Did you get your Verizon BlackBerry Storm?
We’ve done a quick check at around 10 Verizon corporate stores in the NY/NJ area with most of them reporting lines longer than they have stock for. That means there’s going to be 1.) A ton of pissed off people, and 2.) More pissed off people who won’t get their unit until tomorrow mid-day or possibly Tuesday. We want to know your experience, and if you did manage to snag a Storm (you lucky dog, you), we want to hear your first impressions! We also have reports that some stores are only selling to brand new Verizon customers and not doing any upgrades, which if true, is pretty disgusting. Hit us up in the comments and help out your fellow BlackBerry addicts, ok? If you just got one but there’s no line at your local store and they have some stock left, share the weath! Plus, if you’ve got a major issue you want to report, you can always hit me on the hip!
@Chris – and yet you’re wasting minutes of your life posting here? Please…
Started my trek at 9:05 after being forced to work the early morning. Hit a VZW store near where I had to work which was 50 miles from my apartment. No luck. Totally disheartened called 3 others. No luck. At this point totally depressed. 9:30 Circuit City going out of business. No luck now just totally pissed. Stopped at best Buy at 9:50 and wonder of wonders they had 1. Read that ONE. I basically had to mug the mobile girl to get it. But I did get it.:). They actually had 4 but 3 of them were spoken for. Ya know what I absolutly love it. not perfect. But close and with an OS upgrade it will shine.
Got to the store at noon in North Haven, CT. They had already sold out. I figured I’d go home and order one online. The website won’t load at all. I’ve been trying for hours and can’t get through. I’m pretty disappointed in Verizon’s lack of preparation for today. I think I might buy an iphone instead.
I went into the Verizon Wireless store, Consumer Square in Big Flats NY this afternoon at 1pm to try to address some billing issues and found that they still had 18 storms in stock, so rather than just dealing with billing issues, i left with a storm as well.
Woo Hoo.
I like this phone, but i am coming from a samsung a930 flip phone. The storm is sweet.
I love reading all these comments. And the people talking shit about people waiting in line need to go somewhere else. They wanted their phone today and figured they wait. Verizon and the stores both screwed up.
I stopped in last night to the VZW store by my house near Flint MI, and the manager told me “We open at 8 and it is 1st come 1st serve. Thats what I’m supposed to say.” During that time 3 people called and asked about it. The manager said the would get in maybe 10, and expected people to be lined up. I showed up at 7:40, nobody there so I went for coffee. Back at 7:50 and there were 3 people waiting in cars(it was 25 degrees out). 8 oclock came, went in, they had 10 and I had one and was out by 8:35. BTW I was an upgrade NE2, not a new contract. It is a pretty cool phone, we will see if the click gets old before my 30 days, but so far it works well for me.
Got mine at 9 oclock at a local mall. They only had 11 units in stock i was third in line. I am absolutly having a blast with this phone… sorry to all those who didnt get one but not sorry to those who showed up when the doors opened and then bitched and complained about why they couldnt get one… heres a tip get there early… ne ways love the phone cant wait to see the second one…
Verizon screwed up–how can they have a major release like this and not have an inventory????????????? I was at the verizon store at 10am and they kept us waiting an hour before announcing that they did NOT have any storms but would put us on a list–screw them i went hoe and ordered it myself–via phone the Great Verizon Fios internet was down and not operating—-i think we need some government intervention and regulation
I’ve had the phone for only a few hours and already I’ve encountered quite a few bugs and glitches. D+
The Camera function keeps coming up in the middle of using the keyboard in landscape mode. D+
The screen needs to be calibrated as it is difficult to activate the keys I’m trying for. D+
Phone freezes up for 30 to 60 seconds every time I click an onscreen button to okay a function. D+
So far, this phone is very slow and ponderous to use for email replies and typing in new contacts. D+
Voice quality and reception is the best I have ever experienced from a Verizon phone in 13 years. A+
Screen scrolling is not nearly as good as the iphone or the HTC Diamond.
Chances are this phone is going back to Verizon by Monday.
KB
I was to get one today but my “authorized” verizon agent did not receive any today by fedex. I trust and like the rep that I usually deal with so i will wait for him so he gets credit for the sale. I am kind of loyal like that. He said they should have their first shipment no later than tuesday, if not on monday. I CAN’T wait. The storm is exactly what I have been waiting for…
Finally I found a store close enough (Burlington, MA) who had some stock and I went to get one. The person working there looked up my account and said I was not eligible and couldn’t get one….even if I wanted to pay retail for it! Meanwhile, if I ordered over the phone, they were (and did) going to give me the contract price plus rebate, except their system wasn’t working and couldn’t process the order. Its really BS when you want to upgrade to a new phone and a new plan with money in hand but are refused because of a marketing ploy. I finally got one ordered via phone, but I was told it wont ship until Dec 5 because they didn’t get my order processed until after 2pm. So I spent all day trying to get one, but because of stupid policies and a failing VZW computer system, I can’t get one until DEC. VZW=FAIL today. FYI for anyoine looking to go out and get one, its taking about an hour to process a single transaction because their system is failing.
Nanuet, NY store did a great job of calming the masses. Staff was friendly, helpful and patient – they even handed out hot chocolate. The bummer is that system is down so even if you have a phone they cannot complete the purchase.
In LA they sold out of phones in less than an hour in a small suburban VZ store. Being on a waiting list from September didn’t matter. Pointless, except you got a friendly call and Verizon already emailed the entire planet. The Verizon Store couldn’t reserve phones or preorder the correct amount. Opened at 7am and it was a zoo.
New BB Storm will ship for Saturday delivery by 3pm via Fedex. And the stores will get more shipped on Saturday.
