I wanted to share a very poor Apple shopping experience that I had yesterday. i have order plenty of products from Apple over the years, and, in general, they have been a painless experience. But yesterday was not.
I received some Apple Gift Cards for Christmas and, combined with trading in my AppleWatch S6, I could upgrade to an S8 for very little money. I went online and placed and order for an in stock watch. I was going to be at home for the day, so decided to pay the $9 for a same day delivery. I chose a delivery time of 10:30AM - 12:30PM.
I kept checking my order and it was sitting at "Waiting for pickup" and did not move. Ok, that's a little strange. Finally about 1:30, I initiated a chat. Ignoring the rather annoying scripted "enthusiasm" the agent had. I asked for a status on my order. They said it was still scheduled to be delivered by 12:30PM. Uh, no. I explained that in my time zone, we had passed 12:30. Then the agent said the weather had delayed the delivery (again, what weather? It was 45 degrees and clear! Our last snow was 4 days ago.) I asked for a refund on the shipping fee as Apple did not meet its agreed upon delivery time. After trying to say Apple had 24 hours to deliver my product (So I am supposed to answer my door at 2AM?) , he finally relented and said he would process a refund for the $9. (Not much, but it was fair.) I was also assured my delivery was still going to be delivered.
Fast forward to 6PM. Still no delivery, still no change on the status (delivery by 12:30PM taunting me!) I initiated another chat session. After the same scripted pleasantries, the rep informed me that courier had canceled their pickup. I asked why. Weather was once again used as an excuse. I asked, "So you will be scheduling another courier?" Nope, Apple has no way to do that. I then asked, well can you at least tell me what store the pick-up was scheduled and change the order to in-store pickup. Nope, reps don't have access to that information. So, Apple can't schedule another delivery and can't arrange for me to pickup my only order? Yep. The only option was to cancel the order and place a new order. Considering I used some Gift Cards, I would have to wait until the credit was applied back to my account before placing a new order. No very
I get that not ever shopping experience is perfect, but there is some systematic issues here with Apple's ordering process:
I received some Apple Gift Cards for Christmas and, combined with trading in my AppleWatch S6, I could upgrade to an S8 for very little money. I went online and placed and order for an in stock watch. I was going to be at home for the day, so decided to pay the $9 for a same day delivery. I chose a delivery time of 10:30AM - 12:30PM.
I kept checking my order and it was sitting at "Waiting for pickup" and did not move. Ok, that's a little strange. Finally about 1:30, I initiated a chat. Ignoring the rather annoying scripted "enthusiasm" the agent had. I asked for a status on my order. They said it was still scheduled to be delivered by 12:30PM. Uh, no. I explained that in my time zone, we had passed 12:30. Then the agent said the weather had delayed the delivery (again, what weather? It was 45 degrees and clear! Our last snow was 4 days ago.) I asked for a refund on the shipping fee as Apple did not meet its agreed upon delivery time. After trying to say Apple had 24 hours to deliver my product (So I am supposed to answer my door at 2AM?) , he finally relented and said he would process a refund for the $9. (Not much, but it was fair.) I was also assured my delivery was still going to be delivered.
Fast forward to 6PM. Still no delivery, still no change on the status (delivery by 12:30PM taunting me!) I initiated another chat session. After the same scripted pleasantries, the rep informed me that courier had canceled their pickup. I asked why. Weather was once again used as an excuse. I asked, "So you will be scheduling another courier?" Nope, Apple has no way to do that. I then asked, well can you at least tell me what store the pick-up was scheduled and change the order to in-store pickup. Nope, reps don't have access to that information. So, Apple can't schedule another delivery and can't arrange for me to pickup my only order? Yep. The only option was to cancel the order and place a new order. Considering I used some Gift Cards, I would have to wait until the credit was applied back to my account before placing a new order. No very
I get that not ever shopping experience is perfect, but there is some systematic issues here with Apple's ordering process:
- Apple needs to have the ability to reschedule a delivery if a courier cancels.
- Apple Reps should be able to tell what store a product is being delivered from and contact the store.
- When the delivery was going to miss the deadline, Apple should have notified me via email and/or SMS.
- I am assuming that in some store my order is sitting on the shelf. Apple's in-store agents should have authority to notice when an order is not being picked up and take proactive actions.
