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Apple store employees hogging all the gold iPhone 5s.

A

AbyssImpact

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 6, 2010
804
17
Do you think this is the case? They get first dibs on the supply right?

I have lined up the last 3 days (usually in the top 5 in line) and every time there was zero gold iPhones.
 
AbyssImpact said:
Do you think this is the case? They get first dibs on the supply right?

I have lined up the last 3 days (usually in the top 5 in line) and every time there was zero gold iPhones.
Click to expand...

I doubt they are allowed to buy from store stock for the first couple weeks. At least that has been the case at the retailers I have worked for in the past.
 
Knowimagination said:
I doubt they are allowed to buy from store stock for the first couple weeks. At least that has been the case at the retailers I have worked for in the past.
Click to expand...

That was definitely the case at AT&T. My best friend worked there for the launch of the 5 and was told in no uncertain terms that she couldn't upgrade on launch day from her store.
 
I know for a fact that apple store employees can't even use their employee discounts on any new product. I think there is like a 2 month grace period before they can take advantage of it.
 
As said that's not the case. As far as putting stock aside for friends.... Who knows
 
I know an employee that got a gold phone for his wife and a phone for him (I don't know what color he got). He happened to be off on the 20th and so he went to the store at 3am and waited outside in the line with the rest of the iPhone fans. Hope that clears it up a bit for you guys.
 
When I picked mine up yesterday at the Apple store, the lady helping me had mentioned that she had already gotten one. The way she talked gave me the impression that it was from her store.

Unfortunately for me, I am taking mine into Apple to get it replaced due to an issue with the screen. Not going to do a refund and repurchase. I'll just take a white box replacement since those are all brand new at this point still.
 
They're not. The employee I talked to was annoyed she couldn't get her gold model because of all the scalpers.
 
averlus said:
I know an employee that got a gold phone for his wife and a phone for him (I don't know what color he got). He happened to be off on the 20th and so he went to the store at 3am and waited outside in the line with the rest of the iPhone fans. Hope that clears it up a bit for you guys.
Click to expand...

His friend who worked at the apple store hid one gold phone ticket until he was next and the employee friend handed him the GOLDEN ticket! No pun intended ! Haha
 
Guy who sold me my phone told me they could only buy off the clock and they could only get grey. So instead on launch day he got up at 3 am and ordered online. He said his gold was in the Oct 7 - 10 group.
 
mightygitis said:
Guy who sold me my phone told me they could only buy off the clock and they could only get grey. So instead on launch day he got up at 3 am and ordered online. He said his gold was in the Oct 7 - 10 group.
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Same thing here. You can only buy the grey 5S without a reservation. Seems to stock on those is aplenty.
 
No..

I read everybody's replies. I DISAGREE.

I was at Apple Store West Town mall in Knoxville, TN the morning of release (4:30am). There was a overweight apple employee, a woman, she wore a brown sweater. She came out around 6am on release day to talk with us - she took some pictures of the line, with her GOLD iPhone 5s. It really rubbed us the wrong way when we figured out that the store had NO gold...
 
997.2 said:
I read everybody's replies. I DISAGREE.

I was at Apple Store West Town mall in Knoxville, TN the morning of release (4:30am). There was a overweight apple employee, a woman, she wore a brown sweater. She came out around 6am on release day to talk with us - she took some pictures of the line, with her GOLD iPhone 5s. It really rubbed us the wrong way when we figured out that the store had NO gold...
Click to expand...

Sorry but no...

If that actually did happen the likelihood is that it was a store demo or eventual display model. No chance that employees had personal phones before they even went on sale.
 
997.2 said:
I read everybody's replies. I DISAGREE.

I was at Apple Store West Town mall in Knoxville, TN the morning of release (4:30am). There was a overweight apple employee, a woman, she wore a brown sweater. She came out around 6am on release day to talk with us - she took some pictures of the line, with her GOLD iPhone 5s. It really rubbed us the wrong way when we figured out that the store had NO gold...
Click to expand...

