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15 minutes later after standing in walk-in prison cell: apple store "ohhh, so u wanna buy the new apple watch 5 too? u have to create a separate APPT for that and comeback hours later today even though we have it in stock and ur paying close to $1000 for ur phone. let me see if we will let you buy the watch 5 to you after phone transaction."
 
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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?

I store a lot of random pics from the internet and also keep a crap ton of my movies and shows on it. Just made sense to me so I don’t have to worry about shuffling things around too often
 
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For those who have done an in store trade in, what is the experience like? I'm assuming you don't have to rest your phone back to original settings until after the review is complete?

I'm planning on doing an in store trade in (most likely first part of November after the hype / pushing reservations slow down), but just wanted to see what the process is like for those who've traded in store.
 
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Lines, lines...
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Apple is trying to limit in store trade ins. They want you to use the mail in option. They are just being Apple. :apple:
On this note, if you attempt to trade-in a Pixel phone of any kind in an Apple store, they won't accept it. You can only do the trade-in online. I attempted to trade in a Pixel 3XL and a Pixel 3a, and in both cases it is some sort of Apple blocking the trade-in because of Assurian? That is what the Apple rep told me. Seems weird. Both phones were paid off and unlocked.
 
For those who have done an in store trade in, what is the experience like? I'm assuming you don't have to rest your phone back to original settings until after the review is complete?

I'm planning on doing an in store trade in (most likely first part of November after the hype / pushing reservations slow down), but just wanted to see what the process is like for those who've traded in store.

I traded in 2 old phones in February and had a good experience. The employee will quickly assess the device condition, look up the IMEI, and you can reset after. Pretty easy overall and I had my phone in about ten minutes.

In general I don’t like the Apple store. It’s just a painful experience to get anything done. Changing a 6s battery was a chore even with an appointment. I don’t like that you’re herded into areas like cattle and there is no sense of when anything will get done. Surely there must be a better way!
 
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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?

I didn’t realize Apple had stores in the Midwest? ;)
(S)
 
Even if they have the phone you want doesn’t mean there is an Apple employee available to help you. They help the people with appointments first and they may not have time to squeeze in walk-ins. Now if the store is having normal traffic and employees are standing around that’s a different story.
 
very strange. I was at the Grand Central store in NY on opening day and they had two lines. One for those that reserved and another for those that didn't. Both lines were being serviced then and there. Not sure what having someone wait in line only to be told to come back in a couple hours and get the phone does if the phone is in stock. Just seems like a bad experience.
 
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I saw this in Cardiff on Saturday. I line set up outside to create some form of exclusivity it felt like. What’s wrong with sales assistants just serving you efficiently so you can get out of there ASAP. This is why I buy online. The least amount of time I can hang around in a shop the better! lol
Just an additional reason to take your business to a company that treats you like a valued customer (ie. NOT Apple).
 
If you are using the store for repairs or troubleshooting then sure. If you need config help then sure.

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.
Simply stated and the truth. If a company chooses to operate retail outlets open to the general public and if they display products which they want the public to purchase, then if a member of the public makes the effort to visit the store and walks out without the desired in-stock item in his/her hand, the company has FAILED.
 
When I worked for Apple they didn't have this process and I *hated* selling iPhones.

You never knew how long the transaction would take. Some customers had all of their information in order and it was pretty quick to sell them an iPhone, but it was pretty common to run into a customer who had some problem with their wireless account that turned the process into a 45+ minute ordeal.

So instead of tying up an employee for 45 minutes because someone has a past-due amount on their account, or wants to upgrade when their carrier says they're not eligible, or wants to upgrade but doesn't know the SSN of the primary line (or put extra security on their account and doesn't remember the code), or thinks they can do an upgrade swap with another line on their account but doesn't really understand how that works ... let the customer spend their time figuring that mess out while placing an order on a computer in the store without having to tie up an employee?!

Hats off to the folks in this thread who have everything in order to do a quick "I want to walk-in off the street and buy an iPhone" transaction. Unfortunately not everyone walking in off the street is as organized as ya'll and it used to result in tying up employees for a long time.
I deal with this at Best Buy everyday.

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

yes. People need ro have some sympathy towards employees. We can’t fix EVERYTHING.
 
