Please. Scalpers can also be white, black, brown. Just check eBay out. I'm sure people list the iPhone 6/6 plus on sale because they accidentally bought another one or changed their minds instead of returning them.
Because of all the issues with the preorder site, I quickly found myself going from 0 pre-orders after 3 hours of trying to 4 in about 30 minutes. I decided to cancel the three extra orders, but I can see why someone may have decided to try selling them on eBay. In my case, with a grand total of 2 hours of sleep in as many days I ordered the wrong color, and also ordered from Verizon directly before finally getting the one I really wanted.
There is nothing illegal about buying a phone. This would not be news if the hired buyers did not look and talk different from 'normal' Americans. But because they are, then thoughts of 'those farners are taking the stuff that should have been for us' creep in. We can't have a free enterprise system that excludes anyone who isn't 'Murcan. Shame on AI for pandering to baser instincts just to whore clicks.
Because of all the issues with the preorder site, I quickly found myself going from 0 pre-orders after 3 hours of trying to 4 in about 30 minutes. I decided to cancel the three extra orders, but I can see why someone may have decided to try selling them on eBay. In my case, with a grand total of 2 hours of sleep in as many days I ordered the wrong color, and also ordered from Verizon directly before finally getting the one I really wanted.
I had the opposite problem with the 4S. Bought one, charged for two. Took a while to get it straightened out.
While I think it's rude what the Chinese scalpers are doing, and my taking away inventory from folks that live in that area... technically, they are not doing anything illegal. How many U.S. folks are taking their iPhones on day 1 and putting them on EBay?
Sure, it would be nice to have the lines populated by direct fans, but it is what it is. What next? Make sure the buyers can speak clear English before allowing them to buy an iPhone?
Maybe what Apple can do, at least for the first couple of months is the following;
1. Have all launch day iPhone buyers purchase with a 2-year contract OR
2. If iPhone buyers want a non-contract iPhone, have the buyer prove that it will be tied to a cellular plan or sign up on a month-to-month plan
3. Require 2 pieces of ID (ie: Driver's license & credit card).
Why exactly is this so terrible? And how is it really harming good ole 'Mericans? You can just order your phone online and have it delivered to your house on launch day, as I did. And if you have to wait a day, a week, a month, too bad. Just wait. Phones aren't food, water, or shelter. You'll live.
And so what if the people in line aren't personally excited? The phones are going to people who ARE excited about the product. In fact, they are SO excited that they are willing to pay 3 times the retail prices. That's MORE excited about Apple than most of you other commenters are.
See, if Apple had a cheap iPhone, Chinese scalpers would be able to buy MORE of them to resell. Since they can only by a smaller number, Apple is doomed.
• 1000 people in line at Apple Store The Grove.. One thing stood out... A disproportionate amount of Asian's (compared to other Apple on-sales) were in fact in line and were noticeably carrying and obsessing mainly on Samsung devices...hummmm Apple fans? Yeah sure..
• 3500 people in line Apple Store Brea / Orange County.. Same report.. Contingents of Asians line waiting many only packing Samsung devices..and paying with hoards of cash. Police were called. Anger raged. Extra security. Apple fans were angry and felt these groups were buying up their chances of fairly getting phones.
• Over 700 people in line Apple Store Victoria Gardens Rancho Cucamunga Calif. Same story...
While I directly have no idea what decent any of these line waiters were - anecdotally its a good guess many could have been Chinese and strictly grey market buyers - judging by their own actions.
To be very clear - nobody cares who or what ethnicity stands in line to buy phones - everybody at Apple Store The Grove just wanted a fair shot at getting a phone. There were paid line waiters (task rabbit) - same story, money was changing hands like crazy. But what also seemed obvious was that every culture present had someone buying or looking for grey market phones for just even eBay.
Apple is totally to blame here tho. What is NOT being reported is that Apples own "new" reservation system that was "supposed" to be working that morning of the on-sale and it was not.
It was supposed to guarantee a line waiter a phone and would hold your place in line via a reservation number and text you once your phone was available that day for purchase.
At The Grove store it was a disaster. If in fact the system wasn't working they had no PLAN B ready. What would normally be a three hour line wait turned into 17/18 hours for many line waiters while those with preorder pick up confirmations from 9/12 got priority and waited in a special line.
