Updated:They sold my RESERVED iPhone!!!

[JOSEPH99]

I would take that right upstairs to the man, Mr. Cook himself. Make sure that store comes to his attention.

Lol! I'm sure he will get right on it. Relax they get phones everyday and a few times a day. You'll get it in a day or so.

 

[lordofthereef]

Lol! I'm sure he will get right on it. Relax they get phones everyday and a few times a day. You'll get it in a day or so.

I've heard of people emailing the ceo with grievances and their problems were fixed. All too often we just assume a large company doesn't give a **** and we should just get over it. Making the higher ups aware of an issue is never a bad thing. At worst you've wasted a few more minutes writing an email. Seems to me a lot more time and effort was wasted trying to pick up a phone that wasn't there, no?

 

[bronzi]

I've heard of people emailing the ceo with grievances and their problems were fixed. All too often we just assume a large company doesn't give a **** and we should just get over it. Making the higher ups aware of an issue is never a bad thing. At worst you've wasted a few more minutes writing an email. Seems to me a lot more time and effort was wasted trying to pick up a phone that wasn't there, no?

Yes, the higher ups have a group of people that are told to handle the issues and ensure people are satisfied. I used to manage an executive complaint group. We were told to fix the issue, and make them go away with folks being made happy. I have used that a few times personally and with being polite and using the right buzz words, and these days using social media, stuff gets handled

 

[lordofthereef]

Tim Cook will have less stressed employees defaulting to mediocrity. woo hoo 🙄

I think there is a balance. I'm not even sure where this incoming from. I'm sure you're not implying mistakes weren't made at a retail level when Steve was at the helm. We have no idea what is being done, if anything, to remedy this (unless I missed the OP chiming back in, the thread kind of took off to ridiculous proportions by people either slamming or defending Apple lol)

 

[bronzi]

They didn't do that. They just put you on line. They didn't check you on until it was your turn.

My store checked folks in the reservation line before Apple Genius folks were available, so that as one freed up, they were able to partner you up quickly. Worked pretty well while I was there. I had 9-9:30am appt and was there at 8:25ish. I got called in about 8:40ish.

 

[bruinsrme]

If you can't

Have you even worked in customer service? Ive had my fair share with Apple employees being rude and wanting to go home instead of helping. They shouldn't be in retail if they do that, period.

Yes I have.

So we are to beleive that there was only 1 manager, no assistant managers whatsoever there in the store on an iphone launch day.

Sometimes the human comes out of not only the customer but the retail person.

 

[bruinsrme]

You mean doing his job?

FWIW, he did his job very poorly and his boss should know about it.

A reservation is a guarantee to the customer. As a business owner myself I don't take it lightly when one of my employees makes the company look bad. And having a rough day is no excuse.


The manager did not offer to make it right. The manager offered to give him his promised iPhone in the future, not even giving him a date. Making it "right" would involve some type of compensation for his lost time and broken reservation.

Fire him, just like everyone that has a bad day at work should be.
Because if you have a bad day you're probably in the wrong line of work.

 

[mdlooker]

Well this will help the store manager be more responsive to reservations for products in the store. What's to hard to see what is reserved and put those reserved phone LABELED in a separate area?

Some people have mgmt skills, some don't.

 

[Shazamadoo]

I wonder how much the comments would change from the people tellin the OP to chill out and wait, if their reserved iphone was sold to someone else and they had to wait..

U can talk the talk but can ya walk the walk? Anyone would be pissed if this happened regardless if it was an iPhone or another product/transaction anywhere in the world, 1st world or 3rd world..

 

[spinstorm]

It's okay if Apple decides to sell the device 15min after your time slot ended. BUT if they do that they have to insure that you get your device if you show up at the store in your time slot. Long lines aren't an excuse. Especially when you have one of the first time slots after store opening. My opinion on that.

WRONG! I queued up in my time slot outside Westfield White City in London and no one came and checked me in for 30 mins. I asked repeatedly if I needed to be checked in but they said there was a 3 hour grace period on reservations so it wasn't needed.

