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In-store reservation process on 9/25

Had two reservations for 9-9:30. I got there 20 mins early but had to take a call and ended up only being about 5 mins early in the line. There were maybe 10 people in the line ahead of me and only a few more people showed up for their 9-9:30 appointment by the time I left. They had separate lines for each half hour segment and were directing people that had 9:30 or later appoints to the next line.

I ended up only getting one of my reservations and was told that the other one would be held for the remainder of the day. Starting tomorrow, Saturday, reservations will only be held for 3 hours. Only took about 20 mins to wait in the reservation line and get my device.
 
Also I don't know about your stores, but at mine they were telling people they were sold out of all 6s Plus phones by 8:45. I think only three or four walk-ins even had the option for any 6s Plus.
 
Coleman2010 said:
I'm also at Grand Central and the same BS. The store is only asking if you have a reservation. They're not asking what time. I asked people in line and there are people ahead of me with 2-3pm reservations.
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I got there at 10:40am and it took about an hour 20 minutes of waiting before I was finished. I had a reservation for to pickup one phone but as I was buying it I asked if I could buy a second phone. I left with 2 unlocked. One 128GB 6S Plus and one 64GB 6S.
 
Renho said:
they give you the box, and they can setup it up with you or you just take it. i just took it home cause i am on iOS 9.1 beta 2 and couldn't set it up, but cause of my plan they activated it before i walked out...
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That's great.
I'm with AT&T and reserved AT&T for myself, I have no problem activating it. I also reserved one Verizon for my friend which I don't have an account with, but since activation is not required, guess I can just pay and leave. Thank you!
 
Went to the Apple Store at 9:15am, saw about 10 people in line and went up to the Apple guy standing near the front if that was the line for reservation and he said nope that's for walk-in's and their isn't actually a reservation line(yet) and I was the first one.

Got served right away, in and out in under 5 minutes. Easy breezy
 
Those who did the Upgrade Plan, what was the process? Did you have to fill out the application form?

Also, did you HAVE to activate your phone right in the store? I am planning to do it at home since my iCloud backup went kaput (thanks to the 9.01 upgrade!!)
 
striders said:
Also, did you HAVE to activate your phone right in the store? I am planning to do it at home since my iCloud backup went kaput (thanks to the 9.01 upgrade!!)
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I paid in full for AT&T and I didn't activate in store. Walked out with sealed box.
 
Arrived more than an hour before my appointment, stood in line for ~10 minutes and had the phone in my hands shortly after and I switched the color of the phone I wanted without any hiccups.
 
Supermallet said:
Also I don't know about your stores, but at mine they were telling people they were sold out of all 6s Plus phones by 8:45. I think only three or four walk-ins even had the option for any 6s Plus.
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There wasn't anything really. The only thing you could get was 16GB. I did enquirer about changing the colour just to see what stock they had. I think the plus is really constrained this year.
 
In Tampa, FL got to the Apple store about 15 minutes into my appointment time 9:30-10am. Had about 40+ people in the line which they had separated in two different lines. Have to say total amount of time from getting there and walking out was just under 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Application process for the upgrade program was easy. Only issue was using those small screen devices they use for the pos system.
 
striders said:
Those who did the Upgrade Plan, what was the process? Did you have to fill out the application form?

Also, did you HAVE to activate your phone right in the store? I am planning to do it at home since my iCloud backup went kaput (thanks to the 9.01 upgrade!!)
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It was all done over their iphone check out devices. It auto inputs your basic info name, address email etc... I had to enter my ss # and accept through a bunch of terms and condition pages. They swipe your license and a CC (soft credit check just to make sure you have funds to cover 3 months of payments available). It was all pretty much automated, I only had to type in some info because they lost connection to the server.

I opted to set up my phone myself so I left with a sealed box, however, he said during the checkout process that it activates the new device automatically. I'm on verizon.
 
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FYI, San Francisco reservation checking in here.

There are currently about 150 people ahead of me and the wait is AT LEAST 1 hour according to the Apple staff. The line goes around the block.

If this is how it's going to be EVERY YEAR, I see no point doing the Upgrade Program. I don't want to wait this long!

