Again, try to understand that they're dealing with thousands of customers calling in with questions or concerns, and you're not the only one who they have to mediate with. I'm giving you options. If it were me, I would stay persistent, but respectful.
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Apple messed with me but good
- Thread starter FarNorth
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Again, try to understand that they're dealing with thousands of customers calling in with questions or concerns, and you're not the only one who they have to mediate with. I'm giving you options. If it were me, I would stay persistent, but respectful.
mcdj
macrumors G3
This all goes along with my theory that Apple fulfills orders that are in high order concentration areas first and glitches out the rest.
I’m in NYC. They are likely shipping tens of thousands of phones here for 11/3. My order went through fine.
It’s far cheaper for them to send 100,000 phones here than it is to send 5,000 phones to Anchorage, 5,000 to Juno, etc.
So if you’re in a low order density area, they glitch out your order and put you in the 5-6 week window, when they can gang your orders together with the other rural areas and second wave latecomers. They save a ton on shipping while still securing your order.
I’m in NYC. They are likely shipping tens of thousands of phones here for 11/3. My order went through fine.
It’s far cheaper for them to send 100,000 phones here than it is to send 5,000 phones to Anchorage, 5,000 to Juno, etc.
So if you’re in a low order density area, they glitch out your order and put you in the 5-6 week window, when they can gang your orders together with the other rural areas and second wave latecomers. They save a ton on shipping while still securing your order.
I have been. In one of my conversations this afternoon, I told the CSR, "I'd like to point out that I haven't worn or raised my voice. My bet is that other caller haven't been quite as careful...." She laughed and said, "You're right, some people really get carried away." Then she said she'd escalate the call and have a manager contact me. That didn't happen.
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Maybe but I live in Anchorage and every single iPhone comes through here. There are likely pallets of them out at the airport right now in embargoed storage, more coming every hour.
The only other advice is to follow up with Apple until the situation is resolved. One way or the other, they will address the problem as it stands.
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mcdj
macrumors G3
Dude Anchorage has a population of 300,000. Brooklyn alone is 2.5 million people. I’m telling you, Apple is gonna wait to ship the iPhone to Alaska until there are enough orders to get a decent bulk shipping rate from UPS, or are shipping via slower method to save money.
Oh and bothering Tim Cook about this is like calling Trump about a leaky faucet in your bathroom.
Oh and bothering Tim Cook about this is like calling Trump about a leaky faucet in your bathroom.
I doubt that's true. FedEx has a giant facility here in Anchorage, UPS has a big presence - this is the 6th busiest cargo airport in the world, #2 US behind Memphis. I would bet Apple has normalized rates for the entire country including Alaska and those numbers are based on past traffic.
lordofthereef
macrumors G5
I had only ever dealt with Apple phone support once, back around the iPhone 6 plus orders, and I had the same thing. Got an email that there was an issue with preorder almost immediately, called in, they checked some stuff, said they'd call back, never did. Tried again, same thing. No call.
I ended up finding one at Best Buy and it was miraculously still there when I arrived through the hour of traffic.
I am unsure what their system is like but persistence seems to be the key when promised call backs with any company. TMO seems to be the worst. Every time I have an issue I am terrified if it can't be resolved then and there because I know it is unlikely to result in an actual callback. That said, credit where it's due, I called in to Tmobile asking about a trade in status saying I am ineligible and she said she would call me back when the iPhone upgrade window opened so that she could fix it manually and, amazingly, SHE DID. Two years two months I have been with them. First call back I was actually given lol.
mcdj
macrumors G3
The size of the shipping hubs doesn’t automatically correspond with the number of iPhone X customers.
I'm skeptical. Ths is what I will hear: 'We're sorry, we don't know why your reservation did not turn into an actual order. We had issues getting through to AT&T servers and unfortunately, somehow your submission was lost...There's nothing more that we can do...'
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Oh, I understand that but I know that shipments are taken off planes here and locked up. If you have then off the plane in storage, what sense does it make to load them all back up?
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The next time Apple calls me back or emails me in response to a concern will be the first.
This reminds me of the amount of hassle and hoopjumping that happened when my now ex-wife lost her passcode to her phone and password to her email and then found out Microsoft had dumped her rescue email Hotmail account. It wasn't the value of the phone that was in question, she wanted to recover the photos. I talked to 6 or 8 CSRs including Apple Security. She went to an Apple store and AT&T in Arizona, I did, too. Everyone said there was no way to operate the phone without the passcode and that she was screwed. No way to get into that phone ... and then I took it to the local Apple store and a supervisor disappeared in the back and came back 5 minutes later with the phone unlocked and ready to go. I was told by a dozen people it couldn't be done.
