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iPhone 11 Today I tried to buy an iPhone 11 at the Apple Store...

brentsg said:
They MUST dedicate people to sales. None of this makes any sense no matter how much people try to defend it. If you can’t walk into the store and walk out with a new product they have in stock they have failed.
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Who is defending what? Apple Stores do dedicate people for sales. Sales people can only sell... it's not like they have sales people working behind the Genius Bar repairing stuff.

And for iPhones, they've gone the extra step of dedicating a subset of the sales people to handle all of the iPhones sales so that there are other sales people available for the customers that walk in and want to buy something other than an iPhone.

Is your point that they should have enough folks dedicated to iPhones sales so that there should never be a line? An iPhone sales transaction can easily take 10-15 minutes to complete so that could require a fair amount of sales people to be available which I think goes back to them really pushing for folks to make reservations.

Side note, if they'd just add the damn cash register back to the stores, I think that'd reduce a significant amount of complaints from folks looking to pay for an accessory they picked up from the shelves/walls but couldn't find an available sales person to ring them up.
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
This is why I don’t buy phones directly from Apple. If something breaks I expect it to be resolved starting at the point I first report it, not have to book a Genius appointment that I can’t get for a week. At least with a carrier it can be reported and the pressure can be put on them to resolve it immediately.
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Who is your carrier? I got an iPhone 8 shipped to me on launch day from my carrier (AT&T) and it was DOA. Their official stance was that unless I wanted to do a "return" to them and buy another new one (which wasn't possible on launch day because they were out of stock), I'd have to go to the Apple Store and have the Genius Bar look at it.
 
ordered phone around 12:00pm and scheduled a pickup time for 6:30-7pm. Was at the store at 6:15pm. Stood line for like 10 mins. Went in at 6:30 and out at 6:35 with the phone!
 
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aristobrat said:
Who is your carrier? I got an iPhone 8 shipped to me on launch day from my carrier (AT&T) and it was DOA. Their official stance was that unless I wanted to do a "return" to them and buy another new one (which wasn't possible on launch day because they were out of stock), I'd have to go to the Apple Store and have the Genius Bar look at it.
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Mine is O2 but I’m in Europe where we have totally different retail laws etc. We get 2 year warranties on iPhones, AW’s etc here which Apple didn’t want to honour until they were forced to a few years back. It’s the retailer or vendor that sells you the product here who is obligated to sort out issues, although I have also gone straight to Apple in the past and not had too many problems.
 
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I am exchanging my 11P for an 11PM today. I didn’t want to deal with the need-appointment thing so I just bought a sim-free version online to ‘hold’ it. If they can’t figure out how to use that as my exchange (pretty sure they can) then I will be irked. As a side, I will have a SIM-free as my AUP phone (yes, it can be done).
 
PBz said:
I am exchanging my 11P for an 11PM today. I didn’t want to deal with the need-appointment thing so I just bought a sim-free version online to ‘hold’ it. If they can’t figure out how to use that as my exchange (pretty sure they can) then I will be irked. As a side, I will have a SIM-free as my AUP phone (yes, it can be done).
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i was told that they cant change simfree for iUP.
 
MuGeN PoWeR said:
i was told that they cant change simfree for iUP.
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The AUP phone I have now is sim-free. It helps when there is not carrier stock and they want to sell you a phone. Also, my carrier, TMO, does not put a 60 day lock on the phone like some other carriers. When you ask nicely managers can, and often will, do many things to make the customer happy.
 
aristobrat said:
Who is defending what? Apple Stores do dedicate people for sales. Sales people can only sell... it's not like they have sales people working behind the Genius Bar repairing stuff.

And for iPhones, they've gone the extra step of dedicating a subset of the sales people to handle all of the iPhones sales so that there are other sales people available for the customers that walk in and want to buy something other than an iPhone.

Is your point that they should have enough folks dedicated to iPhones sales so that there should never be a line? An iPhone sales transaction can easily take 10-15 minutes to complete so that could require a fair amount of sales people to be available which I think goes back to them really pushing for folks to make reservations.

Side note, if they'd just add the damn cash register back to the stores, I think that'd reduce a significant amount of complaints from folks looking to pay for an accessory they picked up from the shelves/walls but couldn't find an available sales person to ring them up.
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Not pointing out anyone in particular but there has been a lot of the "oh you can't expect to buy the phones early on like this in store" or other defensive posts that justify this. It's nonsense. This wasn't a massive release like many are. Stores aren't swamped with people.

And no there's nothing wrong with a 4-5 person line or even a bit more. But come back in 4 hours? That's garbage.

EVERY time I go in there it's a mess, and there are plenty of employees seemingly standing around doing nothing. But no, you have to check in with someone up front and then wait for reasons. I hate going there now. It can be 3PM on a random Thursday with no product launch in sight and it's still like this.
 
