Dear Steve,

Let me share my experiences in the Paris Apple Store on iPhone 4 launch day, June 24th, 2010. This is not about the reservation system or the device shortage, but the grossly mismanaged crowd handling that took place.

The first line formed outside the shopping center on the sidewalk of Rue du Rivoli, as indicated by the reservation confirmation emails. There was no security present, and no information on when the doors to the mall would be opened. The doors were first stormed by the crowd around 5am, when an employee approached one of the doors. People were crushed, and nobody was there to intervene. This was totally out of control.

At about 6 am, security personnel started showing up, yelling for everyone to back up in French. The original order of the line on the sidewalk was long lost by then.

Only then they put up the first metal barriers, around the crowd that gathered around the closed doors. Again, people were forced out of their positions.

At 8am, the doors opened, and people were ushered down cordoned off lines in the mall hallways. Only then was coffee and water provided. Security guards misinformed the customers about where to line up. People without reservations were sent to the mis-labeled reservation line, then ushered back to the front of the non-reservation line, cutting the line for others.

There apparently was no working communication between blue-shirt Apple Store employees and the security guards. And only then it was announced that for every 10 reservation customers, one walk-in would be served.

This still is not the really bad part. I was about in the 20th spot at that point. People were pushing from the very end of the line, without any wave breakers, to be stopped by security brutes in the front of the line. This was actually feeling life-threatening.

This went on for 4 hours straight, in my case. Pushing, complaining to the guards, complaining to the Apple Store employees. Nothing changed, they could not establish order and a safe environment. People were overheating, suffering shortness of breath, several older ladies who accompanied their 20-something had to step out of the line to avoid collapsing.

Guards were aggressively pushing back from the front of the line, causing people to shout “It hurts, stop!”. Customers as well were misbehaving very badly, harassing other waiting customers verbally and physically, without any intervention from the guards.

Even the guards themselves ridiculed the customers, pushed them around, touched them when they clearly indicated their discomfort. Most of them didn’t understand English, and didn’t make an effort to get a translation.

When I entered the store, I confronted apple employees [Redacted], store manager [Redacted], and another lady who would not identify herself, but claimed she worked for Apple. They said they tried, that there was miscommunication and that there was no other way. Only the lower rank employee seemed truly sorry. The store manager would not budge, and the lady spun the most vile and cynical PR bullshit even you can imagine.

When asked how they could make it up to me, I suggested lifting the two-device purchase limit for me. The manager refused, the lady cited PR-talk.

But really at this point, it isn’t about buying the phone any more. This is about how your company treats human beings and how it runs their stores.

Apple cannot treat their customers like this. This is human herding, they treated us like cattle. And that’s one of the prettier comparisons that comes to mind.

It is an outrage that you would treat your biggest assets, customers who stand in line on day one to buy a product sight unseen, like trash and let them be manhandled by untrained, sadistic minimum-wage workers.

One German girl, about 20 years old, when reaching the front of the line, broke out in tears. Is it that image you want to show at the next keynote presentation? I liked the picture of the little girl hugging her iPad better. I was at the Fifth Ave Store for the iPad launch, and I know that an event of this magnitude is manageable.

Please make this right and make sure this never happens again, at any Apple Store event.

Regards,
Timo Hetzel

Sent from my iPad