Apple isn’t a victim of their own success. They are badly managed at the distribution and retail levels — abusing their customers to feed their hype-driven marketing machinery.
It starts with my trying to reserve a phone on the date Apple themselves said everyone could place an order. Their system, probably AT&T‘s databases, were overloaded and my first attempt to place an order didn’t work. I received a browser message to try my order again later. I immediately did.
This time I tried to have the phone delivered to my home address. The order went through! I got my phone yesterday.
I then got an email saying my first order had also worked and I should pick up my phone at a specific Apple store. What? How weird! But, OK. Cool. I could give that phone to the HU, who planned to get one anyway but hadn’t placed an order.
My subsequent attempts to order a phone for my mother all failed repeatedly and said I had to go to the Apple store. The nearest Apple store to her is about a 6 hour drive. At her age, she won’t be doing that.
Yesterday I and the HU went to the Apple store to be sure I could give my phone to the HU. We were told that as long as we were both there I could. Cool.
Today I drove by to check out the line. Apple advertised that they will have two lines: one for those customers who pre-ordered their phones and one for those who were just hoping to get one. One line extends from the Mall entrance all the way off of the mall property and all the way down to the golf course at the Marriott. Literally thousands of people are standing in this line that is probably a mile or more long!
I asked one of the store employees who was near the mall entrance how long the line was for people who had pre-ordered the phone. He said, in not too pleasant a tone, that he had no idea. It was all one line. The store didn’t divide the line up until people got to the door of the store. What???!!!! So the people that pre-ordered are having to wait even longer because of the people who didn’t pre-order?! That makes zero sense!
He went on to say that if I wasn’t standing in the line (currently in the blazing sun) when the store closed, I would lose my reservation. (A female employee had just told another customer the exact opposite. Who go the correct information?!) He said that hundreds of people had spent the night in line.
This is insane. This is inept management. This is inexcusable. Sure, it was fun the first time, but Apple has had 4 tries now to get this process right.
I told him Apple had lost their mind and that they could keep their precious little phone. I wonder who will get the phone I ordered not realizing that the order had even worked?!
This is pure horse pooh!
Just wait until they all get their shiny new devices only to realize that the marvel of engineering, the new antenna system that is the outer edge of the phone, doesn’t work so well when you hold the phone with your hand. But then, who actually holds the phone in theirs hands when they place a call??????
Related articles:
- iPhone 4 has folks lining up in droves at Apple Stores worldwide (edibleapple.com)
- Apple iPhone 4 Release: Lines Grow As Frenzy Kicks Off (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
- Hundreds line up to buy new iPhone (washingtontimes.com)
- IPhone 4 sells briskly on first day of sales (cbc.ca)
- IPhone 4 Launch: The Scene From Austin (blogs.wsj.com)
- New iPhone selling briskly as hundreds line up (mysanantonio.com)
- iPhone Lines 2-3 Times Bigger This Year, Stores Are Selling Out (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)