Dont Preorder your iphone 4s from Best Buy

One thing I will say, for sure my Best Buy did not give any phones to walk ins until fulfilling their preorders. I overheard several people come in on launch day asking, and the reps explaining to them that they havent even been able to give people who preordered phones yet, so they definitely had no phones for a while.

I honestly dont think any best buy would be stupid enough to do that. But like I said, your biggest worry is that Apple shafts them in order to have more phones available in Apple stores, that is what Best Buy says happened last year.
 
Applejuiced said:
Most likely they said the same to all people trying to preorder so most of them turned away.
I know at my local bb at 4pm Friday they had no preorders cause nobody wanted to go for their bs preorder and hope for the best.
So I was the only preorder and was willing to wait an extra 2 weeks.
Hope yours was the same and the wait line is not that long.
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thanks, i sure hope so.
 
I suggest all of you keep in contact with the store you preordered with like the previous poster stated.

Yesterday I stopped by the Bestbuy Mobile where my iP4s is preordered and was told that Bestbuy did change their policy. And that people who preordered have priority over walk-ins. The same person that checked me out when I got the preorder is the one who told me of the first preorder policy and he was also the one I spoke to yesterday that told me the preorder policy did change.

Now today, me and the wife was at Mall and I happened to stop at the Bestbuy Mobile to check where I'm at on the list. After they tell me that they can't tell me where I'm at.. (which pissed me off) they immediately said preorders will be fullfuilled with the 2nd or 3rd shipment. Friday is first come, first serve.

I told him I was just in here yesterday and was told different. He was like, oh...I havent read anything about it.

Talk about clueless.

This is the most ridiculous preorder crap I've ever dealt with. This will definately be the last time I deal with Bestbuy. I was gonna buy me some cases on release day from Bestbuy, but I think I'll order them from Apple or Sprint.
 
ZBoater said:
Well, maybe if so many people didn't preorder from 7 different places to see which one thy could get first and return the rest, maybe Best Buy wouldn't have to resort to giving priority to real customers with real money who actually show up with the intention of actually buying an iPhone from them.

Just sayin'.
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I agree. It's dirty to mislead, and it's not the loyal consumers who put their trust in best buy, but yea sounds like they're going with the "show me the money" policy...
 
Last year they called me a day before and told me to come pick up my phone at 8am. The website specifically says that preorders will be fulfilled before walk ins. What peopel dont realize is that their shipments are not huge. They dont get many phones first shipment so if youre the 20th person on preorder list ur probably not going to get a phone on Friday. And if you want any chance at it you should just show up at 8am
 
Best Buy originally sent an email stating that pre-orders would be picked up first come first serve. Meaning if you were the 30th pre order, and were first in line, you got a phone. But in the same email it stated customers will be issued their pre order in the order it was received. Since the email contradicted itself, they sent a clarified version that orders will be picked up in the order they were received. So if you were fifth to pre order, you get the fifth phone, just like last year, and the way it should be. I hope this clears up any confusion
 
gatorpro said:
Best Buy originally sent an email stating that pre-orders would be picked up first come first serve. Meaning if you were the 30th pre order, and were first in line, you got a phone. But in the same email it stated customers will be issued their pre order in the order it was received. Since the email contradicted itself, they sent a clarified version that orders will be picked up in the order they were received. So if you were fifth to pre order, you get the fifth phone, just like last year, and the way it should be. I hope this clears up any confusion
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I never got this email. Can you forward it to me? I can pm you my email address.
 
i only go to bb for cheap blu-ray dvd selections. i need to tell my co-worker about this. she only went to them because she has a $50 gift card from them and ordered the 4, not the 4S. idk if this will affect her?

* > bb
 
I lived near a Best Buy for years and loved it. I loved it b/c I knew how to use the store. It is not a place to pre-order at or to ask questions at or any other type of customer friendly place. Having heard the horror stories last year during the iphone4 release. I would never think of going to BB this year

The Best Buy near me though was excellent if you knew what you wanted. I would only use it for that reason
 
gatorpro said:
Best Buy originally sent an email stating that pre-orders would be picked up first come first serve. Meaning if you were the 30th pre order, and were first in line, you got a phone. But in the same email it stated customers will be issued their pre order in the order it was received. Since the email contradicted itself, they sent a clarified version that orders will be picked up in the order they were received. So if you were fifth to pre order, you get the fifth phone, just like last year, and the way it should be. I hope this clears up any confusion
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I don't understand how people know what number they are? I wasn't told "You were the 32nd person to preorder today". So what did you guys do? Ask when you placed the order?
 
Best Buy is going in the same direction as Circuit City. Not dependable and once they sell you the merchandise its like they dont want to know you.
they've gotten worse in the last year.
If I deal with a store I want to know they're reputable................enough said
 
Codepiink said:
I don't understand how people know what number they are? I wasn't told "You were the 32nd person to preorder today". So what did you guys do? Ask when you placed the order?
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i stopped there a half hour after they opened and while i was doing the preorder i asked if there had been a lot of people in before me. thats when they said about 5 others. does that answer ur question
 
Had a good experience so far . . .

My son works at our local best buy. I went there yesterday and talked to a guy in mobile.

I decided to preorder the iphone 4s from them because he told me that they were going to fulfill the preorders they had before they would fulfill the sales from people who show up on Friday.

