Well talked to a apple employee this morning and asked if any stock comes in the day would they be able to sell they said no. They will hold till the next morning for the campers and said would be unfair if they sold during closing time to me. What kind of BS is this i now have to camp outside at 6am to get a phone that they maybe have in stock. This is in the boston/mass area.
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Apple holds 5s shipments for the next morning to be sold to campers.
- Thread starter nightghost
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I posted this in another thread. They are asking people to line up at 6AM for phones to be sold at 8AM at the Apple West Side, Apple Fifth, Apple Ridge Hill, Apple SoHo stores in NYC.
Yep, I called all of them. I've pretty much given up on getting a 5s at this point, and probably will stick with my plain old 4 since my "hype" over the phone is about worn out. (The phone would be free for me also, since my job pays the bill.)
Kind of sucks when you can get 5s for free and still get turned off by Apple store policies.
This is weird. Because my phone came from a 6 pm shipment and as I was buying it they said it was the last shipment for the day and the leftovers from the last couple hours would be sold in the morning.
But I'm in Virginia so we have less campers I'm sure.
But I'm in Virginia so we have less campers I'm sure.
That's complete crap. If they get stock today, they have stock available today.
Do they realize who their customers are in the morning? Scalpers, like the guy who has a thread on here about it.
Do they realize who their customers are in the morning? Scalpers, like the guy who has a thread on here about it.
In what way?
The Apple dude just told the OP that some person who is going to show up 8 hours *after* he did deserves the phone more..,on what planet does that make any sense?
That's why Grand Central is the best. They can't have people lining up there. So when they get phones in, they sell them. Their hours aren't as good as 5th Avenue, but the crowds are smaller and you can actually get some personal attention.
yeah, not sure I'm smelling what you're cooking with this. Like BeeGood said, you're there before the campers. Why do they get higher priority?
Although, not sure what the OP means by "sold during closing time to me"... Sounded originally like the OP was at the store when they got a shipment. But maybe all phones arrive (or are unpacked) after the store closes. So, technically, maybe they don't get any during biz hours.
And you've got your aphorism backwards. Or maybe you meant to. In which case, I don't get it.
I was at the Grand Central store this morning. I arrived at 7:15 AM, there were about 50-60 people in line. They only had Space Gray in 64GB (all carriers except T-Mobile). Gold sold out instantly. I think they only carried like 5. It's really tough because I really want Silver 32GB AT&T.
The more I think about this the more obnoxious it sounds.
This is nothing more than apple trying to get free marketing at its customer's expense. They are artificially generating lines by withholding stock so they can have a little miniature launch day everyday for the next month or so.
Like the OP said, it's BS. But it's apple and it's a new iPhone so its going to work.
At the Sommerset store in Detroit (Novi actually) they had people waiting in a 'pen' outside the store, in the common area of the mall. I couldn't believe it. I don't know how long people were waiting, but it felt strange to see people still apparently waiting for the 'latest greatest' in a paddock in front of the mall store. I hope they get what they are waiting for. I asked if they were waiting for the new iPhone, and someone wearily said 'Yes'. I hope they aren't waiting for store pickup ordered phones...
I'm trying to decide if I want to go through all of the BS to get a 5s. Maybe for the first time, I'll wait it out for the 6.
with the campers you can sell your entire iphone 5s stock first thing in the morning and the rest of the day your people are free to help customers who will be buying stuff.
if you have people constantly walking in and you don't know if there is stock or not you will waste manpower
Remember you can also buy the Verizon model device-only and it works on AT&T's LTE network. That was my situation last Saturday at the Lincoln Park store in Chicago. They had only 64GB Space Gray for AT&T but they did have 16GB and 32GB silver models for Verizon.
Last year I got lucky and arrived at Grand Central on a Saturday afternoon 5 minutes before they got a shipment.
I actually hadn't thought about that. Maybe whatever they get durning the day needs to be processed before it's available for sale. If so I can see why they would have to wait until the next day.
But if that's the case, he wouldn't have had to mention anything about the next day campers.
I kind of doubt they would tell you they got a shipment in if that's how they handle things at that particular store.
My apple store protected inventory information like fort knox, even during the period of time they were handing out queue cards on launch day.
My apple store protected inventory information like fort knox, even during the period of time they were handing out queue cards on launch day.
what i meant by closing time is the advice in the forums to go to apple stores between 6-8pm because they would get late shipments in but when i asked the employees if any stock came in they would flat out lie to me knowing the next day they would sell to the campers.
And apparently everyone wants one. More than when the 5 came out. I have (somewhat of) a life. Standing outside waiting for things like tickets and iPhones (unless Woz is there) isn't something that I'd do again. If I order a 5s, I'll have it delivered and avoid the paddocks and stares...
And they were calling people out of the paddock occasionally. I don't know why only some were called in to the store. Perhaps it has to do with pacing the flow? Checking in new product? Deciding who wanted what model, and who gets it? Someone was walking around with a clipboard (yeah, in a computer store) with names and what looked like preferences for something (assuming the iPhone?)...
I guess if you absolutely have to have 'The Item' of the year, as quickly as possible, you have to be willing to stand in line... Just be kind to each other.
I remember waiting overnight for Jimmy Buffett tickets. The window opened, and they called a lottery. I was fifth in the lottery. The fourth guy stood there at the window trying to talk to a friend to decide how many tickets (lawn) they should buy as the pavilion tickets were sold out. Everyone behind me wanted to rip this douche bag apart... The urge to strangle him swept over me too. Standing at the window isn't the time to decide how many to buy... Lines can be frustrating... Hopefully Apple runs theirs better. By the time DB got his tickets, the concert completely sold out which left me wondering if going to a Buffett concert was 'all that'...
If I ask, I can have drinks spilled on me in the privacy of my own home. Getting my body groped too, if I want. It's the smashing of toes that takes some effort. Whatever...
This is logical, but my gut tells me that this isn't what is going on. If it were such a resource drain to sell iPhones throughout the day, they could do 100% online w/ in store pickup. Employees would just need to check ID and hand people their phones.
I believe Apple just wants their lines so they can milk the launch day phenomena for everything it's worth.
If I had the money, I would totally do that. I do have the 5s in 16GB (I stood in line for 3 hours last week, I really didn't want to leave without a device, even if it wasn't the capacity I wanted.)
yep, they are under pressure to sell a lot of phones this quarter. with the china deal coming they know a lot of these will make it there and its like an unofficial beta test to see how it works on the network there