Updated:They sold my RESERVED iPhone!!!

[Mr_Indigo]

Made a scene? What are you, five years old? It's a goddamn phone for crying out loud.

It's not a phone... it's a reservation. It's not just any reservation, it's an iPhone 6s Plus 128GB R E S' E R' V A' T I O N but he don't got HIS iPhone 6s Plus 128GB and by all the Gods of Appledom it is NOT just a phone it was a reserved iPhone 6s Plus 128GB and if he wants to go 5 year old on their asses by the god iPhoneus he has the right to... Why? because 789 greens give him the right to.

Obviously please convert to US Dollars if need be. Thank you for listening

 

[penajmz]

OMFG

It happens. A busy, busy, busy day.

They will take care of you.

Get over it.

Shame on you.

Time out.

Might be easy for you to say but I would feel the same way. I'm pretty sure the OP was pretty excited to get his hands on a RESERVED phone he was promised and they didn't deliver. I would be LIVID!

 

[McDaddio]

Are you serious?

Nobody could possibly be serious that it is appropriate to raise this to the CEO of one of the largest companies in the US.
Nobody.

 

[MH01]

You are mistaken.

This is not about the phone. A five year old would be upset about the phone. But the complaint in this thread is not about the phone. It's about a promise that was not kept.

I think he should get the phone for free. People say it was a "mistake" However, maybe it is, maybe it wasn't. It doesn't matter. The value of the lesson learned is far greater than the value of a phone.

1. Keep your stock room organized
2. Keep your promises
3. Don't sell someone else's stuff

See here? You have to do several things. Raise the levity of the situation and let others around you know, that this does happen. It's rude and unfair.

There is simply no excuse for this to happen. If you don't raise the cost for the mistakes, they will continue to happen.

Read the terms and conditions of the reservation system.

If you are so upset about apple keeping thier promises, and want $700 , feel free to shop elsewhere. You are in for a huge reality check.

Yet again, I point you to the T&Cs....

 

[Mr_Indigo]

Free Applecare?
Free accessories?
Free iTunes credit?

Yes having a reservation go missing sucks, but these things happen. it could just as easily have been DOA or whatever. A free phone is way over the top though.

So if offered you wouldn't accept a free phone as a gesture of goodwill and you'd say to apple that's ok i'll pay for it?

 

[MH01]

I find it ironic the pope is travelling in the US, and some on here are putting such a huge importance on getting thier device on a given day, maybe appreciate the fact you can afford a $700 device. Some serious self-centred and entitled people here.

I'm sorry but that is disgusting. These threads always pop up and individuals always demand apologies and COMPENSATION.

 

[ZipZap]

Definitely a screw up. But the screw up could easily have been somewhere in the shipment phase, and the store didn't end up with all the phones that were reserved. There's no certainty that your reserved phone was sold to a walk-in.

If you got an email that your reserved phone is ready then unless they did not receive a shipment, it was sold to someone else.

 

[danilko1]

Read the terms and conditions of the reservation system.

If you are so upset about apple keeping thier promises, and want $700 , feel free to shop elsewhere. You are in for a huge reality check.

Yet again, I point you to the T&Cs....

I didn't, have not, and don't foresee a point in time when I would use the reservation system. I am not aware of the TOS.

Granted, I agree the TOS is important. I am coming from the standpoint that a reservation is a reservation. It means a phone has been set aside for the reserver. Apple has agreed they would hold the phone until the customer can come in and pay for it. Why else have a reservation system? It's to eliminate the long tiresome lines. The customer has made plans to come in and complete the transaction. These plans can be as much as traveling 100 or more miles, for 6 or more hours, depending on where you live. The plans could be as much as taking time off from work. The plans could be any number of things. Time out of my life, so I don't have to stand in line, which is even more time.

How do you put into perspective a broken promise? How do you hold accountability? The condition of the promise depends on the relationship, as well. If you sign a contract with AT&T for 2 years service, but you decide to switch and go to Verizon, that is a broken promise that has monetary consequences.