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I had a huge problem with my ATT preorder as well. A CSR lied and said my ship date was no longer 11/3 and was 25-35 days. He then canceled my preorder and told me I would be able to pick up the phone in store on launch day without a line. Uhh.. no that never happens, and no store rep will honor what a CSR says. My original preorder was canceled, store said they wouldn't honor it. I called ATT and asked to speak to a CSR manager. She didn't really care and said we can only preorder you a new one with a ship date of 12/5-12/20. I asked if there was anything else that could be done since I was royally screwed, like maybe get credit toward my account. She ignored my statement and asked if there was anything else I needed. I said no, I'll be switching to T-Mobile (after 11+ years with ATT). She said, "I'm sorry to hear that, I hope we resolved your problem today." That statement really got to me. Went straight to T-Mobile, canceled all my services with ATT and preordered the iPhone X with a ship date of 11/3-11/10 (I hope...).
Let me think for a second what is in my account. I have a small business and also repurpose some old phones for a non-profit I help. I have:
2 iPhone 5, at non-profit
1 iPhone 5S, friend's 12 year old daughter.
iPhone 6, at non-profit
iPhone 6S, at non-profit
2 Phone 6, employees
iPhone 6S, employee
iPhone 6, my backup (on GCI)
iPhone 7, my primary
iPhone 8, employee
3 iPad Airs, employees
1 9.7 iPad Pro,employee
1 12 iPad Pro, mine
That's 10 phones and 5 iPads on my account. Also have a Netgear hotspot on AT&T
2 iPhone 5, at non-profit
1 iPhone 5S, friend's 12 year old daughter.
iPhone 6, at non-profit
iPhone 6S, at non-profit
2 Phone 6, employees
iPhone 6S, employee
iPhone 6, my backup (on GCI)
iPhone 7, my primary
iPhone 8, employee
3 iPad Airs, employees
1 9.7 iPad Pro,employee
1 12 iPad Pro, mine
That's 10 phones and 5 iPads on my account. Also have a Netgear hotspot on AT&T
Because it's still more efficient to do so.
For the 8 pre-order and launch, there was a behind the scenes story about how it all works. One of the pictures was of the big pallets of phones. Article states UPS needs extra time and staff to sort everything. Multiple factories are making phones destined for different locales, and probably not organizing the pallets such that can easily get off just the AK phones. Send to KY, let the staff there sort things, and then put the AK phones back on the return trip plane, since going there anyway.
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/22/apple-pre-order-war-room-iphone-8-launch/
Kinda akin to how UPS and Fedex try to do only right turns on their routes: might be longer distance, but actually saves fuel not idling for lefts and cut time lost at said lefts.
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Technarchy
macrumors 604
Thankfully it’s not an organ transplant. You’ll live and get your new toy later.
Keep trying Apple by all means. It’s your time and dime.
I have a 7 that I am trying to replace with the X. The 6S is an employees, she got a new 8 last month with no issues.
[doublepost=1509289984][/doublepost]What happened overnight? Nothing. I got an autoresponse from Apple Chat but that is it. No calls or emails from any Apple personnel, delivery date on my second order still shows Dec 11-18, has not changed. I'm going to call Apple again.
[doublepost=1509291919][/doublepost]Talked to a CSR. 'I see where your complaint has been escalated. I don't have a manager available but I will escalate it again. Somebody will contact you, most likely by phone.' I doubt it.
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I didn't cancel an order, it never completed. I never got an email, the reservation went away.
dave006
macrumors 601
Hey Dude, your iPhone X for NYC and Brooklyn is going to come through Anchorage with a 90% accuracy hit ratio. FedEx and UPS are still using older 747 Freighter and they need to refuel so they stop in Anchorage. They also switch Bulk load to other direct destinations in Anchorage instead of moving all the Bulk loads to Wordport in Lexington, KY.
It is actually cheaper for Apple to deliver an iPhone in Anchorage than NYC.
Dave
FedEx no longer has any 747s, they are mostly twin jet Boeings now, 757, 767 and 777. Some older Airbuses, a few DC-10/11s. UPS still flies 747s, so do other carriers like Cathay Pacific and China Air. CargoLux has the big, new 747-8Fs.
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Note: FedEx official once said they established a big base in Anchorage because it is within 12 hours flying time of 92% of the world's population.
[doublepost=1509294921][/doublepost]
Note: FedEx official once said they established a big base in Anchorage because it is within 12 hours flying time of 92% of the world's population.
