iPhone 3G Customers Cripple O2: Activation systems suffer
Yes there have been many problems and I was included in one of them today (See Here), many O2 customers have reported today that O2’s activation system crashed this morning, we here at Phones Review was there to witness this; they seemed to be having troubles.
Before I go into this news, we must say that O2 Staff at our local branch managed quite well considering the demand, come on you have to take your hats of to them. Some branches obviously cannot cope as well as others.
One reader in West London reported that the manager at their local O2 store said that their computer system for activating the new Apple iPhone 3G handsets has crashed, and this will be the same for all other O2 stores across the country.
Forumistas on hotukdeals reported similar problems in the Midlands and across the country.
Many customers are furious that they are waiting in queues for so long, many customers said can they come back and get their iPhone’s later, but O2 are operating a first come, first served program.
Some O2 staff members re-considered this as they were confronted by angry customers, the store manger at the London store let customers fill in some paper work and take their unactivated phones.
O2 surely should have seen this mayhem coming, they have had long enough to realise the demand for these phones, what surprises me is in some Carphone Warehouse stores where the are selling these phones only had two staff, yes two, which is pretty pathetic.
The O2 activation system crashed which tells me their server could not cope with the pressure, they should have upgraded to bigger and better servers for days like today.
Except, according to O2 there is no problem. No problem at all, according to a spokeswoman we tracked down, who just happened to be in the mobefirm’s Oxford Street store. The activation system was up, and had never been down and average transaction times were taking 20 minutes, which was perfectly normal, the spokesperson said. “Customers are coming in and out,” the spokesperson said. This may be at least half right.
The latest news update: Apparently O2 activations take up to 20 minutes per customer.
If you have been queuing, we want to hear of your experiences please.
Comments
4 thoughts on “iPhone 3G Customers Cripple O2: Activation systems suffer”
OK – I need to get a life, I know. a day off at work, queued with 30-40 odd people in front of 02 store in Liverpool, opened 10 am, computer system down, paper work filled in, walked out 10:45 with 16 Gb iphone number 11 of 12, new contract, upgraders left the store without an iphone, I activated mine via itunes at home, waiting until now, 12.07. 1200 (24 hours later), for 02 to activate my SIM card. Answer on O2 phone line: should be by yesterday 1800, answer in store manager: we do our very best, apologies, should be within 24 hours of purchase.
OK. I am patient.
D
i spent 9 hours in my local Apple store before O2 allowed them to perform the signups manually via pen and paper.
joined the queue at 7:45 and was 12th in the queue, left at 17:08 with an unactivated iPhone – which i had to wait a further 4 hours to activate through iTunes, and it still hasn’t got O2 service yet…
o2 system still down, activation of SiM card will take 48 – 72 hours as they told me today … the phone is great as a wifi device, would be good if I could make a phonecall with it, too !
OK, so got my iphone 16GB on Friday. Really excited about getting it, BUT, its now Monday and the SIM card still has not been activated. Rang them about three times every day since purchase, each time I’m given the same old spill, ‘it will be activated by the end of the day, just keep switching it off, then back on to see if you get signal’!! Great, keep doing that, but still not got signal. Don’t really wanna complain to the guys at the call centres, not much they can do really, but feel like something needs to be done. So I have this fantastic bit of tech and still can’t even really see what it can do. Been with orange for years and never really had any issues, but forced to go to O2 to get the iphone 3G. Almost regretting it, plus, not very fair they exclusively own the iphone and can’t prepare for the demand, hopefully they will be a little wiser the next time round!