Apple Stores Experiencing 'Global' Issue With iPhone and Apple Watch Reservation Pickups

[0958400]

Ah! And I thought, the issue was the price.

 

[baronbuzby]

Currently in a queue at the Apple Reading store for my IUP appointment.

Everything still down. Looks like I can’t do it. They have everyone in a queue to speak to a manager.

Obviously stuff happens but they could let people know before they set off to a store.

I've just come back from Reading too - 90 minute round trip, parking, etc - chaos at the store - now won't get phone for weeks , as I am unable to go back due to work commitments - I think its poor form that the loyalest customers don't get their phones!

How do you cancel AUP? Can I just give the phone back and get on with my life?

 

[dwright1974]

I've just come back from Reading too - 90 minute round trip, parking, etc - chaos at the store - now won't get phone for weeks , as I am unable to go back due to work commitments - I think its poor form that the loyalest customers don't get their phones!

How do you cancel AUP? Can I just give the phone back and get on with my life?

That’s a shame, I was second in the queue from talking to the manager when everything started working. Apparently the problem is with their Internet connection worldwide and as it’s secure (quoting the Apple rep here) there’s nothing they can do.

So, I was lucky enough to get mine. If you can go back today I would as it seems to be up and running again.

HTH

- D

 

[ctdonath]

Finally cleared customs. Still no delivery date.

 

[Stella]

At Sherway gardens, Toronto, all models were still available as of 3pm Friday! Could have just walked in and bought one.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

Every indication points at UPS dropping the ball, and I'd love to see heads roll there. Worst freaking shipping in the country. But Apple is to blame for using them, I hope they learned from this.

worst? have you met the US Postal Service?

 

[PhilMacbook]

It's a scandal. How will these people make phone calls or tell the time without their new gadgets? Can they really be expected to go without for a few days? Apple should be ashamed of themselves

 

[ramsblues]

We're hearing from a number of readers over the past hour or so that Apple's retail stores are having problems completing in-store reservation pickups for the new iPhone and Apple Watch models. Multiple customers have been told there is a "global" issue affecting Apple's systems and we're hearing there are some long lines building up as customers wait for the issues to be resolved.

Pickup line at Manhattan Village store in Manhattan Beach, California​

Some customers have reportedly been told to cancel their existing reservations and make walk-in purchases from available stock, while others are simply being told to wait things out while staff members discuss how to handle the situation.

We'll update this post if we hear more about the situation, but if you have an upcoming pickup window, you might want to be prepared for some delays.

Update: Apple's systems appear to be coming back online and reservation pickups are now being processed. There is, however, still a backlog of customers to work through.

Article Link: Apple Stores Experiencing 'Global' Issue With iPhone and Apple Watch Reservation Pickups

[doublepost=1537621929][/doublepost]Placed an order like a an idiot on midnight (2.00am!) for a store pickup on Friday 8.00am. Got a message on delay at 12.00am Friday. No updates - for more than a day. In the meanwhile - folks who went to store directly are getting the same phone.
Seems like Apple decided to maximize the orders by ignoring the customers.

 

[kis]

Also been unable to register AppleCare for my new phone since this morning. Constant server errors

 

[Stella]

What do you want Apple to do? If planes are delayed, people will just have to wait for their phones an extra day. Not a big deal.

Good luck for those who went in store to buy their phone. A few Apple stores around where I am still have every model in stock right now.

[doublepost=1537621929][/doublepost]Placed an order like a an idiot on midnight (2.00am!) for a store pickup on Friday 8.00am. Got a message on delay at 12.00am Friday. No updates - for more than a day. In the meanwhile - folks who went to store directly are getting the same phone.
Seems like Apple decided to maximize the orders by ignoring the customers.

 

[kristiguin]

Indeed. Many of us were incredulous that the staff were so unhelpful and unimaginative.

Nobody on staff had the wherewithal to stand up and say "If you have pre-ordered but can't wait here all day, see me and I'll take down your details and give you my business card. We will hold your devices until you can arrange a time to come back and collect."

Ultimately this was resolved later in the day (at least for me), but there were others there who had arranged their work day to be able to front up during their collection time window.

At the time the staff position was basically: "We can't tell you when the system will be restored. We have no idea and no control over that. Oh, and by the way, we can only hold your reservations until 7pm today and then they will be cancelled."

When I showed up for my pickup, at about 1:20 in Bellevue, WA store, they were saying this as well. However, before the system came back up, they came out and told people that they would be able to hold them for a full week instead of the original "end of day" which was 9:30 pm for this store. My pick-up window was actually 1:30-2:00 and the system came up just before 2:00 and I was out of the store by about 2:05 so I can't complain too much. However, there were individuals who had left work to make their appointment and they were quite upset. I chose store pickup simply because I had the flexibility to do so and needed to get out to the mall yesterday anyway.

