ATT [and Apple] drop the ball: Please rant here

[albeli]

I got to the ATT store at about 7:15, and I was number 32 or so in line. The line started moving right at 8, and there were a good 40 or so people behind me. At around 8:20 they started checking eligibility for those of us outside. I tried asking how many phones they had, specifically white ones, but the guy said he didn't know and told me not to worry. About 9 a lady comes out and says that if anyone is waiting specifically for the white one, they don't have any. 9:15, she comes back out, says they found "a few" white ones. I got inside about 9:25. Immediately asked for a white one. They had just sold the last one. I asked if I could order one, and I could, but it would take 5-7 days to get it in. I decided that was too long a wait and took a black one. Turns out I got one of the very last ones they had, period. As my transaction was almost done, the rep told me they'd just sold out. I got out of the store at 9:45, and they were SOLD OUT.

Oh, one other thing, I wasn't able to port my number from another carrier today, because the family account my number is currently on is in my husband's name, and I wanted the new line in my name. I was told I'd have to come back in a few days for that. Yes, my husband was with me, specifically because our current carrier said he'd have to sign the port order, even if he'd made me an authorized user. Soemthing about them having to use a different system for today, and the system he needed to use to port the number was a different one. Bizarre. And aggravating.

 

[tswiers]

On behalf of people who have worked in a C/S position...THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS WRONG!

ok now that I've gotten that little irrational statement out of the way.

The people working at the stores, unless they are managers or assistant managers...are getting paid next to crap to work there. They survive on commissions from phone sales. They don't give a crap if you are happy to buy a product unless they stand to get a cut of commission from the sale. The people manning the door? Don't get a cut of the sale...they just get paid to stand at the door and let people in. Their job is to manage the line...they aren't monitoring stock levels. So they are doing their job. If you have an issue, it should be with the manager of the store...they should be the ones telling waiting customers whether or not they will be getting a phone. They are the ones paid to manage the store in all ways possible, including customer service. Sure the person manning the door is supposed to be nice...but that doesn't include bowing to your every whim and being a fountain of information on subjects they have no idea about. They will be nice as far as letting people in and out and greeting customers...but that's all the further they have to go...because that's all their job entails at that point in time.

I agree with what you had to say. I have worked in C/S and I found that if you cant be friendly to customers... you just need to find a job more suitable for yourself. My issue was with the previous post who said they have no obligation to tell the customers if the stock is limited or gone.

 

[Abstract]

Customer Service jobs suck. People have this attitude of "entitlement". Even if you have the money, this whole "I'm a customer, so treat me like a King and do your job with me breathing down your neck" is just a really poor attitude that people have when they're a customer. Even if you're talking about someone who appears nice to family/friends/co-workers in other situations, you can tell who's truly nice and who isn't by the way they treat waiters, store employees, etc.

A little bit of understanding goes a long way.

Looks like my experience is like many others........long line, short supply and a D!ck of an ATT employee that played dumb as to how many they had in stock....

......The little toady (ATT guy) working the line wouldn't give an answer as to how many they had in stock.

Do you honestly expect the guy standing at the door to know how much stock they have left? Even the people in the store probably have only a rough estimate, as each customer may be filing out god knows what paperwork, and activating the phone while making their purchase. It's hard to keep proper track of inventory when customers are holding the phone in their hand and haven't paid for it yet. Also, the inventory list may take 2-3 minutes to update, so assuming he could provide it for you, it wouldn't benefit him at all, because he'd get even more grief if the system wasn't accurate at the time he checked it.

And let me repeat this, because it seems important: You asked the doorman, and you think he's a dick for not knowing about stock levels?

BClearly a colossal underestimation by AT&T.

Each store probably had no choice as to the number of phones they received. If they could have had 100, they would have asked for 100. I don't think any company has had a massive number (i.e.: 300000, 500000, 1m) of a particular electronics gadget sitting in a storage facility at launch time, so Apple isn't really the first.

I can feel everyone's frustration, but I think that like good concert tickets, if you want a good chance of getting one, you needed to get there as soon as possible (say 5 AM).

Oh, and had to mention, on my final trip home after my last defeat, I got sideswiped - hit and run - scraped up the whole side of my car. So that just about makes my day complete...

That is bad luck. Sorry about that.

 

[weaponofgod]

Patience is a virtue

I experienced a similar problem, except I was close enough to the front to still get an 8 GB, while I was waiting the Fed Ex truck dropped off a shipment. I got a 16GB in black. Like someone was saying patience is a virtue.

