Apple’s costumer service isn’t living up to its innovative technology.
A friend of mine here in Savannah went to his carrier AT&T’s store on the Southside last Friday to preorder the new iPhone 4S. His current contract with AT&T has another two years. He was told he would get the phone in 14 to 21 days. He checked his order status online regularly over the last week, only to find yesterday (Thursday) that his phone has been placed on back order.
So he decided to go back to the AT&T store at 8 a.m. this morning and pick one up there. There were about 15 people ahead of him in line to get new iPhones, but when he got to the front of the line, he wasn’t allowed to have one since he had already ordered one.
And he wasn’t allowed to cancel his preorder.
So the AT&T and iPhone users who were most enthusiastic about getting the updated phone — those who actually took the time to preorder — are now being put on hold, while customer after customer this morning was able to walk in and get the iPhone 4S.
Here’s a brief account of the problem from BGR.
To add insult to injury, my friend has now been told that he’ll get his new phone in 21 to 28 days from today — that’s an additional two weeks from when he preordered.
A big customer service fail. It will be interesting to see just how widespread the problem is.