Anyone in the UK got a new PMG4 yet?

[nixd2001]

Short version: Has anyone in the UK received a new PM (Silver Doors) yet? If so, has anyone received a 1GHz rather than an 867Mhz one?

Long version: A month ago I decided I had enough money to buy a PM. As with most big purchases, I bought relevant mags first to see what's happening. Lots of rumours of new machines. Therefore wait until they're announced. Within 5 minutes of the update web pages appearing (I know - sad - refresh every few minutes about 9am EST to catch the update!), ring my local Apple dealer. Takes them a while to get a confirmed price. By Friday, they've got my money. It's now two weeks later and they say that Apple still haven't shipped ANY new PMG4s in the UK. The headline UK Store page still lists "fast" and "faster" as "Shipping now!", which it has done since the update. Following the links until I get a final price through the online Store, last week it quoted delivery times of 3-5 days. All this week it has been quoting 1-2 days. And yet my dealer says none have been shipped and they still can't quote me an ETA. So what gives? Is Apple telling Porkies or are they really stuffing local dealers at the expense of Apple Store?

If ANYONE has successfully received a new PMG4, I'd be very interested to hear when and what spec. Even if this doesn't make my (sorely anticipated) new machine turn up any earlier, it might give my local dealer something to go back to Apple with and complain about the treatment. On the other hand, if no-one in the UK has yet received a new PMG4, does anyone have any clues as to how/why Apple have screwed up so monumentally?

Even if you've ordered and not yet received your order, please respond and help us together to build up some form of picture of how Apple is behaving in the UK.

Thanks,

 

[dnar]

Got my BTO last week

I ordered on the 15th of August and took delivery on Tuesday 20th August(it shipped out on the Monday from Cork). My config was a dual ghz with a BTO GF4Ti card, from the Apple Online Store. Guess they are taking priority away from the resellers.

 

[nixd2001]

Re: Got my BTO last week

Originally posted by dnar
I ordered on the 15th of August and took delivery on Tuesday 20th August(it shipped out on the Monday from Cork). My config was a dual ghz with a BTO GF4Ti card, from the Apple Online Store. Guess they are taking priority away from the resellers.

I am absolutely miffed!!!

Sounds a bit like Apple are stuffing their dealers, which is a real shame.

Just to rub salt in to the wound, are you enjoying have a shiny new machine?

 

[dnar]

Yeah, I was really surprised by how quickly it arrived. When I ordered it said 6-8 days build time, that was on the Thursday so I expected it to arrive about two weeks later. On the Sunday I logged into the store and it said my order was being built. I guessed it may have been a typo because last year, my new ibook said that for about 1 month. Anyway, logged in again on the Monday and it said ''shipped''. The site gives you a tracking number and it was already on the ferry to England.

The thing really flies, and 10.2 is a vast improvement over 10.1. With the GF4 games really fly, Max payne especially is really cool, with all the setting on full it runs with no slowdown. The mirrored door section is actually quite well made, it is actually metal and not just chromed plastic.

Have you tried other resellers?

 

[nixd2001]

Originally posted by dnar
Have you tried other resellers?

No. Although it *may* get a machine quicker (although its unknown just how reliably), I like buying things through local stores when I can walk in if I've got questions/issues etc. Unless Apple are being biased against one dealer versus another, this (your rapid delivery) probably means the choice is really abandoning the entire concept of a local shop and giving Apple the order direct. *Maybe* for the machine, although I'd rather not, but NO WAY for extra RAM or HDD - they charge so much over the general market rate. Apple absolutely rips people of here. For comparison:

Apple cost of *upgrading*:

256->512MB is extra £160 (inc VAT?)
80MB->120MB is extra £90 (inc VAT?)

Buying *outright* from scan.co.uk:

512MB DDR PC2700 DIMM is £101 (inc VAT)
120MB HDD is £130 (inc VAT)

Sigh - learning experience I guess.

 

[dnar]

I avoided all of Apples extras, especially the ram. I ended up getting an extra 512 from crucial.com.

John Lewis sell Macs, they also come with a longer warranty, maybe 2-3 years.

Good luck

 

[nixd2001]

I know have a delivery date of midday, Tuesday. And I seem to have next week booked off work as holiday! I guess I'm gonna get to new my new mirrored doors pretty well.

I'm probably going to bump the RAM up to 1GB, and through a commodity supplier. But I thought I'd just wait a bit in case it turns out there are odd incompatibilty problems - a week isn't going to harm waiting here.

Roll on Tuesday!

 

[nixd2001]

Originally posted by nixd2001
I know have a delivery date of midday, Tuesday. And I seem to have next week booked off work as holiday! I guess I'm gonna get to new my new mirrored doors pretty well.

I'm probably going to bump the RAM up to 1GB, and through a commodity supplier. But I thought I'd just wait a bit in case it turns out there are odd incompatibilty problems - a week isn't going to harm waiting here.

Roll on Tuesday!

Tuesday is here, I'm typing this on my FIRST EVER Apple computer, I'm like a kid with a new toy and 1GB RAM arrives tomorrow morning, I've got the rest of the week as holiday, and the developer tools seem to be ready for playing with. There's not much else I can ask for...

To add to the "fan debate", this PMG4 is virtually silent compared to the NT box I've now turned off because I don't want to use it. This reinforces the opinion I've built up reading all the "it's noisy" and "no it isn't" threads - it all depends what you're comparing against, and there are noisy and quiet machines being used for comparisons.

 

[amnesiac1984]

basically mine "shipped" last thursday from the online store but i have not got it yet, maybe tomorrow. The tracking system doesn't work and i am miffed

 

[nixd2001]

I think the initial shipping is from Cork, literally via boat. Once it gets to the mainland, (I'm guessing) a large container gets sent to an Apple distribution point, unpacked and then individual machines despatched. Once I got a date for mine, it did arrive on that date. I'd hope you get yours tomorrow, given it seems to have been despatched a day after mine.

good luck!