Third-Party Retailer Sells One Lucky Customer a Galaxy Nexus (also, at least One Best Buy Taking Pre-orders)
Yep, December 9th is here and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus still sits idly on the back room shelves at many a Verizon Wireless retailer. Just because Verizon hasn’t officially released the phone doesn’t mean one customer wasn’t able to snag one, however. An Android Forums user wishing to remain anonymous forwarded along the above image showing what was described as a rather long process that eventually led to a new Galaxy Nexus owner emerging from a Verizon third-party retailer. Here is the account:
“The Story (briefly)
I GOT ONE!
It CAN be done…for now, anyway…
$249.99 (apparently there is a sale on 4G phones…)
I got it from a NON-corporate store. I got there shortly after open (9am) and was the only person in the store. There was one sales associate. A very helpful individual. Chatty and eager to help, but seemed clumsy like a recent hire. The associate mentioned just coming back from some off-site training that took several days. As soon as I walked in the door, s/he asked if I was the person that had the Nexus reserved. I said Yes, of course, and was poised for the killing blow. Remarkably, s/he walked to the back room and grabbed a small white box with a post-it note on it. It was a GNex! Instead of telling me it wasn’t available yet, s/he opened up the box and started scanning! This was actually gonna happen!And then, a snag.
And yet another.
And another.I don’t know what all the problems were, but the associate had to make like four phone calls to get the system to accept the phone and SIM. After the system accepted everything, we booted the phone and inititalized everything. I verified voice, voicemail, and data. Then when the associate tried to ring it up, the system wouldn’t accept payment!
At this point, we’ve been at it for an hour and a half and there are four other customers behind me complaining.The associate finally rings me up manually (or so I assume, based on the mumbling…) and then I RAN!”
For now the user remains the proud owner of a new Galaxy Nexus. For one not-so-lucky buyer, the same can’t be said. AF member SamMax was able to purchase the phone after similar problems getting the phone to register in a third-party retailer’s checkout system, but upon arriving home discovered several missed calls and texts from the store. They were asking to have the device returned or risk having the employee that sold the handset terminated from their job. SamMax did manage to snap off a quick pic of the briefly-owned Nexus before heading back to the store.
For others hopeful of getting their hands on the Galaxy Nexus, we have word that at least one Best Buy location in Willow Brook, NJ is taking pre-orders from interested parties. There are, however, no reports of a completed purchase out of the same location.
It appears non-corporate Verizon retailers are antsy to start moving their stock at the beginning of yet another holiday shopping weekend. There could be nothing worse for a prime shopping location this time of year than to waste shelf space on stock of items not allowed to be sold.
[via Android Forums 1, 2, 3]