Just called the store that I did my in store pickup with to double check that they haven't gotten any yet (I'm not putting faith in them to actually do it the right way) so when I called the woman said, "I don't think you can do in store pick up". Well I did, and I have the conformation email to prove it. If the employees don't even realize they have in store pick up orders, I have no confidence that they won't just sell them off as they come in.
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In Store Today?
- Thread starter Y2JDMBFAN
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I went to the apple store in my area, and they told me they didn't have any. I then called the same apple store that I was in and they told me they were receiving shipments at around 10:30 AM EST to 11:00 AM EST that may possibly contain them.
I left though and went to pick one up at my local best buy because they were offering the $ 150 gift card. The best buy I went to though told me they could only do the price match OR the gift card, so I just went to another best buy and the next one did both for me.
Best buy seems to be the best bet, just find a customer service rep, they are more willing to match the price AND give the promotion, as they seem to be trained to appease problems instead of create them.
I left though and went to pick one up at my local best buy because they were offering the $ 150 gift card. The best buy I went to though told me they could only do the price match OR the gift card, so I just went to another best buy and the next one did both for me.
Best buy seems to be the best bet, just find a customer service rep, they are more willing to match the price AND give the promotion, as they seem to be trained to appease problems instead of create them.
I do have a Best Buy, its actually about 2 blocks from where the Apple Specialist is located. I really haven't had good experience w/ Best Buy in the past, and the Apple Specialist offers quite a better support program than Best Buy for free. I also feel more comfortable doing business with a local company that actually may help more and be more knowledgable with their products than Best Buy. I don't need it right away as I will be away on vacation next week. Thanks.
Best Buy never seizes to amaze me.
I asked three different people about if they match apples student discount (Computer guys, customer service and manager)
I got different answers.. One was no, one was $100 off and no of them said they would match the gift card.
rhutards..
I asked three different people about if they match apples student discount (Computer guys, customer service and manager)
I got different answers.. One was no, one was $100 off and no of them said they would match the gift card.
rhutards..
Agreed, that exact thought had occured to me. But really all they had to to was still make the announcement, heck they could have even shipped the displays. But instead of announcing "ships today" say "ships July 1\ships with ML" (and put a big sign on the display tables saying the same). No one would have given it a second thought and the pre-order list would be as long or longer than the current order queue.
Theyve certainly not been afraid to do that with the ipad/iphone (yes I'm well aware of the huge volume differences).
Instead we have a confused situation and people constantly calling the stores (which is disruptive in and of itself).
Apple's saving grace is, what are people going to do instead when they cant find a RMBP, go buy a Dell or a different Macbook?
I did in store pickup yesterday and it took about an hour to get my pickup email. Purchased around 3PM got my email at 4PM
Chino Hills, CA Bestbuy saved the day for me, picked up retina base model with education discount and gift card price match. On top of that also get a good amount of reward points that goods for some more bestbuy gift certificate
I can now shed some light on what happened after a few more days of fruitless waiting.
The original answer about them selling a few was honest. The dishonesty came when the other girl came up and contradicted the first about how they had never received or sold any. They had--presumably to business customers. (After the door greeter said they'd sold two in the morning the second girl did a kind of quick head-shake to her, like "no don't tell him that!")
So the next day I went in and there was another nice door greeter and this time she let me and a few others hang out while expecting a new shipment. About an hour later the shipment arrived and it was said that no RMBPs were included, (probably another lie, because...)
I hung around a little longer just looking at one of the display models, and another guy popped in, talked to the door greeter, and she got on her little walkie-talkie clip and a few minutes later, right in front of me, out walked a beaming apple employee wearing a black business team shirt. She rang that new guy up right in front of me with his new RMBP. Up to that point I'd been told they hadn't gotten any in. So yes, business clients get priority, it's as simple as that. No big deal.
I will add that the business guy looked like he just rolled out of bed with unkempt hair, etc., and bought one computer. Not exactly Donald Trump, (well except for the hair part). Whether or not this man's "business" will give Apple more business than I would is unknown. As far as I could tell he was no different than any other guy who walked in off the street. So then another guy waiting with me, who also came in from off the street and had been trying for a few days to get one, decided to open a business account, just to get one sooner. He told me the result would be the same as far as how much he spent with them, regardless of whether he purchased as a civilian or a businessman.
So the bottom line is that the business priority policy is flawed in two ways in my opinion and Apple may want to take note.
1) It will probably just cause the casual user to make up a fake business name or submit their small business to get on the list, even though it will not affect a difference whatsoever in how much money they spend with Apple.
2) It may simulate an annoying caste system where a non business customer will be rudely dismissed, even though in fact they may wish to purchase as much or more as the business customer.
2) A suggestion: At the very least, make a clear policy about giving preference to business customers, so that you do not have your employees scampering around, lying to your devoted customers, to each other, and making fools of themselves undermining each other's stories, and basically just scrambling around looking like a bad circus act, which causes discomfort in the average devoted Apple consumer.
How to do that? Clear, concise, truthful responses. There is no need for all of this, he said, she said, secretive baloney.
And now, two examples how this could be handled.
Customer: Got any RMBPs in stock?
Apple Store Employee: No we do not.
or
Customer: Got any RMBPs in stock?
Apple Store Employee: We have one, but it is being held for one of our business customers.
Although this will not affect my opinion of Apple or buying their products, buying at the Apple Store has always been somewhat of an ordeal, and I avoid the unpleasant experience wherever possible. This new policy makes things worse--or at least the way it is being implemented does.
But the bottom line is that all the nonsense many of us went through for days could have been altogether avoided with a little common sense and honesty.
Good luck!
Never thought it would be so hard to give away $2000.
