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Apple Store London to open November 21
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Queue Jumpers
BTW, i've only seen one report of a bag with an ipod - anyone else get one?
I wouldn't be surprised if this is entirely due to queue jumpers... At around 85th in the queue, my friends and i kicked out 2 queue jumpers and shooed along another 10 potentials... I'm surprised they didn't hand out numbered queue cards like Wimbledon do - very efficient away of fairly managing queueing... (and yes, I did queue, despite saying i wouldn't yesterday 🙂
Yeah - i feel it adds up to about max 600 quid (i got one of the bags with the speakers). You'd think they would put a bit of effort into investing in some customer satisfaction from day one...jrwo said:
BTW, i've only seen one report of a bag with an ipod - anyone else get one?
jrwo said:
I wouldn't be surprised if this is entirely due to queue jumpers... At around 85th in the queue, my friends and i kicked out 2 queue jumpers and shooed along another 10 potentials... I'm surprised they didn't hand out numbered queue cards like Wimbledon do - very efficient away of fairly managing queueing... (and yes, I did queue, despite saying i wouldn't yesterday 🙂
as2
macrumors newbie
pieshopUK said:
I was pretty pised off too. When I arrived just before midnight, I was 274th in the queue. By the time I got into the store at just after 11 I was something like 400th into the store. Wasn't a happy bunny I can tell you.
Was intending to buy an iMac, but decided I'd give my money to a company that actually appreciated it's customers who wait outside for over 11 hours, in sub zero temperatures.
I was slightly pissed by the people who were going in through the side entrance as well, as I saw some of them leaving with goody bags, which is pretty unfair for people who turned up at gone 9am, and can probably afford all the items in the bag seperately anyway! 😡 😡
Got there at 12:30am, didn't get a lucky bag. Here's a big **** you to the queue jumpers.
Apart from that, it was a fun night. I bought myself a new iPod to commiserate the lack of lucky bags - my previous one was very ill...
The new store is gorgeous. Like a supersized NY SoHo one.
Apart from that, it was a fun night. I bought myself a new iPod to commiserate the lack of lucky bags - my previous one was very ill...
The new store is gorgeous. Like a supersized NY SoHo one.
pieshopUK
macrumors newbie
queue cards
Thats what I was expecting - queue cards. Why on earth didn't they do that? I found the queueing experience very nasty: it was madness, from 5.30AM onwards people were all bunched up and we were all standing until we entered the store at 11.30. Totally avoidable with a little queue management and queue cards. I think the first 200 or so in the queue had a better time of it - it seemed a little more civilised there.
Thats what I was expecting - queue cards. Why on earth didn't they do that? I found the queueing experience very nasty: it was madness, from 5.30AM onwards people were all bunched up and we were all standing until we entered the store at 11.30. Totally avoidable with a little queue management and queue cards. I think the first 200 or so in the queue had a better time of it - it seemed a little more civilised there.
nevrar said:
Queue jumping happens all the time in London. Its unfortunate but you just gotta accept it. Especially on such a momentous day like this. 🙁
T and C's
Hmm... Interesting.. Just reading the Terms and Conditions.. It states, "The Lucky Back will be chosen at random by the purchaser from the selection available for sale ...". Did anyone get to choose their bag (apart from the last guy to buy one)?
Hmm... Interesting.. Just reading the Terms and Conditions.. It states, "The Lucky Back will be chosen at random by the purchaser from the selection available for sale ...". Did anyone get to choose their bag (apart from the last guy to buy one)?
pieshopUK
macrumors newbie
True, I don't like it, but am used to it at bus stops in London.
But when you've been queuing for 12 hours in sub-zero temperatures its just taking the piss. I wouldn't have done it to someone, and those that did are ignorant, selfish and greedy as far as I'm concerned.
But when you've been queuing for 12 hours in sub-zero temperatures its just taking the piss. I wouldn't have done it to someone, and those that did are ignorant, selfish and greedy as far as I'm concerned.
Y-knot? said:
Bag choice?