That could be a store display model.
 
997.2 said:
I read everybody's replies. I DISAGREE.

I was at Apple Store West Town mall in Knoxville, TN the morning of release (4:30am). There was a overweight apple employee, a woman, she wore a brown sweater. She came out around 6am on release day to talk with us - she took some pictures of the line, with her GOLD iPhone 5s. It really rubbed us the wrong way when we figured out that the store had NO gold...
Click to expand...

Maybe she ordered one online like a lot of people did (me included).
 
D3TSURA said:
When I picked mine up yesterday at the Apple store, the lady helping me had mentioned that she had already gotten one. The way she talked gave me the impression that it was from her store.

Unfortunately for me, I am taking mine into Apple to get it replaced due to an issue with the screen. Not going to do a refund and repurchase. I'll just take a white box replacement since those are all brand new at this point still.
Click to expand...

Went and got my white 64gb replaced yesterday. No white box. They just give you a brand new sealed box. Make sure to take your old one.
 
On Monday, when they allowed online in-store pickup, I almost guarantee they were holding them for friends.

Reason why is because the website showed available and my friend and I kept calling those stores and they told us none were available. But that depended on who answered the phone. Sometimes we were told "If the website shows it's available, order it and come pick it up". These were two different employees at the same store on some occasions.

It's unfortunate too because my friend cancelled his online order thinking he could do this online in-store pickup thing throughout the week but then Apple took it away. I honestly think the reason they removed it is because employees were abusing the system which led to unhappy customers coming in to find they didn't have any in stock. (Which they did but they were holding them) Anyways, just my opinion.
 
997.2 said:
I read everybody's replies. I DISAGREE.

I was at Apple Store West Town mall in Knoxville, TN the morning of release (4:30am). There was a overweight apple employee, a woman, she wore a brown sweater. She came out around 6am on release day to talk with us - she took some pictures of the line, with her GOLD iPhone 5s. It really rubbed us the wrong way when we figured out that the store had NO gold...
Click to expand...

How do you know it was her personal phone and not one of the store demos? They want pictures to send to corporate, makes sense to use the best phone to take the pictures.
 
997.2 said:
I read everybody's replies. I DISAGREE.

I was at Apple Store West Town mall in Knoxville, TN the morning of release (4:30am). There was a overweight apple employee, a woman, she wore a brown sweater. She came out around 6am on release day to talk with us - she took some pictures of the line, with her GOLD iPhone 5s. It really rubbed us the wrong way when we figured out that the store had NO gold...
Click to expand...
I'm betting it was a store display.

The Apple Store I worked at P/T for a few years would absolutely not do any employee sales on items in short supply, unless the employee waited in line on their own time. Even if you worked the closing shift and there were phones left over at the end of the day, you couldn't buy one. Your only advantage to being an employee would be knowing if it was worth getting in line the following morning.

Do 100% of all stores follow that policy? Who knows. But every launch at my store (and every launch video I've seen on YouTube from other stores), the managers have spent the entire morning psyching up the employees to go out and "give transformational experiences, not transactional", blah blah blah. It's hard for me to imagine them getting everyone so psyched up and then setting up a situation where the employees can bogart all of the gold phones. They know the lack of gold is going to disappoint customers. They also know that customers are watching every move they make, too.

So even if a manager lets an employee buy a gold phone early on launch day, there's no way in hell I can see them letting her take it out in front of a line of customers. No way in hell.

Also at the store I worked at, until about 30 minutes before the launch, all of the demo models are getting used by employees (trying to get some hands on) before they're locked down to the wood tables. So if the doors opened at 8:00AM, and this employee was out two hours before that, it could really easily have been a display.
 
The guy I know who works at the local Apple Store told me no one in his store was allowed to purchase any iPhone 5s' at all. I don't know how long they have to wait, but no one at this store is holding any gold iPhones.
 
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