Cheer up mate. I don't believe I know everything and I have done loads in my career. Why exactly is that relevant? You acknowledge that there was likely to be a supply problem and acknowledge that you placed an order without knowing how well it could be fulfilled immediately after ordering it. There is really nothing more to be said other than you expected something that wasn't promised to you. If your company made the same gamble over the iPad 2 or the iPhone 4, you'd have the same problem.
Honestly, I am uncertain as to what part of any of my messages indicate I believed to be promised anything? My only expectation is that the products ordered arrive on the dates indicated (which they always have and likely will). That doesn't preclude the obvious accounting for a significant discrepancy between priority orders and those of the casual passer through the Apple store. Pre-orders should be fulfilled before sending random stock to the stores.
Let me give you a simple example. You buy a pair of plane tickets for you and a significant other to take a trip. You are told that the ONLY flights available will leave on a specific date at a specific time. The time is inconvenient however you agree as there is no better alternative presented. You get to the airport to checkin and find that there are people walking in off the street who are buying tickets for earlier flights while you wait for yours. When you go to the desk to request the same they tell you all flights are now booked. You ask them why they didn't offer you the flights offered to those who just walked in and you are told, "Oh, we had no idea those seats were even available."
Someone, somewhere knew what flights had what seats reserved, even if the agent booking your flight had no visibility into it. The airline is essentially handling booking logistics poorly. Now imagine that you are a platinum airline member, such that you are assured you will be entitled to certain amenities. They then deny you the amenities claiming they are no longer available, yet non-platinum members are walking right on in ahead of you to receive those amenities you were just told were not available.
Why? Random luck of the draw? Is this an intentional process of obfuscation? It makes absolutely zero business sense except to make a customer feel no more valued than another customer. This would be fine if all purchases were equal, but they are not, and frankly this practice is nothing new to Apple. They have done this for years, this just happens to be an exceptionally tedious example as they are delivering "half" a product experience by making one part available at one time and then another later on.
Don't try to justify their poor supply chain management process in this scenario by indicating people should just take what they are given. The entire reason people adore Apple products is because of the "feeling" they have when both using them and dealing with the service(s). And before you comment, just keep in mind that the Apple Business teams and the retail teams are exceedingly frustrated by the inventory issue. They don't want to do this to their customers and they are having to turn away far more people than usual for something that should be very, very simple.
Bottom line, someone deep in the SCM process bungled things and they are doing their best to fix it. Turning a blind eye to it won't help anyone.
