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Originally Posted by BTM
Yes, exactly. The fact that people can walk into a store and get Iphone4 cases or get them in a few days from other websites leave me to believe that there is not a shortage of cases. It's the fact that you must go through Apple's process to get it.
Every phone serial number is documented at purchase, why not just ship the appropriate amount of cases to their respective Apple and ATT stores? This amount can be approximated as the number of phones bought at the individual stores plus (for those who ordered online) the amount shipped to certain zipcodes. This gets you in the ballpark for number of cases, as while everyone is entitled to one, not everyone is experiencing problems and there are likely to be those forgoing the free case. Sure there will be left overs, but the amount of cases per store should be adequate.
Have people come in, have the Apple "Genius" scan or record the phone's serial number (hardly a daunting task as each of them has a handheld "register" type thing) and let the person walk out of the store with their choice of available cases.
Is it perfect? No, but it's a lot better SCM than having everyone apply for their case online and then ship them individually. All of this could have been figured out while Apple was "investigating these claims" or whatever was going on those 2 or so weeks before this announcement was made. Not only would the case shipping be cheaper for Apple, people would be getting their cases now.
My sister registered for hers nearly immediately and it's a 6-8 week wait? Unacceptable from a company that touts itself is a premium brand selling the best phone, who fucked up on R&D, and took their arm being twisted to admit it. Sure there is a buyer beware aspect for any new generation device, but it is no secret these problems were known well ahead of time but Jobs liked the design enough to overlook them.
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I ordered Apple's bumpers a month before they announced giving out free cases. It took 3 weeks before I actually got them. There is a shortage. With that said, Apple refunded me for both of them 3 days ago without me having to fill out any forms.