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Best Buy Delaying Some Apple Watch Series 1 Pre-Orders to Mid-October

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After a string of emails about delayed shipments sent to pre-order customers of the Apple Watch Series 2 and iPhone 7 earlier in the week, Best Buy this morning has begun sending out notifications to a few users who pre-ordered the Apple Watch Series 1, informing them that the new shipping date is October 13, nearly a month after the devices launch today to the public.

best-buy-series-1

Image via blkngld on Reddit

Apple isn't mentioned in the email as it was in the email sent to Series 2 customers, but Best Buy is saying that "the item listed below is taking longer to fulfill than we anticipated," then providing the new October 13 date. In the same thread on Reddit, some users are mentioning earlier estimated dates, but only by a few days, including October 10. As Redditor u8miladoo said:

Again, this is for the Series 1 , i pre ordered it since day 1. Smdh. Never again Best Buy. Funny thing is , it is letting me do a store pick up pre order and it says available for my store near me. Im thinking to just do another transaction , get it in store and cancel the other one. What a nightmare.

Instead of the gift card offer given to Series 2 and iPhone 7 customers, Best Buy is appearing to simply offer paying for "the amount of shipping" on each order, which will be applied whenever the order moves to shipping status. For u8miladoo, that amounts to $12.97 in credit.

A few Best Buy locations are said to have Apple Watch Series 2 and Series 1 stock when the stores begin opening this morning, so there's a chance online pre-order customers with pushed-back shipping dates can purchase their Apple Watch in store, and then cancel the order online when they get home. Since the stores haven't opened yet, however, no one has tried out this method to success.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 11
Tag: Best Buy
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)

Top Rated Comments

I
iClone
125 months ago
I would cancel my order and find one somewhere else.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
dieselm
125 months ago
Watch out. They ran my credit card again last night prior to sending the delay message.

They knew exactly what they were doing. Giving a false ship date they knew they couldn't possibly meet in order to capture more sales.

A month delay announced on ship day?

They KNOW if it were to arrive today, it would have to have shipped in the last two days and they send us an email this morning?

This isn't an accident. This is pre-order policy.
[doublepost=1474036015][/doublepost]Even if 50-75% of the people cancel, that's still thousands of orders they captured and would not have gotten if they were honest.

Given the prices of the series 1 and adding in the "delayed" series 2, equals millions in sales they would have had to give up.

Too much money. Especially if you're the person counting on this quarter's sales numbers.

So lie, figure wouldn't lose too many customers long run and roll the dice. Asses.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
34 Volt Avatar
34 Volt
125 months ago
This is why I refuse to preorder from "Best" Buy. I preordered the 3DS XL Majora's Mask from them, and they outright cancelled days before it was going to release saying "we over estimated the quantity of the order" (paraphrasing). Seems they still haven't learned.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
Sasparilla
125 months ago
Wtf. This can't be all Best Buy...how much blame goes to apple?
Best Buy is doing this with the iPhone 7's as well - would not be surprised to learn they got some sweetheart deal from Apple (better margins etc.) by agreeing to wait on deliveries (either after they took launch day orders or before but kept saying they'd have them launch day). I remember on pre-order day they were saying they could still get stock for today...

This will drive those customers away (long term) who put big dollar orders in - dumb on Best Buy's part. I'd cancel on principle as well.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
T
toph2toast
125 months ago
Series 1 is technically a new product. Basically the same watch that's been out but with the new processor from the Series 2. Most people are referring to the original, now discontinued, watch as S0 or Series 0.
Thanks, I missed the part where they put a new processor in it.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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