Not as far as I saw - we got the next one that the checkout guy picked up from the pile.
Had a *great* time (towards the front of the queue with Applespider - who MacWorld reckons to be a new friend of mine, from their photo page. Um, slightly out of date with the news there, like by about 9 years) and love the JBL speakers.
Would also like to thank Westminster Council for some unbelieveably clean loos at Carnaby Street.
nevrar said:
Not as far as I saw - we got the next one that the checkout guy picked up from the pile.
Had a *great* time (towards the front of the queue with Applespider - who MacWorld reckons to be a new friend of mine, from their photo page. Um, slightly out of date with the news there, like by about 9 years) and love the JBL speakers.
Would also like to thank Westminster Council for some unbelieveably clean loos at Carnaby Street.
Well I must say I wasn't expecting quite that many people! kudos to those who braved the waiting and the weather, shame most seem a little dissapointed with the lucky bags.
On a hopeful whim we came up this morning and were there at 8.15am...at that point the old-bill told us there were something like 5000 people ahead of us! When we were also told it was basically 1-in-1-out after the first 400 punters through-the-door we decided to give up and went for a stroll around...walking passed a few hours later someone we'd seen in the line had moved only a few hundred yards! - Dissapointed to not have seen inside, guess I just need to be made or sterner stuff!
Store looks amazing (from the outside!) and seemed to be a really cool buzz around the whole area...Here's hoping they do open a store in Oxford as rumoured and I can improve my tactics!
On a hopeful whim we came up this morning and were there at 8.15am...at that point the old-bill told us there were something like 5000 people ahead of us! When we were also told it was basically 1-in-1-out after the first 400 punters through-the-door we decided to give up and went for a stroll around...walking passed a few hours later someone we'd seen in the line had moved only a few hundred yards! - Dissapointed to not have seen inside, guess I just need to be made or sterner stuff!
Store looks amazing (from the outside!) and seemed to be a really cool buzz around the whole area...Here's hoping they do open a store in Oxford as rumoured and I can improve my tactics!
good time
yes - i had a great time too... 🙂 good fun...
And for that urinal down that alleyway 🙂
Domina said:
yes - i had a great time too... 🙂 good fun...
Domina said:
And for that urinal down that alleyway 🙂
XIII said:
Hmmm...doesn't sound familiar. I was the 6'4" skinny bastard dressed in black jeans & a fleece, and probably a woollen hat. We started off sitting in the 2nd half of the queue, which formed across the road from the corner of the Apple Store block. For some of the night we hid under white duvets...
Then the strange gap opened up at about 5am or whatever it was, and our nice orderly queue turned into a 10ft wide rush. 🙄
http://www.macworld.co.uk/londonstore/XIII said:
They missed photographing the downstairs checkouts - note goody bags being purchased:
Attachments
^ Does anyone know what caused that? I was getting into the zone, starting to enjoy chilling out and reading my book, when suddenly everyone's running forwards about 100m. That kinda sucked...
hob
macrumors 68010
Swinny said:
Ditto - I turned up at 7am having woken up at 5am. Ended up queing round 4 corners round by the HSBC, which wasn't too far but was a bit of a swizz - they could have stretched to 700 lucky bags. But it was quite strange, saw a mate of mine who's 2 years ahead of me in education terms, who i haven't seen since he left Ravenswood 3 years ago! He was there with a friend, and I was there with my brother! Quite a strange coinscidence, we walked up RIGHT behind them!!
As for queue jumpers, we were standing behind a group of 5, or at least a group of 3 and another couple who were getting on quite well. This local lad cut in right near the front, when we started walking he went between the couple, then we stopped. We moved again and he went through the other 3, but one of them grabbed him by his pikey-bag and pulled him backwards!!
Queue jumpers suck, and I'm sorry to all of you who stayed up all night and were dissapointed, but I'll be sitting in my car in the car park at bluewater all night when it opens - waiting for my lucky bag!!
And having only been to SoHo I thought it looked just like it but wider.
