First I go to 3HK’s web site to “register my interest” for a 32 gig black iPhone 4.  A week later they send me an SMS confirming this and telling me that I have registered my interest for an 8 gig black iPhone 3Gs.  I send an email to “customer care” seeking to correct this and of course it never receives a response.

So I call up the 3 corporate sales guy I dealt with back in my Warner days and tell him I’m at a new job and can I still get an iPhone through him and he says “of course.”  Yesterday, the day the iPhone 4 was released in HK, he sends me an email to tell me that the warehouse informed him there are no available 32 gig phones and would I settle for a 16 gig.  Not so much.

Then I see reports on Twitter that many people I know have collected theirs.  I call the guy back and tell him I see all my friends getting one and that I’m a “3supreme” customer and that I should be able to get one right away as well.

At 6:30 PM, he calls me back to tell me he’s managed to get one for me.  However at this point, I’m at PASM over in San Po Kong getting ready for our latest photo shoot and party and don’t have time to go to his office in Quarry Bay.  We arrange to meet on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning, I make the trip from Sai Kung to Quarry Bay, pick up the phone, grab some lunch, come home.  Plug in the phone and get an “activation” failed message.  I try rebooting the phone.  Nope.  I try ensuring that my other phone is switched off.  Nope.  I restart iTunes several times, unconnect and reconnect the phone, nope.   The phone says “No service” and “Waiting for activation, this might take awhile.”

So I call “3Hotline” and the first few times I try, I just get a busy signal.  I try again half an hour later and get through to someone after 10 minutes of pre-recorded sales pitches.   I tell him what’s up, he puts me on hold, comes back and says he’ll try to figure it out and call me back.

I don’t think this is going to happen today.  It does make a lovely shiny black brick in the mean time.

Now I’m off to see Inception.  Non-IMAX because I didn’t feel like waiting weeks to see it or sitting in the front row of an IMAX theater.  Hope it’s good.

And if 3 is going to get back to me today, I would bet good money they’ll call me in the middle of the movie.

UPDATE:  Came out of the movie, iPhone 3Gs said no service, switched on the iPhone 4 and it came up with the message “activation successful.”  As for the movie, liked it, didn’t love it, maybe more on that later.

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