Bad Apple store experience?

[Septembersrain]

Have you ever had one?

I did today. I was told to wait by a representative in the store. He "believed" there were a couple iPhone 6's in stock. Told me he'd "Be right back".

Fast forward and 2 hours later I ask for help again. "Oh we've been sold out since this morning!". Lo and behold my rep was no where to be found.

Okay, can I get a 5s?

Fast forward 45 minutes...

Oh, we just found out you'll have to pay full price as T-Mobile activations are currently down in our system.

Um... Ah.. I give up. I am now laying in bed just feeling like I've wasted my weekend away...

 

[kingtj]

re: bad Apple store experiences

Well, sure I have. I've been shopping at Apple's retail stores since at least 2001 or so. All in all, they do a superior job compared to other retailers I've shopped at though. You have to look at things in an overall sense, really -- vs. making a judgement based on a single experience.

I will say that as a T-Mobile customer myself, I was a little upset by the way Apple handled the iPhone 6 product launch. I got in a huge line, to wait for a chance to possibly buy one of them on launch morning. (I refused to camp out overnight like some people. I have a full time job and some semblance of a life, so no time for that nonsense.)

But what happened was, #1, the people waiting to get the iPhone 6+ weren't told that the store had NONE of them to sell that morning. They tried to ask the sales associates who were walking up and down the line if they could at least just go in and verify that fact for them, to possibly save them more time waiting. But the reps just spouted the "party line" of "Sorry... we can't give you that information. You'll just have to wait and see." Eventually, they did leak out the news -- but wasted hours of people's time unnecessarily and created a lot of tension and anger in the crowd. NOT the best way to kick things off. And #2, they didn't tell folks like myself that they had no T-Mobile versions of the iPhone 6 available, either. Again, they eventually let us know, but it should have been made clear as soon as Apple employees realized it .... not kept a secret for hours, on purpose, to maximize the length of the line wrapped around the store for marketing purposes!

Have you ever had one?

I did today. I was told to wait by a representative in the store. He "believed" there were a couple iPhone 6's in stock. Told me he'd "Be right back".

Fast forward and 2 hours later I ask for help again. "Oh we've been sold out since this morning!". Lo and behold my rep was no where to be found.

Okay, can I get a 5s?

Fast forward 45 minutes...

Oh, we just found out you'll have to pay full price as T-Mobile activations are currently down in our system.

Um... Ah.. I give up. I am now laying in bed just feeling like I've wasted my weekend away...

 

[Septembersrain]

Bad Apple store experience?

Well, sure I have. I've been shopping at Apple's retail stores since at least 2001 or so. All in all, they do a superior job compared to other retailers I've shopped at though. You have to look at things in an overall sense, really -- vs. making a judgement based on a single experience.



I will say that as a T-Mobile customer myself, I was a little upset by the way Apple handled the iPhone 6 product launch. I got in a huge line, to wait for a chance to possibly buy one of them on launch morning. (I refused to camp out overnight like some people. I have a full time job and some semblance of a life, so no time for that nonsense.)



But what happened was, #1, the people waiting to get the iPhone 6+ weren't told that the store had NONE of them to sell that morning. They tried to ask the sales associates who were walking up and down the line if they could at least just go in and verify that fact for them, to possibly save them more time waiting. But the reps just spouted the "party line" of "Sorry... we can't give you that information. You'll just have to wait and see." Eventually, they did leak out the news -- but wasted hours of people's time unnecessarily and created a lot of tension and anger in the crowd. NOT the best way to kick things off. And #2, they didn't tell folks like myself that they had no T-Mobile versions of the iPhone 6 available, either. Again, they eventually let us know, but it should have been made clear as soon as Apple employees realized it .... not kept a secret for hours, on purpose, to maximize the length of the line wrapped around the store for marketing purposes!

Goodness, that must of felt very discouraging. Those long lines, better things to do with your time, and just overall dissatisfaction. I feel that they shouldn't keep their customers in the dark. Just tell me you don't have it, I won't hate you for it Apple!

I will, however, think twice about buying the product I was so initially excited about because you weren't honest.

I'm starting to feel like T-Mobile customers are usually the ones getting the least amount of support. I could be wrong.

 

[kingtj]

re: T-Mobile iPhones

Yeah.... In my case though, I already owned a perfectly good iPhone 5s, so getting a 6 (and reselling the 5s) was just sort of a last minute thought of mine. I realized I had a little bit of time I could duck out of work and head to the Apple store nearby, and give it a shot.

I felt more sorry for other people though, like this Hispanic guy behind me in line, who told me he had already camped out overnight at a Verizon store, in hopes of getting a new iPhone 6+. Only when the store opened in the morning did they tell them there were no 6+'s at that location. So although extremely tired, he drove out to this Apple store to get in line early for a second chance of getting one. He was NOT pleased when they finally told us they had none!

What I did figure out though, is that T-Mobile actually had a pretty good inventory of iPhone 6's at their own locations. On launch day, despite striking out at the Apple store (and checking a local Staples store, who told me they were still only taking pre-orders that day), I wound up getting exactly what I wanted from a T-Mobile kiosk store in the mall! No waiting in line or anything!

I do think that the "second tier" carriers (Sprint and T-Mobile) were less represented by the Apple retail outlets though.

Goodness, that must of felt very discouraging. Those long lines, better things to do with your time, and just overall dissatisfaction. I feel that they shouldn't keep their customers in the dark. Just tell me you don't have it, I won't hate you for it Apple!

I will, however, think twice about buying the product I was so initially excited about because you weren't honest.

I'm starting to feel like T-Mobile customers are usually the ones getting the least amount of support. I could be wrong.

 

[ProwlingTiger]

For T-Mobile, I've found it's just best to preorder with them. The one downside I've found to the company is that they do things a lot differently when it comes to iPhone, and just selling phones in general, compared to Verizon and AT&T.