After yesterday’s debacle, I emailed O2’s CEO Matthew Key. There was no ranting from me, just a query to see if I will be able to buy a new iPhone on Friday. The emails are detailed in full after the “Read More” link, but here’s my summary of their response:
- New orders available from Apple, O2 and CPW stores
- Upgrades available from O2 and CPW stores
- We knew there was massive demand, but Apple didn’t give us enough to cover it
- If you don’t get one on Friday, we aren’t getting any more for a week
- Who would’ve thought the websites would get absolutely hammered?
I sympathise with the websites getting hit for 13,000 order submissions a second, but if you know there’s going to be massive demand, then you max out both the technological backend and fix the process so that orders are staggered. Come on, isn’t O2 a comms company?
I do appreciate that O2 responded to me, and that there wasn’t too much PR evasiveness in their reply. I knew that demand will still be high and stock low on Friday, so I’ll still be getting up early.
Read on for the letters in full.
UPDATE: Others have received exactly the same response.
My email to O2:
Dear Mr. Key
Despite many attempts on the O2 upgrades website, I was unable to submit my upgrade order for the 16Gb 3G iPhone today.
The main O2 website states that customers with the current iPhone can only upgrade online. However, I have had conflicting statements from O2 employees concerning whether I will be able to upgrade in-store on Friday morning.
Could you please confirm whether I will be able to upgrade to a 3G iPhone in-store on Friday morning?
Thanks for your time.
The reponse from O2’s Sales Director:
Thank you for your email. Matthew has asked me as O2 Sales Director responsible for iPhone to reply on his behalf. Up front, I would like to apologise for the disappointing and frustrating experience you had yesterday on our online shop.
At O2 we had said that we would keep all those who had registered their interest in Apple iPhone 3G up to date with the launch developments. We also used the registration data to keep Apple up to date on the phenomenal interest and to support our orders for the phones with them.
We have been working continuously with them to get as much stock for the UK as possible. Unfortunately, they have only been able to supply a small proportion of the number of phones we asked for, because they are launching simultaneously in 22 countries. We are confident that over time we will start to get sufficient volume to meet demand, but it is likely that stock will be in very short supply for some weeks to come.
We opened the online shop yesterday, having only told those who had registered that it was available, to give them a chance to be one of the first to get their hands on the iPhone. This also meant that successful orders could be delivered to customers’ homes on the same day as the retail high street launch, 11th July. To put it in context we had over 200,000 people expressing interest and only a very small proportion of that number of devices available. Faced with this dilemma, we made it clear in the communications that to be fair to all customers the orders would be managed on a first come first served basis, as stock was limited. The response was so great that the online store completely sold out of iPhones within just a few hours.
We did also take steps to ensure our own customers were not disadvantaged by providing a stock allocation for them. We took as many upgrades orders from O2 customers as we did from the customers of all the other networks put together.
We run one of the busiest and most robust web stores in the UK. I appreciate that it is little comfort to you given your experience, but we had invested heavily to add a huge amount of additional capacity, 250 times its normal rate, and back-up systems. We tested this carefully in advance. The massive simultaneous crush, partly created by our open and honest communications approach with the registered community, exceeded even our worst case assumptions. Demand was at 13,000 orders per second. Frankly, we have to admit we just weren’t prepared for this unprecedented level of demand. No website is.
The next opportunity to get an iPhone will be when the device goes on sale in the high street on 11th July. O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores will be taking new orders and upgrade orders. Apple stores will only be taking new customer contracts. Most shops will open at 8.02am but some stores, particularly in shopping centres where early access is not possible, will open as usual from 9am. The approach on Friday will also be on a first come first served basis. The amount of devices will vary depending on the store but will be on average a few dozen iPhones in
each O2 or CPW store. We are expecting early queues and, like the online site, are expecting to sell out very quickly. Apple stores will have more devices. We will be receiving deliveries from Apple roughly once a week for the foreseeable future but it will be several weeks before stocks increase. We will release stock updates for the online shop as they become available.I am sorry that you haven’t been successful in getting your hands on the new iPhone and once again I would like to apologise that the experience you had wasn’t as we wanted or you deserve. All I can do is reassure you that we will continue to work closely with Apple to get as much stock as possible for the UK. We will also continue to use the principle of first come first served as stock becomes available for both online and in our stores as we feel that is the best way to be fair and equitable to the many tens of thousands of other customers also desperate to get one.
Thank you
Stephen Shurrock
Sales Director
O2