At least they did not lie to you. Follow story below.
Don't worry. At first I thought it was fishy too but ended up a not-so-frustrated-half-happy i3GS owner.
I call up MACHINES 1U this morning to check on my
iPhone 32gb Black availability. They ask me to leave my name and contact number and they will call be back. Shortly after 15 minutes, they call me back and say your iPhone is ready to be collect, please come at around 3-4pm. I was so shocked and say okay then hang up.
Thinking back again, I thought it wasn't promising and I call up again to double check my detail, especially on phone specification. That guy say yes your phone is right here with me now don't worry. I asked if I could collect on the next morning, he say not guarantee if the phone will still be there.
Went to MACHINES 1U sharp at 3pm. Walk in without any receipt (forgot). Just go to the counter and give my name. iPhone was brought out, some computer data keying is done, hand me MACHINES member card + RM20 preloaded, and pass me the iPhone just like that. Total duration less than 10 minutes.
I am a Prepaid buyer which prebooked my iPhone on the 18th of July. Collection date was suppose to be the 31st of July.
Actually ... as per what I know... Machines 1U already have all the stock on hand (stock came in on 1st August morning). They are just calling up the customers one-by-one since it takes some time to process the documents and activate each iPhone (don't really want a huge crowd at the shops now do we?).