I got my phone no problem but by your standards I shouldn't have even though I was on time and waiting in my slot.

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

So are you saying that under Steve Jobs employees were unhappy? All the great products produced under Steve Jobs happened because the employees were unhappy? Is that what you're saying?

Are you saying that they weren't there because it was an exciting and challenging place to work? A workplace where they weren't driven to do their best?

Ah, romanticizing the memory of Steve. He routinely gave customers the middle finger. iPhone 4 poorly designed? Meh, you're holding it wrong. Still unhappy? Here is a crappy bumper you don't really want to use. Missing features, poor specs, not listening to customers' wants, etc. Great visionary, sure. Not that great for customers, at least not this one. It remains to be seen if Apple misses out on the next big thing under Tim's leadership but Apple otherwise seems to be giving customers what they want under Tim.

 

[KPOM]

So an update:
Got a call from the store manager. Was not sure how my phone disappeared. Would try to find out what happened. Totally was very nice and professional. Even offered me a free case of my choice when my phone arrives.

I didn't ask that with my reservation being 8-8:30 and because of a 30 min line it was 8:45ish before they even took my name from the line. Maybe this dropped my reservation but they still could pull it up.

Apple held all reservations for 24 hours. My sister had an 8:30 reservation, but wasn't able to pick it up until 3:30 on Friday. It was still there.

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

I'm amused that people think that "complain about customer experience" automatically means "employee gets fired" or that I would even advocate that. You fire an employee for gross misconduct (yes, I fired the guy who stole the computer he was supposed to be delivering) or when training to correct the problem doesn't stick and they've demonstrated they can't or won't do the job as required. And you don't have to be a hardass and create a lot of employee stress to get employees to do their job, and you don't have to be a stressed employee to do a good job (even a great job). It's actually bad for employee morale when the good employees actually do their job to expectations, and then someone is constantly allowed to skate by. It's downright toxic.

 

[McDaddio]

It wasn't am it was 8-8:30 PM at night. So you are saying I should have known it was a 1/2hr line and showed up at 7:45?

No. You should have known to check in when you got there. No different than a genius bar appointment or any other appointment system in the world.

Otherwise, how was Apple supposed to know that you were there when you were supposed to be? The iPsychic hasn't been invented yet (although rumors are that it is in beta testing)

 

[McDaddio]

In the OP's case, it was being treated poorly.

How was he treated badly?
As far as Apple knew, he was not there during his reservation slot. He didn't check in.

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

iPhone 4 poorly designed?

It wasn't poorly designed. I could get signal at my sister-in-law's house when nobody else could (the amusement of people having to walk out to the county road to make a phone call). I'll take that all day long even if it means having to be a little careful about holding it or using a case.

 

[McDaddio]

If I tell you that my men will be at your house to do electrical work on Friday at 11AM and you take off of work and sit around all day waiting, and we never show up, you bet your ass you will be mad.

Exactly!
But you got the example wrong. In this case, he told Apple he would be there between 8:00-8:30 and he wasn't. Apple wasn't mad, they just moved on like they said they would.

 

[DoofenshmirtzEI]

No. You should have known to check in when you got there. No different than a genius bar appointment or any other appointment system in the world.

Otherwise, how was Apple supposed to know that you were there when you were supposed to be? The iPsychic hasn't been invented yet (although rumors are that it is in beta testing)

At my local Apple store, they have someone near the door who intercepts people arriving to ask if they are there for an appointment. They don't just rely on "you should have known" to check in for a Genius appointment when so many people really don't know. Try to see it from the eyes of a newbie at an Apple store for the first time or someone who's never been to a launch. They should have had people making sure that people with appointments weren't ending up in the walk in line, and that people joining the appointments line were getting checked in. That's what the good managers did, don't excuse this poor management.

 

[dazzlingirl]

My appointment slot was between 5 - 5:30 pm and I arrived at 4:19 pm. I was the only person in the reservation line, checked in with the specialist and my phone was not available. How do you explain Apple possibly selling my phone to another customer when I was actually 45 minutes early for my appointment?

