“My Apple order is still in process in the Apple Store app hours before the scheduled pick up time, what shall I do?” – a lesson from my own experience

I was at Toronto’s Eaton Centre to pick up my new iPhone from 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM. But when I entered the Apple Store around 11:33 AM, my order was still “In Process”, i.e., “Not Ready for Pickup”.

I asked a lady, and she told me to wait until my pickup window closed at 11:45 p.m. Then she told me that this was an online pickup order so the store couldn’t do anything about it, she suggested I wait in line so that if the online order was too late, I might be able to just buy the iPhone in-store if in stock.

I was frustrated because the wait line was so long. I called Apple Support but this was too noisy so our conversation was in a low efficiency.

Then I asked a gentleman, I showed him the email with the QR code I got yesterday titled “We look forward to seeing you during your Check-in Window.”. I told him it was still in process. He told me “We will figure it out”.

But another genius didn’t allow me to join the online pickup wait line. He insisted that I couldn’t pick my phone up until the order status changed to “Ready for Pickup”. He said it might be the bank that didn’t release money – but the Apple Store app didn’t give me any further instructions other than “wait”.

So I tried to call my bank. During that time, another young lady was offering to help. She said she would scan my QR code. Surprisingly, once she scanned the code, she told me that it seemed ready on her side. Then she tried to call someone to send the device, but the procedure was slow (too many people picked up phones today!). I was nervous because I thought it would end up with the same result that required me to wait, wait and wait, and I might not be able to get my new phone today.

But gladly, she handed over the phone to me! She’s very friendly and a very helpful Genius! I told her the transaction did disappear on my CIBC app. She assured me: “It’s good. Maybe it’s just the system. The system shows the order is complete. You are fine, the bank will post the transaction.” (Yeah, I recalled once upon a time I asked CIBC why an transaction was gone and they told me it would be posted later.)

So, if you are in the same situation as I was. Just ask the genius to scan your QR code. Maybe they can figure it out for you.