I had the worst line up experience I've ever had in my life.
Here is how the Vancouver Downtown line up went:
- Arrived at 4:30am and the line goes around the block completely. 500+ people. A good chunk must have been Chinese and they were lining up to pick to send over to mainland China due to the launch delay. Honestly, the launch delay in China grossly inflated the lines and after market price in areas like Vancouver and Hong Kong. This is why I think they need to region lock between China and rest of the world.
- Not a single Apple person comes around until 8am, and only then to pick up garbage. Totally different then the experience I've had at other launches where they run around and psych everyone up and hand out waters / treats / umbrellas if needed.
- It starts raining hard, I have no umbrella (until a friend brought me one), and I'm not wearing a jacket or hoody. By the 4th hour my feet were soaked and they stayed that way until I was done. I also did not bring a chair as every other launch I've gone to I got my phone in 3-4hrs of lining up.
- The line absolutely crawled because they were under staffed and there was confusion around the reservations and there was a lot of people converting from old 3yr contracts to 2yr contracts.
- At every other launch I've been to, around 8am they would go through the line and hand out cards so you knew you were guaranteed a phone. Not only was this assurance you were getting the phone you wanted, or you could just leave if you didn't, but it was also prevented people cutting in (which there was a decent amount of) because if you didn't have your card you had to go to the back of the line.
- Total time was 10 fucking hours. I would have just waited 3-4 weeks if I knew it was going to be like that but there 0 communication and with each hour passing I felt silly for both staying but would feel sillier leaving after having gone through that.
Fuck you Apple Retail Store Management for mis-handling this. And fuck me for not pre-ordering online / actually lining up. Last time.
The phone I got was pretty awesome though.