 

[werkedm3]

Got to my local Att store at 5:45 am was number 25 in line. 7 am att store employees are out side counting the number of people in line. We all asked how many they had in stock and they would not tell us as per APPLE policy. At 8:30 they stop at number 20 in line and are out of stock. I would estimate maybe 100 people in line waiting. They knew they only had 20 last night. Why on earth would they let us stand in line knowing damn well we were wasting our time. I just don't understand how this is good customer service. Oh well I will get one all in due time.

Same thing here. My store got roughly 15 phones, and 75 people waiting, and they can't tell us. ******** move on apple/att's part. Now I wasted my entire morning.

 

[mrwizardno2]

All that anger over a iPhone. Got something else going for you? If not, it's going to feel like a long time before you're going to get a phone.

And regarding the servers going down: People were trying to buy this thing in 20+ countries around the world on the same day. You should expect Apple to beef up their servers to handle a larger capacity, but not to accommodate the 200,000 (or whatever) number of people all trying to access the servers at the same time. As this type of launch doesn't happen often (in fact, it never has for Apple), and will happen very infrequently in the future, I wouldn't have expected Apple to get new servers just for this launch. Beefed up? Yes. An entire system to handle the entire expected load for single day? Probably not.

So honestly, who was expecting a smooth ride today?

Unfortunately, though, telephone service is held to a higher standard than this "best effort" crap they're pulling today. I look at it like I look at my power supplier. It's a utility, it needs to work. If they were expecting to have problems, they should have prepared for it. It's not like there aren't services that you can buy for situations like this. They already make use of akamai for file distribution (probably for just this sort of reason). I'm sure they could have prepped or at least planned for how to handle what is going on today. I know you're a fellow Demi, but I think you're being far too forgiving of Apple's recent blunders.

 

[scottybe]

In their defense...

In Apple's/ATT's defense, they shouldn't tell people 21+ in line to go home if they only have 20 phones. Some of the first 20 are bound to not be eligible for some reason or another or not like the color/size of what's available. That said, I would think telling people 31+ to go home would be reasonable.

 

[Penguinwrangler]

Unfortunately, though, telephone service is held to a higher standard than this "best effort" crap they're pulling today. I look at it like I look at my power supplier. It's a utility, it needs to work. If they were expecting to have problems, they should have prepared for it. It's not like there aren't services that you can buy for situations like this. They already make use of akamai for file distribution (probably for just this sort of reason). I'm sure they could have prepped or at least planned for how to handle what is going on today. I know you're a fellow Demi, but I think you're being far too forgiving of Apple's recent blunders.

Couldn't agree more. I don't mind the occasionaly screw-up or glitch, so long as it was an unforseen issue and the party responsible works sufficiently hard to correct it in a timely manner. That's totally forgivable. What is not forgivable is a situation that was clearly mismanaged and clearly not up to the task at hand, and selling it as though it was. AT&T managers (I believe there was even the AT&T equivalent of a regional director at my location this morning, very sharp suit) I encountered today CLEARLY were in over their heads and were CLEARLY not at all surprised that they were. This was a botched job, through and through. This is not something to blame on computer error alone.

 

[slippery-pete]

AT&T is terrible...story

Little background...had an old FAN # attached to my account. Called Wednesday night and had it removed. Even verified it when I logged into my account online. Contacted both Apple and AT&T and both confirmed I was go to make my purchase at Apple.

Get to Apple 5AM this morning and finally get to buy my iPhone around 8:40. That is when the fun started. Go to make my purchase and get the dreaded "IRU" error. Apple knows it has something to do with an old FAN# and ask me to log into my account. Log in and sure enough no number attached. I then spend 2+ hours on the phone with AT&T. They tried everything and couldn't get it to work in the Apple store. At that point I am told to go to an AT&T store to buy, but Of course all local stores are sold out by now. I was like OK I'll pick one up from an AT&T store in the next couple of days and leave Apple. Get out and try to call my wife, well my phone doesn't work. No idea why. Stop by local At&T store on the way home to see why. Apparently, the girl I spoke to at AT&T messed with something on my account and it cut off my service. Associate at local store said no biggie, just need a new SIM card. He puts in the new card and tells me to go home and connect to iTunes. Only issue, can't get onto iTunes! So I didn't get a new 3G iPhone and I done even have access to my old one! To add insult to injury, the girl I was speaking to on the phone charged me the $18 UPGRADE fee! No no phone, no access to my old one and an $18 fee.

