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Executive Team Response Regarding Launch

Sodner said:
I don't see how it took anyone 40 minutes to get through to order a watch. It took me a few minutes to order 2 watches, one for myself and one for my wife. I had my confirmation e-mails seconds later.

The ordering process went super fast with no lag like past iPhone launches. No need to check carrier upgrades. It was simply point and click.

Go figure.
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It took me a minute after the store opened (force-quit and restarted the apple store app like 5 times), and another minute or two to enter my new CC info and shipping address. I got my order in at 4 minutes past 12am on the 10th. My estimated shipping date? May 20 - June 1st.

That is a pile of crap. I'm sorely disappointed that I waited up and ordered within 3 minutes but have been pushed back so far.

That was for my Sport Space Grey - I ordered a SS Milanese right after that, another minute went by, but I got a 4/24 shipment estimate for that one.

Super cheesed that I have to wait a month for my Sport model.
 
Well done!

Well done Andrew!

That'll show the haters from your original thread.

I think the email was fair and appropriate. At the end of the day, we are the average consumers who give our hard earned cash to Apple, and we are entitled to voice our opinions and concerns directly (or sometimes indirectly) towards Apple (just as you did with the email). So yes, it was fully appropriate.

You didn't moan and whine, but made valid points and arguments. And, I think that is why it caught Apple's attention and produced a response. You worded it perfectly.

Well done, and thanks!
 
ddkkpp said:
It took me a minute after the store opened (force-quit and restarted the apple store app like 5 times), and another minute or two to enter my new CC info and shipping address. I got my order in at 4 minutes past 12am on the 10th. My estimated shipping date? May 20 - June 1st.

That is a pile of crap. I'm sorely disappointed that I waited up and ordered within 3 minutes but have been pushed back so far.

That was for my Sport Space Grey - I ordered a SS Milanese right after that, another minute went by, but I got a 4/24 shipment estimate for that one.

Super cheesed that I have to wait a month for my Sport model.
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I bugged Apple's main line almost every day before the 9th and good different good information each time. The last best thing I was told was forget the website, use the Apple Store App. Also make sure your credit card on that account is a credit or debit card not a gift card or it wont go through.

I was not able to get the App to work until about 3:10am and I got the 42mm stainless steel with the traditional leather band in the first shipping wave 4/24-5/8 and the one I really wanted was the Space Black 42 mm with the stainless steel band. I got that in the second wave 5/13.
The only thing that might have slowed me down was I accidentally hit use Apple pay and I had to then chose a card to use (I have 3 on file) so that took up precious seconds of ordering time.

had an issue and was on the phone with them right at 3:15 and I was that employee's first call. She was helpful in a billing question I had and was able to make sure everything had gone through well. Their system went down and she had to call me back but she didn't take another call and called me right back in 15 minutes.

I had already lodged complaints in advance earlier that week sensing that the phone system was going to be difficult. (especially since I wanted the Space black stainless most). It was a pain for those of us east coast who had to be up at that time. I will say that the stainless steel and most of the others like the Milanese were still available for the 4/24 delivery date for about an hour using the app and from what I saw online. I was not able to log in via computer until about 3:20am.

I do hope that they wont do away with the lines totally and with the reservations you still had to wait for the iphone 6. I ordered online and it said it was ready but when I got there there were still 10 people ahead of me and I waited an hour.
 
Bazooka-joe said:
So what they are saying is that they may have watches in store on the 24th. If that does turn out to be the case a lot of people may visit their apple store and cancel their on line orders.
Surely they should honour all the online orders for April, may and June before shipping out to the stores.
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At the apple store I went to try my fitting on, they did tell me that they will have a small quantity on launch day, but not too many variations to choose from...
 
Poochi said:
Would you rather Apple have no stock in store and fulfill everyone who got up early (or stay up late) and ordered online on April 10th?
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I'd be royally pissed if I see anyone walking out of the store with an :apple: watch come Apr 24.

Then again, if I didn't pre-order, I would be equally upset queuing up that morning to get nothing.
 
Last edited:
Nice job, same email from me.

