I’m a long time Apple fan, but the system they created for checking iPhone availability is a complete disaster. The way they have it set up sounds really great. You go online to apple.com/retail after 9pm each night and check your closest store and the next closest group for availability the next day. The problem is the stores don’t get shipments at the end of the day. They get shipments at some point during the day and put the phones on sale. Therefore when the website told me that my store would not have iPhones tomorrow, that was not true. Then they inevitably sell out of the phones before closing and once again at 9pm when you check the site it says they will have no iPhones the next day.

The situation Apple has created for themselves is that they only way to determine if your store has stock is to either go to the store, or more likely call them constantly to find out if they have gotten a shipment. This has got to be really fun for the employees at the store!

There is a simple fix for this situation. All the stores have to do is keep the shipments that they get during the day in the back until the following day. Then at 9pm the site would be correct in saying the the store will have iPhones in stock the next day. That way you don’t have to call the store, and if you really want a phone, you can show up when the store opens and your likely to get one. This is a simple fix. I would have expected more from Apple.