That was lame bc preorder people were not quoted a specific time so of course they all flooded Apple stores first thing that morning. The stores should have told them return times and that would have given line waiters a shot at available merchandise.
The fact that NO ONE from the Apple Store The Grove came to the line to hand out tickets like other launches - gave no wristbands etc - the bartering for a space in line got to a fever pitch and the opportunity for grey market scalpers flourished before our eyes..that was repeated at nearly every Los Angeles area Apple Store..
Apple Stores in Los Angeles totally failed to protect the integrity of these utterly massive lines to ensure fairness prevailed...
Also - those with preorders were stupidly allowed to change their minds and orders once in the store further diluting any way to grasp what the real stock was they had on hand..
And why didn't Apple include China in the opening roll-out? Probably because all that would have done is piss off people in every country when initial supplies ran out twice as fast. Better to tell the Chinese market to wait a while (when supply can catch up with demand in the rest of the world) rather than just having even worse supply problems everywhere.
Guess you missed the highly discussed detail that apple doesn't yet have legal clearance to sell the iPhone in China. Three have been whole articles about this issue, which is why they are not selling it there
"...the issue is in no way limited to this demographic."
Suuuuuure. Of cooooouuurse not...
But who cares anyway? How many did these idiot scalpers buy around the world on launch day? Maybe a thousand, or even two or three? Out of a few million, it's really insignificant.
I suppose it does make the line less fun for those in scalper hot spots like NYC, so I don't like the profiteering assholes either. I wouldn't mind at all if countermeasures were taken against them, but it's not like some huge crisis or anything.
I hope someone important enough at Apple sees the Neistat video and they do something about this. I worked at an Apple Store when the first iPhone came out and still have friends that work there. The store I worked at happens to be the largest seller of iPhones anywhere in the world. At this store it has been like this since day one but it seems like this has become the norm everywhere now. I preordered my last few iPhones for delivery so as to avoid having to stand in line with people with little or no English skills and all are of a certain ethnic background that seem to have been never taught about the concepts of manners or personal hygiene and bathing. How is it good marketing for Apple when the news footage of people waiting in line for the new phone are of homeless looking Chinese people sleeping on the sidewalk?
On a side note, to those saying just require a credit card for purchase: store managers will find a way around it to pump up their volume. When I worked at the Apple Store during the first iPhones availability official Apple corporate policy was no cash for iPhones. So what did store managers do? Instruct all Mac Specialists (all sales people were still called that at the time) to bring all Chinese people coming to buy iPhones with cash to buy an Apple Store gift card with cash and then pay for the iPhones with the store gift card. Since Apple Store policy also said store gift cards were accepted for any product we could get around corp. policy by following it and cause our store revenue to explode.
I hope someone important enough at Apple sees the Neistat video and they do something about this. I worked at an Apple Store when the first iPhone came out and still have friends that work there. The store I worked at happens to be the largest seller of iPhones anywhere in the world. At this store it has been like this since day one but it seems like this has become the norm everywhere now. I preordered my last few iPhones for delivery so as to avoid having to stand in line with people with little or no English skills and all are of a certain ethnic background that seem to have been never taught about the concepts of manners or personal hygiene and bathing. How is it good marketing for Apple when the news footage of people waiting in line for the new phone are of homeless looking Chinese people sleeping on the sidewalk?
On a side note, to those saying just require a credit card for purchase: store managers will find a way around it to pump up their volume. When I worked at the Apple Store during the first iPhones availability official Apple corporate policy was no cash for iPhones. So what did store managers do? Instruct all Mac Specialists (all sales people were still called that at the time) to bring all Chinese people coming to buy iPhones with cash to buy an Apple Store gift card with cash and then pay for the iPhones with the store gift card. Since Apple Store policy also said store gift cards were accepted for any product we could get around corp. policy by following it and cause our store revenue to explode.
Comments like these make me feel so so low. Has the Apple fan base become so far from reality - so homogenic and upper class - that we've become snobbish? To look down upon and shrug people of other economic classes & ethnicities.
We're there hiccups regarding proper line management and ticketing (and pre-order purchasing) yes. Apple will learn from it make appropriate changes.
But lets also remember there were also some of us - white guys - whom also purchased an extra iPhone to resell in the gray market as well. But for some odd reason - we're not at all ever part of the problem.