Andrew,
Nice job. Interestingly enough, I sent a very similar email to Cook the other night - no response yet. I ordered an hour after launch and received a June shipping date. Very very upsetting. I will be happy to wait in line overnight on launch day, but they NEED to give us some more clear direction. Did they indicate to you whatsoever that more information will be made available at some point prior to the 24th?
 
brishark007 said:
Andrew,
Nice job. Interestingly enough, I sent a very similar email to Cook the other night - no response yet. I ordered an hour after launch and received a June shipping date. Very very upsetting. I will be happy to wait in line overnight on launch day, but they NEED to give us some more clear direction. Did they indicate to you whatsoever that more information will be made available at some point prior to the 24th?
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I'm just curious why this is so upsetting? Did Apple say for sure if you ordered on the 10th you would received by the 24th? Is there a reason anyone has to have this by the 24th?
 
Very cool that you got a reply. I appreciate that you shared your original e-mail and the response.

Would love to hear about any further updates if you are contacted again.

I have a friend who experienced a frustrating issue where he switched from iPhone to Android and when iPhone users would text him, those texts just went into oblivion due to an iMessage glitch, even after tech support manually removed his number from their database.

He e-mailed Tim Cook and within a few hours, someone very high up the ladder in their engineering department called and spent days troubleshooting, even called me (one of his iPhone-using friends) to install a special logging script on my phone to figure out what was happening.

Anyway, point being I think Apple takes the (smart) attitude that if a customer is pissed off enough to e-mail the CEO, it warrants their immediate attention.
 
brishark007 said:
Andrew,
Nice job. Interestingly enough, I sent a very similar email to Cook the other night - no response yet. I ordered an hour after launch and received a June shipping date. Very very upsetting. I will be happy to wait in line overnight on launch day, but they NEED to give us some more clear direction. Did they indicate to you whatsoever that more information will be made available at some point prior to the 24th?
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Not exactly, but it was strongly implied.
 
I read with glee a lot of the people hating on you for emailing the company about the out right lies they put out regarding their apple watch and ordering process..... Some just can't seem to understand that they LIED in a press release...... But hey it's apple so they're forgiven I guess.


Kudos to you for writing it, getting a response and putting it right back in all the naysayers face!!! That was my favorite part!

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Sodner said:
I don't see how it took anyone 40 minutes to get through to order a watch. It took me a few minutes to order 2 watches, one for myself and one for my wife. I had my confirmation e-mails seconds later.

The ordering process went super fast with no lag like past iPhone launches. No need to check carrier upgrades. It was simply point and click.

Go figure.
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Your experience is exactly like every one else's right?
 
Rogifan said:
Is there a reason anyone has to have this by the 24th?
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Of course: :apple: said it would launch on 4/24, so SOMEBODY (presumably a lot more than 1 or a dozen) will get theirs on 4/24. SOMEBODY has to get it by 4/24, or the 4/24 launch date was a lie - very bad publicity.

And of course: a whole lotta people want to be one of those somebodies.

Will something horrible happen if a particular person doesn't get theirs on 4/24? of course not ... but if NOBODY gets it then, that's _very_ bad for :apple:.

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Sodner said:
I don't see how it took anyone 40 minutes to get through to order a watch.
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Well excuse us if not everyone had exactly the same perfect fast experience you did.

I got on the Apple Store app just a hair after 6AM, took a few minutes to ensure I was ordering what I thought I was, got a little confused about which size band to order before I realized it included both (hey, it was 6AM and no coffee yet), screwed around with changing the shipping address (work, which I can never remember), came to grips with the fact my wife is going to kill me one way or another for ordering it, and got the confirmation email at 6:11AM. Not 40 minutes, but I can see a little indecision and normal mistakes and random networking issues adding up to it for some people.
 
Does anyone else find it odd that none of the ship dates for any model have stretched past June? One would think that after a few days, the delivery times would continue to extend. Did everyone stop placing orders when they saw those extended delivery estimates? Or perhaps as Andrew pointed out, thousands of people who don't read online forums such as this one plan to line up at stores on the 24th and hope for the best.
 
Dr. Lee-vil said:
Does anyone else find it odd that none of the ship dates for any model have stretched past June? One would think that after a few days, the delivery times would continue to extend. Did everyone stop placing orders when they saw those extended delivery estimates? Or perhaps as Andrew pointed out, thousands of people who don't read online forums such as this one plan to line up at stores on the 24th and hope for the best.
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I think it's that there are a finite number of people who want the watch on launch and would therefore bother preordering, and those people have already all put in their preorders.

And yes, I expect there are thousands of people who are nor quite as invested in getting the watch, who nonetheless are planning on showing up at the stores on the 24th. After all, the ad says 24th!
 