I suggested that Apple offer the phone for free. I would not ask them to do this.

This would be a grand gesture, would it not?

Technically, you can't ask them for anything but a reservation. It's not about entitlement. Let's get away from that aspect. It's about broken promises and grand gestures to make the situation an amazing experience.

Imagine this, OP posts, I reserved a phone with Apple, and when I got there, they didn't have it. The manager came out and said, OP we are very sorry this happened to you. I am willing to do this. The phone is on us, but it has to be 16GB you can get the phone you want, but you would have to pay the difference. Change the offer as you see fit. Can you possibly imagine the response on both sides?

OP: OMG Apple made a mistake and gave me a free phone. I am telling all my friends about this. What a great company.

Apple: How many free phones did we give away today? 2 per location? We have to do something about this. It's a nightmare.

Two things happen in this hypothetical scenario, Apple get's great PR. The cost, $100,000 for the PR, but it's worth millions of dollars, in return. Apple, not one to say it's simply okay to forget about $100K in lost product, will invariably do something about fixing the problem.

So no, a free phone is not unreasonable consideration. There are other problems you do see them replacing phones for - a lot of other reasons, broken/defective, customer's fault etc. This is just one more thing though. Repairing a broken promise. Not as an entitlement, but as a good gesture and good PR.

 

[ZipZap]

Mistakes happen .

You want someone to loose a job over a reservation? Or their bonus etc...

What if the issue was he online system? OP assumes their phone was sold, what if it never arrived to the store?

This is about being compensated for inconvenience. Call Apple direct and complain. Email Tim. Ask for something specific in compensation.

 

[Tsuchiya]

I don't think it's unreasonable for OP to expect a case or something for the screw up. For a simple mistake though, I highly doubt anyone will lose their job or anything.

 

[jeproks]

And in your situation, the Apple Store manager told you that Apple did not send the store enough of that size/color, correct?

Yes.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Geez, are all the people posting here telling the OP to grow up, not to complain, that it's just a phone, etc., bitter iPhone 6/6+ purchasers wishing they held out for the 6s/6s+?

OP, you should definitely escalate. I'm sorry you weren't offered anything in compensation. I'd be frustrated as well. It may "just be a phone", but many of us do depend on our phones for our everyday tasks.

Sheesh. Grow some empathy, people.

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

No one should ever lose a job over a reservation of an iPhone.

I said if an employee sold it to a friend, they should lose their job. I would fire any of my employees that did something like that. If I didn't, crap like that would be happening all the time, as I would be sending the message that it's okay to do that, there won't be any consequences.

The apple fan entitlement attitude can be disgusting at times. It's just a device, mistakes can happen.

Deliberately sneaking a reserved phone out to sell to a friend is not a "mistake."

You do not even know what happened and are already suggesting someone's job can go.... Seriously?

No, I don't. I expect that whatever happens would be in line with why it happened. If someone snuck that phone out and sold it to a friend, they get fired. If a manager set things up poorly and ran a chaotic launch, then that should reflect on them. If it was the first time, education and training in how to run things properly may be in order, if this is several times they've done a bad job, then they need to be relieved of the manager's job (perhaps they can go back to being a Genius or floor sales, if that's where they came from). I'm sure Apple has worked this out. If there weren't enough because they didn't hold back supply due to phones being DOA, or some other defect, then they need to make sure enough phones are held back to cover that. If the store had severely bad luck with a much greater than expected number of phones being bad, then they need to go back up the supply chain and find out why. Apple surely has policies and expectations for when things like this happen. The thing is, that if it is due to a bad job in the store, they almost always have ways to hide that from upper management. Mark the phone "no show" on the customer's part, for example. This is merely making sure that doesn't happen, and that upper management finds out about this bad experience.

