Stood in line since 5PM Thursday and camped overnight for the Gold iPhone 5S. Happy to say that I was able to score 3 of them (they are 2 per person but I was with someone else there). We were fourth and fifth in line and were the first to request a 16GB and 32GB Gold iPhone 5S. They had a total of 1 16GB Gold iPhones available for the entire crowd and 3 32GB Gold iPhones. I took the only 16GB and 2 of the 32GB. I'm happy to say that these phones are not being resold and are being used by myself and family members. I felt bad for those behind me that were not able to get one, they had 0 Gold iPhones for Verizon and Sprint (they were all for AT&T). Everyone in front of me took the 64GB Gold iPhones (they had a total of 4, hence 8 Gold iPhones total for the store). I found it surprising that despite low availability, they had 4 Gold iPhones on display, which upset many customers. Do you feel they could have reduced the display amount of Gold iPhones for now and provided them to those that camped out at night behind me?
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Picked up 3 Gold iPhones on Friday
- Thread starter amitdoc2b
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I really think Apple dropped the ball here. I've been through every launch and this is the worst supply/demand I've seen.
Listen, before you start flaming me for my opinion...Apple would've generated the same buzz they always do. This is not an issue of creating the perception of mass histaria for their devices. This is a simple botched release, period!
Durning the keynote last week, Tim Cook almost made it a point of pride to state China would be involved this year for the 5S initial launch. This was a mistake... Perhaps China mobile strong armed Apple into this, but I doubt it.
Apple led consumers to believe that on Sept 20th all models of the 5S would be available. This is especially true sense multiple countries were included for the launch. I mean, how could all these countries be getting the 5S if supply isn't up to par with previous launches? To allow these people to stand in line for hours knowing full well they couldn't accommodate their order is plain wrong!
Apple had 3 choices here:
1. Delay the launch of the 5S for a week to build sufficient inventory for the initial demand for all countries involved. Yes, this would've brought the ire of many (myself included), but it isn't cool to tell the countless over night campers they will not get what they want because they are out of stock to begin with.
2. Limit the initial offering to the least amount of countries to satisfy demand before opening the device up to other countries. This would have upset our international brothers but is a strategy Apple has used in the past with overwhelming success.
3. Durning the keynote be more honest and forthright! Tim Cook should've said, "Assembly has just begun on the 5S, therefore pre-orders will begin on the 20th with a launch date of the 27th.
I ordered the 5S online and was lucky to get into the 1st batch of orders. I will have the 5S next week. I'm very patient, and happy with my situation. However, as a loyal Apple customer I feel bad for the thousands of people let down by this huge debacle!
Again, I get the fact Apple can do what they want and many if you will flame me for my opinion. I just feel Apple had a moral responsibility to ensure its customers were aware of this supply issue. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can tell me inventory was even close to previous iPhone launches!
Listen, before you start flaming me for my opinion...Apple would've generated the same buzz they always do. This is not an issue of creating the perception of mass histaria for their devices. This is a simple botched release, period!
Durning the keynote last week, Tim Cook almost made it a point of pride to state China would be involved this year for the 5S initial launch. This was a mistake... Perhaps China mobile strong armed Apple into this, but I doubt it.
Apple led consumers to believe that on Sept 20th all models of the 5S would be available. This is especially true sense multiple countries were included for the launch. I mean, how could all these countries be getting the 5S if supply isn't up to par with previous launches? To allow these people to stand in line for hours knowing full well they couldn't accommodate their order is plain wrong!
Apple had 3 choices here:
1. Delay the launch of the 5S for a week to build sufficient inventory for the initial demand for all countries involved. Yes, this would've brought the ire of many (myself included), but it isn't cool to tell the countless over night campers they will not get what they want because they are out of stock to begin with.
2. Limit the initial offering to the least amount of countries to satisfy demand before opening the device up to other countries. This would have upset our international brothers but is a strategy Apple has used in the past with overwhelming success.
3. Durning the keynote be more honest and forthright! Tim Cook should've said, "Assembly has just begun on the 5S, therefore pre-orders will begin on the 20th with a launch date of the 27th.
I ordered the 5S online and was lucky to get into the 1st batch of orders. I will have the 5S next week. I'm very patient, and happy with my situation. However, as a loyal Apple customer I feel bad for the thousands of people let down by this huge debacle!
Again, I get the fact Apple can do what they want and many if you will flame me for my opinion. I just feel Apple had a moral responsibility to ensure its customers were aware of this supply issue. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can tell me inventory was even close to previous iPhone launches!
I think it's true,there is a definite drop in costumer service and quality. No matter how much I love mac.
No dude...when you turn away the 4th and 5th person in line (who has been there since mid-night) due to supply shortages you've dropped the ball!
This has never happened at an Apple store for any iPhone launch, ever, period!
