My experience with this morning's Saturday launch was a big fat fail. I was in line at 8:30am, and was the 6th person in line at the Scottsdale Quarter store here in Scottsdale, AZ. Their shipment came in at 9:40am, and by then the line had grown to about 100. They received in about 150 iPad 2's based on the number of boxes we watched them load in.
About 10:05, they had Apple rep's up at the front of the line, and they would ask you what you wanted, they would confirm they had it in the new shipment, and then introduce you to your Apple rep and you would go in.
Being 6th in line, I wasn't too worried they would have what I wanted. I told the Apple guy I wanted a 32gb black wifi only. He checked and said they had it.
We go in, he logs into the pc, we grab a couple accessories, and then he gets a call from in back..
No 32gb black wifi only ones.
CRAP! But tha's okay, I'll upgrade and take a 64gb black wifi only.
He checks. Nope, none of those either. UGH. This is starting to put a downer on a good day.
He asks if I'd be open to a 3G? I sure sure, whatever, I'll take it. Then he finds out, NO 3g's either, in 32gb OR 64gb!
WTF! He finds out the the ONLY black ipad 2's they got in, in a shipment of 150, are the 16gb black ones. Unfortunately, I need more space than that right now, not even thinking of all the new, larger apps that will come out to take advantage of the iPad 2's new processing power.
So, it was either get a white iPad 2 (ugh, no way. There's a reason why they don't make tv's with white bezels... no offense to those that prefer that though, but its just not for me and colors pop better with a black bezel), or else get the 16gb one.
I had to just walk. He said they don't do vouchers or anything else even though you waited a couple hours. I don't mind the waiting, but I really question what they were thinking shipping an order of 150 iPad 2s' that were almost all White, and no black 32's wifi nor 3G, and no black 64's wif nor 3G. Unless you wanted a 16gb iPad 2, you were getting a white one. Nice dumb shipment.
I'm getting really disappointed in Apple's poor launches (from a customer perspective). Limiting supply to create marketing sensationalism like long lines is really crappy customer service for someone who wants to buy their product. It's things like this that make me want to not buy their products. They've done a ton of launches and market analysis, and know how many they can sell and how many they should ship. They do this just to create long lines to make demand appear greater and makes for a good news story. It sucks being told they have the iPad you want too at the front door, and when you go in, oops no, even though you're 6th in line, all we have is a bunch of white ipads even though we said we had the black one you wanted. Turns out they didn't have ANY black ones unless you got a 16gb one.
Anyway, sucks that they can take someone who is excited about their product, and 2 hours later after waiting in line, they turn it into a poor experience. You really shouldn't tell someone at the door that you have their product, and then they lead you in right then to go get it, and then they say they don't have it even though they just confirmed they did 2 minutes earlier, and then they try to sell you something else (a white one). I know it's not intentional really, but that's still bait and switch.
Pretty poor experience at the Scottsdale Quarters Apple store.
