By Joe Rosensteel

September 21, 2023 6:53 PM PT

iPhone delivery anxiety

Apple works very hard to try and manage the massive preorder demand for day-one iPhone deliveries every year.¹ Apple originally allowed members of the iPhone Upgrade Program customers to set their orders up in advance, but eventually allowed everyone to pre-configure their phones before the official order time, leaving only the matter of the financial transaction to that Friday. Pre-approvals from financial institutions were started earlier than the Friday to try and prevent the rejections that happen when servers start melting down.

And yet, there’s still always some drama.

Some people live for that adrenaline rush of not knowing what will go wrong. Whether or not their orders for themselves, and family members, will all make it across that finish line. Oh, the stories they can tell about how they had the perfect Apple Store app force-quit workflow! Those people are living on the chamfered edge.

There are also people who were never in that group, or phased out of that group. The urgency isn’t there. A desire for a new phone still exists, but it doesn’t have to be the first day. Those people still might want their phone before December, though.

Both groups have to contend with the decision between shipping and in-store pickup. Here, Apple hasn’t been able to make the strides that it has with the ordering process. When purchasing an iPhone, the options are to preorder for delivery within a certain estimated window, or in-store pickup on a certain day at an appointed time. Both can wreak havoc on a person’s schedule, and have actually made me put off ordering an iPhone (and other Apple hardware) before, because I just couldn’t figure out if I would be able to receive the item.

What’s in store for you?

Being forced to pick your delivery method in your initial order can also lead to some regrets, since availability changes over time. For example, you might initially see a late October delivery window, but with in-store pickup happening on day one. Easy choice, or so you think! But once that initial pool of store iPhones is depleted, you won’t be able to select in-store pickup at all until that local store gets more iPhones in stock.

Store appointment pickup times also seem to suffer from cascading delays, especially during the first launch weekend. Apple will tell you that you have a 15-minute appointment window, which is laughably precise given how busy the stores can be. Your pickup could be prompt, or it could take three hours, which is what happened to a friend of mine.² You just have no idea if you’re going to get to the store and find an Apple employee that just hands you the phone and lets you leave, or if you’re going to wait in multiple lines and eventually check in at the door to the store only to be told that they’re running behind schedule.

However, if you wait until after launch because you want to reduce the chance of being stuck in the invisible DMV of an Apple Store’s overloaded appointment system, then you’ll be checking the inventory of every Apple Store near you every morning to see which models (and colors and storage options) have in-store pickup available. Then you’ll weigh that day’s schedule and guess how smoothly things will go. You might even avoid some stores based on past bad experiences. But you’ll never know until you get to the door and that Apple Store employee checks their iPad and reveals your fate.

Mail privilege

But Delivery is a bummer, too! Even though the majority of my time is spent at home, I truly have no ability to guarantee I will be able to reach my door for a delivery. When I worked in an office, there was still the off chance that the iPhone would be out for delivery on a Saturday. When I’ve needed to travel, I couldn’t redirect the order to a new location. And sometimes the delivery window slips back—or moves up—rendering your plan useless.

I wish Apple could offer something more like an Amazon Locker. Or at the very least, let customers ship to the store after the initial launch-palooza, and allow the customer to set an appointment time once the store had the device. Even Best Buy lets you do that! (But I don’t want to buy my iPhone from Best Buy. I want to buy my iPhone from Apple.)

Shipping to the store gives the safety and security of knowing that your phone is safe and nearby, but removes the pressure to bolt to the store when they’re going to be swamped.

Apple could even contact you if there was a delay with appointments at the store, so things could be rescheduled. And if a delivery window moves up, or slips back, Apple could ask the customer if they want to hold the original date… or change to in-store pick-up.

Many happy returns

The one really positive thing about this entire process is that trading in a device is mercifully easy to do. You can send your expensive, old iPhone into Apple for a undervalued discount on your new expensive iPhone without really feeling rushed, or that you’re putting your investment at great risk. I’ve heard a few stories of people having bad experiences with trade-ins, but not many.

The last time I did this, I had even missed the return window because of travel, and they… just sent a second return kit. No financial penalty incurred. Everything was smooth.

Getting a new iPhone causes me anxiety, when it should be a source of great joy. I’d love to see some creative retail solutions to smooth that out. Apple, please take my money—but don’t stress me out. I’ve got enough going on.

[Joe Rosensteel is a VFX artist and writer based in Los Angeles.]