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Cancelled my order: Developer Point of View and Apple FAN

S

Spetsnazos

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 3, 2012
244
9
Preface: I originally pre-ordered the watch as a new tech gadget for myself, fully aware that I am buying a watch foremost and anything else on top is gravy. I already had experience with the watch SDK and saw the limitations clear as day, so expectations were low.

My hope is that they were going to release another SDK for everyone to develop and play with before WWDC 2015. Doesn't seem to be the case at all.

I developed a couple of apps that were a spinoff of another iPad and iPhone application I already had. Everything seemed wonderful in the simulator, but as we all know: the instruments tool is sketchy at best when you're running it against the simulator as you're using your Mac CPU/RAM/etc and not the actual hardware. My app loaded in about 1 second via simulator, and 13 seconds in real life on a friends Apple Watch. Some tweaking improved it to 6 seconds but still unacceptable.

Fast forward to preordering on April 10th. I stayed up late untill Midnight to put an order in so that I could get my new gadget on launch day to test and play with. I hate staying up late unless I'm doing my own personal coding and I usually like to have a one track mind to finish and push to source control ASAP so I can go to bed.

Anyways, April 10th Midnight comes and the website is down. Well that is wonderful! I know some people used the app and so forth but how do you think the app works? It's calling a web service. Alas, the site is down for one reason or another. Then we start to approach 12:04 when it finally comes up. I proceed to click on the Space Grey Aluminum Black Band and it has a shipment date of May 13 - May 27. Ugh, what? Launch date is April 24th. At this point I'm fairly irritated that I stayed up late and the watch isn't available as advertised. Irritated is used loosely, I should say, "raged" :mad:

So after sighing very loud and waking up my girlfriend I look at the other options and move over to the SS version. For a gen 1 device and a terrible SDK, $700? Yeah no. I talked myself out of it and went back to the SG BSB, still May 13-May 27. Ugh...Went ahead and input all of my billing details(had to update) and submitted the order.

Got the confirmation email at 12:16. No worries, went to bed figuring they gave long lead times because they were unsure of their demand and maybe it was just an error.

Fast forward to launch day and it seems like they shipped 13 watches total. Hardly anyone got theirs on launch day unless they played some game with the iphone/watch app.

Okay, I can understand hours, but we are talking about seconds and minutes. If they could not satisfy everyone who ordered within the first 30 minutes for a launch order date(April 24), what were they thinking? I saw the rumor about the haptic engine but they should of come out and made that statement to all of the people who pre ordered the device. Instead, THEY KEPT QUIET. That right there is a terrible customer experience.

So now we are a month into the pre order day and people are still wondering when their watch will ship that they ordered at 12:07. Really? 7 minutes into the pre order, and realistically 3 minutes because the store was DOWN for the first 4. Really? Sigh.

As an Apple fan and someone that really likes new gadgets, I had to just go ahead and admit that this is pathetic and I need to move on so that I can move away from this subforum and stop worrying about when my watch will arrive. It's a terrible customer experience, something that Apple prides itself in. This has hands down been the worst apple purchasing experience I have ever had. You could always say, "Why cancel? Why not just wait until you get it". That's easy to say to my girlfriend who can care less, but I'm a gadget and nerd at heart, I can't just stay away from the forums and not track when my watch is due to arrive!

And before someone says, "You knew when you were pre-ordering the ship date was May 13-27, so why are you complaining". To that, I can only respond with, I'm sorry but this time frame is unacceptable for anyone who pre-ordered within minutes of a MIDNIGHT launch 2 WEEKS before the ship date. Especially for a product that was announced in September.

Imagine you waited in line for 3 hours at the movie theater with about 100 people ahead of you for what was advertised as a 3,000 seat theater before you even GOT in line. As soon as it hit midnight, they walked up and down the line and said that only the first 10 people could watch the movie right now and the rest of us had to wait until the next day. What? I'm already here, okay let me have a ticket and maybe they'll find more seats because we were all told it was a 3,000 person theater so there must be some mistake. Fast forward to 5 hours later, only 10 people are watching the movie and they are letting in 1 person every hour.

And the people who already saw the movie are wondering why the rest of the people that are waiting in line are sour?

Apples biggest failure is ZERO communication :mad:. Auto-generated emails saying they're still working on your order is not communication I would expect from a multi billion dollar corporation.

Cheers to all!

