I was at my local Best Buy and asked about the Note 2 on Sprint. The guy checked a few things and said that while he doesn't have an in store date yet, and while the inventory system also comes up blank as of now, the system did allow him to take pre orders. Needless to say, I was the first one. I plunked down $50 bucks, got a gift card and a confirmation printout saying that I will be contacted as soon as the phone arrives at the store. After doing this, I went to 2 of the 3 local Sprint stores in town, non of which are corporate stores. Neither one of them have had any N2s but the both said they will get them in stock in 2 days, meaning by Wednesday. There was no pre order possible, it was all first come first serve. Also, as others have reported in other posts, if you want to buy the phone outright (like myself), you're out of luck, only new customers or upgrade eligible customers can buy from these 2 particular stores. The guy in the bigger of the two stores even suggested me buying the phone at Best Buy.
I am not sure what they are thinking with this launch. It's pretty botched up in my book. There should have been an ad blitz before the firm launch date with availability of the product through all channels, not just a lucky few independent stores with the rest of the stock distributed by corporate Sprint stores. Is it a supply issue from Samsung? Does one end of the supply chain not talk to the other? Isn't the goal to sell as many phones as possible and do it as quickly as possible while the phone is being anticipated by eager customers, and is remembered by it's good reviews? Sometimes I don't understand the tech industry. They did a good job with the S3, and just half a year later, it seems like the Note 2 is the first popular phone they're trying to sell.
Anyways, since I am bored waiting for my phone to show up, I figured I'd share this.
I am not sure what they are thinking with this launch. It's pretty botched up in my book. There should have been an ad blitz before the firm launch date with availability of the product through all channels, not just a lucky few independent stores with the rest of the stock distributed by corporate Sprint stores. Is it a supply issue from Samsung? Does one end of the supply chain not talk to the other? Isn't the goal to sell as many phones as possible and do it as quickly as possible while the phone is being anticipated by eager customers, and is remembered by it's good reviews? Sometimes I don't understand the tech industry. They did a good job with the S3, and just half a year later, it seems like the Note 2 is the first popular phone they're trying to sell.
Anyways, since I am bored waiting for my phone to show up, I figured I'd share this.
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