the FULL saga of bagging my iPhone!

Last Friday was iPhone 16 day – we all knew it was coming and I thought I had planned for it pretty well and had my bases covered!

But, as they say, ‘the best-laid plans’…

The only place to start any story is at the beginning I guess, which for me was back in the summer. If you’ve read any of my stories over the past few months you’ll know that I have been invited to a few events which have been laid on by Apple Business.

It’s been great – not that I get my hands on products any earlier, or even get discounts but because I’ve made connections with people – I mean real people. In the faceless digital, AI world that faces us, getting to meet and shake hands with someone is priceless.

At the last event I attended we chatted about the imminent iPhone release and we agreed I’d place my order through them to further cement our relationship. I’d been working late on the day of Apple’s Glowtime event recording, editing and uploading a reaction video which had seen me working until the early hours of the following morning.

When I came back to the studio later Tuesday morning I pre-saved the items I wanted in the normal way you would through apple.com. Later that same day I called the team at Apple Business, chatted with them and placed my order with them as well.

Using my business account means that all my orders are in one place and should be easier to track and keep an eye on. The team were great and everything seemed in order. Confident I was in good hands, I made my first mistake and cancelled my initial online order. Lesson one had been learned – always keep the banker order until the last moment….

iPhone 16 day – the day that kept giving

The only concern I had was that I couldn’t see my order in my business online portal and even a couple of days after the order was placed I hadn’t received my order confirmation.

I called the team a few times and again they seemed all over it. They knew exactly what I was after and said they could see my order progressing – even though I couldn’t.

It got to Friday afternoon – and still nothing, but one last call with them just before the office shut for the weekend it still seemed all was in hand. One tiny admission here – I had never confirmed that delivery would on release day – but neither had I been told it wouldn’t be. Also, in my defence, a benefit of being a business customer is that I am meant to be treated as a priority order.

I was in the studio on Saturday editing my podcast – Minus Sixteen – when I noticed the order confirmation email pop into my inbox. Relieved I carried on editing thinking all was good. The job was a good’un!

Just so you know, this is what I had ordered;

• iPhone 16 Pro Max in Desert Titanium with 256 GB of storage
• AirPods 4 without ANC
• AirPods Max in orange
  

As I was getting ready to leave after I had posted the podcast I lazily clicked on the ‘track your order’ link in the confirmation email. That is when everything started to come undone. The date given for the phone to be delivered was 8th – 15th October! I’m pretty sure you can imagine the air – blue didn’t even come close.

But of course, it was Saturday and there was nothing I could do until the office re-opened Monday. Remarkably, I stayed calm over the weekend and didn’t stress. I’d met these people – I had established a connection. They knew the importance of it to me (I had a sponsored video to upload on the day the iPhones were released) and they wouldn’t let me down. I wasn’t just a meaningless digit on hold at a call centre – these were real people I was dealing with.

I did call Apple sales over the weekend and scouted around online but there were no Pro Max iPhones available in London in any colour or any config. It seemed my boat had sailed and with it my iPhone 16 Pro Max on it! Damn, how much was I regretting cancelling my online order now?

Have faith

The team had been faced with an unprecedented problem – they had never seen this before.

All of their customers, not just me seemed to have been pushed to the back of the queue. All their clients were calling and emailing and the team at Business HQ were left trying to handle a deluge of complaints. Apologies flowed but no concrete answers were given – in short they had no idea what was happening.

The single crumb of hope I had through the calls last week was that they had been told to expect delivery dates to be improved upon – no actual dates you understand, but dates would be improved.

I did feel for them – the team I was dealing with had been hung out to dry. It was clear they were not being given any answers or were being told what had gone wrong in the first place.

As the weekend went on – this was the situation…

Leave the order standing and hope that overnight between Thursday and release day the arrival day on my order would magically become Friday and all would be well.

