iPad 2 launch with only 140 ipads!!
Hi there
Just wanted to share the situation here in Greece.
Some of you know that Greece is constantly being treated by Apple as a third rate customer.
We have no official Apple presence and for many years we had to put up with one of the most hideous distributors, Rainbow.
Anyway that's just to give you a brief overview.
To the amazement of a lot of people we saw that Greece was one of the countries that were getting the iPad2 on the 25th (to be exact on the 26th since the 25th is a national holiday).
After all iPad 1 (through the use of other "premium resellers" making all the decisions) was launched in Greece 1 month before the announcement of iPad2... January 28th!!
What we didn't know was that Apple is planning the Greek product launch with 140ipads!!
We have 3 premium resellers. Each one will get 25ipads and the rest of them (65-70) will be distributed among the stores of Athens only...
Just to give you a little perspective. The people that filled out the form of interest for the new ipad at the various stores were 10000!! And the best that Apple could do was send 140 ipads.
140 of something is only good if you're 10 years old and you're selling lemonades on a lemonade stand...
The more infuriating thing is the attitude of some of the stores and one of the premium resellers.
"We don't know how many we will get, we don't know which ones we will get, so the best thing to do would be what Americans do and camp out of the store"...
And this was from the mouth of a very intelligent employee of a Premium reseller.
2 days before the launch of the product and they still supposedly don't know what they will get!!!
I mean what kind of a normal businessman wouldn't want to know what kind of merchandise he is getting??? Every time they receive a delivery it's a party for them!!
Yaaaayyy, new delivery let's see what's in it!! Ooooohhh little surprises!!
They only care about what it will look like when the crowd will be outside the store. Most of them will have 8 iPads but they keep saying line up and see what'll happen...
And all that just to be able to get the iPad in the most premium prices in Europe. e.g 719euros for the 64GB Wifi and a magnet cover for 45euros!!! These prices are insane!!!
Anyway
From what it looks like I will be one of the few that will get it but I just wanted to share the frustration that all of the other people will face tomorrow morning
when they will find out they won't be able to purchase a overpriced product.
Shame on Apple and shame to some of the local stores in Greece.
PS: there always are a few good exceptions. Some stores were very open, saying we will only get this amount of iPads and on these sizes. But as you might have guessed they are very few.
Just wanted to share the situation here in Greece.
Some of you know that Greece is constantly being treated by Apple as a third rate customer.
We have no official Apple presence and for many years we had to put up with one of the most hideous distributors, Rainbow.
Anyway that's just to give you a brief overview.
To the amazement of a lot of people we saw that Greece was one of the countries that were getting the iPad2 on the 25th (to be exact on the 26th since the 25th is a national holiday).
After all iPad 1 (through the use of other "premium resellers" making all the decisions) was launched in Greece 1 month before the announcement of iPad2... January 28th!!
What we didn't know was that Apple is planning the Greek product launch with 140ipads!!
We have 3 premium resellers. Each one will get 25ipads and the rest of them (65-70) will be distributed among the stores of Athens only...
Just to give you a little perspective. The people that filled out the form of interest for the new ipad at the various stores were 10000!! And the best that Apple could do was send 140 ipads.
140 of something is only good if you're 10 years old and you're selling lemonades on a lemonade stand...
The more infuriating thing is the attitude of some of the stores and one of the premium resellers.
"We don't know how many we will get, we don't know which ones we will get, so the best thing to do would be what Americans do and camp out of the store"...
And this was from the mouth of a very intelligent employee of a Premium reseller.
2 days before the launch of the product and they still supposedly don't know what they will get!!!
I mean what kind of a normal businessman wouldn't want to know what kind of merchandise he is getting??? Every time they receive a delivery it's a party for them!!
Yaaaayyy, new delivery let's see what's in it!! Ooooohhh little surprises!!
They only care about what it will look like when the crowd will be outside the store. Most of them will have 8 iPads but they keep saying line up and see what'll happen...
And all that just to be able to get the iPad in the most premium prices in Europe. e.g 719euros for the 64GB Wifi and a magnet cover for 45euros!!! These prices are insane!!!
Anyway
From what it looks like I will be one of the few that will get it but I just wanted to share the frustration that all of the other people will face tomorrow morning
when they will find out they won't be able to purchase a overpriced product.
Shame on Apple and shame to some of the local stores in Greece.
PS: there always are a few good exceptions. Some stores were very open, saying we will only get this amount of iPads and on these sizes. But as you might have guessed they are very few.
Comments
I was soooo certain I would've got one today, because I am nr.2 on the list...
Nr 2 and still nothing, so don't cry for Greece, cry for Europe...
You can still order online, right? I'm fairly certain Apple doesn't intend for the entire country of Greece to share 140 iPads.
Actually unless I'm looking at it wrong I can't find the official Apple Online Store for Greece.
Actually unless I'm looking at it wrong I can't find the official Apple Online Store for Greece.
There's certainly an intriguing set of links from the Greek Apple site to reseller pages (most likely including the ones that dimitris was referring to in his post).
It's disappointing to be sure, but patience will probably pay off.
What we have is 3 premium and they are handling both service and distribution of apple products to other stores...
You can easily imagine the chaos...
Online ordering is out of the question. We just don't have that!!!
The ridiculousness continues.... One of the worst of the premium resellers is asking half the price just to be able to pre-order it!!! So you have to give them at least 250 euros to be able to order it but also with no guaranties as to when it will come...
I put a deposit of 50euros to one of the other stores but with no actual guaranties that I will get one.
They informed that my order has arrived but until I have it in my hands I'm not getting my hopes up!
I bought a 32GB iPad with 3G. I'm really lucky and glad I did decide to go and check if I could still get one there.
As you can imagine though a lot of people were upset when they found out they couldn't buy one.
Aside from a particular store where they told people the entire last week to stay in line if they wanted to buy one there were no lines whatsoever.
All the informed people started their hunt early in the morning and most of them managed to get one. The uninformed ones will have to wait for the new batch. Let's hope it isn't 140 this time around..