So at 9PM EST on July 14th, I go on the apple website to check availability. All three New York City stores have all three models in stock. So I figure, I will wait a little while, the 5th Ave store has been selling the phone until 3 am. So at 10:30 I get in my car and drive a half hour to midtown. So I get to the store at 11 pm. There is no line outside, but the place is jamming downstairs.
I find the first apple employee and ask for an iPhone. He said "we have stopped selling we will start again at 7 am" I find this extremely strange. So I find another employee and she tells me basically the same story. But she eludes to the fact that they have phones but can't sell them. I ask her if there is any way they can sell me one, I just drove a half hour after seeing it on the apple site as available.
So she refers me to another employee, this guy has the nerve to tell me that they are out of stock... riiiiiiiiiiiight. So I call his bluff, and say it was available on the site. He then says the ATT servers are down.... I again call his bluff... ATT goes down at 3 am. Then he goes back to telling me they are out of stock and that the apple site updates every two hours and I must of missed the update that shows they are out of stock... As of right now they are in stock... I call his bluff, how are you going to start selling phones at 7am if your out of stock???? He says they get a shipment between 12am and 7am, but doesn't know what time... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
I finally get him to talk to his manger, no one at the store is unwilling to budge. I point out the fact that if they don't want to sell the phone to tell me that, but to not BS me about servers being down or sold out...
All they kept saying is come back at 7am... Right, so I can be free advertising for you. Don't think so!
#1. 11PM EST is 7PM EST in San Fran, NO FREAKIN WAY ATTs SERVERS are down.
#2. Site shows available stock, the phone was in stock, the employees admitted that.
#3. Why do the rules keep changing, why is so hard to hand them $330???
This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't spent 2 hours in line on Friday, being the 20th person in line, and having to leave because the activations took so long. Literally it was an hour per customer. I had to go to work, couldn't spend my entire day in line.
So two times, there were phones there and I didn't get one because of process malfunctions.
Only thing I can think of is that Apple is trying to show how stupid the in Store Activation is, but cutting the times it will sell phones.
And
On the ATT side, the reason ATT is short of phones in the early stages is because they don't want to pay commission to their employees. These phones sell themselves, so maybe they want Apple to sell them and avoid paying commission to ATT employees for no sales effort.
I find the first apple employee and ask for an iPhone. He said "we have stopped selling we will start again at 7 am" I find this extremely strange. So I find another employee and she tells me basically the same story. But she eludes to the fact that they have phones but can't sell them. I ask her if there is any way they can sell me one, I just drove a half hour after seeing it on the apple site as available.
So she refers me to another employee, this guy has the nerve to tell me that they are out of stock... riiiiiiiiiiiight. So I call his bluff, and say it was available on the site. He then says the ATT servers are down.... I again call his bluff... ATT goes down at 3 am. Then he goes back to telling me they are out of stock and that the apple site updates every two hours and I must of missed the update that shows they are out of stock... As of right now they are in stock... I call his bluff, how are you going to start selling phones at 7am if your out of stock???? He says they get a shipment between 12am and 7am, but doesn't know what time... riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
I finally get him to talk to his manger, no one at the store is unwilling to budge. I point out the fact that if they don't want to sell the phone to tell me that, but to not BS me about servers being down or sold out...
All they kept saying is come back at 7am... Right, so I can be free advertising for you. Don't think so!
#1. 11PM EST is 7PM EST in San Fran, NO FREAKIN WAY ATTs SERVERS are down.
#2. Site shows available stock, the phone was in stock, the employees admitted that.
#3. Why do the rules keep changing, why is so hard to hand them $330???
This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't spent 2 hours in line on Friday, being the 20th person in line, and having to leave because the activations took so long. Literally it was an hour per customer. I had to go to work, couldn't spend my entire day in line.
So two times, there were phones there and I didn't get one because of process malfunctions.
Only thing I can think of is that Apple is trying to show how stupid the in Store Activation is, but cutting the times it will sell phones.
And
On the ATT side, the reason ATT is short of phones in the early stages is because they don't want to pay commission to their employees. These phones sell themselves, so maybe they want Apple to sell them and avoid paying commission to ATT employees for no sales effort.