 

[Appl3FTW]

So I went to my local Apple Store tonight to pick up my reserved iPhone 6s Plus. After waiting in line I finally go in to get my phone. I give the guy my name he finds my reservation. He says I'll be right back. He leaves. 10 minutes later he arrives with no phone. They are sold out of my model. Actually all 6s plus was sold out. He goes talks to a manager. He then said all we can do is take your name and call when we get one. I said ok so tomorrow? He said we have no idea. The manager never came over and talked to me. I asked to talk to him. He basically said sorry we will call you when one gets in. My question is how can this happen?

I didn't even read the whole thing but what's up OP? Are you ok? You should complain and get a complimentary accessory or something.

 

[Appl3FTW]

At my local Apple store, they have someone near the door who intercepts people arriving to ask if they are there for an appointment. They don't just rely on "you should have known" to check in for a Genius appointment when so many people really don't know. Try to see it from the eyes of a newbie at an Apple store for the first time or someone who's never been to a launch. They should have had people making sure that people with appointments weren't ending up in the walk in line, and that people joining the appointments line were getting checked in. That's what the good managers did, don't excuse this poor management.

That is true. I went to the store to pick up my replacement and the guy at the door was grilling me if I have a reservation number and email confirmation. I had nothing but my name and verbal confirmation. He almost made me sweat when nothing was showing up in the system. But he was kind enough to work with me. I guess his job was to just weed out the walk ins without a reservation. I told him I know the guy who I talked to verbally on the phone and gave him his name. Luckily he paged the employee and sure enough he confirmed my pickup. If he didn't and if he was gone I would've been uber screwed. They are watching the inventory like a hawk. The guy even gave me the charger and power brick for me to keep. He said that was his good deed for the day. Haha

 

[MH01]

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.

lets say the pope could careless about the first world problem of not picking up a $700 reserved iPhone 😉 he is the least materialistic pope I have ever seen, his car is worth less than most people on here. If the reference is lost on you based on his speeches and what he stands for so be it. My bad for bringing politics/religion into it.

The manager telling the OP that they will call him as soon as they receive stock is not "I don't care about your problems"

Please read what the OP wrote. He was going to get a call so not to waste thier time coming in each day, a phone was going to be put aside for the, once stock arrived. Bad customer service?

 

[Appl3FTW]

My appointment slot was between 5 - 5:30 pm and I arrived at 4:19 pm. I was the only person in the reservation line, checked in with the specialist and my phone was not available. How do you explain Apple possibly selling my phone to another customer when I was actually 45 minutes early for my appointment?

I hope u raised hell.

 

[areyes163]

My appointment slot was between 5 - 5:30 pm and I arrived at 4:19 pm. I was the only person in the reservation line, checked in with the specialist and my phone was not available. How do you explain Apple possibly selling my phone to another customer when I was actually 45 minutes early for my appointment?

Key word was possibly. Maybe the didn't get enough stock in. Maybe they sold one prior and it was defective so they gave that customer a different one which was yours accidentally. It could be anything really.

And to the poster above. Why would you "raise hell". What good does that do. Are people really that ignorant that they feel the need to "raise hell" over a cell phone. I could see if there was a food shortage and you were promised food for your family but didn't get any. Then yes "raise hell" but for a cell phone. Common. Really. Grow up.

 

[MH01]

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.

This is from the first post on this thread.

"He goes talks to a manager. He then said all we can do is take your name and call when wegetone. I said ok so tomorrow? He said we have no idea. The manager nevercame over and talked to me. I asked to talk to him. He basically saidsorry we will call you when one gets in. My question is how can thishappen?"

It's was not a "try back tomorrow we do not care". It was we will call you as soon as stock arrives. I've bothered to read the thread, and the OP was called personally by the Manager and stated he was very porifessional , and offered a free case.

For a launch day chaos resolution, I believe this was handled well, and the OP was contacted by the manager themselves and given compensation.

Please stick to facts.