Good but not great (Apple Retail Store)

Member Name: Fiver29

Product:	Apple Retail Store
Date:	29/10/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

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Having looked around at the i-Phone for a while I eventually decided to buy one after selling my DSLR camera. Being a bit of a bargain hunter I decided to buy it directly from Apple as they were the only ones advertising any cashback on Topcashback, both O2 and the carphone Warehouse had zero cashback on the i-Phone for some reason.


The Apple website isn't the best website I've ever used, it looks quite slick and well presented but I didn't find it very good for navigation and speed. It wasn't difficult just not as good as I expected from a company as big as Apple and one that's in the computer game. The main reason I say this is because I was trying to find the student section to see if by some miracle they'd decided to discount the i-Phone, but I couldn't find it at all. Eventually I used the NUS Extra site and found it, but alas no discounts there. The site looks totally Apple-esque though, with sharp chrome lines and buttons, so there's no getting confused about whose site you're on.


The ordering procedure was straightforward enough, I looked at the choices (not that the choice is huge) and selected the i-Phone that I wanted. I was then given more information about the phone's specifications and the contract with O2. I didn't really look at these too closely because I'd already done my research and knew what I was ordering. So all I had to do was click on 'Select' and the i-Phone was in my basket, and ready to checkout.

In order to checkout you need to set up an account, I had previously purchased songs through i-Tunes so I was able to use that account, I just had to make sure that when it came to the payment details that I changed the card from my bank debit card to my credit card, or my bank manager would have been most annoyed! Once the details had all been filled in, all that was left to do was confirm. You are then given a confirmation page to print out, with your details and reference number on, as my laptop is not connected to a printer, and I was too lazy to walk into the next room, I just took a print screen.

The confirmation page stated that the delivery type and times were to be confirmed, but the estimated delivery would be between 27th October 2009 and 29th October 2009, I was placing my order on Sunday 25th October 2009. On Monday I received an email from Apple confirming the order, but it still said delivery to be confirmed, which I was a little miffed at, all it said was that I would receive an email as soon as the item was shipped.

I received this email on the Tuesday, which stated that delivery would most likely be on Wednesday 28th October, although this was subject to change, and it gave a link to track the order. On Wednesday I logged on and indeed the parcel was out for delivery, UPS delivered it later that day.

In this day and age, and for a company so big I thought the delivery service was quite poor, I really expected next day delivery, after all, how hard can it be to pick a box off the shelf? It's not like they even fit the SIM card for you like they do at the Carphone Warehouse, it's sent out straight off the shelf. And I know 3 days isn't really that long, but when you've spent that amount of money on a gadget, you want to be able to play with the gadget as soon as possible.

Summary: Recommended