Not sure if anyone else has had the same experience, but I went to my local CC around 830am one day to pick up a phone (not on launch day, it was like Oct 5). But the employee said I had to wait, they weren’t ready for pick ups yet. So I sat in the parking lot for like 15/20 mins.. hoping that’s not the case this year.
I do recall that happening one year with the iPhone launch... supposedly they had some sort of "power outage", and were still "recovering". As I recall, the lady didn't seem to care a whole lot for her job - attitude was poor.