I wandered to the local o2 store today to get an iPhone. I was reasonably keen to get one because I have been without a mobile for some weeks (my Nokia keyboard died while I was in India after some months of misbehaving) and have put off replacing it waiting for the new iPhone.

The store was due to open at 8:02 AM and I got there about 30 minutes early. I was the sixth person in the queue. About 10 more arrived after me. About one third of them already had iPhones and were, I think, upgrading to 3G and GPS.

However, the systems failed to operate. Only two customers managed to leave the store with their iPhones (after about 30 minutes) after being processed manually (i.e., paper forms and phone calls) before the store stopped processing all iPhone sales. In addition, there was no stock of 16GB iPhones (some customers appeared to have reserved them earlier in the week). My name was taken and I have been promised a call when 16GB models are in stock and the systems are running.

I’ve also been trying to get a BT line for my broadband (I like to use Zen Broadband, which runs over BT, because they offer public IP addresses) . Unfortunately, its impossible to know how this is progressing, BT’s ordering system was down Saturday through to Tuesday. I placed the order anyway (I presume they simply noted my details). Today (this is now 7 working days since the system went down), I called and the ordering system was still not available to check on the status of my order.

It doesn’t give one much faith.