So, on a whim...
Ordered two watches for wife and I at 6 am on 9/14 from Apple. I fully expected there to be a delay; I slept in. Wife's had an earlier estimated shipping date than mine (and actually arrived on Monday). My silver 44 aluminum will be in sometime in Mid-October.
But..on 9/20...on Reddit..someone had posted they ordered that day and their local Best Buy would have in store delivery on 9/21. Fascinating! Hey, I might look into this. Went to Bestbuy, picked my local store, and sure enough...had stock and could pick up on 9/21. I ordered a black 44 aluminum sports band, received confirmation from credit card for charge, etc.
Best Buy emails me and tells me order went through and to await email saying when I could pick up watch. Groovy.
Friday 9/21...no email. By late afternoon, I thought I would stop by and just ask. What a mistake this was.
The person who waited on me first asked if they were even allowed to sell the watches yet, much less advertise them. I told him this was the launch date, and he said something to the effect that was "Apple's launch date" and Best Buy had their own. Right.
I had printed out my order, and showed him that it would be ready for in store pickup on the 21st. He was unmoved by this. I told him I had been charged already, and he didn't get the concept. Finally, he said he would ask someone else and ventured off to the mobile portion of the store. Oh ****...not the Apple part of the store?
After a few more minutes, he came back with a reinforcement neckbeard who said Apple hasn't released the watches to the stores yet. Puzzled, I asked why the website would indicate they were in stock and would be available for pickup? No idea, he said. About this time, I noticed another employee open up a storage thing behind the counter and saw 3-4 apple watches in there for pickup. I glanced over there, and asked what those Apple watches were if they were not released today. They proclaimed those were "older" Apple watches. Right. Just happened to have 3-4 customers order Series 3 on launch day/week and and arrange in store pickup.
Neckbeard #2 finally said they could cancel my order and refund my money. I told him that wasn't necessary, but that they needed better communication within their store regarding launch dates, availability. He uttered something about Samsung never having these issues.
Get home, still no email from Bestbuy about watch being ready for pickup or status changes.
Finally, around 9 pm on the 21st, I did get an updated email saying there was a delay and if I didn't get the watch by the Oct 21, my order would be canceled.
So....we'll see. I chortle at the website saying "order today and get by the 28th" or whatever at my local store...when my local store has absolutely no idea what is going on.
Carry on.
