Target Says Apple Watch Series 2 Orders Will be Delayed, Offers $50 Gift Card to Affected Customers

Friday September 16, 2016 8:42 AM PDT by Joe Rossignol
target_logoFollowing in the footsteps of Best Buy, Target has emailed customers that pre-ordered the Apple Watch Series 2 today to inform them that orders may not be delivered by the original date promised upon checkout.

Target said it is experiencing delays in receiving Apple Watch Series 2 models from Apple, adding that it will expedite all orders as inventory becomes available to get customers their new Apple Watches as soon as possible.

No updated date was provided for when orders will begin. Target will be emailing a complimentary $50 gift card to affected customers in the next 24 hours to help assuage any inconvenience or frustration the delay may have caused.

Apple Watch Series 2 launched today in the U.S. and select other countries, including pre-order deliveries and limited in-store availability at Apple and authorized resellers. The second-generation models feature improved water resistance up to 50 meters, a built-in GPS, a two-times brighter display, and a faster dual-core S2 chip.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 5
Tag: Target
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
52 comments


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now i see it
32 months ago
this September's product launch is looking to be well planned and nicely executed.
Rating: 7 Votes
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ArtOfWarfare
32 months ago
I'm confused by both Target's and Best Buy's announcements... does Apple not tell them in advance how many units they'll be receiving and on what days?

If Apple said they'd deliver some quantity and then they don't, it seems like Target and Best Buy should each be pointing their fingers at Apple, and then not giving gift cards to consumers - any customer backlash would be Apple's and Apple's alone to recover from.

The fact they're giving giftcards seems to be them admitting guilt... what are they guilty of? Did they know they'd have no stock?
Rating: 4 Votes
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Chupa Chupa
32 months ago

Multiple products launch. Higher demand due to Samsung Note recall.


Yeah, that's it. All the hundreds of millions of Note 7 owners that bought their phone because they wanted a stylus decided to buy an iPhone instead since there were no other Android stylus phones around.

Then they decided to buy a Series 1 AW and a Series 2 as well.
Rating: 3 Votes
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jonnysods
32 months ago
Does Apple have anything to sell? No wonder they didn't want to play the numbers game last weekend.
Rating: 3 Votes
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kilcher
32 months ago

Following in the footsteps of Best Buy ('https://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/14/best-buy-apple-watch-series-2-delay/'), Target has emailed customers that pre-ordered the Apple Watch Series 2 today to inform them that orders may not be delivered by the original date promised upon checkout.


Not JUST the date promised during checkout - when I went to bed last night at 10pm my account STILL said the watch would be delivered today. They obviously knew at 10pm last night that my order hadn't shipped. That's what ticks me off more than anything.
Rating: 2 Votes
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nagromme
32 months ago
The entire world economy is suddenly shifting, entirely due to all the gift cards given to impatient iPhone buyers.

(P.S. I hope Apple doesn't prioritize shipments to MY Target: they don't know a THING about Apple products. They don't even know what they carry, or what shelf 6 feet away from them it's on. Hint: way down by foot level. My Target hates selling Apple products and avoids it when they can.)
Rating: 2 Votes
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macduke
32 months ago
This is really strange. There's a story in here somewhere. I hope someone fishes it out and figures out what's really going on. I've never heard of launch-day partners suddenly announcing they don't have any product right on launch day. I wonder if there was a serious problem with a huge batch of Apple Watch Series 2?
Rating: 1 Votes
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Fall Under Cerulean Kites
32 months ago
Seems to be such a knee-jerk reaction. I doubt Target makes $50 per watch. I guess Target is going to be blaming Apple for poor quarterly profits. Again.
Rating: 1 Votes
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Chupa Chupa
32 months ago

lol this comment made me laugh.

I didn't mentioned a stylus. Note 7 didnt sell over 200 million, rather 2 million.

You seem married to Samsung, so we may wonder why are you knocking on MacRumor's door ... and what do you expect to find here?

Most of us are well reasoned, so let me reply to your comment here. Apple estimated 10% increase due to Note 7 recall. Any more than that, say just 15% increase, would suffice to surprise the supply chain and cause delays.

So that's maybe 100-200k more phones. Based on 200M Note 7s, this would mean that recent Apple efforts and recent Samsung fears would need to cause just 0.1% or less to cross the fence. Based on Samsung's 2.5M number, we are talking about 10-20%, assuming that all demand increase was due to consumers who switched from Samsung.

Some likely did switch due to the Geekbench results of iPhone outperforming Note 7. Some consumers may have had no interest in Note 7; rather they were not in the market for a phone or they wanted the new iPhone and dampened interest became renewed for a variety of possible reasons. Some others may have bought for some other reasons. So, Note 7 customers could have been just a couple or few percent (based on Samsung's number) and none of those may have had a craving for a phallus to spring from their phone to compensate for a less responsive Samsung screen.

All in all, thanks for visiting and for the yuckity yucks. Laughter is good for the spirit.

My gf says you are here because you had a bad day and needed to vent by picking a fight. If so, I wish things look up for ya, bud.



Ha. Ha. Your post made me laugh. I'm hoping you read my post in the wee hours of the morning before your first cup of coffee. Otherwise I suggest you go to Amazon and order a new sarcasm sensor as my post was 100% tounge-in-cheek facetious, not meant to be taken literally or seriously. Others seems to catch on, so again, hoping you were just low on caffeine. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Rating: 1 Votes
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avanpelt
32 months ago
I wonder why this is such a botched launch? Did Apple think sales were going to be modest compared to previous years so they had production scale way back? Did a breakdown happen somewhere in the supply chain? Did the typhoon over in Asia cause some unexpected problems? I have to assume that Apple knew full well this was going to be a rocky launch, hence the reason they're not releasing launch weekend statistics for the first time in a long, long time.
Rating: 1 Votes
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