I just called that number to at least get in line for a unit here in the US. Nice Lady said that the unit shows as not yet having been released. Nice Lady also said that about 1.5 hours ago she checked for a caller and it showed as not yet being released then too.

I get the vague impression that they almost expected it not to sell - the UK sold out in 24 hours - most of those must have been sold to people who read this site - quite a bizarre way to launch a product, but guess they were testing the market.

I for one am very pleased. True it crashes occassionally, the software has some bugs, but it's such a great device. get the software stable and they can do well.

I bet Apple are watching and waiting to release their own device....

Sigger... That was me that called. I got the same story; she checked and there was no indication they had ever had any "in stock" earlier in the week. She took my email address so Nokia could notify me when they were released. Given I check this site every 30 minutes or so, I'll probably know from our "grapevine" before Nokia ever releases anything official. As Martymcr suggests above, the first lot may be in short supply so we're planning on loading up on several units when they get released...hopefully tomorrow.

Robert ;>)

Poor product launch? Hahahahha. The only sign that I had for the 770 being available in the US was by asking the Nokia rep via the order line. The US website doesn't elude to it at all.

It seems that everyone who called after this was posted was unable to order an in-stock 770?

Did you succeed? Did Nokia actually sell some devices here in the U.S. before Nov 10 (tomorrow, the date acknowledged in some communications as when sales would start)?

Agreed that the website didn't indicate a launch, but the folks working the phones clearly haven't been properly informed. All but one I spoke with (at least 5 since Monday) indicated that they were in stock and ready to ship. It was only this last one who confirmed my backorder. However, she too said that they were in stock as of yesterday but they are now backordered.

Again, my hope is just that it's pre-release confusion. If so, then it's no big deal. However, the UK sellout is awfully quick for a new launch. Additionally, if the folks here encounter the same "verification" issues I did, you're likely to see several Nokia Direct Sales bashing threads here in the next week or so. My order was originally placed Monday and I was only able to get past the verification today after several calls to move them along. Since the developer price is lower, I'm guessing those folks haven't encountered it as the Nokia reps said they only verify orders above a certain dollar amount.

Jeff

While I'm hedging on it being a cold day in hell (or Canada) before I see the 770 for sale up here, I'm still curious; What's this verification process you're talking about and why has it been such a pain?

Ok Guys.. I a a little confused. Nokia's USA site still says "COMING SOON" when you hit BUY NOW but.. if you call this 888 USA number.. you can order?? but.. they are out of stock and supposedly launching in USA tomorrow? Do I have this right?

LOL, that's a long story but I'm willing to provide the folks here with a story to chuckle about:

After hearing of the Euro release and expected US release a week later, I was cruising around on the Nokia site trying to see if I could slyly get to an ordering page for the 770 like that one person did on the Euro site a coupd of weeks back. Looking at the HTML links, I figured if I had Nokia's item number (not the model number, the one they use as an item id # on the direct sales site) I might be able to get to it. So, I figured I'd take a stab calling them Monday morning to see if they had that item # in the system even if they weren't accepting orders yet.

I start out asking about availability and the rep says they have them in stock ready to ship! Alright, forget about the item #, I'll just order one. So, I proceed to give her my info. She mentions something odd at the end. I don't know if it's only for orders taken by phone or what, but they have a "verification process" to confirm orders over a certain amount. It didn't have anything to do with adresses or anything like that since my billing, shipping and address on file with my CC company are all the same. I guess it's just something they do to protect against fraud.

She says the process takes 24-48 hours. What? I've bought from 100s of companies in amounts significantly higher than the $350 and never had to deal with that unless it was an international purchase (I imported a Japanese PSP from Hong Kong when it launched last December). Ok, I don't like it, but I figure it might not take as long as they say.

The next day I go to the order status section of the Nokia website to check it. It just says "Open Order" and stays that way all day. No contact from the credit division to verify the order but the online status screen showed all my info correctly so I figure it should go through ok. This morning I go to check the order online and its gone. No record of the order found or something like that. What the?