For next year, Apple SHOULD allow Upgrade Program for existing loan holder online.
 
striders said:
75 people?! Are these people queuing up early?
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Yeah. I'm pretty sure they said screw it to the timeframes. I waited about an hour and got in. By the time I was done the line for reservations were well over 300. IMO it was a ******** but I guess the line was fine as long as the phone was guaranteed, which it seems to be the case.
 
i hate phones said:
It was all done over their iphone check out devices. It auto inputs your basic info name, address email etc... I had to enter my ss # and accept through a bunch of terms and condition pages. They swipe your license and a CC (soft credit check just to make sure you have funds to cover 3 months of payments available). It was all pretty much automated, I only had to type in some info because they lost connection to the server.

I opted to set up my phone myself so I left with a sealed box, however, he said during the checkout process that it activates the new device automatically. I'm on verizon.
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It is NOT a soft credit check. It is a HARD inquiry. Even if you have the funds to cover the 90 days plus taxes and 1st month you can still get denied for the loan. I stood next to a few people that were denied and they were pretty annoyed about the miscommunication.
 
SJ Lover said:
It is NOT a soft credit check. It is a HARD inquiry. Even if you have the funds to cover the 90 days plus taxes and 1st month you can still get denied for the loan. I stood next to a few people that were denied and they were pretty annoyed about the miscommunication.
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Somebody did get denied while I was waiting in the store so I assume it was because of that.
 
If I were managing an Apple Store, I would have held pretty firm to the reservation time frames. If your reservation is more than an hour out, the employees shouldn't even be able to check you in.
 
ziggy3055 said:
Yeah. I'm pretty sure they said screw it to the timeframes. I waited about an hour and got in. By the time I was done the line for reservations were well over 300. IMO it was a ******** but I guess the line was fine as long as the phone was guaranteed, which it seems to be the case.
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The Apple Staff just told me that ALL reservation phones will be held till 9 PM. So yeah, they didn't give a **** about the reservation time. I am sure there are people with 5 PM reservation time waiting in line. No way Jose that there are 100 people with the same reservation time as me (12:00 PM).
 
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Minhimalism said:
Can anyone who bought the T-Mobile phone full price with a reservation chime in- do you have to provide account details, or can you just purchase the phone since it's 'contact-free'? Just curious. Thanks.
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You don't need to provide any account information. I got Tmobile last year.
In fact, this year I bought full price AT&T, and did not provide any account information.
 
I was at The Baybrook Mall in Houston. After reading about the denials I went early to ask if I were denied could I use my AT&T Next upgrade. They said absolutely. However, I had to wait for my reservation time at 1:00.

So, I hit up the Lego store and snagged a Wall-e. Had lunch and went back to wait.

I was checked in at 12:45, waited in line for about 10 minutes. Then a worker came out and took me in the store. Again, I asked if I was declined for the Apple program I could still go through AT&T Next. He said yes. I was declined for Apple. I was not "Eligible for any Apple programs". (FYI, 675 credit score)

We processed it through AT&T and no problems. I was out of the store by 1:15.
 
It is not going well at the DC store: arrive on time for reservation and get told by one ee they are running 60-90 minutes late, "so go hang out and come back later". That sounded odd, so asked another ee who said just get in line and maybe you will make it in earlier. Got in line but they kept putting people with earlier reservation times ( long past) in front so the line moved slowly. All that seems gained is the general crush is avoided but the experience does not provide much benefit for the customer. What is the point of reservations that slide back further and further?
 
5th ave location was quite efficient after lunch, only people within their reservation time were allowed. Still took 40 mins due to the volume of people. Unsurprisingly, handful of scalpers were in the reservation line, looks like flooding the reservations (with computer scripts) with multiple apple ID's will be their future plan to screw people over
 
I had an appointment at 1:30 in NH and got there at 1. Nobody was in line, took about 15 min total. 5 of that was waiting for the employee to get the phone and another 5 because Apple Pay wasn't working with her iPhone, so she had to get a new one.

The store didn't seem any busier than usual, but that's probably because walk ins weren't allowed in NH.
 
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