Customer Disservice

It must be nice to be Apple.

I keep hearing that the economy is still depressed, but the news clearly hasn’t reached the purveyors of cool. Like many others, I have been waiting for the release of the IPad 2. I was not sufficiently techno-crazy to line up on the first day they were released, so I figured I’d wait until the middle of the following week. Today was the day.

Now, I live downtown, and the only Apple store in Indianapolis is on the far north side, so I did what any prudent person would: I called. And called. And called. Fifteen times, as a matter of fact. The phone was never answered. So (despite my husband’s prediction that they wouldn’t have any in stock) we drove the 86 blocks to the bedlam that is the Apple Store.

When I finally found one of the numerous clerks to help me, he confirmed my husband’s prediction: No IPads in stock. When would they get another shipment? “We get stuff every day, but we don’t know what’s coming–sometimes there are IPads, sometimes not.” Could I order one? No, all orders needed to be handled online. Was there some reason no one was answering the phone?  “We only have one operator, and when new products come out, she can’t keep up. Happens all the time.” Has it ever occurred to you to put extra operators on duty when new products come out? No.

I think Apple’s marketing strategy is: make them beg for it. The more arrogant we are, the more they’ll want it.

So I came home and–like the consumerist sheep I have become–I ordered online.

It will be four to five weeks for the IPad to be delivered. No estimates on when I’ll regain my self-respect.

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