AT&T are a bunch of clowns, it is as simple as that.

 

[ziggo]

Yeah I noticed a problem when they let the first 15 people go in the store (AT&T store in Stonecrest parkway, Lithonia, GA) and nobody came out for like another 45 minutes. Then the store manager comes out and says that all remaining activations will be done at home thorugh itunes (ala last year) most people were confused, i tried to explain to the people directly in front of me what they meant by that...


And the stock was extremely LOW!! lower than last year when I went the exact same store and they had plenty. I was first in line last year (waited 12 hours) and even people who HADN'T waited in line all day were able to just walk in and get one. This time though there was a line of about 40 people when I got there around 7:15am and about 75 by the time the store opened. At about 9:45 when I was the 12th person in line they came out and announced that they had only 20 left. By the time I got in the store I actually got the second to last white 16gb...



Now im at home trying to activate and i keep getting a "Timed out" error....

 

[ubersalad]

Most stores had 20-30 phones. The store I was at had 30, and two of them actually broke down! It's freaking stupid, I showed up at 6 and was like 35th in line.

 

[lilnyc]

I waited in line for the good portion of an hour at the Seekonk ATT store. They only had 20 phones. The sales reps wouldn't give us still waiting in line a direct answer as to how many they had left. Thanks to them I wasted my time waiting in line when I could have been at the apple store. 20 phones on launch day? Seriously? Its a kick in the pants and after this I'm keeping my money and business with Verizon.

The store should have made that clear as soon as they knew, if possible. Sorry you wasted time. The Apple site however did state that it's best to go to an Apple store for this product. Not sure about Apple stores in your area, but that's what the site suggested. I guess they knew there'd be a shortage.

Last week, an Apple store rep ticked me off to the point where I vowed not to return to that Apple store...but I did to get my iPhone today. Are you really going to forego getting it due to a bad experience with AT&T management? If you stood in line for an hour, I can see you making a go of it again. The hype will die down, and I bet you'll be able to grab one within a week

 

[rxl125]

stop blaming ATT, Apple is just as much to blame

I was sitting outside SAgemore, and the whole time the nerdy apple store employees were bashing ATT and saying this is all their fault. First of all that is classless, but come on... They don't have any info, etc...

 

[bry223]

My AT&T store only got in 8

Yep, drove 30 miles to the nearest ATT store, I was around #20 in line, they let in 4 people at a time, but we all noticed everyone was walking out with cards and no iphones, after a good 1 hour wait (After the store opened) the manager finally decides to come out and tell us they only got in 8 (The whole time everyone that was going in was getting nothing but vouchers to come back), it wouldve been really nice of him to let us know, you know before the store opened, so all 50 people in line could've tried another nearby store.

 

[Penguinwrangler]

Please, Sir, May I Have Another?

So despite the hell I went through this morning, I have gotten through stages of anger and all that, and would STILL like to attempt to purchase this phone as soon as possible, AT&T and Apple be dammned! I live in Northern Jersey, is everything likely to be sold out everywhere, or do we think that Apple Stores are likely to still have stock when I leave work this evening?

Or am I setting myself up for another night of the grumbles....

 

[dogbiskit2]

My local store had 20 8gb, 10 black 16gb, and 10 white iphones for a total of 40. When I first heard those figures, I was really surprised. But from the numbers reported here, that seems like a decent number for my little town. Luckily, I got there this morning around 4:30 and was #9 in line so I got to pick my poison (16 gb black). By the time 8 rolled around, there were more than 60 people in line. Not sure what happened after person 40, cause I was done around 9 am and got outta there!

 

[Auzburner]

So despite the hell I went through this morning, I have gotten through stages of anger and all that, and would STILL like to attempt to purchase this phone as soon as possible, AT&T and Apple be dammned! I live in Northern Jersey, is everything likely to be sold out everywhere, or do we think that Apple Stores are likely to still have stock when I leave work this evening?

Or am I setting myself up for another night of the grumbles....

I'm thinking your headed for lots of grumbles! Probably it's a good idea to wait a wee bit? The dust will settle and you can just go grab your new iPhone in a couple days and activate without a problem.

 

[jfreak623]

Today made me wish Apple never chose AT&T....

