I have been reading the thousands of post about order status and why some ship quick and others seem to hang on forever. I thought I would help explain why this happens.
First off there are basically two types of apple orders. Paid orders and open orders. Paid orders are those that Apple has obtained an authorization for the total cost of the order. This happens the second you place the order. This is a PRE-authorization. The funds/credit will be held for a few days and then re-appear. This order is paid. Apple has up to one year (depending on the bank) to actually finalize the transaction. These orders zip thru the build process and usually are charged when ship label is generated.
The open orders, those that have not been PRE-authorized must be charged before the item is shipped or even built. These orders are all of us that purchased AppleCare. Apple will only charge you for the AppleCare at time of purchase. This is due to legal reason concerning the AppleCare policy. All of these orders will not ship until Apple had been paid..ie. authorization from your credit card.
Sometimes your credit card will decline due to fraud blocks. This happens to me every time I place an order. If this happens Apple may contact you but it will delay the build. My bank contacts me within minutes and I usually get it fixed quick. Your mileage will vary on this scenario depending on your bank.
This brings us to transaction batching. Apple is a very large company and processes millions of credit card transactions. They batch credit card transactions to streamline the process as well as save money on transaction cost. Most retailers do this as well. It saves them millions in transaction fees. Depending on where your order is in that batch will also determine how quickly status change or when the card is finally charged.
Example... Lets say Apple batches every thousand orders. Your order is open and has not actually started to build but it's the last order in the batch, meaning there are 999 builds ahead of yours, it will sit in processing much longer then the first order in the batch. You will see the charge but status shows processing. Since there were 999 builds ahead it may take awhile until it changes. That first order in the batch will change rather quickly.
Paid orders are basically the same and since they are paid (the pre-authorization) sometimes orders at then beginning make it out the door without the final charge posting.
This is just a very basic explanation. There are thousands of other factors that will impact order status and build times. The marrying of the factory MRP system with the Apple credit card system and the order status server also has a very big hand in order status movement.
Most of you are very lucky. I changed my order and now I sit and wait for my new estimated ship date of January.
I hope this helps...
First off there are basically two types of apple orders. Paid orders and open orders. Paid orders are those that Apple has obtained an authorization for the total cost of the order. This happens the second you place the order. This is a PRE-authorization. The funds/credit will be held for a few days and then re-appear. This order is paid. Apple has up to one year (depending on the bank) to actually finalize the transaction. These orders zip thru the build process and usually are charged when ship label is generated.
The open orders, those that have not been PRE-authorized must be charged before the item is shipped or even built. These orders are all of us that purchased AppleCare. Apple will only charge you for the AppleCare at time of purchase. This is due to legal reason concerning the AppleCare policy. All of these orders will not ship until Apple had been paid..ie. authorization from your credit card.
Sometimes your credit card will decline due to fraud blocks. This happens to me every time I place an order. If this happens Apple may contact you but it will delay the build. My bank contacts me within minutes and I usually get it fixed quick. Your mileage will vary on this scenario depending on your bank.
This brings us to transaction batching. Apple is a very large company and processes millions of credit card transactions. They batch credit card transactions to streamline the process as well as save money on transaction cost. Most retailers do this as well. It saves them millions in transaction fees. Depending on where your order is in that batch will also determine how quickly status change or when the card is finally charged.
Example... Lets say Apple batches every thousand orders. Your order is open and has not actually started to build but it's the last order in the batch, meaning there are 999 builds ahead of yours, it will sit in processing much longer then the first order in the batch. You will see the charge but status shows processing. Since there were 999 builds ahead it may take awhile until it changes. That first order in the batch will change rather quickly.
Paid orders are basically the same and since they are paid (the pre-authorization) sometimes orders at then beginning make it out the door without the final charge posting.
This is just a very basic explanation. There are thousands of other factors that will impact order status and build times. The marrying of the factory MRP system with the Apple credit card system and the order status server also has a very big hand in order status movement.
Most of you are very lucky. I changed my order and now I sit and wait for my new estimated ship date of January.
I hope this helps...
