After announcing on Friday that it was offering the iPhone, Virgin Mobile has already run out of stock.
On the website, red "Out of Stock" banners have appeared across both the 8GB and 16GB offerings.
A spokesperson for Virgin confirmed that the iPhone well had gone dry. "[Virgin] is ultimately out of stock."
There could be a very limited amount of white 16GB iPhones lurking in unspecified Virgin Mobile stores, the spokesperson continued, although finding those will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. "There should be some in Virgin retail stores, but it's really hard to know where they are," the spokesperson said.
The black iPhone has become a very rare breed, according to the spokesperson, with those willing to take a white model instead more likely to have their wish realised.
However, more of the popular phone are expected later this week. "Virgin is getting weekly drops of stock," the spokesperson said, stressing that people can still place orders on the internet, it might just take a while before they receive their phone.
Stock of the hyped device has been limited for all providers, according to the spokesperson. "Everyone's in the same boat."
The spokesperson said that the demand the other sellers had seen meant that Virgin had known stock could be tight. "Considering the actual plans that Virgin has ... I guess they were expecting it."
The spokesperson could not say how many devices the telco had to begin with.
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wlp
04/08/2008 02:16 PM
"There could be a very limited amount of white 8GB iPhones lurking in unspecified Virgin Mobile stores" Yeah... very limited amounts.
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Joey B
04/08/2008 02:19 PM
You mean Black 8GB (8GB didnt come in white) Ok so wheres the outcry from Optus haters about Virgins lack of stock??? The amount of whining crying complainers because Optus sold out quickly and are having issues filling demand is unbelievable. Now their precious "thank god for Virgin" is out of stock too!!! Whatever will they do. Hopefully not go crawling back to Optus because if a customer is trouble from the start they will be trouble for the contract term.
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bowlman
04/08/2008 04:47 PM
JoeyB the problem with Optus was not their lack of stock. Optus from launch day until now has still not adequately informed consumers of their stock levels of the iPhone. When I went to get one they said "err... come in every few days and we'll see if we have any". What kind of customer service is that? At least Virgin had the sense to post "Out Of Stock" on their website as soon as they ran out of stock. Methinks you are an optus employee or something.
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Joey B
04/08/2008 07:00 PM
The Optus Stores are saying what theyve been told to say by their managers. I have worked in customer service before back in my school days and if a manager told us something about a product we have no other option but to believe him and pass it on. If a product couldnt be found - wed ask the manager. He would tell us where it was or when it was due. These employees have copped aLOT of crap for doing their job. Apple is partly to blame for not supplying to optus because the apple store has ample every single day. Does that not tell you where part of the problem lies??? Optus are probably being given dates and delays from Optus themselves. Think about it from other angles as well. As someone who has worked in a shop before I can see where the issue lies and because this is such a big product everyone who missed out wants someone to blame even if the fault lies elsewhere. Contact Apple and ASK why theyre supplying their own store but not carriers. That would be a good starting point. Unfortunate world we live in when a phone is the most important thing in some peoples lives....
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noobist
20/08/2008 09:08 PM
I ordered mine a and it only took less than 1 week to ship (16GB Black) really happy with everything so far, although 3G is quite choppy on the Optus (Virgin) network. Hopefully a firmware update will improve this as it doesn't seem to be a lack of reception for the most part.
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