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The title of this should have been "100,000 miles and an iPhone" since the Beetle turned over 100k miles as I pulled into a parking space outside Fashion Mall, home of the Indianapolis Apple Store. My wee silver baby is growing up! Eek!
Note that I said "should have been" ... My dislike of the Indy Apple Store continues unabated, as they have possibly the worst customer service I've ever encountered. I counted 18 people in Apple store shirts when I walked in. The store was crowded, which is unsurprising in a not-terribly-large space filled with 18 useless staff people, but at least half of them were standing around looking decorative and doing absolutely nothing. Normally, walking in that store gets you accosted by a half-dozen salescritters, even if you have no interest in talking to one, so naturally today resulted in my being totally ignored. I went to the back of the store and found an iPod car charger, which I needed, and then started looking for someone to sell me a phone. Nobody made eye contact. I finally stood in front of the girl who appeared to be in charge of wrangling people waiting for the subGenius Bar, and asked her who I should see about whether iPhones were in stock. She said they were, and I said I'd take one (16gb, black) and she said she'd find me someone who could set me up.
Four useless shirts later, there was still nobody to help. To fill the time, wranglerChick started asking me questions, one of which was (after ascertaining that I'm already an AT&T customer) "Do you have any discounts on your phone plan?" Why yes, I do... why? "Well, we can't sell you the phone then."
Say what? Because I have a discount on my plan, they can't sell me a phone? No... apparently that can only be done at an AT&T store, because only they have access to Those Records. Of course, I'd passed three AT&T stores on my way to the Apple Store. *sigh*
So I headed back to the back (where the sales desk used to be) and was ignored by the three guys standing behind the vast expanse of desk, and finally interrupted one of them to ask if they could ring up my iPod charger. Oh, no, that's not the sales desk any more... that's the "personal training" desk... sales is up on the end of the (sub)Genius bar now. One person. Long line. No effing way am I waiting through that while eight or nine salescritters stand around looking useless.
So I leave him holding the charger and I leave in search of an AT&T store. The nearest one had just closed (as in "moved away"... not as in "closed for the day") so I dove back into rush-hour traffic in search of the next store. They were there, and not busy, but also didn't have any black 16gb iPhones. Thankfully, they were very helpful and looked to see which stores in the area _did_ have them, and then called to verify. They sent me on my way to the Fishers store (half a mile from my office and six miles from where I'd turned over 100k miles at the Apple Store), and I went traipsing over there. They had the phone (they can't hold them, but they'd had 16 in stock so it was unlikely that they'd sell them all in the 10 minutes it took me to get there!), and the guy brought out the box and set it on the counter and took my phone number to start setting things up.
And then, with the box sitting Right There... taunting me... he said "Oh... I can't sell this to you for the $299 price... it'll have to be $499 'cause you have 22 months left on your current contract."
Why no... I don't... because I don't _have_ a contract. When I ported my number from TMobile to AT&T when I moved to TinyLittleTown, I specifically had them set it up so I wouldn't be locked into a contract. According to the AT&T guy at the time "All you'll have to do is add the data plan, and you'll be golden!" I didn't get a phone (my quad-band unlocked Samsung worked just fine w/ the new SIM card), so I was supposed to be all set for the iPhone once it was available.
Explained all this to the new AT&T guy. He dug around in my account some more and sent an email to "the only guy in Indiana with the authority to override this". At which point we promptly got his out-of-office notice. Urgh.
Thankfully, they agreed that they could hold the black 16gb phone for me, since it wasn't my fault that it wasn't going home with me today (and it would really suck if he called back to authorize it and they'd sold them all!) and hopefully Mr. Only Guy will call and give them the authorization code tomorrow, at which point I'll be very glad that all of this is at the AT&T store a half-mile from my office.
*pout*
I wanted new toys tonight! But at least I got the iPod charger while I was at the AT&T store, so I could listen to my tunes again on the way home!
Note that I said "should have been" ... My dislike of the Indy Apple Store continues unabated, as they have possibly the worst customer service I've ever encountered. I counted 18 people in Apple store shirts when I walked in. The store was crowded, which is unsurprising in a not-terribly-large space filled with 18 useless staff people, but at least half of them were standing around looking decorative and doing absolutely nothing. Normally, walking in that store gets you accosted by a half-dozen salescritters, even if you have no interest in talking to one, so naturally today resulted in my being totally ignored. I went to the back of the store and found an iPod car charger, which I needed, and then started looking for someone to sell me a phone. Nobody made eye contact. I finally stood in front of the girl who appeared to be in charge of wrangling people waiting for the subGenius Bar, and asked her who I should see about whether iPhones were in stock. She said they were, and I said I'd take one (16gb, black) and she said she'd find me someone who could set me up.
Four useless shirts later, there was still nobody to help. To fill the time, wranglerChick started asking me questions, one of which was (after ascertaining that I'm already an AT&T customer) "Do you have any discounts on your phone plan?" Why yes, I do... why? "Well, we can't sell you the phone then."
Say what? Because I have a discount on my plan, they can't sell me a phone? No... apparently that can only be done at an AT&T store, because only they have access to Those Records. Of course, I'd passed three AT&T stores on my way to the Apple Store. *sigh*
So I headed back to the back (where the sales desk used to be) and was ignored by the three guys standing behind the vast expanse of desk, and finally interrupted one of them to ask if they could ring up my iPod charger. Oh, no, that's not the sales desk any more... that's the "personal training" desk... sales is up on the end of the (sub)Genius bar now. One person. Long line. No effing way am I waiting through that while eight or nine salescritters stand around looking useless.
So I leave him holding the charger and I leave in search of an AT&T store. The nearest one had just closed (as in "moved away"... not as in "closed for the day") so I dove back into rush-hour traffic in search of the next store. They were there, and not busy, but also didn't have any black 16gb iPhones. Thankfully, they were very helpful and looked to see which stores in the area _did_ have them, and then called to verify. They sent me on my way to the Fishers store (half a mile from my office and six miles from where I'd turned over 100k miles at the Apple Store), and I went traipsing over there. They had the phone (they can't hold them, but they'd had 16 in stock so it was unlikely that they'd sell them all in the 10 minutes it took me to get there!), and the guy brought out the box and set it on the counter and took my phone number to start setting things up.
And then, with the box sitting Right There... taunting me... he said "Oh... I can't sell this to you for the $299 price... it'll have to be $499 'cause you have 22 months left on your current contract."
Why no... I don't... because I don't _have_ a contract. When I ported my number from TMobile to AT&T when I moved to TinyLittleTown, I specifically had them set it up so I wouldn't be locked into a contract. According to the AT&T guy at the time "All you'll have to do is add the data plan, and you'll be golden!" I didn't get a phone (my quad-band unlocked Samsung worked just fine w/ the new SIM card), so I was supposed to be all set for the iPhone once it was available.
Explained all this to the new AT&T guy. He dug around in my account some more and sent an email to "the only guy in Indiana with the authority to override this". At which point we promptly got his out-of-office notice. Urgh.
Thankfully, they agreed that they could hold the black 16gb phone for me, since it wasn't my fault that it wasn't going home with me today (and it would really suck if he called back to authorize it and they'd sold them all!) and hopefully Mr. Only Guy will call and give them the authorization code tomorrow, at which point I'll be very glad that all of this is at the AT&T store a half-mile from my office.
*pout*
I wanted new toys tonight! But at least I got the iPod charger while I was at the AT&T store, so I could listen to my tunes again on the way home!