So, of course, I call them up. The rep tells me that the credit dept tried to contact me on Monday and left a message. We verify that the number they have on file is indeed my home number. I check caller ID and my answering machine - nada. I even ask my wife if she took a call from them or heard a message on the machine and deleted it - nope. What's odd is that she says they ususally give you 72 hours to verify before cancelling the order. I think maybe it has something to do with it being pre-release, but ask again about availability and she says it shows in stock ready to ship.

The only thing she can do is re-submit the order. I ask if I can skip all this waiting and just be connected to the credit folks to verify immediately. No dice as they don't open until 9AM but she does leave a message with them to try and expedite the process. Not wanting to leave it up to them getting back to me or just never contacting me at all, I wait until after 9 and call them again to try and speak with the credit folks.

Unfortunately, it's 9 CST not EST so they're still not in. This rep is very helpful and says he can verify the info himself (why couldn't the first rep do that?). He asks me the billing address, billing phone, and CC info. After that he puts me on hold to leave the credit guy a message that he has already verified the order and that it can be released for processing and shipping.

I wait a couple of hours then call back to check status to see if it has indeed gone through (keep in mind that I'm supposed to get an email confirmation when it does and I hadn't gotten it yet). Guess what? They screwed up again. This rep tells me that the credit folks did speak with American Express and had some sort of mismatch in the billing info for the order and the billing info on file with AMEX so the charge was declined. Are you kidding me? I've been using AMEX for years and I've been at this new address over a year and never had a problem ordering (including the international PSP order that occurred after I moved and updated my CC billing info).

We double check the order's billing info and I give them a Visa instead and encourage the whole speed up thing with the credit folks. I then call AMEX who verifies that my info is the same as it has been for over a year. AMEX verifies that they saw an authorization come through from Nokia today. Obviously, there's a problem on Nokia's end.

So, I call back again to Nokia. I get the same rep who took my redo order this morning. I explain everything to her and when she shows some signs of resistance, I ask for her manager. Of course, the manager is on another call so I hold. However, to the rep's credit, she goes ahead and tries to contact the credit folks directly (they don't give you a direct # for that dept or else I would have called them myself). She does and has the credit person go ahead and do the verification with Visa while she's on the phone and while I hold. It goes through and FINALLY the order is released for shipment. She apologizes about all the problems and doesn't really understand how it got so screwed up. After seeing the out of stock messages on the board, I ask about status and she checks and says it is still available to ship.

Shortly after getting off the phone, I get finally get the order confirmation email. Low and behold, it says it's backordered. I call again to ask about it. The rep says she's confused about the status. She puts me on hold and when she comes back, she confirms it is backordered with no stock ETA but that they did have some available yesterday.

A few things here. I understand that companies want to protect themselves from fraud. But there has to be a better way. Why bother having a direct sales division at all if it's this much hassle to process an order? Even if the credit folks had indeed called me on Monday, I still would have been dissuaded from buying direct again since no other retailer I've bought from does this. Secondly, if a person placing an order can just call back later and verify the information they gave earlier, what's the point of verifying at all? Apprently they separately do verification of billing address and phone info with the CC company, but obviously they have kinks in the system as the first couple of go rounds got screwed up This has to be one of the most convoluted ways of ordering I've ever come across. If not for the lack of alternative buying options, I would never have ordered from Nokia directly. I could have understood if the delays and order rejections had something to do with it not actually being relased, but that's not what happened here. It will almost certainly be my last order with them. I hope non of you run into any of this garbage.

Whoosh. That was a looooonnnnngggggg story.

Jeff

Good lord. I wonder if that wasn't some kind of workaround forced onto the system so that only developer devices would get shipped in the first few days before the 'official' release. Nov 10th seemed like the solid date and I found it odd that the rep I spoke to cheerfully told me they were shipping them with no fanfare or even notice via the web (or newsletter for that matter).

Regardless, I'll be getting drunk off of maple syrup until that thing either hits U.S. retail stores and I go for a roadtrip, or nokia.ca finally starts obtaining some stock.