I bought a black 16Gb outright at Telstra Toombul shopping center in Brisbane this morning. At 11 am this morning he said they had a few....Good luck people (ps still no luck yet with the unlock)

Question - can I buy an iPhone from Optus on prepaid, ask for them to add $80 credit and ask for an unlock all while I'm in the store? :-)

Nup, didn't speak to a manager. If I have to buy a SIM, then pay $150 to unlock it, they can get stuffed. I'll wait a week to get it off Optus for much less.

Anybody had any luck at either Eastland or Knox? Going to go in tomorrow and try my luck, fully expecting that I'll have to raincheck it.

Incidentally, what's the go with rainchecking a prepaid phone (in relation to the lack of need to sign a contract)?

I live in Northern NSW...had no luck getting a pre-paid in bris/gold coast...all saying 3 months!!!
Rang my cousin in Melb, he walked into TLife (bourke st) and walked out with a black 16gig pre-payed (activated and network locked) 15 mins later!! They only sold to him because he is an existing Telstra Mobile Customer. They told him they will not sell to ppl not already with telstra.
Not sure how many they had, but he seemed to have no probs. Goos Luck

Heads up,
Just bought a 16GB white with $25 pre paid plan (and no, I was not a Telstra customer prior to this) at Telstra shop - Fountain Gate.

As of today they are an authorised iPhone seller.

I bought my phone from George who was extremely helpful.

Telstra at Cranbourne shopping centre will also be authorised today or maybe tomorrow at the latest to sell iphones as well.

Fountain Gate store had about 60 in stock - I was the FIRST to buy one at the store, and there were already 2 other ppl behind me waiting.

It might pay to ring other normal Telstra shops as they also may be now authorised to sell the iphone.

The Telstra guy said he wanted to buy one outright, unlock it and use it with overseas sim cards, but he didn't know if he could do that. When I told him that he could, he was over the moon - LOL
Also informed him that when the iphone is unlocked, it will NOT lock to the next carriers sim, it will remain permanently unlocked for any sim.

Let us know if you successfully get an iphone from Fountain Gate or another normal Telstra shop.

The situation at Ringwood, sad to say, is much of the same.

Took myself down to OW Eastland and they had the stock standard "We have no iPhones" sign up. (They must get real shitty every 10 minutes with people asking them). Anyway, talked to the kid about rainchecking a prepaid iPhone, but he said that they can not raincheck a prepaid iPhone. In any case, he said the wait would be anywhere between 1-4 weeks, for both prepaid and contract.

He sent me over to Strathfield (Optus reseller) Eastland and the girl there took my details down, told me to expect to wait 2-3 weeks, but said that if it was contract you could bump that wait time down to 2-3 days. In any case, I will still keep my eye out, but at least I know that I have a good chance of getting the prepaid phone in a few weeks.

Don't know how accurate that is, but that what I was told so thought someone on here would get some use out of it.

Dom87 i successfully ordered a prepaid 16G balck in Ringwood eastland Saturady, but they cant tell how long i will get my phone, cuz they really didnlt know when iphones will come. And u hav to pay 849 first as i was told. i paid the money, get the receit ,just waiting~

Strathfield or Optus World?

optus world, i know its a little bit surprising, but i did~

for anyone in the Woolongong/shellharbour area
on saturday, i put my name down for a 8GB optus pre-paid iphone at allphones in shellharbour square, they said that they should have them in next week, but maybe not till the week after.
i wont have the money till Friday, so i hope they dont get them in before then :-)

Hehe. I like your attitude decryption

Yeah Vodafone and Telstra just don't care really. I mean they had a chance to trump Optus so hard with pricing on plans and on outright phones and instead they decided to tell the consumer to f off!

I mean Telstra's plans are simply offensive.

Saturday 19th July
Glen Waverley shopping centre (VIC).
Telstra outlet.
iPhone 3G black 16GB
Apparently lots of stock
About 1 hour, but we asked lots of questions. Quite smooth process.
Already on Telstra plan outside contract

Accompanied a friend. He was willing to pay outright, or go on a plan without data.

The guy (?greeter) said they definitely don't do outrights. But directed us to the iPhone-trained people there (had iPhone 3G t-shirts on). While discussing plans with the trained sales. She then reminded us about outright users not getting free wifi-access. We ended up getting the phone on a plan.

I suppose even within the same store there are people who say different things based on what information they are fed.

While we were there, there were 3 other people activating their iPhones.

We were able to enter junk settings into the "Cellular Data" settings area, so hopefully there will be no EDGE/3G access. He works/lives in places with own wifi available.

so if i buy outright from Telstra or Optus, and found some problem with the phone, do i return it to them or i can just bring it back to apple?

The phone should go back to Apple - not the reseller - if there are problems.