 

[Black Magic]

As (bad) luck would have it, I ordered for in-store pick up for the first time ever. I'm flying Saturday 9/22 and will be gone for a few weeks so I figured I would not chance a missed home delivery.

What a bad idea that was.

Oddly, this outage was only affecting those people that had pre-ordered and pre-paid. In-store purchases were still working fine.

There were several of us in the store who had prepaid the full price for unlocked phones (cards were charged early this week), our phones were in the store, yet the staff said we could not have them.

Because in-store payments were working, we all offered to pay again and cancel the original transaction, but the staff told us we would need to reserve a device for that, and there were none available to reserve. This in spite of the fact that we had reserved PAID phones in the store with our names on them.

Overall I've never seen such ineptitude in handling a systems failure (except maybe from a slacker in a convenience store or supermarket).

To top it all off the staff said they could not promise our pre-paid phones would still be there in the morning if we could not collect before 7pm today 9/21. Apparently the devices would be forfeited if we had to go back to work and try again tomorrow.

To sum it up:
1. We had all paid for our phones in full.
2. They were SIM-free, unlocked. Not needing carrier activation.
3. The phones were there.
4. We had receipts and ID.
5. The staff were just flailing their arms because their iDevices were doing the spinner/beachball thing.

I now feel stupid for owning an iPhone. I've lost count of how many over the past decade. Apple seems to be the company of airheads.

That is absolutely horrible! Why couldn't they release the phones to you and update the systems later? Maybe track things by paper until the systems came back online?

 

[kstotlani]

Just ordered my watch and phone through Verizon. I didn't feel like going into that huge crowd, especially since I haven't yet gotten my flu shot. Or my tetanus or penicillin shots. And I don't want to have to get those rabies shots either. And that flesh eating virus is totally terrifying because I don't think we have shots for that yet at all!

So I'm gonna stay home and grill a steak instead.

Gee, I hope I don't get e.coli poisoning...

Apple Watch 4 was tailor made for you

 

[DevNull0]

This is amazing. For all Timmy's complete incompetence at keeping product lines up to date and innovation, his supporters claim he's a logistics genius. Yet he can't even get product to customers without major screwups.

Or does the blame fall to Angela, the retail genius worth 10's of millions of dollars to Apple? Maybe Timmy needs to start poaching competent staff from Walmart.

 

[joueboy]

I think Apple found a way to make it looks likes somebody is having a long line to their store. You know get more publicity and people’s curiosity great marketing technique. This is not for people that wants and own iPhones, Apple already got them hooked up they can wait and don’t care if they’re mad either way they still gonna get their iPhones. This is for people that would think people still go crazy with the iPhone and I should get one for myself. Next things Apple once again proves others are wrong and theirs a high demand for XS’s because they also put on hold on XR. Great job Apple you never cease to amaze me.

 

[AmazingRobie]

How do you get a buzz going about your product at the local mall on iPhone launch day? Fake a system wide problem that results in a bunch of chumps who want new phones to have to form really long lines in front of your store. "Ewwwwwww! Look Martha, something must be going on at the Apple Store. Let's go see what it is..."

If you can't get anyone interested in your 'over the top' expensive product on launch day, fake it! Start your own covert guerrilla marketing campaign by duping the early adopters.

Either Apple has become grossly incompetent under Crook or extremely sleazy, either way it's a sad sad state of affairs...

 

[chatin]

Serious mistakes were made by tripling down on the X moniker. The X is associated with major expense for those who don't maintain a five figure bank account.

 

[sigsegv]

It's a scandal. How will these people make phone calls or tell the time without their new gadgets? Can they really be expected to go without for a few days? Apple should be ashamed of themselves

Although that isn't actually the issue that the original story was about - the pickup systems failure. The people that were affected weren't all in a hurry to get their phone. In fact once I saw the queue for "reservation pickup" snaking around the outside of the store I immediately asked if I could come back another day. I was told that if I didn't pick it up before 7pm on 9/21 then it would be forfeited. (I had already paid in full 100% by credit card). Many others had exactly the same sentiments as myself.

I order things online for in-store pickup often, so this is not particularly novel.

Imagine if this was Home Depot. Let's say I ordered a new hammer drill and paid online for in-store pickup (because it is showing only 1 in stock, I want to make sure I don't drive all the way there and end up empty handed. I receive an email that my drill is ready for pickup.

