My first smartphone was the original Droid. I had been a Verizon customer since the company first merged in 2000 and absorbed my contract. I was tempted by the early iPhone, but when my cell provider was going to offer a smartphone that would seamlessly integrate with all of the Google products I was using already, I took the jump.
The phone was great, and I eventually upgraded to a Droid 3 when it was time to re-up my contract. Over the past few months, however, my phone was hanging a great deal. It couldn't handle all of the processes that I was asking of it, and it's 3g speeds were feeling a bit stifling. I have lost count of how many times I had to pull the battery out of the back in order to force a reset.
While my technical frustrations were mounting, I became more aware of just how much I was being gouged by Verizon on the monthly family plan that I shared with my wife. It became clear that dumping Verizon and going with a pre-paid plan was going to save us a ton of money. The hitch was that I was still under contract, so I'd be on the hook for a pretty hefty early termination fee. Also, a prepaid plan requires one to pay the full (unsubsidized) price for a phone. I'm not one to skimp on my toys, so I was looking at forking over around $700 for a premium device. I would then have to double that figure because I probably could not get away with getting a great phone for me and a brick for my wife. So the cost of two new phones and early termination fees were keeping me reluctantly handcuffed to Verizon.
Then Google announced the Nexus 4. I will admit that it is not an iPhone5 nor a Galaxy S3 (depending on if you're into werewolves or vampires), but at $350, I could buy two for the price I would have to shell out for just one of those other phones. The Nexus 4 would certainly be a huge improvement over the Droid 3 I was ready to throw against the wall at any moment.
So that was the nudge I needed to jump from Verizon. At that price, I would actually be saving money by getting new phones and switching plans. I doggedly tracked Nexus news online and was ready to pounce when it went on sale.
Rumors came out that the phone would go on sale at midnight Pacific time, on November 13th It would only be available from Google's online store, however. I'm on the East Coast, so that meant 3am for me. I knew there was a lot of buzz about this phone, so I set an alarm and was ready to mash the refresh icon on my browser. (I wanted to live like an iPhone fanatic for a while.) The rumors turned out to be partly true .. the phone went on sale in England, Germany, and Australia, but not in the U.S. Just as it became clear that I got up at a God-awful hour for no reason, something weird appeared to be going on. The Internet was glowing with reports from where the Nexus was on sale; it sold out in just minutes. How was that possible?
Another bit a news popped up before my groggy eyes that morning. The U.S. sale of the Nexus was scheduled to open at noon Pacific time later that day, 3pm for me. I knew it would be a race.
I was at work and slipped into my desk at 2:55pm. I gave myself a few minutes to get comfy, load the page, and start the refresh process. The problem was that Google's servers were already overloaded. They put the phone on sale early. I didn't have a chance, and before I could even get Google's page for the Nexus to actually load, it had sold out. I was a little bitter at Google at that moment. It wasn't really their fault that I got up so early, but clearly they were having trouble with the online retail side of their operation. They also had a fair amount of warning from what happened in smaller markets earlier in the day. It was hard to believe that Google, of all companies, could not get an online market to handle a high demand and did not have enough product on hand to at least last an hour.
It took two weeks for Google to get the Nexus 4 back in stock and make it available for order once again. It was to be November 27th, again at noon Pacific time. There was the same buzz online as before. People were bitter that they could not get their phone when it first went on sale, and it was clear that there would be another rush when the gates opened. Google, however, had weeks to revamp their servers and handle the flood.
So let's see how it went.
I got to my desk (even earlier this time) and Google had not released the phone, yet. After clicking and refreshing for over an hour, however, it became clear that Google could not handle the demand for this phone once again:
I had never been so frustrated trying to buy anything in my life. All I wanted to do was give them my money, and they would not let me (Sorry, I'm not that big of a Futurama fan, so I'll leave the obligatory meme photo out.)
The best thing I did that day was to eventually get the phones I was able to click on into my online cart. I could not process the order, but I had to walk away from the computer and actually address the rest of my life. When I went back to my computer around 8:00 that night, I saw from my news feeds that the Google store had eventually calmed down and was now accepting orders. I went back to my cart and ordered the two phones, and much to my relief, I was able to pay. Better yet, I was placed on a 2-4 week shipping notice, instead of the 9-10 week notice some people were reporting.
The phones arrived two weeks later, on December 12th, and I was pretty excited. I still cannot shake how distasteful this whole experience was, though. Hours of my life were wasted to get my hands on these things. What is amazing, is that the phone is STILL SOLD OUT. If I were not so determined to get these things, I'd still be throwing money at Verizon and using a clunkier phone.
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