Vegas Was A #@*! Nightmare (iPad 2)

[iPadPublisher]

I don't normally rant about things, and have been one to sing Apple's praises as of late but after the experience yesterday, I gotta.

Wife stood in line at Best Buy (centennial) for just over two hours. She was 15th in line. They had said they would issue tickets at 4:30pm. Around 4:40pm they started making their way down the line asking people which unit they wanted. When the got to the 12th guy, they said they were OUT, and sent people away even before 5:00pm. They were enforcing a 1 per customer limit, so what happened? (more on that later)

We drove to a nearby AT&T store hoping to cop a 3G unit, only to be told they had NONE. They were taking "direct fulfillment" orders to be shipped later. I thought AT&T was on the launch-day list. There's a Target in the same shopping center, so we went there. "Sold out" already it was 5:06p. Not to be deterred, we called our nearest Sam's Club, "We never got any" so we called another "We dont carry iPads at this store," so we tried one more "Wont have it until next month." Okay, Sam's is out. Called a few Wal-Mart stores "sold out" and "we only got six of them, sorry."

Realizing our fate, we tried the biggest Best Buy in town "we gave out all our tickets, you can come wait here for an hour and see if some of them don't purchase." Swung by Apple Store at Town Square, gigantic line, with some people on Twitter saying they weren't sure if they were going to make it.

Yes, I realize I could have ordered online, and should have. I was awake at 12:48 when the MacRumors story posted that ordering was available online, and almost did order one of the three I wanted to get. I just never expected inventories to be SO thin. I think there was some truth to the rumor about Apple having some supply constraints, they just launched anyhow.

Back to the centennial Best Buy, though... a manager at the Summerlin store told us that centennial got 20 units. They sold 12 at the door. Everyone suspects employees pinched some off for themselves. I guess it happens, and perhaps I should have known. They acted shady all day. When we tried to call and ask questions, they were being weird. Not evasive or ignorant, as you might expect; they were being WEIRD.

Anyhow... this just seems like such a mess. I've read elsewhere that tons of people have had awesome BB experiences, so I suspect our case was somewhat limited. Total drag about the RewardZone points though, that would have been awesome, and was the only reason we wanted to buy there vs. Apple anyhow.

So I'm in line for an April 6th shipment. Sigh.

 

[aristobrat]

Wow, your BB only got 20 units?!

I was #40 in line at the BB closest to me, and I (and everyone in front of me) got their first choice. When the ticket-giver-dude was giving me my ticket, he looked to have at least 100 more tickets.

I worked p/t at Apple last year, and for the iPad launch, employees were not allowed to buy an iPad unless there were ones left when the store closed at night. Even then, you paid full price .. no employee discount.

 

[saving107]

I was #40 in line at the BB closest to me, and I (and everyone in front of me) got their first choice. When the ticket-giver-dude was giving me my ticket, he looked to have at least 100 more tickets.

Modesto, Ca

Same here. I was so far back in line at the Apple Store (estimate 400-500 people in line), and an employee came out and told people in the back that he couldn't guarantee that we would get one and that he (apple) didn't want to waste our time, this was 4:20pm, so I left and drove to my nearest Best Buy were I arrived 10 minutes later and was number 43 in line, by 5pm their were another 30-40 behind me (I recognized a lot of those people from the Apple Store line).

At 4:45 they handed out tickets, everyone in line (around 70-80) was able to get first choice on what they wanted, and at 5:30-5:45 when I was leaving people were still arriving and the lady still had plenty of tickets in here hand.

I have been to several of Apple's launch events none of those compared to the bad experience from this iPad 2 launch. Yes I did get the iPad I wanted, but this will make me think twice about ever wanting to go buy a product on launch day if they don't bring back Advanced Online orders or Reservations. It just seemed so unorganized and chaotic, and at least my Apple Store warned the people in the back, I hear stories that others didn't.

 

[bluemonkeyguy]

I was so mad when they ran out, too. So I was 30th in line of the 400+ and they gave me the ticket with the model(black 32gb no 3g) I wanted, OK. 5:00 o' clock comes around and I'm in the store with the my model in my hands, and the assistant asks if you are ready to purchase. I say not yet because my father with the credit card is on his way. So he then goes up to the manager(female), and she holds on to them and says in a bit**y voice, "You have 15mins before these go back to the stock because of our policy."

