what a useless article. bah i hate news.com.au and their rubbish re-iteration of no information.

And back to the refunds... mine was processed today apparently. Looks like most people are just being refunded now. Wait and see I guess.

The problem is that they instill a perception that there's going to be a run on these things. Self fulfilling prophesy.

Next week they will have articles congratulating themselves on being able to predict the rush.

Since no one seems to have an idea of stock at all, maybe we could be pleasantly surprised! *Pipe dream*. Everyone I call seems to say 'Call back thursday' as Apple aren't telling them anything at the moment.

Yes, I agree dolbinau. I'm hoping that all this is marketing hype that is designed to drive people into the telco's stores asap to hand over their money.

To try and firm up my theory, I went hunting for what happened just before the release of the first Gen model in the States. Same thing.... rumours of shortages, price speculations and mild panic on the web. In reality, none of these things happened.

Let's hope history repeats.

Yes but Apple only had to supply 1 country, they may only be able to make the same amount of phones, or a few more, but have to supply considerably more people.

Optus has said stock will be strictly limited, so has Softbank in Japan. It's looking pretty likely things aren't going to go as smoothly as they did in the states last time.

What happens with the people who originally put down deposits and have then been refunded their money. Does the information on who paid a deposit go to a database or something?
ie To track who paid a deposit and who didn't.

For example, if people rock up to stores with midnight releases saying that they had paid a deposit when they had not. I don't know how it will be tracked.

Receipt numbers.

Aah yes. I forgot about that. I'd love to see people queueing in line for hours, only to be turned away because a deposit hadn't been placed

Edit: So they will most likely have a master list with receipt numbers and corresponding names next to them? A database on the computers at all resellers? Then checxk ID's to match receipts? I can see Friday be very messy.

What if I just say I'm receipt number 1432, what happens then?

Yes, I believe I said that. There are hundreds of tax scales in the US at state and local levels. For instance, Alaska has no state sales tax although more than 100 local municipalities levy taxes (then again, Alaska pays people to live there so you have to consider that).

As regards shipping, as someone else pointed out; it should be a non-issue. The phones come from China. If anything, the cost of shipping to Australia should be slightly cheaper than to the US due to the high price of fuel. It is for this very reason that some Australian miners are getting record high contract prices on their exports.

You need to give them the receipt number from the printout and the credit card you paid with. That's how they check.

I just spoke to Shane at OptusWorld Prahran and he told me that as far as he knows all iPhones are accounted for. So if you haven't paid a deposit (refunded or otherwise) you may not be able to buy one on the day.

A bit strange because I registered for an iPhone within moments of the press release being issued and was not given the option to pay a deposit.

I'm part of a managed Optus account, and my account manager simply told me to bring along a printed copy of my receipt. This is all very messy. I put down $50 to still wait in line?

Either way, I still have a couple questions fluttering around in my head.

1. What do they mean by 'priority queuing?' Does that mean a separate queue, or skipping to the front of the line?
2. Does anyone have any idea how to check which stores will be opening early on Friday? Or are we all just waiting for the email?
3. What's all this about refunding?