Robb. Knight.

So on Tuesday the iPhone 4S was announced and everyone waited for preorder day to see the tariffs for the various UK carriers. First up was Vodafone with their crazy up-front prices. Then Orange and T-mobile jumped in with similar pricing schemes. Three, on the other hand, manage to merge decent tariffs with reasonable up-front costs. Then there's O2. I'm an O2 customer and have been for over 2 years and I had every intention of staying with O2 when renewing my contract for an iPhone 4S. That is, until they released their FAQ. First question I had was obviously, how can I preorder. This was O2's answer:

We don't offer pre-order or take reservations to buy iPhone 4S. We expect high demand for it and recommend that if you really want one on launch day, get to your local store early to avoid disappointment.

So you expect high demand, but you won't let anyone preorder? What about existing customers? Makes no difference. No one can order, preorder or even reserve an iPhone 4S. You want me to queue up for an undefined amount of time, with no guarantee that you'll have the model I want? Well done, O2. I have now ordered my white iPhone 4S 32GB with Three. It's being delivered on Saturday (I'm busy Friday) and my O2 contract has been cancelled. O2 need to learn to look after their customers better, or perhaps they just don't care. Either way, I'm gone.