If anything the exploitation of certain groups made visible in the lines waiting for the iPhone should highlight the social-economic class problems we have deeply ingrained in our societal class struggle. We should not shrug them off & find "creative" ways to 'deal with them' so we don't have to see them. And Apple should NEVER entertain the notion that they should ban groups of people because they "don't fit or look like" the traditional upper (middle) class consumers of Apple 10 years ago. America is changing. Apple is changing. The face of Apple's loyal customer base is also changing.
Who is really in the wrong here? The people in line waiting to buy an iPhone strictly to resell it or the people (imo idiots) willing to pay exorbitant prices to get an iPhone ASAP?
Young buyers from China (Hong Kong) were interviewed by Australian TV news programs. They were more than willing to pay airfares and accommodation for bragging rights back home (and a brief holiday down under).
If you lived in China, what would you rather buy? The iPhone that your friendly, open, and democratic government has approved, or the unapproved iPhone from America? If you lived under their yoke, you might consider the unapproved version "better" even if in the end they're actually both the same. I wouldn't be surprised if the approval delay might have something to do with the encrypting of all communications on the iPhone, making it impossible for the Chinese government to look at how people are using it.
So you pay a premium in order to have something you can't or shouldn't be able to have. We all do that every day with a number of different items. People pay exorbitant prices to have things just to show them off, to show their success, whatever. Why should the Chinese or anyone else be any different. They have the money and don't mind paying for it. If we all had the money and didn't mind paying for it, most of us would probably do the same thing (unless we lie to ourselves of course).
And on a final note, why should a company prohibit people from buying their product? Why should someone overseas not be able to buy something from America that isn't available there? People often complain about Apple making things abroad and making the money abroad without bringing it home. Well, here the foreigners are buying it at home, so the money is home. Who cares who buys it and for what use. The important thing is that they're buying it. It's a free country. If I want to buy a thousand phones to sell, give away, or just have them at home, I should be able to. I should even be able to activate them and use them just for my own personal use or whatever, WHEREVER. You want an iPhone at launch? Pre-order or get in line before everyone else? It's that simple.
It's unbelievable to me to read people here wanting to limit people from buying a product from the company they supposedly love. Who cares where the product goes. They're buying it and paying for it. They're in line. No one here knows who they're buying it for, and no one here should care who they're buying it for. Why should I pay with a credit card? Why should I tell anyone who or why I'm buying this phone for? Why should a company or the government know who or why I buy stuff?
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Maybe what Apple can do, at least for the first couple of months is the following;
3. Require 2 pieces of ID (ie: Driver's license & credit card).
lol.... I don't disagree, but it just struck me that THIS would make it about 10 times harder to buy an iphone than we make it to VOTE here in the US! You know, because its racist to require complicated stuff like ID and/or the ability to speak the native language....
Comments
Because of all the issues with the preorder site, I quickly found myself going from 0 pre-orders after 3 hours of trying to 4 in about 30 minutes. I decided to cancel the three extra orders, but I can see why someone may have decided to try selling them on eBay. In my case, with a grand total of 2 hours of sleep in as many days I ordered the wrong color, and also ordered from Verizon directly before finally getting the one I really wanted.
Because of all the issues with the preorder site, I quickly found myself going from 0 pre-orders after 3 hours of trying to 4 in about 30 minutes. I decided to cancel the three extra orders, but I can see why someone may have decided to try selling them on eBay. In my case, with a grand total of 2 hours of sleep in as many days I ordered the wrong color, and also ordered from Verizon directly before finally getting the one I really wanted.
I had the opposite problem with the 4S. Bought one, charged for two. Took a while to get it straightened out.
While I think it's rude what the Chinese scalpers are doing, and my taking away inventory from folks that live in that area... technically, they are not doing anything illegal. How many U.S. folks are taking their iPhones on day 1 and putting them on EBay?
Sure, it would be nice to have the lines populated by direct fans, but it is what it is. What next? Make sure the buyers can speak clear English before allowing them to buy an iPhone?
Maybe what Apple can do, at least for the first couple of months is the following;
1. Have all launch day iPhone buyers purchase with a 2-year contract OR
2. If iPhone buyers want a non-contract iPhone, have the buyer prove that it will be tied to a cellular plan or sign up on a month-to-month plan
3. Require 2 pieces of ID (ie: Driver's license & credit card).
Apple should just do in store pick up for new purchases during the first two weeks of launch for all store units and not just some store units.