 

[KiwiAdventure]

The iPhone should be delivered to you at a time you advise Apple for not having your iPhone which was confirmed by he store was ready to collect.

 

[nordique]

Terrible of your store to do, OP

They messed up.

You should call higher up in Apple or talk to another manager or something, and seriously do something about it.

 

[lordofthereef]

I find it ironic the pope is travelling in the US, and some on here are putting such a huge importance on getting thier device on a given day, maybe appreciate the fact you can afford a $700 device. Some serious self-centred and entitled people here.

I'm sorry but that is disgusting. These threads always pop up and individuals always demand apologies and COMPENSATION.

I fail to see how the pope has anything to do with this. Regardless, I feel like readers of theatres date blowing this way outbid proportion.

The OP stated what happened and asked forms possible tememdy. People just went with it. The reality is, he spent time reserving the phone, he spent time going to pick the phone up, nothing was mentioned at any point in time except when the phone wasn't there.

Things happen. Sure. But all you get is "sorry come back tomorrow" when the phone might not be in stock for days or weeks? That's just an "I don't care about your problems" response.

I had a bunch of issues with my T-Mobile order but they took care of me without even asking. Among other things they knocked $10 off my monthly bill for as long as I have this device. That's a $120 "we're sorry we f'd up". I'm not saying a monetary payout is necessary here, but they didn't even promise to follow up and try and find him the phone that was reserved. At the very least, that could have and should have been done.

I have found that Apple's customer service is great, except for device launches. During that time they care about moving the most product in the least amount of time. I stood in line in Nashus NH last year and it was pandemonium. Long story short, they started the line with a random person in the crowd and I didn't get my phone. Nobody cared, and I certainly learned my lesson.

 

[I7guy]

I'm serious about taking stuff like this to Tim Cook. This seriously hurts Apple's reputation and erodes customer confidence. I have no doubt that store managers have a way to hide stuff like this from ending up in their reports, so the only way for upper management to hold stores to account is for customers to go right to the top.

Have you contacted mr. Cook yet? What was his response?

 

[I7guy]

I fail to see how the pope has anything to do with this. Regardless, I feel like readers of theatres date blowing this way outbid proportion.

The OP stated what happened and asked forms possible tememdy. People just went with it. The reality is, he spent time reserving the phone, he spent time going to pick the phone up, nothing was mentioned at any point in time except when the phone wasn't there.

Things happen. Sure. But all you get is "sorry come back tomorrow" when the phone might not be in stock for days or weeks? That's just an "I don't care about your problems" response.

I had a bunch of issues with my T-Mobile order but they took care of me without even asking. Among other things they knocked $10 off my monthly bill for as long as I have this device. That's a $120 "we're sorry we f'd up". I'm not saying a monetary payout is necessary here, but they didn't even promise to follow up and try and find him the phone that was reserved. At the very least, that could have and should have been done.

I have found that Apple's customer service is great, except for device launches. During that time they care about moving the most product in the least amount of time. I stood in line in Nashus NH last year and it was pandemonium. Long story short, they started the line with a random person in the crowd and I didn't get my phone. Nobody cared, and I certainly learned my lesson.

What type of remedy should op get? A free phone? Apple is pushing millions and millions of devices out and there are bound to be some unanticipated glitches in the system. The only remedy for op should be first in line for any new phones. While I can understand the frustration/disappointment saying I'm going to call Tim Cook and my confidence in Apple is eroded, while that may be the way he feels imo is kind of silly.

 

[Hutch1]

Sounds like someone sold a reserved phone to a friend.

Or another one was damaged or the store order was shorted, or when they went to activate one earlier it was a dud and they used another one. Theres lots of reasons, I know none are going to be acceptable to the person that feels short changed.

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

Have you contacted mr. Cook yet? What was his response?

Why would I contact Mr. Cook? I'm not the OP, and at best I'd be able to pass along third hand information. It wouldn't be appropriate.