He told me that I would receive a phone call on Wed or Thurs of this week to make an appt to come in on Friday to get my phone. He said they are setting up the appts for every half an hour for the preorders.

I've always had GREAT luck with our local best buy.
 
bigkito said:
i stopped there a half hour after they opened and while i was doing the preorder i asked if there had been a lot of people in before me. thats when they said about 5 others. does that answer ur question
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ooh. I see. Yea, that answers it thanks.
 
just went to best buy this morning and told the rep about the pre-order poloc changed made over the weekend, and she checked her email and was surprised about the new change in their pre-order policy. she was shocked and was saying how this just changes everything and unsure of what they are going to do on friday.

although aggrivated.. I calmly purchased my pre-order. she told me to come wait in line regardless on friday just in case. she isn't sure of how they are even going to do things as she just found out and will most likely relay the message to her gm and other associates. I will check with best buy up through thursday to find out how they are exactly going to do things. the rep told me she has done about 15 pre-orders so far and so there might be atleast 30 ppl ahead of me.. a little dissapointed but she did say of her pre-orders, most have been for the entry model and some got the 64gb version just because its newer. with that said, i ordered the 32gb white hoping that not many people pre-ordered that version. let's hope so.
 
I think I am one of the only ones that don't hate Best Buy haha. I have bought almost every electronic I have from them and never had a problem. I have returned items and had no issues. I chose best buy this time, because I didn't they would get a lot of pre-orders. Glad I haven't had the experiences many of you say you have had.
 
Found this in the best buy forums:

This was posted in a link in Best Buys "News" section of Employee Toolkit:



"There has been some confusion and concerns on the iPhone 4 8GB and iPhone 4s pre-order fulfillment process. The updated process will ensure customers who pre-order with Best Buy and put down a deposit get priority to our first allocations of product. While the pre-order does not necessarily guarantee the customer a unit on launch day, it does guarantee them a unit in the order they pre-ordered. The following points apply:

Pre-orders will take priority over customer in line on Oct. 14 -- for all carriers
Pre-orders are fulfilled in the order they were processed, using inventory as it arrives until all pre-orders are fulfilled
On launch day, customers with pre-order get product first, customers waiting in line without a pre-order will get product second. A ticketing process will be in place for available product.
On launch day and beyond, if no product is available for customers, they will be offered a pre-order and will be provided a unit with future shipments in the order the pre-order was received

A new one page Pre-Order process document has been created with additional details to clarify this process. Please review this via the link below."
 
I just got an e-mail from the Best Buy I preordered from:

Christian,

Thank you for coming in to preorder your iPhone 4S with Best Buy Mobile! We appreciate your business, and your interest in the preorder process.

Basically, this Friday we will be receiving an unknown number of iPhone devices, we will find out that morning how many we will have. However, if you preordered early, your chances of receiving a phone on launch day are not guaranteed, but much more likely. You will receive an email when your phone comes in, and iPhones will ONLY be sold to customers who have preordered, and have received that confirmation email. Priority goes to customers who have preordered in order from first to last.

If you have any additional questions, please send them to me and I will gladly answer them for you!

Thanks,

Ryan J. DeRoy
BBYM Sales Lead
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iSaxon said:
I just got an e-mail from the Best Buy I preordered from:
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Does that mean you don't need to wait in line early as a precaution? You can just wait for the email/phone call letting you know that your phone is in? I emailed the GM of my best buy this morning and hoping for a reply from him on how he plans to do things on friday morning.
 
jttran241 said:
Does that mean you don't need to wait in line early as a precaution? You can just wait for the email/phone call letting you know that your phone is in? I emailed the GM of my best buy this morning and hoping for a reply from him on how he plans to do things on friday morning.
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They way I understand it is that I don't have to wait in line. They're going to hold my phone for me and I can't go get it until I receive the email. They told me I was the only one to preorder the white 64GB version, so I should be set for Friday.
 
So far, it sounds like you're in good shape, pending if your best buy gets the 64gb white on launch day :) but im sure they will. my situation, however, isn't looking too good lol. but you never know. I was planning on calling in for favors to get in line early on friday but it looks like im going to be doing the waiting for that email game while at work.
 
hmm i got tricked into this whole bestbuy fiasco as well. I just looked at my email I got from them and the order total is listed as $799 for the 32GB 4S.

Is this normal, are they not including the carrier discount? Or will I have issues when I go pick it up and will try and charge me the non discounted price?
 
For the record, I pre-ordered last year and they sold mine to a customer because I couldn't get there 4 hours after they opened. Not kidding. 4 hours.

I was left with a useless $50 gift card that they offered to restore to actual money after the whole ordeal.

Apparently they have this single printed list of names and phones and they start highlighting through them and blacking them out as they go through it and it's very messy and easy to miss a name, or cross out the wrong one, etc.

I'll NEVER preorder from BB ever again.
 
Is this the first year they have the iPhone on launch? If so - they are operating the same exact way Radio Shack did last year. Radio Shack had pre-orders which meant nothing because no store knew how many units they were even getting. They scrapped (a few days prior - and you only knew if you called) the whole pre-order wait list and did first come-first served.

This year - they actually have the same "tool" as Apple and ATT (for example) which goes through the validation, etc which I assume means folks ordering at RS are better off than last year.

Again - sounds to me like BB is running their operation like RS did last year...
 
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