-20th. Success!! Except that the bitches were still in front of the line. I could only do so much, and I did my part.

I decided to whip my camera out and interview a few people. I asked Leon, a cool Russian guy in front of me, “What do you think about these people trying to cut?” “I think it’s unfair, we waited in line all night, and they think they can come this morning and just cut–” we were interrupted by an outraged iPhone “all-nighter”. “–DEATH TO LINE CUTTERS!! I get a little cranky when I don’t get my sleep”. The Apple employees then started handing out tickets, blue for 32GB and red for 16GB. I got a blue & my fiancé got a red.

It wasn’t long before all the Apple employees were out and counting down: ten-nine….five….three-two-one!! Applause from everyone! They pulled down three curtains that were hiding a huge iPhone 4 display. They started letting customers in one at a time, about 6-10 pre-orders to every walk-in. This seemed to be the only organized part about the morning. So we ended up being about the 30th to 35th people to actually walk into the store. We were out before we knew it with our iPhone 4′s and nothing else mattered!! Don’t think we’ve let these devices out of our hands since we got them. It was all worth it! Thank You Apple store in the Pioneer Place mall in Portland for a thrilling experience!