If You Want To Buy an Apple Watch In-Store, You'll Need a Reservation

An anonymous reader writes "Good news for those of you thinking of buying an Apple watch but were concerned the experience wouldn't feel exclusive enough. According to MacRumors there will be no walk-in sales the first few weeks of launch. Instead, you'll have to call the store and make reservations. From the article: "Apple will begin offering online pre-sales of the Apple Watch starting on April 10th, with the first deliveries occurring on April 24th, the official Apple Watch launch date. During those two weeks, customers will be able to have hands-on 'try-on' appointments at Apple retail stores in order to help make up their mind. However, according to training documents that MacRumors has received, Apple is not allowing any walk-in retail purchases for the Apple Watch at launch. Instead customers must make an online 'Product Reservation' to hold a specific Apple Watch model at a retail store. This new 'Product Reservation' system is used instead of Apple's 'Personal Pickup' system for Apple Watches. Apple's retail training documents indicate that 'If a customer walks in and wants to purchase a watch, offer the option to try on a watch. Then help them place an order online or through the Apple Store app.'"

Comments

Makes sense

[Dan East]

This makes sense for a number of reasons. First, it will keep scalpers from buying up so many devices and selling on eBay. Makes it much easier for Apple to keep track of these people. Second, it will reduce the number of impulse buys for people that don't really understand what the device can, and more importantly, can't do, thus reducing the number of returns and increasing overall customer satisfaction. Sure, it has downsides, but I think the upsides probably win out in this case.

Re:Way to piss off customers, Apple.

[CastrTroy]

At a price of $350, it's hardly expensive for a watch. I'm sure that requiring the appointment is much more related to getting the thing set up with your iPhone to make sure the whole thing goes seamlessly I could seriously see quite a few people buying one and being disappointed when they couldn't get it to pair properly with their phone, or they don't even own an iPhone, and just expected it to work on it's own. I think they just want to ensure that people get a good experience with the watch. And letting random people buy it off the shelf is probably a sure way to lead to a lot of people who have no idea what the product is, and just giving it bad reviews.