Oh, and the Genius Bar staff seemed much more friendly than the ones in SoHo - my powerbooks already in for repair and will be ready for next week (the casing is warped)
Hob 🙂
asif786
macrumors 65816
hey guys,
woah! that was soo cool. i really enjoyed meeting all you guys (especially the first 20 ppl in line 🙂)
i had a slight mishap with the lucky bag though - mine contained ni ipod, and that's the main reason I wanted it. So, I took the bag outside (after I left) and starting selling a few of the things I already had at home. Well, turns out some idiot police officer came up to me, and threatened to arrest me because i was 'street' trading. what a joke. i didnt want to argue, so i just got the hell out of there, which sort of ruined my grand opening experience.
i must say though, being the first group to be let into the store with all the tv cameras filming, the music blaring, and the whole buzz in the area was crazy - something that I will probably never experience again. Now I understand why Gary Allen does it 🙂
Ahh anyway, I've had 4 hours of sleep in 36 hours - im cranky, big time. So cranky in fact that I almost cancelled my iMac order which is currently shipping. Oh dear.
Well done to Apple, great store, and well done stormy, you deserve the #1 space..
--asif (too lazy to describe myself atm)
woah! that was soo cool. i really enjoyed meeting all you guys (especially the first 20 ppl in line 🙂)
i had a slight mishap with the lucky bag though - mine contained ni ipod, and that's the main reason I wanted it. So, I took the bag outside (after I left) and starting selling a few of the things I already had at home. Well, turns out some idiot police officer came up to me, and threatened to arrest me because i was 'street' trading. what a joke. i didnt want to argue, so i just got the hell out of there, which sort of ruined my grand opening experience.
i must say though, being the first group to be let into the store with all the tv cameras filming, the music blaring, and the whole buzz in the area was crazy - something that I will probably never experience again. Now I understand why Gary Allen does it 🙂
Ahh anyway, I've had 4 hours of sleep in 36 hours - im cranky, big time. So cranky in fact that I almost cancelled my iMac order which is currently shipping. Oh dear.
Well done to Apple, great store, and well done stormy, you deserve the #1 space..
--asif (too lazy to describe myself atm)
Applespider
macrumors G4
Apparently, there's a piece on London Tonight just starting on ITV - or at least, there was on the lunchtime version since I had various calls immediately afterwards.
Sorry to hear about all the pushing in. We did have a few trying it up the front but after bonding together for 20 hours plus, we knew exactly who we'd been near so interlopers were swiftly booted out. We did speak to a few people further down the queue (they reckoned around 180 at the time) who admonished us not to let people in (which we didn't intend to - you had to earn your freezing stripes) while telling us their mates would probably join them.
Was stopped regularly on the way back up to Oxford Circus by the queue asking how it had been...
Final thanks to the manager/supervisor of the nearby Starbucks who not only handed out free filter coffee in the morning, but opened 90 minutes earlier than usual and encouraged queuers to use their WC and warmth/power options throughout Fri/Saturday (without having to continually purchase stuff!)
Edit - London Tonight piece was very positive! And great to see so many of the front of line gang interviewed! If anyone was able to record it, would love to get a copy of it.
Sorry to hear about all the pushing in. We did have a few trying it up the front but after bonding together for 20 hours plus, we knew exactly who we'd been near so interlopers were swiftly booted out. We did speak to a few people further down the queue (they reckoned around 180 at the time) who admonished us not to let people in (which we didn't intend to - you had to earn your freezing stripes) while telling us their mates would probably join them.
Was stopped regularly on the way back up to Oxford Circus by the queue asking how it had been...
Final thanks to the manager/supervisor of the nearby Starbucks who not only handed out free filter coffee in the morning, but opened 90 minutes earlier than usual and encouraged queuers to use their WC and warmth/power options throughout Fri/Saturday (without having to continually purchase stuff!)
Edit - London Tonight piece was very positive! And great to see so many of the front of line gang interviewed! If anyone was able to record it, would love to get a copy of it.