When the iPhone 4 was first released in Canada back on July 30th, we were on vacation in Calgary. To be more precise we were driving from Banff back to Calgary on that day. I remembered the night before thinking naively that we could simply visit Rogers resellers along the way to pickup two phones, one for myself and one for my wife. Of course we now know that was an effort in futility. The phones were all sold out. We even went to the Market Mall and found the line up at the Apple Store was stupendously long. We gave up our quest and decided to pursue the phone in Toronto instead.
Back in Toronto the month of August was spent religiously calling Rogers resellers and Rogers store in our neighborhood. My wife even put our names on a waiting list at a Costco stand. When we realized that we have to lineup to get one and Rogers was not going to offer it online, I remember that was just a silly thing for a big company to put their customers through in this day and age of the Internet. In short we gave up.
In September, we went on vacation in the Far East and found the same inventory shortage to be the same in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and China. You can buy one in the grey market for $1000+, but why when we can get it back in Canada for $159?
So coming back to Canada in October, thinking that there will certainly be inventory relief by now. Nope! Again my wife intermittently search for the evasive phone at resellers. At this point I was about to give up and just wait for the next version in July. Suddenly last Friday, my wife called from Future Shop that they had two! My wife got a 16GB one without much issue but my number was turned down for the hardware upgrade eligibility program, even when their web site told me that my phone was eligible. Very frustrating. I got on the phone with Rogers customer support. During the call the inventory was out at Future Shop.
To the CSR credit, Virginia helped me to escalate the matter and Philip the manager promised me that one will be mailed out to me at the promotional pricing. My sincere thanks to them for their assistance in the matter.
So this is where I stand now. My wife has one and I’m waiting for one in the mail. I honestly cannot remember when was the last time we tried so hard to buy something. I guess on the plus side, we did not have to lineup for hours. We simply refuse to. After all it is just a phone. Fingers crossed that my phone will get here.
