I’ll bet there are a few stories like this around, but here’s mine. I’m actually typing this up to send to Garry over at Autumn Skies, so if you’re reading this and are in a similar boat, do let him know.

I ordered an iPhone from Carphone Warehouse on Thursday afternoon, but heard nothing. I called them Friday night, and they told me there was a problem with the orders, and they weren’t going through. The best thing I could do, they said, was to go to the store on Friday morning if I really wanted one.

I got up at 5:30am on Friday, headed off down to the local Carphone Warehouse, and joined the other person in line. Nice chap, totally non-techie, non-gadgety, but loves his iPhone. Fair enough.

By the time the store opened at 9:02, there were twenty people in line. The first four of us got 16gb iPhones. Well, number four was told there were only three 16gb devices in stock when he got to the tills, despite earlier being told there were four. After complaining, the fourth device magically appeared. It had “accidentally” been placed in the reserved bin. Later, the assistant manager would actually confess, and reveal it had been put by for a colleague in another store. Naughty.

I left the store at 10:10. It took over and hour for O2′s credit checking systems to catch up. I paid my money (quite a bit actually, 16gb phone, Jawbone headset, new case), and took my new device to work. I didn’t play with it at work, it stayed in the car.

Around lunchtime, I got an email from Carphone Warehouse telling me my web order was shipping. I called them, and was told they couldn’t see my order. Nothing they could do. I called the store, who could see the order, and called their retail helpline to get it cancelled. Which they did.

I got home and tried to activate my phone. I couldn’t even pull down the iTunes 7.7 update from Apple as their servers were, at that point, crumbling under the stress of launching in the US (and 21 other countries).

Finally I got iTunes downloaded, installed, and tried to activate my phone. After three attempts, the iTunes part went OK. The phone flashed up a message saying “a signal is required to complete activation message”. Odd, as I had no service.

My Dad came over with his O2 iPhone. Service was fine.

The following day I called O2. Apparently they knew nothing about my number, and I should call Carphone Warehouse. I did, and was told to come down to the store.

In store, they called O2, who said there was a backlog, and that I’d be activated by midnight on Saturday. If I wasn’t, said the assistant manager, come back Sunday and I’ll “force it through”. He also pointed out that there was a credit note on my account for the amount I’d paid for the previous web order. They’d cancelled it, yes, but not refunded the money. I was told to call them to ask for a refund, but couldn’t get through when I got home.

After being advised by O2 and Carphone Warehouse to toggle the phone off and on every hour or so, and doing this with no change in my “No Service” status overnight, I called O2 again. Still no sign of the number, told to talk to Carphone Warehouse again. They did say all should be well by 6pm tonight though.

I returned to Carphone Warehouse. Asked them about the “No Service” problem, and they called their retail helpline again. Whilst on the phone, I asked them to find out about getting my refund. Apparently, now it’s a credit note, the only way to get it back is a cheque. Which could take 28 days. Annoying.

Their retail helpline suggested calling O2 again. Which they did. O2 still don’t have my number, but claim activation should happen tonight, before midnight. They can’t be sure of anything, don’t have my number on the system, and don’t actually know that there’s any paperwork coming through or anything.

The store can’t “force it through”, O2 have no idea when anything’s going to happen, and I have what is essentially an iPod Touch that I can’t do anything with. They’ve said to come back tomorrow if nothing happens, but reports online suggest that it could be as late as Thursday before anything happens.

It looks like O2, Carphone Warehouse, and Apple have all failed miserably during the launch of the 3g. In addition, Apple managed to knacker first generation iPhones with the 2.0 update, as activation wasn’t possible after the upgrade. My Dad’s device was bricked for a good few hours while Apple’s servers were offline.

I’ll be posting impressions of the App Store, and the iPhone 3g, when O2 and Carphone Warehouse get their act together.