I just spoke to the Apple store in Knoxville, TN. "Well, the web store is backed up. So there is no telling when we will get them."
I just spoke to the Apple store in Knoxville, TN. "Well, the web store is backed up. So there is no telling when we will get them."
Has any store received any of the "loaded" models (768GB, 16 MB, upgraded i7)? They will be carrying it as stock (not BTO) but wonder if any of these has shipped.
I think the most frustrating thing is getting a different response/story from just about everyone you talk to.
Last night, I used the "Find it at a Best Buy" option mentioned in previous posts and discovered that one Best Buy store in my state (located an hour away) had the "Coming Soon!" button, indicating that they had some MacBook Pro retinas in stock. I called first thing this morning and my hopes were confirmed--they had two in stock and were willing to hold one for me! I also got both the $200 off student discount as well as the $150 gift card by showing the picture someone posted previously, so thank you to whoever posted that--the Best Buy manager actually thanked me for providing the SKU for the gift card!
In short, I found the "Find it at Best Buy" search to be far more effective than calling.
Here is the link:
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...e=searchmode&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13397833417861
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A rep at the 14th St NYC Apple store said they did get them in. But sold them within minutes.
No way to confirm though.
Never thought it would be so hard to give away $2000.
I just spoke to the Apple store in Knoxville, TN. "Well, the web store is backed up. So there is no telling when we will get them."
This is how I feel. It's like " hey *******s, I have $2,199 + tax for you, please hurry the **** up with having one available for me , so I can start focusing on the next must have tech item".
Well I confirmed why I hate Best Buy and will never go back. I ran up to the one closest to me on my lunch break from work yesterday. I walked in and asked the first person I saw if they had any RMBPs in. She looked at me like I had 3 heads, when luckily a manager butted in and said yes, we got 2 base models in. Great i'll take one.
This is where it all went downhill. Because they are so organized they were searching the place for over 20 minutes looking for one. They finally found one of them but it had been opened. Now the manager assured me and said "We literally opened this a minute ago, the laptop has not been used we were just opening it up to see it and were going to put it on display later.
I asked them nicely to keep looking for a new one, but finally they gave up and said this was my only option. Now normally I would have passed on purchasing this but I was so excited I found one and since these are like a willy wonka golden ticket I could not pass it up. The manager wouldn't budge on price as he was so confident that this was brand new and unused.
I inspected the outside and it looked ok and by that point I was rushing to get back to work on time so I took his word for it and bought it.
After work I rushed home to get it set up. I turn it on and BAM! A login screen with a BestBuy username pops up asking for a password and the background was changed. Seriously?! I was so furious but it was too late to go back. I started to reformat the hard drive to erase it, but I stopped and thought, I just spent well over 2k for this, this is not ok.
Well I went back today and tried to be calm about the situation, but they didn't seem to care. I was in shock, you guys obviously played around with it for a while and tried to pawn it off on me like it was new.
I gave up on my hunt and will now just patiently wait for my online Apple order. Good luck to everyone else in finding one.
This is where it all went downhill. Because they are so organized they were searching the place for over 20 minutes looking for one. They finally found one of them but it had been opened. Now the manager assured me and said "We literally opened this a minute ago, the laptop has not been used we were just opening it up to see it and were going to put it on display later.
I asked them nicely to keep looking for a new one, but finally they gave up and said this was my only option. Now normally I would have passed on purchasing this but I was so excited I found one and since these are like a willy wonka golden ticket I could not pass it up. The manager wouldn't budge on price as he was so confident that this was brand new and unused.
I inspected the outside and it looked ok and by that point I was rushing to get back to work on time so I took his word for it and bought it.
After work I rushed home to get it set up. I turn it on and BAM! A login screen with a BestBuy username pops up asking for a password and the background was changed. Seriously?! I was so furious but it was too late to go back. I started to reformat the hard drive to erase it, but I stopped and thought, I just spent well over 2k for this, this is not ok.
Well I went back today and tried to be calm about the situation, but they didn't seem to care. I was in shock, you guys obviously played around with it for a while and tried to pawn it off on me like it was new.
I gave up on my hunt and will now just patiently wait for my online Apple order. Good luck to everyone else in finding one.
Thanks for this link! I used this and apparently there was one store left in my state that had one. Bought it over the phone and will pick it up after work!
Finally got mine!
Here's what happened. I called Brandon apple this morning at 9:00 to see if they had them. I was on hold for a while so I just started driving that way. When They finally answered after 30 minutes they said no. So did tampa. So on my way home I stopped by best buy. They had one on display but didn't yesterday. I asked they guy if he had any and looked up the sku, he said no. So I went out to my car and called them and asked them to look up the sku. She said they had one and went to go get a visual on it. She reserved it for me, I went in and picked it up after I went home and got a gift card I had.
Here's what happened. I called Brandon apple this morning at 9:00 to see if they had them. I was on hold for a while so I just started driving that way. When They finally answered after 30 minutes they said no. So did tampa. So on my way home I stopped by best buy. They had one on display but didn't yesterday. I asked they guy if he had any and looked up the sku, he said no. So I went out to my car and called them and asked them to look up the sku. She said they had one and went to go get a visual on it. She reserved it for me, I went in and picked it up after I went home and got a gift card I had.
Here's what happened. I called Brandon apple this morning at 9:00 to see if they had them. I was on hold for a while so I just started driving that way. When They finally answered after 30 minutes they said no. So did tampa. So on my way home I stopped by best buy. They had one on display but didn't yesterday. I asked they guy if he had any and looked up the sku, he said no. So I went out to my car and called them and asked them to look up the sku. She said they had one and went to go get a visual on it. She reserved it for me, I went in and picked it up after I went home and got a gift card I had.
Congrats!