Oh dear. The iPad 2’s UK “launch” – if you can call it that – doesn’t seem to be going very well at all. Earlier on I bemoaned the fact that the estimated shipping time online started at 2-3 weeks.
Well, as if that wasn’t bad enough, grumblings on ye olde interweb suggest that attempting to buy an iPad 2 last night simply wasn’t possible.
Customers who stayed up late and weren’t put off by the potential 2-3 week wait found themselves stuck in a loop on the online Apple Store. When attempting to make payment, an error message was displayed, reading: “Oops! An error has occurred during your session. Please return to the Store Menu to continue shopping.”
Great stuff. Apparently the issue was resolved at some point in the wee hours, and orders are now going through sans problemo.
However, the estimated shipping time has now crept up to 3-4 weeks for all 12 models. That now puts us on a par with the Americans, who face an identical wait. Methinks some UK allocation has found its way across the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, it sounds like we’ve been treated to a mere trickle of units on the high street. Pocket-lint discovered that Phones4U has just one unit per store. One unit!
Wouldn't it have made sense, in the interest of customer satisfaction, to push the release date back? Or, better still, to have chosen a more realistic date for a full, proper, well-stocked launch in the first place? Clearly Apple doesn't believe in the old adage "under promise and over deliver".
Incredible. Well done, Apple. Hats off to you.
