Apple Watch - Band exchanges

[brentsg]

I got a Black Stainless S4 with Milanese Loop, but knew the band wasn't for me within 5 minutes.

Went to process a return on the online store, it tells me that you can simply exchange the band. Call the number they provided, got a huge runaround.

In the end they told me that mine wasn't eligible for some reason. Does anyone know the rules on this? It's all very vague. I just don't want to pay the extra $100 for a band I'll never wear.

I tried to sell it on Ebay and someone in the Ukraine managed to buy it despite that being prohibited in my listing.. 44mm for what it's worth. Really don't want to be without a watch for weeks due to re-order, but hey.. I can save $100 and have a band I don't dislike.

 

[profmjh]

Yeah, this is a new thing. They used to be great about allowing you to just switch the band. Now that the band is boxed separately, you'd think they'd make it even easier.

But no. I tried to switch my band for one of the same cost. They said no. I had to send the whole thing back and re-order a whole new watch.

I didn't bother. Maybe that's why they changed the policy.

 

[legaleye3000]

I just tried chat, 800 # ,and calling the local store, and they said they wouldn't do it even though its on the site. The chat guy said that he thinks its for series 3 only. No one seemed to know anything about it.

 

[Newtons Apple]

You need to pick the band you want to keep and not expect Apple to exchange it.

 

[techno-Zen]

You need to pick the band you want to keep and not expect Apple to exchange it.

Yeah because there are SO many optiions

 

[44267547]

I got a Black Stainless S4 with Milanese Loop, but knew the band wasn't for me within 5 minutes.

Went to process a return on the online store, it tells me that you can simply exchange the band. Call the number they provided, got a huge runaround.

In the end they told me that mine wasn't eligible for some reason. Does anyone know the rules on this? It's all very vague. I just don't want to pay the extra $100 for a band I'll never wear.

I tried to sell it on Ebay and someone in the Ukraine managed to buy it despite that being prohibited in my listing.. 44mm for what it's worth. Really don't want to be without a watch for weeks due to re-order, but hey.. I can save $100 and have a band I don't dislike.

Thats Interesting find. What I would do, is you could print that page off, bring it to the Apple Store and if They dispute it, you could show them the webpage document and they may acknowledge it depending on the store. But if that’s an error on the website, then they need to correct this.

 

[legaleye3000]

I called the store and told them about their own site and they said they still wouldn’t do it.

 

[44267547]

I called the store and told them about their own site and they said they still wouldn’t do it.

I would be interested to see if there is any other reports from stores acknowledging this or not. Obviously your store has been very strict about the in store exchange, but other stores may see this and decide to acknowledge it. But still, they should rectify this and edit that on the webpage, where someone else may be disgruntled over what one thing indicates versus what the stores says.

 

[brentsg]

You need to pick the band you want to keep and not expect Apple to exchange it.

Haven't spent a ton of time on the internet today, but this is the type of post I have come to expect.

It's not even the type of post that warrants any sort of rational response.
[doublepost=1538788926][/doublepost]As a bit of follow-up, I tried chat first and they were clueless and spent most of the time trying to sell me Apple Care, even though earlier in the conversation they had commented that I had AC on the watch already.

Then I called the 800#, at which point they spent most of the time trying to get me to simply buy another band. They finally spoke to a supervisor, recognized the program, then explained that my watch didn't qualify somehow because I had a "premium band". During that call we wound up processing an RMA so as inefficient as it is, they get a watch back. She also kept telling me I have a store 5 miles away, and trying to get me to go there. The store is considerably further away than that, and roughly a 40 minute drive each way during the day.. Add in the time waiting for help, getting help.. nope. It would be at least 2 hours out of a Friday trying to chase what would likely have been the same outcome.

To me a premium band would be the stainless link, or Hermes stuff, but who knows.

No doubt that it's Apple not having their act together though. Oh, I also Tweeted to Apple and Apple Support with no response.

Maybe it's a win-win.. it increases sales and gets them all setup with stock for warranty replacements.

 

[Scott G.]

Haven't spent a ton of time on the internet today, but this is the type of post I have come to expect.

It's not even the type of post that warrants any sort of rational response.
[doublepost=1538788926][/doublepost]As a bit of follow-up, I tried chat first and they were clueless and spent most of the time trying to sell me Apple Care, even though earlier in the conversation they had commented that I had AC on the watch already.

Then I called the 800#, at which point they spent most of the time trying to get me to simply buy another band. They finally spoke to a supervisor, recognized the program, then explained that my watch didn't qualify somehow because I had a "premium band". During that call we wound up processing an RMA so as inefficient as it is, they get a watch back. She also kept telling me I have a store 5 miles away, and trying to get me to go there. The store is considerably further away than that, and roughly a 40 minute drive each way during the day.. Add in the time waiting for help, getting help.. nope. It would be at least 2 hours out of a Friday trying to chase what would likely have been the same outcome.

To me a premium band would be the stainless link, or Hermes stuff, but who knows.

No doubt that it's Apple not having their act together though. Oh, I also Tweeted to Apple and Apple Support with no response.

Maybe it's a win-win.. it increases sales and gets them all setup with stock for warranty replacements.

Exactly. They can say they've sold more watched that way..

 

[caligurl]

You need to pick the band you want to keep and not expect Apple to exchange it.

The problem is, apple offers crappy band choices... at least right now. my options for a silver stainless were white sport or milanese. newsflash: i've had and still have a perfectly fine white sport band that i've had since practically release. i ended up "upgrading" by paying an extra hundred bucks for milanese.

apple really needs to let you pick your own color. they are boxed separately now, so they can just program their software to allow it.... easy peasy!

 

[44267547]

The problem is, apple offers crappy band choices... at least right now. my options for a silver stainless were white sport or milanese. newsflash: i've had and still have a perfectly fine white sport band that i've had since practically release. i ended up "upgrading" by paying an extra hundred bucks

The white sport band is more popular than you think, because it’s a band that pairs with the most anything, which is why Apple likely offers this as a stock band with the watch. And not everyone who is upgrading has owned an Apple Watch, so this might be their first band, and being white is likely a top seller.

apple really needs to let you pick your own color. they are boxed separately now, so they can just program their software to allow it.... easy peasy!

I don’t think it’s as easy as you’re making it sound, I think that would be completely chaotic on the factory aspect, even though its what the consumer would want, I think it’s just more labor for Apple to do this if they were to pair the band you want with the watch, and it would likely just end up costing the consumer more.

 

[danny842003]

The problem is, apple offers crappy band choices... at least right now. my options for a silver stainless were white sport or milanese. newsflash: i've had and still have a perfectly fine white sport band that i've had since practically release. i ended up "upgrading" by paying an extra hundred bucks for milanese.

apple really needs to let you pick your own color. they are boxed separately now, so they can just program their software to allow it.... easy peasy!

Apple don’t really need to do anything, if you don’t like it don’t buy it.

 

[Newtons Apple]

The problem is, apple offers crappy band choices... at least right now. my options for a silver stainless were white sport or milanese. newsflash: i've had and still have a perfectly fine white sport band that i've had since practically release. i ended up "upgrading" by paying an extra hundred bucks for milanese.

apple really needs to let you pick your own color. they are boxed separately now, so they can just program their software to allow it.... easy peasy!

I am betting Apple will keep including the cheapest band like the sport and allow customers to pick another band if they wish. Can not see them selling an Apple Watch with no band.

 

[Pntblnk]

I can help the immediate need...how much are you asking for the Milanese band shipped to 37027? I can order the SS with sport band from Target.com but really want the Milanese option.