Horrible Retail Store Customer Service

[engelke2010]

I might not get any sympathy for this story, but I need to vent. After waiting for a very long time in line, i was finally in the store about to purchase the iPad 2. Because I was using a debit card and the amount was higher than my usual purchases, I had to clear the transaction with my bank. I told the associate that while I had the funds, I had to ok the transaction with my bank. He said he would be back in 10 minutes. In that time, I was able to clear things up. However, my iPad was sold out from under me and they sold out of about evything. Now I am iPad 2 less. They are getting another shipment tomorrow, but of course have no idea what they will get. Their "apology" was very fake. Has anyone else been through this before? Is it normal to sell the device I should have had? Shouldnt they have held ot while I oked things with my bank? I know as angry as i am i am not thinking as clearly as i normally do.

 

[CrAkD]

I might not get any sympathy for this story, but I need to vent. After waiting for a very long time in line, i was finally in the store about to purchase the iPad 2. Because I was using a debit card and the amount was higher than my usual purchases, I had to clear the transaction with my bank. I told the associate that while I had the funds, I had to ok the transaction with my bank. He said he would be back in 10 minutes. In that time, I was able to clear things up. However, my iPad was sold out from under me and they sold out of about evything. Now I am iPad 2 less. They are getting another shipment tomorrow, but of course have no idea what they will get. Their "apology" was very fake. Has anyone else been through this before? Is it normal to sell the device I should have had? Shouldnt they have held ot while I oked things with my bank? I know as angry as i am i am not thinking as clearly as i normally do.

I had to do something similar today because apples computers crashed and a hold was placed on my debit card but the sale didnt go through. luckily the person waiting on me allowed us to keep the ipad infront of us well I sorted it out. especially since it was like the last att 3g one.

 

[-Ken-]

Did you have a deposit?

If not, they're just doing their jobs, selling products to people who have payment in hand. I share your frustration but if you were in their place you'd understand. It happens with all sorts of things - cars, homes etc.

Just playing Devil's Advocate on this. Not defending Apple nor trying to provoke anything.

 

[Goldinboy17]

Well you both kinda messed up to be honest. You should have lifted any limit beforehand with your bank, others posted that they would have to do exactly that before ordering days ago. I'll admit I'd be very peeved if I were in your situation though, selling the iPad I was practically promised!

 

[CrAkD]

Well you both kinda messed up to be honest. You should have lifted any limit beforehand with your bank, others have posted that they would have to do exactly that before ordering. I'll admit I'd be very peeved if I were in your situation though, selling the iPad I was practically promised!

apples computers crashed after I signed for the ipad. the next time they slid my card it was declined because I have a $1000 daily limit which im glad cause if $1600 came out of my account I would have been even more pissed. But I guess its the same thing cause I ended up paying cash but now I have to goto the bank tomorrow and pull money out to put that cash back so its like I paid for the thing twice until that hold gets lifted. Also maybe today was just a bad day for me but the SAME THING happened on the ipad when I started att service. crashed so I paid for that twice too. fml.

 

[MrWillie]

I feel Apple's customer service is the best in the world. However your problem involved SALES. Please adjust your post title accordingly. Thank you.

 

[h00ligan]

If you know you are over limit. Take cash.

 

[CrAkD]

If you know you are over limit. Take cash.

i was over limit cause they already charged me once! the ironic thing was I had the cash and deposited it before going to the store because I wasnt positive they would take cash cause they havent in the past.

 

[enigmatut]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

I feel Apple's customer service is the best in the world. However your problem involved SALES. Please adjust your post title accordingly. Thank you.

Agreed. Apple customer service is basically second to none. Sales is sales. Bad situation, unfortunately, but understandable.

I'm quite frustrated because I waited in line for 4 hours to find out that they were sold out of AT&T iPads. Frustrating because they came around and note everyone's purchase preference and informed me that they were likely have one for me. I'll get over it (by eventually getting one).

 

[h00ligan]

i was over limit cause they already charged me once! the ironic thing was I had the cash and deposited it before going to the store because I wasnt positive they would take cash cause they havent in the past.

My mistake!

 

[pvmacguy]

Than god my Amex has no limit of any kind.

 

[ashman70]

The title of your thread is not only misleading but a stretch at best. Put things into perspective:

Its launch day of a new Apple product that everyone wants, the stores are a zoo, you had issues that delayed your purchase, there was likely a miscommunication and what should of been 'your' iPad2 was sold to someone else, stuff happens. Does it mean Apple has poor customer service? Hell no! Does it mean a mistake happened and you were inconvenienced, sure.

Read anyone of the countless threads out there about people who go into an Apple store with their iPhone, iPad, MacBook etc that they have dropped or is out of warranty, and Apple replaces or fixes it for free, on the spot, even if its out of warranty. I'm not saying they do it often or even a lot, but the fact they do it all speaks volumes about their customer service. And sure, there are probably an equal number of people out there like you who feel they were wronged by apple customer service and will never buy an Apple product again, such is life.

 

[engelke2010]

Well you both kinda messed up to be honest. You should have lifted any limit beforehand with your bank, others posted that they would have to do exactly that before ordering days ago. I'll admit I'd be very peeved if I were in your situation though, selling the iPad I was practically promised!

I had never spent (or tried to spend) this much on my debit card at one time, so I was unaware of what the amount would be that would raise a red flag with my bank. I thought it would be over $1000 or something like that.

Mr Willie, you are right about calling customer service. They have always been very good to me. In fact, when I called tonight to complain about the retail location, they were very nice and listened to my very emotional ranting and did everything they could to resolve the problem as best they could. I still don't have the iPad 2, but might tomorrow. I understand that the retail location doesn't know what is coming in each shipment, but am I wrong in thinking that tomorrow's shipment should have at least one of every model.
And he was able to convince the store to give me a free cover, which I wasn't able to initially convince the store to do.

On a positive note, I came thisclose to wanting the white iPad 2 after seeing it live. It looks better than I thought I would. A different rep came to us while we were in line and showed off the cover. I thought it was intriguing how he held the iPad by the case and the iPad didn't fall off. Now that's a strong magnet! I don't see myself doing it myself, but thought it was funny.