Apple should just do in store pick up for new purchases during the first two weeks of launch for all store units and not just some store units.
What fun is there in that...
And so what if the people in line aren't personally excited? The phones are going to people who ARE excited about the product. In fact, they are SO excited that they are willing to pay 3 times the retail prices. That's MORE excited about Apple than most of you other commenters are.
Who said "Apple needs a cheap iPhone for China"?
Show of hands...
See, if Apple had a cheap iPhone, Chinese scalpers would be able to buy MORE of them to resell. Since they can only by a smaller number, Apple is doomed.
• 1000 people in line at Apple Store The Grove.. One thing stood out... A disproportionate amount of Asian's (compared to other Apple on-sales) were in fact in line and were noticeably carrying and obsessing mainly on Samsung devices...hummmm Apple fans? Yeah sure..
• 3500 people in line Apple Store Brea / Orange County.. Same report.. Contingents of Asians line waiting many only packing Samsung devices..and paying with hoards of cash. Police were called. Anger raged. Extra security. Apple fans were angry and felt these groups were buying up their chances of fairly getting phones.
• Over 700 people in line Apple Store Victoria Gardens Rancho Cucamunga Calif. Same story...
While I directly have no idea what decent any of these line waiters were - anecdotally its a good guess many could have been Chinese and strictly grey market buyers - judging by their own actions.
To be very clear - nobody cares who or what ethnicity stands in line to buy phones - everybody at Apple Store The Grove just wanted a fair shot at getting a phone. There were paid line waiters (task rabbit) - same story, money was changing hands like crazy. But what also seemed obvious was that every culture present had someone buying or looking for grey market phones for just even eBay.
Apple is totally to blame here tho. What is NOT being reported is that Apples own "new" reservation system that was "supposed" to be working that morning of the on-sale and it was not.
It was supposed to guarantee a line waiter a phone and would hold your place in line via a reservation number and text you once your phone was available that day for purchase.
At The Grove store it was a disaster. If in fact the system wasn't working they had no PLAN B ready. What would normally be a three hour line wait turned into 17/18 hours for many line waiters while those with preorder pick up confirmations from 9/12 got priority and waited in a special line.
That was lame bc preorder people were not quoted a specific time so of course they all flooded Apple stores first thing that morning. The stores should have told them return times and that would have given line waiters a shot at available merchandise.
The fact that NO ONE from the Apple Store The Grove came to the line to hand out tickets like other launches - gave no wristbands etc - the bartering for a space in line got to a fever pitch and the opportunity for grey market scalpers flourished before our eyes..that was repeated at nearly every Los Angeles area Apple Store..
Apple Stores in Los Angeles totally failed to protect the integrity of these utterly massive lines to ensure fairness prevailed...
Also - those with preorders were stupidly allowed to change their minds and orders once in the store further diluting any way to grasp what the real stock was they had on hand..
This is what REALLY happened
Guess you missed the highly discussed detail that apple doesn't yet have legal clearance to sell the iPhone in China. Three have been whole articles about this issue, which is why they are not selling it there
Suuuuuure. Of cooooouuurse not...
But who cares anyway? How many did these idiot scalpers buy around the world on launch day? Maybe a thousand, or even two or three? Out of a few million, it's really insignificant.
I suppose it does make the line less fun for those in scalper hot spots like NYC, so I don't like the profiteering assholes either. I wouldn't mind at all if countermeasures were taken against them, but it's not like some huge crisis or anything.
On a side note, to those saying just require a credit card for purchase: store managers will find a way around it to pump up their volume. When I worked at the Apple Store during the first iPhones availability official Apple corporate policy was no cash for iPhones. So what did store managers do? Instruct all Mac Specialists (all sales people were still called that at the time) to bring all Chinese people coming to buy iPhones with cash to buy an Apple Store gift card with cash and then pay for the iPhones with the store gift card. Since Apple Store policy also said store gift cards were accepted for any product we could get around corp. policy by following it and cause our store revenue to explode.