I saw this in Cardiff on Saturday. I line set up outside to create some form of exclusivity it felt like. What’s wrong with sales assistants just serving you efficiently so you can get out of there ASAP. This is why I buy online. The least amount of time I can hang around in a shop the better! lol
Same at the Sheffield store. When I went to pickup my iUp upgrade, I had to queue outside of the store in the main shopping mall, despite there only being four people waiting. Apple might think it looks good and creates hype but I actually find it cringey and embarrassing. Given the size of the store, there’s no reason they couldn’t have made space for people to wait inside.
 
Simply stated and the truth. If a company chooses to operate retail outlets open to the general public and if they display products which they want the public to purchase, then if a member of the public makes the effort to visit the store and walks out without the desired in-stock item in his/her hand, the company has FAILED.
This, 100%. Especially so in the UK where all iPhones purchased in the Apple Store are SIM-free. Most people I know are on SIM-only plans using three year old phones. Some of them have an idea they should get a new phone but don’t necessarily plan it advance. It’s the sort of thing they’ll do when the opportunity presents. If Apple Store can’t provide the basic service of people being able to walk in, play with the device and then say “I’d like to buy this please” before walking out five minutes later - something isn’t right.

I personally don’t have any major complaints with Apple Stores but it’s struck me for a very long time that they aren’t customer centric at all.
 
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Simply stated and the truth. If a company chooses to operate retail outlets open to the general public and if they display products which they want the public to purchase, then if a member of the public makes the effort to visit the store and walks out without the desired in-stock item in his/her hand, the company has FAILED.
That is not the way it works, especially at car dealers. They must have failures galore by the above.
 
Something to add. When reserving an iPhone for certain pick-up time, ensure you show up close (5-10 minutes) to your window pickup time. Coming early does not make you to be able to pick-up your phone earlier than your pick-up time because you have to wait until your pick-up time arrives. That is my story when I picked up my phone on the launch day. Just be prepared.

Not necessarily. I had a launch day pickup time of 17:00 - 17:30 and I was permitted to pick up my 11 Pro in the morning. Luckily managed to get the day off work, which meant I was able to get to the store sooner. I think it depends on the store and how busy it is (I live in Bristol, England).
 
This should probably be a new topic but don’t know how to do that. I need to exchange my 11 Pro Max for Pro. How can I reserve one on line so I can put on IUP when I get to store? Is there a way to do that? I don’t find any option for exchange. I know they want everything done or at least started on line now.
 
It's crazy, but my experience at the Amsterdam Apple Store was quite different. I walked in to decide between the Pro and Pro Max and between Silver, Gold and Green. Then someone came up to me and asked if they could help me, I said I wanted the Pro in Silver. I had to go wait in line. 5 minutes in the line and I got someone appointed to me and 10 minutes after that I walked out the store with a new iPhone.
 
Not necessarily. I had a launch day pickup time of 17:00 - 17:30 and I was permitted to pick up my 11 Pro in the morning. Luckily managed to get the day off work, which meant I was able to get to the store sooner. I think it depends on the store and how busy it is (I live in Bristol, England).
You are the lucky one. You might be right. The store where I picked up my phone was super crowded, long lines.
 
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Mine actually had a line for the line the Sunday after the launch. You had to wait in line to check in for either your appointment or go in the standby line. The check in line was about a 20 minute wait so I was nearly late for my appointment. The people in the standby line said they were there for 4 hours already and not a single person got to make a purchase yet. The standby people ONLY get to make a purchase if the appointment line is gone before the next 30 minute window for appointments arrives (which rarely happens anywhere near launch).
 
very strange. I was at the Grand Central store in NY on opening day and they had two lines. One for those that reserved and another for those that didn't. Both lines were being serviced then and there. Not sure what having someone wait in line only to be told to come back in a couple hours and get the phone does if the phone is in stock. Just seems like a bad experience.
That's how it was done at the Apple Store near me as well. They had 2 lines. 1 for the walk in and the other one for those who did the online store pick up. For those walk in reservation who opted to choose to pick up later time, they were also on that reservation line along with the online order in store pick ups.

What they did was, inside the store near the back were stools and where were 12 total. They only let in 6 from the reservation lines and 6 from the Walk in lines.
 
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