Heard by 10am PST that phones were backordered for shipping for Monday or Tuesday. So if you were promised a phone on Saturday, it might not arrive until Monday or Tuesday.
Storm Price was $199 since the mail-in rebate and shipping costs were waved.
Check the Sales Tax they charged. In LA, it is 8.25% of the full MSRP ($500 or is it $599) not the $250 Storm discounted price. That is pretty much illegal. So call Verizon and complain. Would you pay tax on full MSRP for a car if you got it at invoice. No Sir.
There is no leather case, but the 8GB SD card is included. They had two BB holsters and 2 plastic hard cases and gels.
The OS SW on the BB Storm demo units was really bad to be almost unusable. You couldn’t do anything. I think they fixed the touch UI interface and I could type my long Italian Name, almost.
But the rep warmed to download the lateest Storm Firmware online. I think this will be like the iPhone with constant SW firmware OS updates.
The staff at the Verizon Store was already sporting Storm’s so the low inventory is probably due to the Staff buying them for themselves yesterday.
Verizon and RIM know they screwed up and tried to make inventory available by shipping units in the next day or two or three. That is why phone releases on a Friday are STUPID!!
Rock On…
Picked mine up this morning after getting there at 7 am waiting in line for i hour. there were already 10 people in line after the doors open up there were 30 people behind me. after another 45min i was on my way out the door there were people still rushing in. the storm seems to work pretty will for the most part.
p.s don,t trust everybody comments go check it out for yourself i am glad i did.
Memphis Verizon store had 10. TEN???
Say it with me people:
F
A
I
L
Salisbury, MD…store had 100. i decided NOT to wait in line and go to work. I made 800.00 woohooo!!!!
Anyway I went to verizon store at 3:30 because they said they still had 40 left!
The reason??? System was down all day and couldnt sell any, so thanks to all the impatient “I hate everything” and “chronic complainers”, the store put 1 in a bag for me and will call when the system is running.
Thank you all!
word is unit wont get shipped until Dec 5
the storm will be my first blackberry ever. right now, i have the LG chocolate.
i actually called verizon corporate to see if i could apply my $100 off ANY phone coupon towards the storm, and the representative said i could. she then continued to tell me i could order one through corporate and receive 30% off accessories. it was an offer i couldn’t refuse, so i agreed.
storm for $99.99, holster, screen protector, and silicone skin delivered to my office on monday. free shipping…
good job, verizon
Verizon Store in Bridgewater, NJ… only had like 30 but waited anyway, then they got in a shipment of like 50.
Too bad systems were slow, it probably took about 45 min PER PERSON to set them up. Some it took 2.5 hours.
Unreal.
I just stopped at a Verizon store and played with one. In Schenectady, NY. I have to say I am a little dissapointed. I ended up leaving without buying it. I think many of the reviews hit it right on. I know people thought the G1 didn’t live up to the hype but I’m more let down by the Storm. I didn’t care for the touchscreen and there was just enough of a delay between actions to piss me off while playing with it.I like the Bold much better but I think I have finally made up my mind and am going with the G1.
I went to the VZW store in South County (MO) and picked up a Storm today. I love it. The guys in the store were great and they answered all my questions. The Storm is awesome. The video quality is great and I got my email set up in no time. It took me a little while to get used to the surepress, but now I love it. You use the light touch to navigate and press the screen to select (that’s really the same as we have all been doing with the trac ball, but instead of rolling to what you want and pressing the ball, now you highlight what you want and press the screen.)
I do get some sluggishness at times, but I’m confident a software flash will fix that. I do see a choice for “wireless upgrade” under my advanced options, so the updates must be over the air.
I love the Storm, glad to be with Verizon!
I went to my local store in Owasso, OK and they only recieved 10 units, but this is due to Verizon Wireless being a very new player to this market and literally everyone is a AT&T subscriber. Any rate, I got mine at 10:30AM and they still had 2 left.
Initial impression is everything I hoped, but they have work to do with the OS for the delayed type response and screen transitions. I suspect it must be an issue with the early batches that have been mentioned in the news.
Overall, nice device.
BREAKING NEWS….
More people want to buy this then there are units available. Just like EVERY anticipated electronic device in the last 10 years. If anybody really expected it to be easy to get one on launch day they must have been in a coma for the last decade or so.
See also: launch of G1, iPhone, Xbox360, PS3, Wii, the list goes on…
I drove by my local corporate store this morning and it wasn’t crowded about half an hour before it opened. DIdn’t affect me anyway because I had no real need to buy it in-store and walk out with it. Some of the stories I’ve read are pretty nuts.
Anyway, I called up the store from work to check in, because I was on a preorder list (I didn’t make the cut incidentally). I asked how the crowd was and they said there was no crowd at all, because only the people who were guaranteed the phone came in to get it, the rest I suppose were just instantly sent away. I guess it’s a personal management thing that varies from store to store and the guys around here did it right.
However, there was a bit of connivery on their part: They said that I can go into the store to get the phone today if I was to activate a completely new plan, i.e. get out of my family share plan. I didn’t go through with it because I wouldn’t be able to keep my present number because of “assumption of liability”
… I’ll continue the story in the next post
So I set about buying it online. The site was damn slow as expected. So I did what few people are doing: I CALLED UP VERIZON AND BOUGHT IT OVER THE PHONE!!
So many people are obsessed with getting this phone today that they won’t actually use A phone to call up and buy it. I’m getting my phone on Monday. I can live without it for this weekend.
The reason why the online site is so slow is because there are thousands of people trying to buy it which slows up the server, which in turn times out your account because of security reasons.
ALso, the reason why the stores are understocked is because of a email warehouse flaw with verizon.