But, we had a contingency plan in place though. Two of the team were going to be ‘public-facing’ and on the shop floor at Apple’s Battersea store on iPhone release day. I’d been told to get there at 8 am when the store opened as “there is always walk-in inventory”. The plan was was they would reserve me the 256 GB Desert Titanium iPhone I wanted and all would be good.

With the alarm set for 5 am on Friday, I slept fairly soundly knowing they guys had my back – despite a tense week it would all work out on the day…

Hold on a moment!

The plan fell apart and there was no extra inventory and there were no Pro Max iPhones in the store – other than those somewhat ironically pre-ordered online!

No matter what puppy-dog eyes I threw the fact remained the same – I was out of luck. The only fallback option I had was to buy a 256 GB iPhone 16 Pro to make content with later that day and then return it within 14 days for the iPhone I wanted to run as my daily for the year ahead. It was far from perfect, but it would have to do.

With the three items in the bag and just before I was about to head out of the door the guys had heard a rumour that there may be a few Pro Max’s over at Apple’s Covent Garden store. As I was in London already I figured that the extra yards were a small price to pay. I hopped on the tube but I had this overbearing feeling that it wouldn’t work out well.

Miracles don’t happen – or do they?

The queue at Covent Garden was long so at this point all I could do was to take my place at the back and wait.

There is not enough money in the world that would make me want to be an Apple retail employee on iPhone release day – the queues keep growing and of course everyone thinks their order is the only one that matters.

To keep things as sweet as possible they have Apple crew moving up and down the lines just checking what you were after and that you were being looked after as best as possible. When I said I’d been sent from Battersea in the hope there may be a few Pro Max’s at their store – the look in her eyes told me all I needed to know.

My gut feeling on the way over had been well-founded.

Miracles don’t happen – or do they?

One last roll of the dice

So it was back on the tube to Vauxhall and off to collect my car from Battersea.

I got to the escalator to the car park and figured as I’m here I may as well try one last time. Security was great and once I’d explained my situation they let me jump the lengthy queue to try and find the woman I’d been speaking with a few hours earlier.

Not knowing if she’d be on a break or if I’d find her at all my first bit of luck was that she was there, bold as brass standing right in front of me. She was just finishing with another customer but mouthed to me “any luck”? My long, slow shake of the head said it all.

She walked over to join me and I just forlornly said is it worth one last check? I’d pretty much given up hope, but after all the effort I’d put in, it had to be worth a punt, right?

Preparing me for the worst she told me she’d had only just looked two minutes prior…

As she was looking down at her iPad her whole body froze – all I could hear was her saying “I don’t quite believe this”. With that, she just said stay where you are – one has just become available!

At what cost?

In a matter of moments, she was back with me with the exact phone I had ordered.

Someone had cancelled their order and in a rare break of luck, I was in the right place at the right time – a few moments later and someone else would have bagged it. As great an outcome as this was – and don’t get me wrong, it was the best possible result – there was an issue.

Having already bought the iPhone 16 Pro a few hours earlier they had to refund me the money – which would take 3-4 days to land back in my account! Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t routinely keep a spare £1100 knocking around.

I had to think on my feet quickly and somehow sort out transferring some money, and with that done eventually the deal was done.

With the story that keeps on giving it was only as I looked at the AirPods 4 on Saturday that I realised I’d been sold a pair with ANC where as I had wanted the ones without…but that was small fry. I couldn’t be arsed to swap them over – they’d do.

As for that original order I cancelled it on Friday afternoon – but what do you think the odds are that it still arrives this week? In this comedy of errors, I rule nothing out!

The team I had been dealing with were never at fault – I firmly believe that – but they’d been left with no proper or meaningful information and were kind of left as sacrificial martyrs.

We only see the polished, slick highly professional side of Apple – the side they want us to see. Last week I got a small glimpse behind the curtains of what corporate life is honestly like.

And don’t forget, if we are to trust the news from Bloomberg, The Telegraph and the BBC this lack of supply is coming in a year when sales are much lower than in recent years.

As to what the iPhone 16 Pro Max is like – that is for another story. At least I have one to review!