The original iPhone launch was a disaster because the activation servers went down. However, nobody knew how overwhelmingly successful the launch would be. This was nobody's fault, but rather an incovience. Not having more than 5 gold phones when you KNOW hundreds of people will be standing in front of your store without telling them is wrong.
yup!
they had plenty of space grey. seeing how black is the most popular color option among iPhone customers, not sure how they messed up by not having enough niche colors.
Delay the launch? how is that better than waiting 7-10 days for your white phone to ship to you.
What I don't understand is why all Apple stores didn't handle this the same.
I heard first hand reports from friends of people in my line that were in Florida who were told at midnight that there were no gold iphones to be had at that store.
Our store didn't tell us crap about inventory. In fact, when asked at 7 AM, the lead genius employee simply said to us "let inventory decide your choice" when asked what we should do if we were struggling between two colors.
I was 12th in line at my store. I could not get anything other than space gray. If I was looking for gold or silver, I would have been EXTREMELY pissed, having gotten to the store at 2 AM and almost peeing myself in line to find that out 6 hours later.
I heard first hand reports from friends of people in my line that were in Florida who were told at midnight that there were no gold iphones to be had at that store.
Our store didn't tell us crap about inventory. In fact, when asked at 7 AM, the lead genius employee simply said to us "let inventory decide your choice" when asked what we should do if we were struggling between two colors.
I was 12th in line at my store. I could not get anything other than space gray. If I was looking for gold or silver, I would have been EXTREMELY pissed, having gotten to the store at 2 AM and almost peeing myself in line to find that out 6 hours later.
I was at the Apple store in Altamonte Springs, FL, and no one said anything until after 8am. Waited for five hours to be told all we have no is spay grey. They definitely dropped the ball on this launch day.
This is just stupid, considering how much money you're leaving on the table. For gods sake, one sold on eBay yesterday (gold) for $3050! And you got 3 of them!? Even if you lowballed it and got $1000 per iPhone, you're still looking at a $2500-2600 profit. Is having the gold iPhone worth throwing that money away?
You should seriously reconsider before handing that iPhone your wife or teenage son/daughter. Seriously.
Unreal.
Don'k know if we were at the same store (SHV?) but they had 1 AT&T Gold phone. To make matters worse they THOUGHT they had two. After realizing their mistake they had to tell the second person they had no phone for her. I'm not sure what they did to "make things right" with her.
But remember a display unit is not a retail version. So it couldn't have been sold.
Never before was it like this. I went to my local apple store to line up at 6 pm on Thursday, that's more than 12 hours. I was number 12. Come 11 pm they told us about stock and I had no shot at gold or silver.
You're right man, I was 5th in line and I was told that they don't have any gold or silver iPhones period, and I'm gonna say it again, I was 5th in line out of over 100 people, I mean at least you should have 5-10 gold iPhones, they had 1, and you expect customers not to get pissed??
At least they told you. Like I said, we didn't find out about inventory until the queue cards were handed out - at about 7:45 AM.
That's pretty messed. How apple didn't make it a policy to tell their stores to inform people before midnight boggles my mind. If you have little to no stock, the least you can do is not waste people's time and allow people to go home and order online.
I'm surprised there aren't more reports of angry customers on the news instead of the usually happy / excited people.
Dude, like I said I ordered online and will get the 5S next week (Gold/64). However, I'm disappointed for the hundreds of thousands...if not millions that stood in line for a gold or silver iPhone only to be told they didn't have the inventory to support them. Then, by the time they get home to order online, supplies now say shipping in "October." (Not even 2-3 weeks...just a month???). And when I say, "support them," I really mean a better inventory than 5 or 10 phones per store. Can you honestly with a straight face say if you were in charge of this launch you would've only ordered 5 gold phones per store?
Everyone that frequents this forum was well aware of "rumors" that supply might be constrained and planned accordingly. However, the average Joe that heard the release was on the 20th had an expectation that supplies would be on par with every other launch. Apple didn't do anything illegal, I'm just saying they should've prepared everyone better. People lined up in mass because supplies do run out...this is expected...but to only have a few gold or silver...FAIL!
I'm sure you ordered the space grey and could care less...and that's fine. However, I'm sure you'd be pissed if you waited for hours and hours and hours then get to the door and the rep says, "yeah, we only had 5 phones in what you wanted, but if you hurry home and order online, you can get it before November."
The S model launches should be the easiest because there isn't a whole lot of redesign done to the case. Yes there are changes but really they should have more than enough time to start building up inventory. I think Apple put too much faith in the 5c being a smash hit. Most consumers saw through the color gimmick and want the latest Gold iPhone. I can't wait for next year when each store gets 1 iPhone 6 and you have to battle to the death for it.
Apple has always staggered releases to different countries. I'm not going to say Australia should've been left out, but how do you justify the countless other countries that aren't on the list as of today? Is Australia better than them? How about China??? Again, a staggered launch allows Apple to manage supply/demand better. Too many countries initially puts too much demand on the limited supply.