When are iPad shipments available?

[jeffs177]

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I've waited in the freezing cold and rain for 4 nights and still nothing at the Manhattan Beach Ca Apple store.

My understanding was the shipments receive one day would be sold the next morning, but this morning an Apple employee came out and said they didn't have any available again today. This employee said any shipment received one day will be sold on the spot per Apple.

So now I'm confused, which one is it? Sold on the spot or sold the next day? I asked him, can I call every hour on the hour to see if you have a shipment and he says "sure they're used to it".

I think that's a terrible practice when someone can walk in off the street and get one, but someone who waits 10 hours get sc***ed. I guess the only way is just to loiter in the store and ask him every 5 minutes if they got them in.

I have better things to do and they should hold them for the following day for these that brave the elements for 6, 8 and 10 hours at a time. Sorry for the rant, but I can't get a straight answer with them and It's frustrating.

 

[zenio]

I just returned from the Apple Store at the Short Hills Mall in New Jersey. I arrived at the mall at 5.20 AM to wait in line for my chance to buy an iPad 2. I was number 27 in line. I did not get one. The line went to 81. My wife had been there for the past two days, and both days she was shut out. She was number 39 yesterday, with no luck.

For a revered brand, Apple is risking customer will in the way they are managing the iPad launch.


When you call, the stores cannot tell you when or how many they will get in. Even the night before when you call they cannot tell you what they are getting at the store less than ten hours later.

If it’s coming from California, they have to know what is coming at that point, but the company is not telling their stores and their stores are simply telling people they don’t know. Does not sound like the operations of a company that makes sophisticated computer products and runs one of the most trafficked websites online, does it?

There are several people who have waited in line multiple days and still do not get product. I was with 70 angry customers this morning. Only ten people got iPads – there were twenty available and the first ten people – many of whom looked like resellers for eBay or were shipping them overseas – all bought two. Apple’s policy, we were told, was to sell two. The 70 customers in line requested that the manager not follow policy, but he would not listen.

By the calculation of someone in our line today, Apple sells 14,000 iPads a day through their stores – at that rate about 3.3 million a year. What they are not counting is the 70 people at each store each day who walk away frustrated. For their 700 stores, that equals 49,000 day. They are frustrating four times as many people as they are delighting. Ouch!

If this goes on for a month – and at this rate that is conservative – that will lead to 1.5M frustrated customers. Think about that, one the greatest brands in the world is now going to have more than a million people saying why they are not fans.

This was preventable and manageable if the company thought about the customer experience. The manager this am said to me and the other frustrated customers “that is the policy.” The company that reinvented computing now focusing on policy. Hmmm.

He said that “this happens with every launch.” So does that mean they knew they were going to create all this ill will?

I even said why not give every one in line a $5 itunes gift card. “Sir, I just can’t go do that” he said. Would have cost $350 and been the best money he spent – but it was outside of policy.

We’ll all go buy an iPad. My wife wants to try again on Monday. I am giving up. I will order online. But whether I like the iPad or not when I get it, my feeling toward Apple will never be same. They are big, they follow policy, they are not focused on customers.

They make great products, but not happy customers. That’s really the news of the iPad 2 launch. That is the corner the company is turning.

 

[LawyerBarbie]

Zenio, Monday would probably be a bad idea...the Apple stores don't get shipments Sunday. The guy at the store today said Tuesday.

 

[jeffs177]

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It's been a horrible experience for me and true, I'll never feel the same about Apple again. They should have just one policy and that should be to hold the iPads until the following morning for first come first serve How hard is that?

 

[Photomax]

Obviously there is a temporary shortage.

But the OP complains that he went to stand in line in the cold rain for four nights in a row without success - and now hates Apple for his misery? No one is making you do this. You did this four nights? What a colossal waste of time? Even if you get this iPad today its really not going to change your life or make you so productive that you will recover all this time spent in line.

I am just stunned at the lengths people will go to become early adopters of these fad products. In a couple of weeks when they become readily available I wonder how many of these "gotta have it now" folks will wish they could recover all those nights waiting in line or the extra hundreds of dollars spent paying for one via eBay etc...

 

[JulianApple]

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I also waited for 4 days in a row at Apple Manhatten Village in CA. No luck! I've been #14 in line and they got to #13!!! I got screwed by the scalpers in front of me:-( I just want one for me. Saturday morning I was #13, I thought for sure I'll get one, i was so hopeful. No luck! None were sold. This morning, I was #2 in line!!! Rain, wind & cold. I was excited! I had beat the scalpers to the front of the line! Yes!!!! Then, after 10 hours of waiting, the flamboyant, jolly Apple employee came out and said they had NONE!!!!!! really????? WTF!!!!! he had no concrete/solid answers but rather just confused the F**k out of me even more! Apple is being a really arrogant bitch right now.

 

[JulianApple]

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To photomax, you make a valid point, but I don't want to hear it so shut up! let us must have it now peoples vent without your arrogant thoughts. I wouldn't pay a cent over cost to one of those greedy scalpers! I'll keep trying & posting!

 

[Photomax]

Sorry, I did not mean to vent...

But if you step back and look at all these threads is pretty amazing. This iPad has become the new Cabbage Patch Doll/Beanie Baby/Tickle Me Elmo, etc. Remember how we all used to giggle at crazed moms beating each other up while fighting over one of these fad toys at K-Mart etc? This iPad craze is fast becoming the same kind of thing.

There is a temporary loss of objectivity with people more than willing to subject themselves to repeated misery and stress over getting one of these devices immediately.

I am assuming every owner/user of these iPads have a working computer so its not like its critical to obtain these iPads to get work done? Will anyone miss a deadline or get fired if they don't have one of these systems?

The overall collective struggle, emotion and effort devoted to obtaining an iPad is off the charts, or so it seems from reading these forums. I would not be surprised to hear about some tragic incident of violence happening over this fuss.

I have used Apple gear for decades now. I have a Mac Pro, Macbook Pro and an aging Powerbook. I plan on replacing the Powerbook with an iPad once supply makes this mission simple and easy. There have always been "hot" Apple products but history shows that supply always opens up after a few weeks.

I don't mean to pee in anyone's cereal but some fans need to take a deep breath here...

 

[barkomatic]

Sorry, I did not mean to vent...

But if you step back and look at all these threads is pretty amazing. This iPad has become the new Cabbage Patch Doll/Beanie Baby/Tickle Me Elmo, etc. Remember how we all used to giggle at crazed moms beating each other up while fighting over one of these fad toys at K-Mart etc? This iPad craze is fast becoming the same kind of thing.

There is a temporary loss of objectivity with people more than willing to subject themselves to repeated misery and stress over getting one of these devices immediately.

I am assuming every owner/user of these iPads have a working computer so its not like its critical to obtain these iPads to get work done? Will anyone miss a deadline or get fired if they don't have one of these systems?

The overall collective struggle, emotion and effort devoted to obtaining an iPad is off the charts, or so it seems from reading these forums. I would not be surprised to hear about some tragic incident of violence happening over this fuss.

I have used Apple gear for decades now. I have a Mac Pro, Macbook Pro and an aging Powerbook. I plan on replacing the Powerbook with an iPad once supply makes this mission simple and easy. There have always been "hot" Apple products but history shows that supply always opens up after a few weeks.

I don't mean to pee in anyone's cereal but some fans need to take a deep breath here...

I agree. People are exhibiting extremely irrational behavior to obtain iPads. While it's unfair that resellers are getting most of them--there would be no resellers if people weren't going absolutely nutso to get one. People have been less desperate to get food and water after a disaster.