Video: Applauded — and roughed up — in the iPhone 3G line

How I wish that New York had the running of the bulls… aimed at all those idiots standing in line for a stupid cell phone. While I deplore such barbaric traditions, I always pull for the bulls. Please, hurt them bad bulls.

thats roughed up? that is a standard hello in NYC.

That was “roughed up” the way this column is “journalism.”

ex ped: If you prefer, I believe the technical term is “frogmarched.”

“Roughed up”?

Dude…that was so *far* from “roughed up” as to not even be in the same ballpark. You need to get out more.

there is nothing wrong with at&t’s customer service - it’s no worse than verizon or tmobile IMO (and yes, I have or my family has had them both.)

what a douche move taking daniel out of line when he has been hyping up that event for over a week now. this wouldn’t have gone down anywhere else.

So, since AT&T’s support is not unique to any locale…I’m curious as to what previous dealings people have had.

Anyway, I’ve been a customer of Cingular/AT&T Wireless for 13 years now, and have had a great experience. So far, my iPhone 3G absolutely rocks. Great battery (I’m in a non-3G area..though), GPS is VERY quick. It did suck that the iTunes Activation servers went down, but I was activated and syncing by 1:15 PM EDT on Friday…so I just had to wait at work for about 4 hours with a bricked phone.

Yeah, the guy with the apples is a bit of a ‘fruit’, but definitely harmless. Just having a good time.

The security guard should definitely get reprimanded…that was done in bad taste.

Yeah, the employees are *forced*, but several would have done so without being asked…just for the fun of it.

Apple is amazing on building hype, and have a terrific OS, but definitely needs to listen to their customers more carefully.

Okay there are a few observations to be communicated to the world -
1) Apple sure knows how to market and build anticipation
2) People are dumb enough to actually wait in line for days to buy an electronic device that (like everything else) will be obsolete within a year
3) The guy being moved out of the line was interviewed on TV and was in my opinion “a bit out there” BUT harmless.
4) The security guard is totally unprofessional and should be fired. He has no place in security.
5) The apple store employees are made to stand around and applaud - how degrading for them!
6) Can anyone say Lemming?

I want an iPhone so bad I can taste it! I have the money in the bank and an Apple Store just down the road…

but would never buy one that is linked to AT&T.
I would not sign that outrageous contract and be dependent on AT&T for service and AT&T has nothing but problems with customer service. I would not be an AT&T customer if you gave me the iPhone for free.

wow the roughing up was far over exaggerated in the blog, thats nothing..

might i also add that after that security guard grabbed daniel and dragged him out of line, he pushed the rest of us WHOFarmers aside and yelled at everyone behind us to walk by us and go into the store. And after all of that, sadly, I left the Apple store iPhone-free.

I waited in line this AM but had to bail out about 9:30 to go to work. Obviously, I didn’t get close to getting a phone. The Apple people were absolutely top drawer, handing out free coffee and water and answering questions.

Anyway, it occurred to me that most of the problems came about as a result of the need to register people into the AT&T system. Once again, this “interface” between Apple and AT&T is betraying some of the underlying stresses and strains of trying to straddle two different technologies and bring them together, and at the same time keep the business people happy.

Most people seem to be ready to show some patience over all this, but there are a few “bad apples” (sorry about the pun) that are intent on complaining. That’s their right, but to be fair it all needs to be kept in context.

IMHO.

Phil: Why did you change the order of comments to this article? At 4:01 PM the only comment showing was the one from Toni posted at 3:59.

ex ped: I don’t change the order, but sometimes they get backed up before I get a chance to approve them for posting.

I wouldn’t say anyone was being “roughed up” . . . The security guy was probably just nervous (NYC, big event, media, lots of people) and so overly cautious. Things happen. Daniel’s post below is cool. Peace. iPhone 3g rocks, App store especially rocks!

Download Super Monkey Balls when the App store is back up and you’ll know why iPhone is the best. There’s a game called iMetroid that’s cool.

Roughed up? Who are you trying to kid? That was the gentlest escort removal I’ve ever seen. What if he had tried to pull the same stunt on a tour of the Fortune building? Would Fortune have gladly let this clown do whatever it looked like he intended to do? Get a grip: some people are flakes.

Daniel Bowman: grow up. When you come to my house with a basket of potential mischief, I’ll ask you to leave as well. You’re free to carry your basket with you, but you have no RIGHT to carry your missiles into my place of business. You got off easy, creep.

only in america!

WOW…They really roughed him up and all because he wanted to set up a fruit stand inside the Apple store…Give me a break!

This was a simple misunderstanding so far as I am concerned. We’d been eating NYS apples all week long and had awesome relations with the 24-hour Aple Store staff. I was bringing in my American flag and a bucket of apples to share with the Apple staff, as a gesture of our appreciation — as I’d told some Apple employees leading up to the event.

Ron Johnson (Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at Apple Computer) apologized to me about the scuffle as TheWhoFarmers finally left the Apple Store with phones for us and for Barack Obama and John McCain. We agreed it was EXTREMELY bad judgment on the part of one private security guard (who wore no name tag, but had been barking orders all morning long.) And that bygones will be bygones.

Let’s all hope that whoever the guy who pushed me learned something from that experience. I’m not sure exactly I learned, but I’m sure it was something. (I’m still QUITE sleep deprived.

All in all, it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. And now, I will take my first shower since TheWhoFarmers started WaitingForApples!

Feeling groovy (and grimy)
Daniel Bowman Simon

P.S. Don’t forget, the petition for The White House Organic Farm is now live at wwww.TheWhoFarm.org