BTW, I sure hope people are not under the impression that Mr. Cook personally reads all of his email. He has a team of executive assistants (just like Steve Jobs) that follow his direction as to what to do with the email. All executives do. The difference is that at some places, it would just get trashed (which is why I would never bother to email up the chain at a place like, oh, say, Best Buy), whereas at Apple, Mr. Cook really does want this stuff, because Apple has much higher standards for acceptable customer experience.

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

Or another one was damaged or the store order was shorted, or when they went to activate one earlier it was a dud and they used another one. Theres lots of reasons, I know none are going to be acceptable to the person that feels short changed.

If the store order was shorted, they shouldn't have confirmed his reservation that morning. And they should have held back a certain percentage of phones to cover problems like bad phones. The best companies don't just shrug their shoulders and say, "Nuthin' we can do about it." They figure out what caused the problem and how they can keep it from happening in the future. A lot of us pay Apple a premium for their products because they care about stuff like this.

 

[I7guy]

Why would I contact Mr. Cook? I'm not the OP, and at best I'd be able to pass along third hand information. It wouldn't be appropriate.

BTW, I sure hope people are not under the impression that Mr. Cook personally reads all of his email. He has a team of executive assistants (just like Steve Jobs) that follow his direction as to what to do with the email. All executives do. The difference is that at some places, it would just get trashed (which is why I would never bother to email up the chain at a place like, oh, say, Best Buy), whereas at Apple, Mr. Cook really does want this stuff, because Apple has much higher standards for acceptable customer experience.

True about acceptable customer experience, but no company has 100% satisfaction especially when your user base is 500 million, try as hard as they may.

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

True about acceptable customer experience, but no company has 100% satisfaction especially when your user base is 500 million, try as hard as they may.

Of course, there are always nutballs who will be dissatisfied unless you pick their nose and wipe their ass for them. But you can set a standard for customer experience like, "No customer who has reserved a phone and had it confirmed should arrive at the store to find there is no phone for them." If that standard isn't met, you figure out why it isn't met, and fix whatever the problem is. If you meet that standard, pat yourself on the back. If it isn't enough for the "pick my nose and wipe my ass" crowd, **** 'em.

 

[lordofthereef]

Or another one was damaged or the store order was shorted, or when they went to activate one earlier it was a dud and they used another one. Theres lots of reasons, I know none are going to be acceptable to the person that feels short changed.

I can't speak for the OP, or anyone but me, for that matter, but I certainly feel better when a reason is given more than "try back tomorrow but we don't know if that will matter".

The problem, for me, with this situation is that the OP's efforts weren't even acknowledged. What good is a reservation if they can say "oops, we goofed! Get in line until you get one"? It's not about the mess up. It's about there seemingly being no desire to fix the problem on yen part of the manager.

 

[lordofthereef]

Of course, there are always nutballs who will be dissatisfied unless you pick their nose and wipe their ass for them. But you can set a standard for customer experience like, "No customer who has reserved a phone and had it confirmed should arrive at the store to find there is no phone for them." If that standard isn't met, you figure out why it isn't met, and fix whatever the problem is. If you meet that standard, pat yourself on the back. If it isn't enough for the "pick my nose and wipe my ass" crowd, **** 'em.

My wife works as manager of Best Buy. I don't want to go onto a tangent but someone's
Preorder arrived damaged and they notified her it was ready for pickup in error (not paying attention that the item was damaged). I don't remember what the item was (but it was something under $100). The customer decided that fair compensation would be a free dyson vacuum cleaner. Not only was the item in question not at all related to what she originally bought, she wanted something, for free, worth many times more than what she originally paid.

So, yeah. Some people make crazy unreasonable demands. What I don't understand is why such a large segment of people responding here thinks expecting Apple to make an effort to get this guy his phone is such an unreasonable thing. Afaik he isn't asking for anything other than what he thought he was getting; a reserved phone that he can pay for and use.