I'm like WTF!!!!!! I waited in the damn line for 3+ hours and she's giving me a ******ing time limit. I was even telling her that for sure my father and I will buy it. So low and behold my father comes 25mins later because of traffic, (OH yeah, real smart Apple for opening a product on the busiest time of the day of the week). And I go upfront and they don't even have anymore blacks (of all models and sizes). So basically someone behind me got the product I was supposed to get and now I have to wait for an unknown amount of days before I get one.

I'm not mad that I didn't get an iPad 2, it's the time I lost from waiting and the time that I will lose from going to the Apple Store again. Such an unorganized system, but they dont give a *******. Jobs is probably popping bottles of Cristal right about now.

 

[macmisty]

Best Buy Lied

I don't normally rant about things, and have been one to sing Apple's praises as of late but after the experience yesterday, I gotta.

Wife stood in line at Best Buy (centennial) for just over two hours. She was 15th in line. They had said they would issue tickets at 4:30pm. Around 4:40pm they started making their way down the line asking people which unit they wanted. When the got to the 12th guy, they said they were OUT, and sent people away even before 5:00pm. They were enforcing a 1 per customer limit, so what happened? (more on that later)

We drove to a nearby AT&T store hoping to cop a 3G unit, only to be told they had NONE. They were taking "direct fulfillment" orders to be shipped later. I thought AT&T was on the launch-day list. There's a Target in the same shopping center, so we went there. "Sold out" already it was 5:06p. Not to be deterred, we called our nearest Sam's Club, "We never got any" so we called another "We dont carry iPads at this store," so we tried one more "Wont have it until next month." Okay, Sam's is out. Called a few Wal-Mart stores "sold out" and "we only got six of them, sorry."

Realizing our fate, we tried the biggest Best Buy in town "we gave out all our tickets, you can come wait here for an hour and see if some of them don't purchase." Swung by Apple Store at Town Square, gigantic line, with some people on Twitter saying they weren't sure if they were going to make it.

Yes, I realize I could have ordered online, and should have. I was awake at 12:48 when the MacRumors story posted that ordering was available online, and almost did order one of the three I wanted to get. I just never expected inventories to be SO thin. I think there was some truth to the rumor about Apple having some supply constraints, they just launched anyhow.

Back to the centennial Best Buy, though... a manager at the Summerlin store told us that centennial got 20 units. They sold 12 at the door. Everyone suspects employees pinched some off for themselves. I guess it happens, and perhaps I should have known. They acted shady all day. When we tried to call and ask questions, they were being weird. Not evasive or ignorant, as you might expect; they were being WEIRD.

Anyhow... this just seems like such a mess. I've read elsewhere that tons of people have had awesome BB experiences, so I suspect our case was somewhat limited. Total drag about the RewardZone points though, that would have been awesome, and was the only reason we wanted to buy there vs. Apple anyhow.

So I'm in line for an April 6th shipment. Sigh.

Yes, I found Best Buy to be complete liars. They told a long line that they had 100 come in. I was about 30th in line so figured I was safe. They pass out 20 vouchers and then announce that was it! We were all like WTF? Agree that there must be bunches of BBY employees scalping on eBay right now. SO aggravating!

 

[wesk702]

it’s expected that the centennial location wouldn’t have that much. I went to the Summerlin best buy and it was pretty stocked up. They sold out but they had a lot of units.
was out by 5:20

 

[Chupa Chupa]

You are always going to take a risk going to BB for an Apple launch. It's why I sacrificed the RZ points and went to Apple. BB is too unreliable for these events, partly b/c they are at the mercy of manufacturers and shippers.

 

[Knowimagination]

Best buy employees are restricted from buying the iPad for the first 90 days.

More than likely people were going off of what they were told they were going to get and then those numbers were incorrect.

 

[iPadPublisher]

it’s expected that the centennial location wouldn’t have that much. I went to the Summerlin best buy and it was pretty stocked up. They sold out but they had a lot of units.
was out by 5:20

I should have known, though my expectation was that they'd have more than 12-15 units. I reserved at Summerlin today, hoping to beat my April 6th online order. Girl said I was #1 for my model preference, and that they should trickle in each day.

Summerlin and Henderson were where it's at this time around.