Editor’s Note: This is written by a friend of mine, Caitlin Woodward, who spent countless hours trying to find an iPad 2 here in Memphis.
I’m that person who picked out a specific model. Looking for a black 32GB AT&T. My dad wants the same model.
It seems like AT&T are the popular ones. On launch day, the first thing they ran out of was AT&T ones, about a dozen people in front of me. Right then, I ordered one from Apple.com, it said it was going to ship Apr 1, deliver by Apr 6. Talked to my dad a short bit after that, he stopped at the Apple Store in Oklahoma City to see if they happened to have anything, but they only had a few tickets left, all were Verizon.
The main reason I was playing this dumb chasing the iPad game, was because I wanted it before I visited my family in OKC at the end of the month. I really wanted to have it before then, so I could play with my dad about iPad apps and such. (He’s borrowing a 1st gen from his school; so he’s already started playing with apps and such.) Otherwise I would have given up after a few tries and just waited for my shipment.
I tried on Saturday, but line was capped by the time I got there (around 10ish). Went back on Monday morning, around 9ish? Was still under the impression we’d be lining up for the 11–1 shipment that day. I was told that they weren’t getting any shipments that day, but they were opening early at 9 to sell the next day’s shipment. This made me think that they were saving one days shipment, and selling it the next morning. Kinda confirmed this with blogs talking about this being new policy.
What annoyed me, though, is they still said they got morning shipments in. I really wanted to be able to call the previous night and see what models they were going to have, to know if I needed to go the next morning.
Over the week, I tried to get up early to make it out there. I soon realized I had to be out of the house around 5:15, to be there by 6, to be early in line. Had to be one of the first in case they only had like 10 in that day; wanted to make sure I didn’t lose out of the model I wanted. People would start lining up at 6, and then around 8:30, an employee would come out and tell us what they had to sell that day. Here’s what someone from the MacRumors forums posted about the Apple Store availability, he said he had been there every morning:
- Tuesday: All WiFi
- Wednesday: some WiFi some Verizon
- Thursday: All WiFi
- Friday: WiFi, Verizon and 4 AT&T
- Saturday: All WiFi
Reading stuff in forums, AT&T were of the last to ship, and many people were reporting not seeing any being sold in the morning lines.
I was there on Saturday morning, got there around 6, already 15th in line. Some people behind me were obviously scalpers, discussing which models were going to make them the most money. I think my dad tried that morning, too, in OKC. All they had was WiFi and Verizon there.
I haven’t been able to wake up around 5 since then to make it out there. I still kept tabs on what they got in that day (by calling the Apple Store to check trends).
I didn’t know what time to line up on Sunday, and I knew they weren’t going to have anything on Monday (no shipments on Sunday). Didn’t wake up in time yesterday, but was told they had some AT&T, but no black 32 GB.
Got a message from the MacRumors forum guy, he said that he got one from Best Buy in Jackson, that they had a ton of 32 GB and 64 GB AT&T. Called them, they told me that they have five 32 GB models left, in AT&T and black. Sweet. So I dashed out there. Called again, halfway there, and was told that they still had five left. Arrived, and then I was told that they never actually had any AT&T black, only Verizon black, and all the AT&T they had that day was in white. Sigh. Should’ve guessed the BB incompetence, but whatever.
I didn’t go this morning. Just kind of tired of searching by now. But! The iPad 2 I ordered online showed up yesterday — 2 days earlier than the date Apple had previously given me!