I hope someone important enough at Apple sees the Neistat video and they do something about this. I worked at an Apple Store when the first iPhone came out and still have friends that work there. The store I worked at happens to be the largest seller of iPhones anywhere in the world. At this store it has been like this since day one but it seems like this has become the norm everywhere now. I preordered my last few iPhones for delivery so as to avoid having to stand in line with people with little or no English skills and all are of a certain ethnic background that seem to have been never taught about the concepts of manners or personal hygiene and bathing. How is it good marketing for Apple when the news footage of people waiting in line for the new phone are of homeless looking Chinese people sleeping on the sidewalk?
On a side note, to those saying just require a credit card for purchase: store managers will find a way around it to pump up their volume. When I worked at the Apple Store during the first iPhones availability official Apple corporate policy was no cash for iPhones. So what did store managers do? Instruct all Mac Specialists (all sales people were still called that at the time) to bring all Chinese people coming to buy iPhones with cash to buy an Apple Store gift card with cash and then pay for the iPhones with the store gift card. Since Apple Store policy also said store gift cards were accepted for any product we could get around corp. policy by following it and cause our store revenue to explode.
Comments like these make me feel so so low. Has the Apple fan base become so far from reality - so homogenic and upper class - that we've become snobbish? To look down upon and shrug people of other economic classes & ethnicities.
We're there hiccups regarding proper line management and ticketing (and pre-order purchasing) yes. Apple will learn from it make appropriate changes.
But lets also remember there were also some of us - white guys - whom also purchased an extra iPhone to resell in the gray market as well. But for some odd reason - we're not at all ever part of the problem.
If anything the exploitation of certain groups made visible in the lines waiting for the iPhone should highlight the social-economic class problems we have deeply ingrained in our societal class struggle. We should not shrug them off & find "creative" ways to 'deal with them' so we don't have to see them. And Apple should NEVER entertain the notion that they should ban groups of people because they "don't fit or look like" the traditional upper (middle) class consumers of Apple 10 years ago. America is changing. Apple is changing. The face of Apple's loyal customer base is also changing.
Who is really in the wrong here? The people in line waiting to buy an iPhone strictly to resell it or the people (imo idiots) willing to pay exorbitant prices to get an iPhone ASAP?
Young buyers from China (Hong Kong) were interviewed by Australian TV news programs. They were more than willing to pay airfares and accommodation for bragging rights back home (and a brief holiday down under).
If you lived in China, what would you rather buy? The iPhone that your friendly, open, and democratic government has approved, or the unapproved iPhone from America? If you lived under their yoke, you might consider the unapproved version "better" even if in the end they're actually both the same. I wouldn't be surprised if the approval delay might have something to do with the encrypting of all communications on the iPhone, making it impossible for the Chinese government to look at how people are using it.
So you pay a premium in order to have something you can't or shouldn't be able to have. We all do that every day with a number of different items. People pay exorbitant prices to have things just to show them off, to show their success, whatever. Why should the Chinese or anyone else be any different. They have the money and don't mind paying for it. If we all had the money and didn't mind paying for it, most of us would probably do the same thing (unless we lie to ourselves of course).
And on a final note, why should a company prohibit people from buying their product? Why should someone overseas not be able to buy something from America that isn't available there? People often complain about Apple making things abroad and making the money abroad without bringing it home. Well, here the foreigners are buying it at home, so the money is home. Who cares who buys it and for what use. The important thing is that they're buying it. It's a free country. If I want to buy a thousand phones to sell, give away, or just have them at home, I should be able to. I should even be able to activate them and use them just for my own personal use or whatever, WHEREVER. You want an iPhone at launch? Pre-order or get in line before everyone else? It's that simple.
It's unbelievable to me to read people here wanting to limit people from buying a product from the company they supposedly love. Who cares where the product goes. They're buying it and paying for it. They're in line. No one here knows who they're buying it for, and no one here should care who they're buying it for. Why should I pay with a credit card? Why should I tell anyone who or why I'm buying this phone for? Why should a company or the government know who or why I buy stuff?
Sorry, rant over, and as usual... Just pondering.
Maybe what Apple can do, at least for the first couple of months is the following;
3. Require 2 pieces of ID (ie: Driver's license & credit card).
lol.... I don't disagree, but it just struck me that THIS would make it about 10 times harder to buy an iphone than we make it to VOTE here in the US! You know, because its racist to require complicated stuff like ID and/or the ability to speak the native language....