Carphone Warehouse Chip and PIN system crashed on Friday’s iPhone launch night. The problem occurred because sales of the iPhone caused an overload to the system, according to a Carphone spokeswoman. ‘It lasted hardly anytime at all and it was resolved really quickly,’ she said.

Some customers said they faced a delay of up to 20 minutes for processing transactions. There were also several reports on blogs of Carphone staff aggressively pushing insurance with the iPhone.

Another posted added: ‘They wouldn’t let me leave without going for the insurance which is illegal. I’m going to cancel tomorrow by phone but I let O2 know today who apologised and gave me £100.’

The Only way Carphone warehouse can any money on the iphone is from extras like insurance, accessories etc…