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Screw this, Im going to Best Buy in the morning.

S

SeanZy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 29, 2008
856
102
Think about it, if you get in line maybe even an hour before they open i can almost guarantee you will be first to preorder, and at first in line you are almost guaranteed a phone.

I waited in line for 2 hours for the iPad 2 and was third in line. This seems to be the best bet, because not only can you pick it up that day with no hassle, you only have to put 50 bucks down.
 
Just wanted to give you a heads up, I work for Best Buy Mobile, and the employee news article today layed out how the pre-order process will work.


long story short, and they were very explicit about all these points:

Pre-ordering does NOT guarantee you a device

and you will NOT be given any priority over a walk in regarding availability or convenience.

So if you get in line and you are person 51 and there are 50 phones and the 50 people in front of you haven't pre-ordered and you have? tough luck.

Its honestly a pretty big waste of time, if you want to show up early on a day, make it the 14th, because thats the only time thats going to matter.
 
Did they give any reason as to why anyone would pre order then?

Im gonna ask in the morning, that makes no sense. Why even do preorders.
 
lol trust me, we all thought the same thing.


We don't get people to "ask". They tell us how it is via memo, and thats how it is.


Their logic on this one was simply "to give all customers an equal chance of getting the product on day one"

Its a bummer, as I usually like Best Buy's pre-order process, but i'll line up at Apple like I usually do.
 
Sweet.

Luckily my Best Buy is putting aside all preorders first and then selling what is left.

She said that this is how they have done it for the past years, and this is still how they will do it. She didnt agree with the whole "Preorders dont mean anything" idea.

I was the first 16GB White ATT 4s :D
 
If you think there is not a huge demand you didnt see the line at best buy today to preorder, or the ridiculous server issues trying tio preorder last night just like with the 4. Make no mistake, this phone is definitely in demand.
 
Pmpman said:
Just wanted to give you a heads up, I work for Best Buy Mobile, and the employee news article today layed out how the pre-order process will work.


long story short, and they were very explicit about all these points:

Pre-ordering does NOT guarantee you a device

and you will NOT be given any priority over a walk in regarding availability or convenience.

So if you get in line and you are person 51 and there are 50 phones and the 50 people in front of you haven't pre-ordered and you have? tough luck.

Its honestly a pretty big waste of time, if you want to show up early on a day, make it the 14th, because thats the only time thats going to matter.
Click to expand...


Which is pretty much why I don't shop at Bestbuy anymore.
 
JRoDDz said:
Which is pretty much why I don't shop at Bestbuy anymore.
Click to expand...

Well like I said, my local best buy is not using that policy and is setting aside al preorders. Might as well see how your local one is doing it.
 
I would love to be able to preorder and prepay for the phone and pick up on Friday the 14th instore, no hassles. I don't care if it's AT&T store, Apple Store or BestBuy - I want it in my hands on the 14th, the earlier the better. Am I totally dreaming then?
 
TheRedOx said:
I would love to be able to preorder and prepay for the phone and pick up on Friday the 14th instore, no hassles. I don't care if it's AT&T store, Apple Store or BestBuy - I want it in my hands on the 14th, the earlier the better. Am I totally dreaming then?
Click to expand...

I would call your local best buy, actually go in

Like I said, I was the first 16GB White ATT preorder and they will call me when they get it in which should be friday. I can pick it up at any time after they call me
 
Pmpman said:
lol trust me, we all thought the same thing.


We don't get people to "ask". They tell us how it is via memo, and thats how it is.


Their logic on this one was simply "to give all customers an equal chance of getting the product on day one"

Its a bummer, as I usually like Best Buy's pre-order process, but i'll line up at Apple like I usually do.
Click to expand...

That's what they told me too today when I went to preorder.
They said it might take up to the 30th to get it in.
And preordering doesnt mean anything, they will sell what stock they have to people waiting in line and screw the preorders.
I dont get this BS. So what's the point of preordering?
They rather have the madness go on than doing it the easy way calling people in when their iphone arrives?
 
The reason I think is that Apple technically doesn't allow preorders at third party stores like this, or something. All I know is that I work at a wireless reseller and we were told we could not take preorders per Apple and to direct people wanting to preorder to Apple.com or the carrier website. I'm not sure how that makes it okay to take partial payment for something without any actual reservation being made for a particular one....
 
crypticgeek said:
The reason I think is that Apple technically doesn't allow preorders at third party stores like this, or something. All I know is that I work at a wireless reseller and we were told we could not take preorders per Apple and to direct people wanting to preorder to Apple.com or the carrier website. I'm not sure how that makes it okay to take partial payment for something without any actual reservation being made for a particular one....
Click to expand...

Best Buy did it last year.
 
Applejuiced said:
That's what they told me too today when I went to preorder.
They said it might take up to the 30th to get it in.
And preordering doesnt mean anything, they will sell what stock they have to people waiting in line and screw the preorders.
I dont get this BS. So what's the point of preordering?
They rather have the madness go on than doing it the easy way calling people in when their iphone arrives?
Click to expand...

That sucks so bad. Im glad the manager of the local Best Buy is sticking to her guns and not alowing this to happen.
 
I wouldn't trust going anywhere other than Apple or one of the carriers. They're the ones that are going to get the largest stock of the phone. Hate to say it, but all the other retailers aren't as important. I don't know if they even get guaranteed numbers of phones in their shipments. I'm just going by what I've read here in the forums from people that have had problems before. If you want to guarantee that you get an iPhone on release day, go through Apple or the carriers. Otherwise you're taking a risk, to one degree or another.
 
I went to Best Buy for the iPad 2 and they had a ton of stock.

I was in line 2 hours before 5pm and was third in line.

They didnt disappoint then and I hope they dont now.
 
Pmpman said:
Just wanted to give you a heads up, I work for Best Buy Mobile, and the employee news article today layed out how the pre-order process will work.


long story short, and they were very explicit about all these points:

Pre-ordering does NOT guarantee you a device

and you will NOT be given any priority over a walk in regarding availability or convenience.

So if you get in line and you are person 51 and there are 50 phones and the 50 people in front of you haven't pre-ordered and you have? tough luck.

Its honestly a pretty big waste of time, if you want to show up early on a day, make it the 14th, because thats the only time thats going to matter.
Click to expand...



That makes absolutely no sense. I got an email clearly stating that the preorders don't guarantee u a phone on a specific date but they "will be fulfilled in the order of reservation". If what ur saying is true then all they will have is a lot of angry customers demanding a refund on the $50 gift card they bought. i posted in another best buy thread that last year i preordered a 32GB black iPhone 4 and they called me the day before to go in a nd pick it up, had it there wrapped with my name on it the next day. What they mean by first come first serve is a specific amount of preorders are set aside, if there only happens to be one 32GB black iPhone then whoever was first to preorder it has dibs on it for upto 72 hours. Then it gets cancelled and sold to the next in line. This is why they stop preorders at a certain amount. They also tell you its not guaranteed you'll have a phone on the launch date because they don't want angry customers who were 100th in line for preorder thinking that they are going to get 100 phones on shipment day.
 
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