The whole pre-ordering system in the US is broken. Here in the UK, there's only one model available to pre order, which is the factory unlocked. Just go to Apple.com, preorder and thats it. Use the phone with any carrier you want! No need to verify how much balance you have on your carrier account. No need to verify your last 4 digits of NI number (UK's equivalent of SSN). None of this carrier ****. Just one unlocked model for all.
Apple should just sell unlocked iPhones when pre-orders start and not any of these carrier branded phones, would save everyone the trouble.
Apple should just sell unlocked iPhones when pre-orders start and not any of these carrier branded phones, would save everyone the trouble.
mcdj
macrumors G3
Again, it’s not about the regional hub, it’s about the number of customers in the region. The biggest cost to Apple isn’t loading the planes and landing them, it’s paying for the manpower to dispatch the phones on the ground.
UPS discounts shipments in bulk. If you have a 10 mile long street and only one person at the very end of that street ordered an iPhone, the per piece price of that parcel is gonna be higher than if you were shipping 10 phones per mile.
This is all just a theory, but I can’t imagine that in 2017, after 10 years of this, Apple doesn’t have the ability to scale their servers and offer a smooth checkout for everyone.
What I CAN imagine is that Apple wants the perception to be that the phones are first come first serve, when in reality they manipulate the ordering process to favor higher volume market areas, thereby simultaneously selling the entire batch of first run production, minimizing shipping costs, and securing orders for the second and third production waves.
It’s in those second and third waves of orders that Apple starts to accumulate enough sales to achieve a bulk shipping discount to less densely populated areas.
I’m willing to bet the ordering process would be very different if Apple didn’t offer free shipping.
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DreamPod
macrumors 65816
Maybe you just weren’t clear about what happened, but it sounds to me like the order was never actually completed.
“I checked on the status and it said I could take delivery on 11/3 at either my local Apple store or have it shipped to my house. Wait for an email, it said. I went to bed.”
In the order process, you make that choice while making the order, not afterwards; you make it before entering in your payment data. It wouldn’t know whether there were any available at your local store otherwise.
“I checked on the status and it said I could take delivery on 11/3 at either my local Apple store or have it shipped to my house. Wait for an email, it said. I went to bed.”
In the order process, you make that choice while making the order, not afterwards; you make it before entering in your payment data. It wouldn’t know whether there were any available at your local store otherwise.
bambooshots
Suspended
OP, I wonder every time I read your thread title. Did you mean "Apple messed with my butt good?"
The carriers in the US practically own our government, they have so much lobbying power. So they have a lot of power to dictate terms of sale and control distribution of phones.
As an AT&T customer, who along with my husband placed two preorders for his phone, in case one of the orders got messed up, I am confused as to what this “reservation” is.
My husband managed to get through on the Apple Store App within 4-5 minutes after the Apple Store was supposed open. He got the release date shipping date straightaway, but somehow the shipping address was wrong and defaulted to his work address. He was able to change that later without losing his shipping date, somehow. He got an order confirmation right away.
I was making a backup order for him. I could not get into the store until about 7- 10 minutes after the Store was supposed to go live and ended up with a 2-3 week delivery window, which is fine for a backup. I stumbled half asleep through the process, it would not let me use my social security number with my phone number so without thinking it through clearly I erased everything and put all of the information for my husband’s phone and then it let me pay and sent me a confirmation email.
There was no mention of a reservation or need for me to do anything else even though we manage to have two orders with the same phone number submitted to AT&T. I worried my order would result in both orders being canceled but we have not yet heard anything from Apple or AT&T. I’ll cancel mine when we are sure nothing is messed up and we actually get a shipping notice for the first order. I’m afraid to touch anything right now. These ordering systems are so screwy.
AT&T was a several hour nightmare exposure to apathy and incompetence to get my Series 3 LTE Apple Watch activated. It should not have been that awful. Maybe Apple is having trouble squaring things with AT&T and that’s why Apple hasn’t gotten back to the OP yet. Goodness only knows. I joined this forum during the IPhone 6 Plus preorders because AT&T screwed that up so badly. It was such an epic fail it became a comedy.
That sucks. Maybe switch to a different carrier? Are they all equally bad? I've heard good things about T-Mobile.
At the end of several hours of going around with idiots and being escalated to more knowledgeable people, being hung up on several times (by accident—we got called back immediately) we managed to get my watch activated. This thread isn’t about me or that so I won’t go into more detail. But we did get a massive discount off our monthly bill. I forget what it was but it was huge. 😱