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PBz said:
The AUP phone I have now is sim-free. It helps when there is not carrier stock and they want to sell you a phone. Also, my carrier, TMO, does not put a 60 day lock on the phone like some other carriers. When you ask nicely managers can, and often will, do many things to make the customer happy.
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well i was specifically told by the manager that sim-free doesnt come with a sim thats why they cant sell the Sim-free as iUP. i have to have the Carrier specific phone with the sim in it. Also that 60 day lock has nothing to do when you are buying a phone on iUP regardless of the carrier.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
Customer service at an Apple Store definitely is not what it used to be. I have come across "geniuses" with attitudes that they would never have or show in the past. I have also noticed a sharp decrease in product knowledge. I know more than them 90% of the time. The whole experience is different than a few years ago. Either Apple isn't paying and lowering their hiring standards or it's just a result of a great economy. More jobs (supply) than good people (demand). I tend to think the latter. Even Amazon's gold standard customer service absolutely blows these days.
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probably cause they deal with customers who can't remember their passwords or anything else about their device and expect them to magically make everything work
 
Schaufelmann said:
The store looked like always, it wasn't particularly crowded. I asked a sales guy for an iPhone 11. He told me that I need to wait in line, and that it could take some time. They have set up a belt barrier that could easily accomodate like 100 people but there were only 4 people waiting. Still, it was supposed to take 15 minutes. He told me that once it's my turn I can tell them which model I want to have and then, we would make an appointment for about 4 hours later where I can come again and pick up my phone. I asked him if that was supposed to be a joke, but he was serious.

What is going on? It should take like 2 minutes to go to the back and get the phone, and another minute for me to pay with my credit card. Can't they just hand their phones over the counter like they do with all the cases and headphones lying around?

Is this a "designed Apple experience" that is supposed to make me feel special to buy an iPhone? It's not like I'm buying a car, it's a phone. Wow, I remember when I actually enjoyed going to an Apple Store. Meh. Must have been decades ago.
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Yep, exact same experience I had when I went to get my iPhone 11 Pro Max on Monday. Around 5 people in line, store wasn't packed and they had plenty of the 256GB models of the Pro Max in stock. I had to make an appointment for 4 hours later. It's a 45 minute drive to get to my nearest Apple store, so it was a bit of a PIA.
I didn't pre-order because I was looking and waiting to see the 'real world review' differences between the Pixel 4 photo's/video's and the iPhone 11.
I think it is ridiculous how this is set up now to buy iPhone's these days.
 
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Glideslope said:
Apple is trying to limit in store trade ins. They want you to use the mail in option. They are just being Apple. :apple:
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Geez, I went to my local Apple Store Tuesday and the greeting person asked me what I wanted. I told her a green iPhone 11 Pro and that I had a trade. She check for stock on her device, and we stepped over to a table. Maybe mid-west USA stores just don’t have the demand?
 
mgmusicman94 said:
Sounds like it’s an effort to prevent lines around the store and unruly line sitters. There have been horror stories from previous launch lines with cutting, assault, etc.

By making walk ins inconvenient, you level the playing field for online reservations.
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This may well be. But I remember a time when standing in long lines waiting with other Apple fans was kind of fun. I know those days are over.

But this come back later is sort of like, “Yes, we have no bananas“. I suppose the online reservation thing manages staffing, and customers better. Is this “just in time stock” management?
 
Cancelled my Verizon online order, walked into apple store at 4pm today and got a 512 SG Pro Max in 20 minutes. Happiness 😋
 
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jazz1 said:
simply congratulating the choice.
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Ooooh! 😋 Sorry for being dense. But thank you! Was so worried that my order might ship while I was out of town next week, so took a chance and raced to the store this afternoon after the long ass backup process
 
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Had horrible experience trying to buy an iphone 11 at Reston VA apple store. Zero crowd, weekday lunch time, some people standing outside of the store in the artificial line. 'ok so u want iphone? go outside in the sun and stand in the walk-in prison and wait 15 minutes for no reason". every employees including managers were as$holes.
 
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KawaiiKitsune13 said:
Ooooh! 😋 Sorry for being dense. But thank you! Was so worried that my order might ship while I was out of town next week, so took a chance and raced to the store this afternoon after the long ass backup process
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KawaiiKitsune13 said:
Ooooh! 😋 Sorry for being dense. But thank you! Was so worried that my order might ship while I was out of town next week, so took a chance and raced to the store this afternoon after the long ass backup process
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No problem. I should of checked out the Max when I got the 11 Pro. I’m curious. Why the storage size? Video work?
 
You can't just walk in to an Apple store, demand to buy a new iPhone that was just released 6 days ago, and expect to be served immediately.

That has never been possible in 12 years of iPhone.

You were told to go stand in line because there are smarter people who have purchased online and reserved for in-store pickup that have to be served first.
 
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