Lumia, Sold out? Really????

[Paolo01]

As you all know, I have been trying to get my hands on a Lumia (two actually) for the entire weekend. I knew that a Sunday Easter rollout would be a mess, however, I was really hoping for the best. I got out of work today and headed to my local ATT wireless corporate store, waited in their electronic queue for twenty minutes, got to the head of the line and low and behold am told that they were completely sold out of Lumia's two hours after opening! What. "How about a Cyan one?" I ask. "No, We sold out of all Lumias. Please try back tomorrow."

So then I called to every ATT corporate store in DC. It was 7:30 pm. All DC area stores are sold out of both black and cyan!

Best I can do is wait for their second shipments whcih some stores are expecting tomorrow.

Two of the five managers stated that they thought that ATT had completely misjudged the first day sales potential of the device and then rolled in with the fumbles Easter roll out, there was quite a bit of expectation this morning.

Aghhh...well, I am still waiting.

[21stNow]

I have to say that AT&T botched this launch and I had hoped for a better performance from them.  First, please explain to me why you would launch a device (actually 2, including the HTC Titan 2) on a day that your stores are closed?  This makes no sense in the business world.

Second, one AT&T store refused to sell me the phone at the no-commitment price.  Help me out here; if I can sell a product for $99 or the exact same product for $449, why wouldn't I choose the higher amount?  Since I just renewed my contract with them last month, they are only theoretically losing a month of revenue by selling it to me versus a new customer.  Considering the $350 difference, I'm still more profitable than a new customer.

*Also posted this on phonedog.com

Paolo, I'm going to send you a private message, as I am in the DC area, as well.

[Paolo01]

Just not great planning if they really wanted to compete with the IPhone. I was pleased to see posters at least in the stores, but no kiosk displays like the IPhone. They did have models out to play with though.

Your retail price story is just funny. I have found with cases like that, you have to make them call ATT central and get permission often.

[EJ86]

It's sold out online, but not @ the stores.

[lsmachado]

They are back in inventory on the AT&T site today. They are available in both colors.

[jph55]

@ 21stNow:

The Easter launch makes no sense whatsoever, but:

$99+($20(minimum) data plan*24 months)=$579

Add in your monthly rate plan and it's over $1700 for two years.  Sell you a no-commitment phone for $449, you go to another carrier and they're out $1300.

[21stNow]

That's the whole point.  I'm on a contract that expires March 2014, so I'm not going anywhere.  The only additional money that they would have gotten from someone that renewed their contract to get the phone would have been one month of revenue (until April 2014).

If AT&T advertises that they sell phones at the no-commitment price (yes, the small print on the in-store placard counts as advertising), then that's what they need to do.