Picture it. August 10, my birthday. Before I head out for the day to grab lunch with friends, I check online to see if any iPad Pros are in stock. I'm not holding my breath because I've been checking for weeks and there's been nothing in any of the Apple Stores in and around San Diego County. I'm not in dire need of one, it's more of a strong want, and I figured I'll just keep checking rather than buy it online since delivery has consistently been five weeks out. These things are in high demand!
Right after 12 noon I check, and Good Lord, the have the model I want, the Pro 11" 128 wifi in silver, it's unavailable for pickup that day, the two options are pickup the following day, or spend 9 extra bucks for express courier for 2 hour delivery. I figure HOT DAMN so I jump on it, choose the 2 hour delivery and select my business address. I took the day off but it's open and I still have people working for me there. I figure all is well and go out for the day.
Just before 1pm I check the order online and it shows an assigned courier via Postmates, the invoice even shows a device serial number, etc. Name and phone number of the courier are also displayed should I need to get ahold of him for any reason. Exciting! Then around 1:30 I get a text from the courier/driver himself, with the most oddest of requests. Verbatim he wrote, "Hi can you cancel the order somebody else picked up and the order is going around to different carriers." WTF does that even mean? Rather than call him I decide to call Apple and find out what's going on. The nice rep pulled it up and saw that the courier person arrived at the Apple Store, but then that's where the trail ends, within minutes after that, the iPad was marked as returned and an automatic refund was initiated. I get an email notification, it's the PDF copy of the receipt direct from my local Apple Store showing the return and refund to the original form of payment.
Needless to say I'm a little upset. Not at the rep but at the situation. She couldn't tell me what happened, and while I was on hold she contacted the Apple Store and they couldn't tell her either. At any rate, obviously at this point there are no Pro models of any kind available locally, only option is to wait a month plus. I feel defeated, miffed, but hey, I guess it just wasn't meant to be. I go about my day with friends and food and drink and have a decent birthday overall.
Fast forward to today, I'm near the Apple Store to get some groceries. They open at 11 and it's a few minutes til, so I figure since I'm in the area, maybe if someone is free to talk to me, they can shed some more light on what happened. The store is only doing appointments and online pickups, but the sales associate out front recognizes me as I go to the store fairly often at least before the pandemic. I explain what happened and she said no problem I can get a manager to talk to you. At 11 when they open she takes me in and gets a manager to come over, and he too recognizes me. I explain the entire nonsense that happened and he apologized to me, he said that they've been having a fair number of issues with the 2 hour express courier service and he wants any and all details of what I experienced because they're collecting information to see if they can streamline the process.
He can only surmise that since there are 3 "systems" involved (Apple online web ordering, Postmates as the courier, and the Apple Store itself), the disconnect probably happened where Apple online assigned the pickup to Postmates, Postmates selects a driver to go get it, but Apple online hasn't yet completely authorized the release of the merchandise from the store. So the driver shows up but the store can't release it without Apple online's say so. He said sometimes the drivers are willing to wait a few minutes, but sometimes the drivers can't wait so they just leave, the driver cancels the order to Postmates who in turn alerts Apple and then a refund gets initiated. The manager again apologized and said there's no excuse for this, and then he says, "Let me see what I can do for you."
He goes away and after a few minutes he comes back with an iPad Pro and says "I did some checking and we have the model you wanted, rather than wait to have one delivered, would you like to buy this one now?" I'm just about floored and say YES PLEASE but then he goes an unexpected step further. He rings it up as an education purchase and throws in a free pair of AirPods, plus he takes an additional $50 off as a courtesy discount for the troubles. I'm simply floored! You gotta love their stellar customer service. I never asked for anything and they go above and beyond to make a customer happy.
Right after 12 noon I check, and Good Lord, the have the model I want, the Pro 11" 128 wifi in silver, it's unavailable for pickup that day, the two options are pickup the following day, or spend 9 extra bucks for express courier for 2 hour delivery. I figure HOT DAMN so I jump on it, choose the 2 hour delivery and select my business address. I took the day off but it's open and I still have people working for me there. I figure all is well and go out for the day.
Just before 1pm I check the order online and it shows an assigned courier via Postmates, the invoice even shows a device serial number, etc. Name and phone number of the courier are also displayed should I need to get ahold of him for any reason. Exciting! Then around 1:30 I get a text from the courier/driver himself, with the most oddest of requests. Verbatim he wrote, "Hi can you cancel the order somebody else picked up and the order is going around to different carriers." WTF does that even mean? Rather than call him I decide to call Apple and find out what's going on. The nice rep pulled it up and saw that the courier person arrived at the Apple Store, but then that's where the trail ends, within minutes after that, the iPad was marked as returned and an automatic refund was initiated. I get an email notification, it's the PDF copy of the receipt direct from my local Apple Store showing the return and refund to the original form of payment.
Needless to say I'm a little upset. Not at the rep but at the situation. She couldn't tell me what happened, and while I was on hold she contacted the Apple Store and they couldn't tell her either. At any rate, obviously at this point there are no Pro models of any kind available locally, only option is to wait a month plus. I feel defeated, miffed, but hey, I guess it just wasn't meant to be. I go about my day with friends and food and drink and have a decent birthday overall.
Fast forward to today, I'm near the Apple Store to get some groceries. They open at 11 and it's a few minutes til, so I figure since I'm in the area, maybe if someone is free to talk to me, they can shed some more light on what happened. The store is only doing appointments and online pickups, but the sales associate out front recognizes me as I go to the store fairly often at least before the pandemic. I explain what happened and she said no problem I can get a manager to talk to you. At 11 when they open she takes me in and gets a manager to come over, and he too recognizes me. I explain the entire nonsense that happened and he apologized to me, he said that they've been having a fair number of issues with the 2 hour express courier service and he wants any and all details of what I experienced because they're collecting information to see if they can streamline the process.
He can only surmise that since there are 3 "systems" involved (Apple online web ordering, Postmates as the courier, and the Apple Store itself), the disconnect probably happened where Apple online assigned the pickup to Postmates, Postmates selects a driver to go get it, but Apple online hasn't yet completely authorized the release of the merchandise from the store. So the driver shows up but the store can't release it without Apple online's say so. He said sometimes the drivers are willing to wait a few minutes, but sometimes the drivers can't wait so they just leave, the driver cancels the order to Postmates who in turn alerts Apple and then a refund gets initiated. The manager again apologized and said there's no excuse for this, and then he says, "Let me see what I can do for you."
He goes away and after a few minutes he comes back with an iPad Pro and says "I did some checking and we have the model you wanted, rather than wait to have one delivered, would you like to buy this one now?" I'm just about floored and say YES PLEASE but then he goes an unexpected step further. He rings it up as an education purchase and throws in a free pair of AirPods, plus he takes an additional $50 off as a courtesy discount for the troubles. I'm simply floored! You gotta love their stellar customer service. I never asked for anything and they go above and beyond to make a customer happy.
