Mobility Digest Reviews: Buying the Apple iPad 2 at Best Buy

Like a lot of other people, I went down to my local Best Buy on launch day and stood in line to get the Apple iPad 2. I have used enough tablets to justify this purchase and knew that in my business and personal life it would be a valuable too to stay connected and productive. I also was pretty sold on the iPad 2 and really liked the faster processor and some of the other updates Apple brought to this release. Personally, I like the design of the old iPad a little better, but this new iPad is thin! Incredibly thin! I will get more into that in a minute. First I wanted to write about my experience getting the iPad 2 and thank my local Best Buy crew who do an excellent job.  Unlike the local AT&T Corp. Store, the Best Buy mobility team are enthusiasts and have a great depth of product knowledge. They are also very friendly and put up with my many visits to their store. so again, thanks to Jeffery and Desmond! You guys rock!

I got down to Best Buy not days before obviously, but an hour before and I was surprised that there were actually two people in front of me. I had already read earlier in the day that on guy had sold his spot in line after waiting two days for $900.00! WOW! I tried to sell my spot but I had a harder crowd to sell too. I met some really cool people in line and even some friends that I didn’t know were into mobility. so for the hour we waited until 5pm CT we all had a good time talking mobility. So for me, the it in line was a lot of fun!

I was not really happy with the decision to usher us all outside to stand in line, after all there wasn’t that many of us and there was plenty of room in the store, but it was a nice day. So Jeffery took the four of us that were now in the store outside and got us all in line. He told us that supplies were very limited and that we needed to make sure we stayed in line. Another bummer was that they were only going to have the WiFi versions and only 5 white 16gb versions. Well, I was third in line and I knew that I would have first pick. The next thing they informed us was that there was only going to be one per customer. Many people were there trying to get two for their wives or other family members. That sucks, people groaning but things were still going good.

They way they finished the deal was that they had Sales Associates come around and personally speak to each customer and make sure they educated each one about the Device, the warranty coverage, the Buy Back program, and all the accessories that were available for the iPad 2. I thought this was really a great way to avoid issues and make sure that each customer was handled properly. There would be no excuses for any problems at the register. And in fact everything went very smooth from what I saw. I passed on all the warranty stuff and ended up with a White iPad 2 16gb WiFi version. I also got the HDMI Cable and a Black Smart Cover. I will talk more about the Smart Cover a little later also. I am not sure how any of your experience went, but I had a great time getting my iPad 2 and invite everyone to comment on their experiences too. The last thing I would mention is that my buddies at Best Buy did a great job helping all of us, and were not going to be able to get one on launch day. The products always go to the customers first and there was not enough to go around.

I decided to chop this out of my review of the iPad 2 so folks didn’t have to labor thorough this that don’t care about my purchase experience. Stay tuned, I am typing the iPad 2 review ASAP!