I ordered the new version of the Apple Watch when it was announced. It shipped three weeks later, on October 6. Then it got stuck in Memphis. I got an email from Apple asking me how I was liking my watch. I told them that it hadn’t arrived yet. They scheduled another shipment, but they must have sent me to the back of the line because the new watch isn’t supposed to ship until November 3 – 10.
Then they opened up a return authorization so I could return the watch that FedEx thinks is in Memphis. The mind reels.
I found both orders on their website. But there seems to be no way to contact them to straighten this out. Google got me a customer support number. The first thing I encountered when I dialed it was a bot. After a frustrating few minutes, it transferred me to a person. It took a while to make my issue clear, and the rep went off to do something for a few minutes, but he finally told me that I didn’t have to ship back the watch I never got.
Whew!
Then I asked him why I went to the back of the line. He said that I didn’t; that replacements received first priority. So I guess that means that a) Apple’s entire production for three weeks is going to fill replacement orders, or b) there aren’t many replacement orders, but Apple isn’t building any significant numbers of the watch that I ordered in the next three to four weeks.
Neither sounds particularly credible to me.
[Update 10/17/17. I just got an email from FedEx saying the package will be delivered 10/16. That’s right: yesterday.]
[Update 10/19/17. I got an email from Apple saying the replacement shipped and giving me a link to a tracking page. The tracking page had both the first and the replacement order. Both had the same FedEx tracking number. When I went to that entry at FedEx, it was the old order. There is apparently no way for me to see the new FedEx tracking number.]
[Update 10/19/17. I got a call from FedEx to “confirm that the [first shipment] had been delivered”. I told them that it had not.]
[Update 10/20/17. I got a text from Apple saying the order would be delivered today, with a link to a web page that promised “details”. When I clicked on the link, I saw the same old page where both orders have the same tracking number, the one that says the stuff is stuck in Memphis. “Oh, Lord, stuck in Memphis, again.” Probably not going to be a hit.]
[Update 10/20/17. Watch delivered. And by UPS!]
My take on this is that FedEx screwed up and lost the first watch. Apple said it would take 3 weeks to ship a new one, but shipped it in a day or two. Then they gave me the wrong tracking number, and that was a tracking number for the wrong shipping company. I think they get an A on recovering from FedEx’s mistake and a D for communications.
[Update 11/6/17. I received yet another Apple Watch, this time from FedEx. I went to the Apple website. They show the return still open for the watch that never came. They show the current shipment that came today. They don’t show the shipment the got me the replacement watch. I opened a chat window with Apple. They said to use the return label for the one that just arrived. ]
They owe you at least another watch for stress and wasted energy, not to mention loss of opportunity to use a watch (any watch of the kind ordered!) for several weeks 🙂
I have had problems with FedEx in Marina del Rey, CA, too. Both times with Apple hardware. In both cases, Apple arranged for delivery by a private courier. The delivery guy told me I didn’t look like a lawyer. I guess it was the overalls, and because I’m not a lawyer. I have ordered tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of dollars of Apple equipment for my old team at work, which I’m sure had a lot to do with Apple’s response. DHL, UPS, and USPS have never lost deliveries in my experience, but FedEx appears to have a problem with theft. Both times, Apple followed up with calls from their security team to make sure that the machines were still sealed when they were delivered. They wanted to be sure that the machines had not been tampered with since leaving the factory in China.