Apple's early iPad delivery today inconveniences 'hundreds of thousands'

“I’m so sorry, we’ve had over 100,000 complaints today because of the iPad early delivery.”

So says the lady from TNT, the delivery firm that Apple has contracted to handle the iPad distribution. I’m quoting that lady from a good colleague of mine who’s a seriously big hitter in the mobile industry. He, like a load of other people, is very disappointed that Apple chose to deliver his iPad a day early.

What is that a problem? Well, for one thing, nobody was expecting the units to be delivered today. My colleague had arranged for someone to be at home on Friday — ALL DAY Friday — to receive the iPad, such was his excitement and expectation. This afternoon he found that TNT had tried to deliver the iPad.

Of course, typically, nobody was in.

Now there’s a problem.

“I think it’s absolutely diabolical,” says my colleague, “It’s ridiculous that people who organised their lives around a Friday delivery now have to make different arrangements. It’s created unnecessary chaos for me and at least 5 other people I could name.”

For those who were at home — or who had the device delivered to their offices (good idea, that) — it’s been a welcome surprise, I’m sure.

But for the apparent 100,000 people who’ve been melting the TNT customer services lines, there’s clearly a problem.

“I think it’s a marketing mistake,” says my colleague,”I think it has damaged Apple’s reputation for quality. They have not done what they said they would do. They said they would deliver on the 28th.”

It will pass, though. The frustration will pass.

However, as my colleague pointed out, because his iPad has been scheduled for re-delivery, it now means the package is low priority. He might get it on Friday. He might get it on Saturday if he’s awfully lucky and if Apple smile nicely at TNT. But he could now get it on Monday. That’s an eon in iPad-fanatic time.

One other point about this… 100,000 complaints? If that’s anywhere near accurate, that would point to the fact that at least 100,000 iPads were sent out today. At least. How many in total were sent out, I wonder? And how many will be sold on Friday and over the weekend? I wonder. We will find out soon I’m sure.