The AT&T store comes through! No more Apple store on launch day.

[AppleFan360]

I'm pretty much done with the Apple store on launch days like this. I arrived at a local AT&T store 1/2 before opening and within an hour I was walking out with an iPhone 6 128Gig Space Grey. There were only about 100 people in line and the store had over 300 phones in all colors and memory configurations.

Obviously the 6+ models were the first to go and were limited but that was expected.

This is the second year I have done it this way and it's worked great. Last year I went to an AT&T store on launch day for the 5S and didn't get there until the afternoon and they still had the model I wanted.

It just seems like the small stores are a better option if you don't want to camp out all night in front of an Apple store.

 

[potaco]

If all you wanted was the 6, you could have preordered for days and skipped the trip to a store completely.

 

[AppleFan360]

If all you wanted was the 6, you could have preordered for days and skipped the trip to a store completely.

Yes, but the phone is for my wife and the pre-orders were already full for launch day before she realized she wanted one.

I have a pre-ordered 6+ arriving on Tuesday for me.

Actually I had the phone in my hand quicker doing things this way rather than waiting around all day for the UPS guy.

All I'm saying is that for those who miss the pre-order window, there is still hope to get a phone on launch day without using the Apple store.

 

[vitacura]

Good to hear a positive experience, glad it worked out, Congrats!

 

[drogba]

Good on you. The Apple store always has more stock, but if you get to one of the carrier stores early enough and they get a good stock - this could be your experience. Know a lot of people were unhappy with the carrier experiences but good on you.

 

[GlenK]

I'm with you, same for me. I'm on the next program and this is my first upgrade so I was afraid they'd screw up my unlimited data plan if I pre-ordered.

It went perfectly. Same as you, about an hour and I was outta there with the 6, 64g Silver.. About another hour on iTunes and that was it.

This baby is fabulous!! No more Apple store for me!!

 

[ektaliptka]

Yes, but the phone is for my wife and the pre-orders were already full for launch day before she realized she wanted one.

Sounds just like a woman!!!...If a new (insert designer) bag was being released I guarantee she would have known before launch day size, color, model, etc that she wanted..

 

[bdb23]

been saying this for awhile...

if you want to be on the local news and the "Apple Store Line" experience got to Apple...

if you just want a phone launch day but for whatever reason couldn't or didn't pre-order go to carriers...

Yes, they have less stock, but they also have more stores... for every 1 apple store in your city how many Verizon stores? AT&T stores? it really isn't as lopsided as people think, the lines however are very lopsided.

 

[Squirreljam]

I'm with the OP; great experience at a fairly close ATT store (south St Louis County, MO, US). Had driven past one other carrier store with a line, decided to try this one and walked right in about 10 am, out in about 45-50 mins, even with a 10-15 min delay while the system caught up with switching a sim card. No line whatsoever - only had to wait around 5 mins for an associate after I checked in.

Edit - they were out of plusses, but I wanted a 6 anyway. The gold plus demo did look way better than I expected, tho...