I'll be back when the SDK is improved and there is more supply. Please expand the API and allow for native apps!!
 
Alrighty then. I can't argue against your points. I hope to see you back again eventually and developing for the watch when circumstances are improved.
 
Spetsnazos said:
Imagine you waited in line for 3 hours at the movie theater with about 100 people ahead of you for what was advertised as a 3,000 seat theater before you even GOT in line. As soon as it hit midnight, they walked up and down the line and said that only the first 10 people could watch the movie right now and the rest of us had to wait until the next day. What? I'm already here, okay let me have a ticket and maybe they'll find more seats because we were all told it was a 3,000 person theater so there must be some mistake. Fast forward to 5 hours later, only 10 people are watching the movie and they are letting in 1 person every hour.

And the people who already saw the movie are wondering why the rest of the people that are waiting in line are sour?
Click to expand...

This is a completely unrealistic comparison though. Why are the theater folks randomly denying people their seats? Because the theater wants to lose money?

It would be more accurate if the movie folks came out and said, "we just put out a massive fire which destroyed 2,990 of the seats in the theater - we will rebuild and give everyone a chance to see this movie - but for now, we can only do 10."

But that supports your point much less, I suppose.
 
Randizzledante said:
This is a completely unrealistic comparison though. Why are the theater folks randomly denying people their seats? Because the theater wants to lose money?

It would be more accurate if the movie folks came out and said, "we just put out a massive fire which destroyed 2,990 of the seats in the theater - we will rebuild and give everyone a chance to see this movie - but for now, we can only do 10."

But that supports your point much less, I suppose.
Click to expand...

Most comparisons aren't perfect and their purpose typically is to illustrate a similar situation to increase understanding; a weak comparison doesn't invalidate his post.

I'd say the rest of his points were pretty salient.

But then you probably didn't read them because they'd support your heckling much less, I suppose.
 
Good for you for realizing watching this forum and obsessing about a new product in high demand/low supply was not conducive to your life.

This reminds me of the first iPhone launch. I stayed away from that craziness and waited until a store within driving distance had one. I drove for hours to a neighboring state, bought the phone, and set it up while enjoying lunch. Turned out I got the last one in the tri-state area until supply stabilized.

I'm sure that in time supply/demand will equalize, and anyone who wants a watch will be able to saunter into the local Apple store, try it on, and buy it right then and there.

I'm a developer as well, though my efforts have been on Android right now. Both Apple Watch and Android Wear are in their infancy. They will grow and evolve. <insert corny horology pun here>

Cheers!
 
I hope you brought your flame retardant suite. You will need it.

I agree with you though.
 
Oregon.Matt said:
Most comparisons aren't perfect and their purpose typically is to illustrate a similar situation to increase understanding; a weak comparison doesn't invalidate his post.

I'd say the rest of his points were pretty salient.

But then you probably didn't read them because they'd support your heckling much less, I suppose.
Click to expand...

His comparison was not even close to accurate. It did not illustrate a similar situation, or increase any understanding.

His comparison only illustrates that he thinks Apple wanted to purposefully lose money on this launch, with no reason.

I did actually read his entire post, but thanks for the immaturity. I did not comment on any of his other points.
 
Good grief. It's a watch. Such a rant that you JUST COULDN'T HAVE IT RIGHT AWAY. You come across as spoiled, intemperate, and entitled. Mine still says "July". Big deal. Supply and demand, I can wait.

If you're such a genius that you can do better than apple, by all means, go for it. Design, develop, tool up, manufacture, and distribute your own competing design. So much criticism, so little real understanding of ANY of the issues associated with this.

Heck, if you're so knowledgeable, sell your services back to Apple or Samsung or Google as a consultant. They'd pay millions to accelerate new product rollouts; since you know it all, why haven't you already? That skill and knowledge is literally worth its weight in gold. Otherwise, you're just an uniformed whiner.
 
Randizzledante said:
His comparison was not even close to accurate. It did not illustrate a similar situation, or increase any understanding.

His comparison only illustrates that he thinks Apple wanted to purposefully lose money on this launch, with no reason.

I did actually read his entire post, but thanks for the immaturity.
Click to expand...

The problem with comparisons in this case is that none of us have enough information to make reasonable assumptions. In his post he may have been making the comparison to illustrate his interpretation of the situation for others and you may disagree, but you don't necessarily have the information to refute his analysis (unless you work for Apple and then by all means shed some light on it for us).

