Taking advantage of customers for publicity?

[macrem]

For the first time I went to one of those wait (all night) for an Apple device launch events for the iPhone X. There were people from Apple there at all hours. They knew how many iPhones they had, why not take inventory of the crowd to find out what people are waiting for instead of letting them stand around for hours like idiots then say there isn’t enough supply? Sure it looks good for the cameras if more people are in line, but that’s really treating people like dirt, or am I missing something? Some guy next to us was going and talking to Apple people then coming back saying for sure they’ll have enough iPhones for us. I stood there from 4:30am until 8am only to be told they underestimated how many people would order 2 iPhones and how many people reserved but certainly they could have gotten these estimates fairly accurate, instead perhaps 50 people in front and +100 behind me stood there for nothing for several hours. Fool me once...

 

[Apple_Robert]

Sounds more like a case of being a little disorganized. I certainly understand the frustration.

 

[AppleZombie]

Not sure why people still stand in line, no one forces them to and it’s not Apples job to go count how many people are waiting. Like Black Friday, why?

 

[Newtons Apple]

Picked up my 10 this am at the Apple Store. Only took about 15 minutes and was out the door.

 

[OneMike]

I feel for you, but that’s the chance you take standing in line.

I don’t get how they can underestimate pre orders though.

 

[macrem]

Thanks for input!

BasicGreatGuy: every other aspect was very well orchestrated down to immediately picking up trash, emptying bins and having us stand for last 2 hours (they asked people with chairs to put their chairs on the other side of street at ~6am). Many years earlier I went for a smaller iPad event during the day and they had a card for each iPad in stock and gave each person a card so when they ran out, others did not have to wait in vein.

AppleZombie: I had the same question. I went because Apple botched my online order (including debiting my account weeks before estimated ship date) and did not help me to fix the problems in any way, so I thought I’d put it all behind me by getting one at the store and cancelling my online order. I’ll never go again.

 

[mcdj]

They absolutely knew how much of their stock was for preorders. As for how many walk ups bought two, well that’s a problem. They could have stipulated one per customer.

Regardless, having counted heads and then turning away 150 people after several hours is pretty inexcusable.

I suppose it’s possible they miscounted their supply or it was requisitioned for another store, but to make people stand there for hours needlessly is just plain f’d.

 

[TravisPNW]

why not take inventory of the crowd to find out what people are waiting for instead of letting them stand around for hours like idiots

That's a risk you take standing in line for hours.

I've never understood why people do it... but hey, I never understood why my grandmother drove 20 miles to save $.03 on gas either.

 

[macrem]

Newtons Apple: probably the same will happen in Europe soon but not quite yet, today is the first day I’m getting a sense from macrumors there are not really supply issues at least in US. When I called Customer Support about my pre order date slipping due to a glitch the answer was many people have to wait until Dec so I should feel lucky to have end of Nov shipping estimate.

OneMike I have exact same sentiments, I took the risk but why screw people over so bad...

mcdj I asked myself the same things like why not limit to one given the dearth of supplies. Apple is mainly supplying scalpers by offering two.
[doublepost=1509822465][/doublepost]Could anyone suggest whom from Apple would be good to ask what’s their related policy?

 

[hallidc]

My store had a decent amount of stock. They only had 64gb at opening...only a handful of us (near the front) bought 1 phone. Everyone else bought 2...and were listing them on eBay/Kijiji once their reservation was made. Was rather sad to see numerous people who actually wanted the phone for themselves be told there was no stock left.

 

[macrem]

My store had a decent amount of stock. They only had 64gb at opening...only a handful of us (near the front) bought 1 phone. Everyone else bought 2...and were listing them on eBay/Kijiji once their reservation was made. Was rather sad to see numerous people who actually wanted the phone for themselves be told there was no stock left.

Indeed we were all quite sad. What time was it when they informed people there was no stock left? Were many people affected?

 

[NoBoMac]

Many years earlier I went for a smaller iPad event during the day and they had a card for each iPad in stock and gave each person a card so when they ran out, others did not have to wait in vein.

Same thing happened back when I got my 4S. Also had a whiteboard out front that they updated re: what was still in stock.

Guess that Apple has got out-of-practice re: dealing with day-one lines for devices.

https://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/07/angela-ahrendts-online-memo/

 

[Newtons Apple]

Newtons Apple: probably the same will happen in Europe soon but not quite yet, today is the first day I’m getting a sense from macrumors there are not really supply issues at least in US. When I called Customer Support about my pre order date slipping due to a glitch the answer was many people have to wait until Dec so I should feel lucky to have end of Nov shipping estimate.

OneMike I have exact same sentiments, I took the risk but why screw people over so bad...

mcdj I asked myself the same things like why not limit to one given the dearth of supplies. Apple is mainly supplying scalpers by offering two.
[doublepost=1509822465][/doublepost]Could anyone suggest whom from Apple would be good to ask what’s their related policy?

Apple stores in the USA had stock this am. I ordered for pickup and went to the store at 10am and picked up my 10 in only 15 minutes. Planning. I would have never gone to the store without an X waiting on me