Ordered at 6am this morning for a 8am pickup from the Apple Store Belfast Northern Ireland. First there (7.30am!) and first out with an iPhone 14 pro in Space Black. Lovely phone.
I had an easy time with it and no issues. Security guard outside and the young Apple rep outside super helpful and friendly. No problems at all. BUT..the amount of people turning up looking a walk in purchase and being turned away caused a lot of disappointment for many and it clearly hadn’t been signposted (to a significant extent) that no walk ins would be allowed this Friday/weekend. And some people had travelled a long way.
No available “slots” for these people until Saturday and I understand that. But inside the store there were easily 8-10 Apple reps who were frankly looking less than busy (I’ll be honest , they were just standing around doing nothing ) and I can’t believe a little bit of common sense would have allowed a few easy sales. Yes, there was stock (I asked ) and yes there was certainly the time at 8am to deal with a few eager customers.
Rules are rules I guess but many people looked most displeased and it just didn’t sit right. As I say I had a seamless positive experience and perhaps Apple would far prefer people to order online/ get it via courier, etc. But a disappointed customer is one too many in my book and this morning (by 8.05am) there were many disappointed customers !
www.johnlewis.com