Unfortunately Apple, including Tim, Angela and others, has sent mixed messages to consumers about supply resulting in a lot of frustration. Everyone has a different interpretation of what they've said (just google "apple watch supply") and I think the OP's reaction is perfectly legitimate, even if it's not how I'm reacting to the situation.
 
Spetsnazos said:
but I'm a gadget and nerd at heart, I can't just stay away from the forums and not track when my watch is due to arrive!
Click to expand...

You've summed up the problem on your own...

Keep in mind that you are not privvy to Apple's internal manufacturing logistics and have zero idea how hard they are probably working to iron out issues that may have come up. That's why they are buffering the date and from what I've been reading have been delivering a lot of orders earlier than expected. But you go on and cancel that order, you're showing them who's boss!!
 
"Played some game with the Apple Store app", you mean checking the Apple Store app since the website was down? How is that playing a game?

Sounds like you have some anger issues, since your inability to get a launch window caused you to exclaim loudly enough to wake your sleeping girlfriend.
 
diablo2112 said:
Good grief. It's a watch. Such a rant that you JUST COULDN'T HAVE IT RIGHT AWAY. You come across as spoiled, intemperate, and entitled. Mine still says "July". Big deal. Supply and demand, I can wait.

If you're such a genius that you can do better than apple, by all means, go for it. Design, develop, tool up, manufacture, and distribute your own competing design. So much criticism, so little real understanding of ANY of the issues associated with this.

Heck, if you're so knowledgeable, sell your services back to Apple or Samsung or Google as a consultant. They'd pay millions to accelerate new product rollouts; since you know it all, why haven't you already? That skill and knowledge is literally worth its weight in gold. Otherwise, you're just an uniformed whiner.
Click to expand...

.......said they guy who already had his watch.
 
diablo2112 said:
...Mine still says "July". ...
Click to expand...

Mine's on my wrist, but then unlike the OP, I know the app doesn't just call a web service, so I used it to order my watch at 12.03 on the morning pre-orders started....while the store was apparently still down.

It seems there's no end of people who, with no facts at their disposal, just know for sure they can do better than one of the best managed, tightest organized, most efficient multi-nationals.
 
I wouldn't expect Apple to release a new SDK with WWDC right around the corner. The fall release of WatchKit was an exception to the norm, because Apple wanted at least some 3rd party apps to be available when the watch was released.

Surely there'll be new APIs announced at WWDC, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were tied to a fall release of iOS 9.
 
diablo2112 said:
How about reading my whole forum history here. That watch was given to my wife as was stated many times.
Click to expand...

Your response made it seem that you were in the same boat as the OP when in fact you have a watch at home. It is just on your wifes wrist and not yours.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I understand the frustration of the OP. I was fooled by the website being up way after the app store apps. My order confirmation was 16 min after midnight even thought I was there hitting F5 at 12:00.00. I realized that I needed to use the apple store app to get my order in. I lost precious time.

The watch is worth it. I found my through a 3rd party and love every minute of it. It's part of my daily routine. hopefully we'll see you back with some great apps.
 
I'm sorry, I just don't sympathize. It's a watch. It's not worth all this drama. I mean, I guess if it feels good to cancel your order to show Apple who's boss, go for it, but since they're selling watches faster than they can make them, you're just making it easier for the next customer in line. It's not like you ordered 50 747's from Boeing and now are cancelling your order and deeply affecting their bottom line.

This is a brand new product. Apple needed to guage demand and weather some component shortages to fill that demand. Yes, they could be communicating a little better--I agree there--but as someone who cares about Apple as a company, I'm glad they are careful with the production numbers. I also think there is more to the long lead times than meets the eye. I think some bad stuff went on in production long before we were able to order. That takes time to fix.
 
phirstube said:
Your response made it seem that you were in the same boat as the OP when in fact you have a watch at home. It is just on your wifes wrist and not yours.
Click to expand...

I really hate to burst your bubble. You're making a lot of false assumptions here. My work requires that I live in a different city far from my wife. I most certainly do NOT have a watch at home. My lovely wife is enjoying her watch. I FaceTime with her everyday, and I so look forward to the weekend or two each month when we get back together. But, that hardly matters. You're determined to minimize my comments by somehow convincing yourself that my patience isn't as worthy, since - somehow - I've managed to get another watch to ogle. Sorry to deflate your soufflé. I'm just a patient and caring guy, that's all.
 
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