I went to an Apple store yesterday to try and buy an iPhone. I figured since it was late, about 7:30 pm there would be no line, and I was hoping to get right in. I was very wrong. When I got there there were about 250 people in front of me, and the line wasn't moving. Since I am out of town for work, I figured I had nothing better to do, and thought the line might only take a couple of hours. By midnight I knew that I wasn't going to get a phone, but I had already spent so much time waiting in line, I really didn't want to leave. The employees were great, and vowed to stay until everyone had a phone, but I really wasn't about to wait until 6:00 am. The security guards at the mall told them that they were kicking everyone out at 3:00 am so I decided to wait with the hope of getting in before then. Had I known that I would be waiting that long, I would never have stood in line. At about 1:00 am an employee came out and said that the At&t reps at the call centers were being sent home at 2:00 am eastern time. (In retrospect, that doesn't make much sense because when I finally got my phone today I didn't have to talk to anyone at At&t.) So they started giving out claim tickets and telling everyone to come back the next day, and they would be allowed to come straight in without waiting in line. I went home a little disappointed, but not much I could do about it.
Because of work I couldn't get back until 11:30 this morning. I was taken right into the store, (there were about 300 people in line) and handed my 16 gb black iPhone. The entire process was pretty seemless, and I was in and out within 10 minutes. I was not eligible for an ungrade, so I was anticipating having to pay 499$. When the sales guy rung me up the total was 430$, I was of course surprised and so I asked the rep why it was about $100 less than it should have been. He said that some people were being given a $100 discount. It didn't make sense but I wasn't about to complain.
I walked back to my hotel very excited. When I got back I plugged in and loaded all the applications I had downloaded yesterday. When I was done I noticed that there was only 6.5 gb left. That didn't sound right, so I started looking, and turns out I had purchased a 8gb iPhone. The sticker on the top of the box said 16gb but the smaller sticker on the bottom said 8gb, and the back of the iPhone said 8gb. I wasn't very happy, but the $100 difference in price suddenly made sense. I put everything back in the box and walked back to the mall. When I walked back into the store the sales rep I had dealt with was surprised and shocked at what had happened. He called a manager over who was suspicious at first, but after he checked the receipt, box and serial number he was amazed. It took about 45 minutes to get everything straightened out. Once they finally got everything figured out they told me they were giving me a $150 store credit with no stipulations for the trouble!
Although the whole thing was a mess, I was very impressed at how they handled it. They could have just said "sucks to be you" but they were very accommodating. It's no wonder they have so many loyal customers. Not too many other stores would have done anything like that.