Then when I arrive at the store they check my drivers licence and tell me I can't have the drill because their "pickup system" is down. They won't let me buy it because "that drill is sold and reserved", and they tell me if I don't pick it up by the end of the day they won't hold it for me any longer.

See how ****ed up that is when it's not a phone we're talking about?

 

[sualpine]

You are all overgrown children with too much money.

 

[pcaleb]

It's a scandal. How will these people make phone calls or tell the time without their new gadgets? Can they really be expected to go without for a few days? Apple should be ashamed of themselves

I know! With delivery delayed until Monday, I had to cancel all my weekend plans and am hiding out in my apartment. I’d rather die than be seen around Manhattan with last year’s phone.

 

[PhilMacbook]

Although that isn't actually the issue that the original story was about - the pickup systems failure. The people that were affected weren't all in a hurry to get their phone. In fact once I saw the queue for "reservation pickup" snaking around the outside of the store I immediately asked if I could come back another day. I was told that if I didn't pick it up before 7pm on 9/21 then it would be forfeited. (I had already paid in full 100% by credit card). Many others had exactly the same sentiments as myself.

I order things online for in-store pickup often, so this is not particularly novel.

Imagine if this was Home Depot. Let's say I ordered a new hammer drill and paid online for in-store pickup (because it is showing only 1 in stock, I want to make sure I don't drive all the way there and end up empty handed. I receive an email that my drill is ready for pickup.

Then when I arrive at the store they check my drivers licence and tell me I can't have the drill because their "pickup system" is down. They won't let me buy it because "that drill is sold and reserved", and they tell me if I don't pick it up by the end of the day they won't hold it for me any longer.

See how ****ed up that is when it's not a phone we're talking about?

If I turned up at Home Depot and they didn't have a hammer drill I would just go somewhere else.

The chances are that whatever someone wanted a hammer drill for it would be more useful than what people want an iPhone 'whatever it is' for.

If I turned up at an Apple store and they threatened me with forfeiting my place in the queue I would just say fine and walk off. It's not that big a deal is it? In fact, I wouldn't even be in the queue or put myself in that situation in the first place. If I wanted that phone I'd just stroll in to a store in a few weeks time and pick it up without a fuss. I guess I'm not seeing the problem.

 

[jazz1]

I'm sorry to learn of this. I was lucky enough to walk-in to my local AT&T and snag 2 phones. I do remember years ago it was actually fun to stand in line with fellow Apple lovers and wait for the doors to the store to open. Kind of like a mini-Macworld

 

[Return Zero]

There's no "ordering from stock" really. When you walk in, they'll create a pick-up appointment for you, and then you'll be in the same boat as everyone else with an appointment. Whether it was created at 3 am EDT last Friday or 2 minutes earlier does not matter.

I know, but I was referring to the paragraph in the article about this. Apparently some customers were given the option, however that would be handled.

 

[Baymowe335]

All retail stock is sold out for the day in Asia and Europe (day is over there). US starting to sell out on East Coast, guessing all sold out by nightfall.

 

[sigsegv]

If I turned up at Home Depot and they didn't have a hammer drill I would just go somewhere else.

I've done the game of driving around every Home Depot in a 20 mile radius to find what I need, but I'd rather not; that's why when it's something specific I always check online before I go. I' sometimes don't want to buy any old thing when I already have batteries, chargers, etc for a particular brand.

And so it is with Apple, unfortunately.

The chances are that whatever someone wanted a hammer drill for it would be more useful than what people want an iPhone 'whatever it is' for.

Believe it or not my phone is my second most used work tool after my desktop. Not just for calling, but there's a whole collection of apps that I use when away from my desk. Voice/video conferencing, document sharing and editing, a long list.

I quite dislike Apple so I have a Google Pixel XL as well - and all the same apps. I absolutely need a backup for when the iPhone craps out. I tried to switch completely but it really didn't work out for me. Turns out I dislike Goofle too.

If I turned up at an Apple store and they threatened me with forfeiting my place in the queue I would just say fine and walk off. It's not that big a deal is it? In fact, I wouldn't even be in the queue or put myself in that situation in the first place. If I wanted that phone I'd just stroll in to a store in a few weeks time and pick it up without a fuss. I guess I'm not seeing the problem.

There wasn't any desperation on my part to get the phone yesterday. I'd never willingly stand in a queue to buy anything. I've never purchased anything on launch day. It just happened that I'd been waiting to replace a phone on its last legs and when I ordered online it said "available for pickup 1.2 miles away". I mistakenly thought the whole point of order + pickup appointment was to save time. It usually is, at every other store.

So I got burned; that's once. I'll never repeat that with Apple.