First off, let me say, NONE of the employees knew what they were doing regards to activation, the ladie who sold me my iphone literally argued with me cause i told her to leave my $5 M2m Texting plan and she said they dont have a stand alone $5 m2m texting plan even though I just called last week and had it added...so After getting tired of waiting around i told her to just do what she had to do to get me out the door (im changing to a family plan this weekend anyway) so after alot of errors and having the clueless manager come over and finally get my stuff activated i was on my way out..

Then on my way home I noticed I couldnt get 3G or even edge. After doing some research i found out that she did not put my data plan on my account. So I called ATT and talked to 3 different people and one foreigner who kept telling me to go to itunes.com and add my 3g data plan after i repeatly told him they did not add my data plan (he even asked me if I used Visual Voicemail when he was troubleshooting...DUH I did buy an iphone to use). So finally i got an american who added my data plan for me and after 2 hours of fighting these idiots i THINK i am done....nope not so fast....

I then find out that they added the wrong 3G plan and i no longer have Visual Voicemail...(my account now said Iphone data NVVM) so AGAIN I had to call back and try to get it worked out but once again, nobody knows what they hell they are doing there and they end up having to do a billing ticket and they promise me it will be fixed by JULY 22!!!!!! Isnt that BS?!

Im so fed up with ATT. On top of all that I found out that none of my chargers work anymore!! (APPLE ARE YOU SERIOUS??! VERY VERY LOW!)

 

[tho]

iReady? not Apple or At&t

One of the lucky few who have a business discount. I was luckily enough to be told 3 hrs into the line and 25 away from being in the Apple store that I couldn't activate in store and would have to go to At&t store. I was iReady...

 

[animenick65]

The store should have made that clear as soon as they knew, if possible. Sorry you wasted time. The Apple site however did state that it's best to go to an Apple store for this product. Not sure about Apple stores in your area, but that's what the site suggested. I guess they knew there'd be a shortage.

Last week, an Apple store rep ticked me off to the point where I vowed not to return to that Apple store...but I did to get my iPhone today. Are you really going to forego getting it due to a bad experience with AT&T management? If you stood in line for an hour, I can see you making a go of it again. The hype will die down, and I bet you'll be able to grab one within a week

I would have loved to go to an Apple store for the phone, but the closest apple store is in a major city and is the only one for an hours drive so it was packed. Reports of over 250 people in line at that store came in this morning. I may bite the bullet and head over there after work today to see if I can grab one. If i cannot, I will check the online availability on the apple site and will be there when they open in the morning.

I am mad that they aren't handling this well, but its such a nice device and i truly have Verizon.

 

[cWeems]

max any att store can get is 40, dont blame att if we could order more we would!!

 

[41qser]

My local store had 20 8gb, 10 black 16gb, and 10 white iphones for a total of 40. When I first heard those figures, I was really surprised.

Same here.

I drove to a more obscure ATT store 30 miles away at 7:00 AM... was number 36 line... just barely made the cut. At around #20, we were told that they would be allowing us to activate at home because of the problems.

ATT was straight-up from the get-go... they walked the line telling us how many were left of each color and size continuously, as well as handed out bottled water.

Even with the activation SNAFU, my Brunswick, Maine ATT experience was pretty decent.

BUT... only 40 phones? Perhaps it was intentional so they can brag about "selling out"... but still, even in that small town store the line was easily 100+...

I figure the servers will be back up sometime soon, no big deal, I can live without a phone for a little while.

 

[Jack Dangers]

I'm thinking your headed for lots of grumbles! Probably it's a good idea to wait a wee bit? The dust will settle and you can just go grab your new iPhone in a couple days and activate without a problem.

Yeah, that's the best thing to do. I was a bit upset this morning when I waited about 3hrs at an ATT store to have them come out and say they're sold out and are taking orders for later delivery. I will say that while I don't agree with ATT's "supposed" lack of knowledge of inventory, I do understand why they do it. I think I'll just go to an Apple store tomorrow, I'm sure I'll score one by Sunday...

 

[Let's Sekuhara!]

I waited in line for the good portion of an hour at the Seekonk ATT store. They only had 20 phones. The sales reps wouldn't give us still waiting in line a direct answer as to how many they had left. Thanks to them I wasted my time waiting in line when I could have been at the apple store. 20 phones on launch day? Seriously? Its a kick in the pants and after this I'm keeping my money and business with Verizon.

That's lame. Sounds like (from forum posts) those who purchased at Apple Stores instead of AT&T Stores were informed of the remaining stock.

 

[tho]

we weren't informed of any stock. they were as clueless as we were.