Dr. Lee-vil said:
Does anyone else find it odd that none of the ship dates for any model have stretched past June? One would think that after a few days, the delivery times would continue to extend. Did everyone stop placing orders when they saw those extended delivery estimates? Or perhaps as Andrew pointed out, thousands of people who don't read online forums such as this one plan to line up at stores on the 24th and hope for the best.
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I think they just stop predictions further into the future.
My theory is that the frequency of shipments out of the factories is somehow less than for the iPhone.

They simply count shipments per month and roll forward the delivery dates.

Then they stop in June, because they do not order the models past that points.

Meaning if they have 10000 orders for Sport Space Gray, the know they receive 1000 per week. But they stop predicting the date and adapt the production of models.

I phrased it badly but I think it makes sense.

EDIT: Let"s say they order 10.000 Sport Space Gray per shipment (assuming weekly shipments)
They know they fill 60.000 orders in six weeks. This is when they stop predicting dates.

Then they look at the outstanding orders and order more of certain models.
After that, they start predicting again.
 
ZombiePete said:
You ordered an hour after launch and were upset that you got a ship date in June? Seriously, no mockery intended, is this the first time you've participated in a midnight pre-order?
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Yes, it is. Because for ten years I've been waiting in line overnight like everyone else. Which apparently I can't do now.
 
I was just at my Apple Store with my wife for her try on appointment, and the person showing her the watches point blank said they would be available in store on 4/24. I ALWAYS take things from those people with a grain of salt, but it presents two scenarios and both are problems which should have been addressed by now.

1) Apple Store employees are not informed that there will be no launch day watches in stores.
OR
2) Apple plans to have watches on launch day but they are hiding this fact in public statements.

Personally I'd prefer the first scenario over the second. I'm getting mine on 4/24 but if I wasn't and I found out after the fact that people who didn't pre-order get one before someone who waited up on 4/10, I'd be very upset.
 
Dr. Lee-vil said:
Does anyone else find it odd that none of the ship dates for any model have stretched past June? One would think that after a few days, the delivery times would continue to extend. Did everyone stop placing orders when they saw those extended delivery estimates? Or perhaps as Andrew pointed out, thousands of people who don't read online forums such as this one plan to line up at stores on the 24th and hope for the best.
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The Space Black SS ships in July.
 
Poochi said:
Question to all of you:

- Would you rather the store have some stock on April 24th and "maybe" if you line up early you can get it on launch day?

or

- Would you rather Apple have no stock in store and fulfill everyone who got up early (or stay up late) and ordered online on April 10th?
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Personally, I'd rather that the stop have some launch stock. Perception matters. Possibly getting one on launch date beats waiting a month to get one /if I preordered/. And I don't inherently mind preorders, but its ridiculous to have try-ons and preorders start on the same day.
 
Exile714 said:
I was just at my Apple Store with my wife for her try on appointment, and the person showing her the watches point blank said they would be available in store on 4/24. I ALWAYS take things from those people with a grain of salt, but it presents two scenarios and both are problems which should have been addressed by now.

1) Apple Store employees are not informed that there will be no launch day watches in stores.
OR
2) Apple plans to have watches on launch day but they are hiding this fact in public statements.

Personally I'd prefer the first scenario over the second. I'm getting mine on 4/24 but if I wasn't and I found out after the fact that people who didn't pre-order get one before someone who waited up on 4/10, I'd be very upset.
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What you've been told seems to be somewhat common. I made the same points as well in my original email, and they had told me that all associates should be communicating the latest information available. Some are indeed misinformed, going by only previous launches.

The information you're hearing from specialists at the store is only based on their prior launch knowledge. They don't know anymore than we do at this point.
 
I don't understand the long wait time either. I mean I under all of the variables, but if there's a "pre-order" keyword, "pre-order," that means that I'm pre-ordering my product to ensure that I receive it on the date that it launches.

After all, how would you feel if you went to a retail store, purchased a product, only to be told that you would receive your product at a later date?!?!

I'm totally disappointed that I have to wait until June to receive a product that I "pre-ordered" almost two months in advance.
 
Shemejobs said:
I don't understand the long wait time either. I mean I under all of the variables, but if there's a "pre-order" keyword, "pre-order," that means that I'm pre-ordering my product to ensure that I receive it on the date that it launches.



After all, how would you feel if you went to a retail store, purchased a product, only to be told that you would receive your product at a later date?!?!



I'm totally disappointed that I have to wait until June to receive a product that I "pre-ordered" almost two months in advance.
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I feel the same way.
 
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