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Apple Watch Pre-Orders Now Shipping for April 24 Delivery
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UPS offers many services other than simply picking up packages from a company's warehouse/office, and they don't all mean that something has been "shipped" officially. You ever see those UPS commercials where they talk about solving problems, logistics, etc...? That's what this is. UPS has vast warehouses where they store inventory for customers, and those packages are not considered "shipped" just because UPS has them.
It's very likely that these units are arriving from China directly into UPS warehouses and then getting processed for delivery directly to consumers. It doesn't make sense for Apple to maintain a huge set of warehouses for temporary storage of stuff like this, nor to have these big shipments going to an Apple warehouse somewhere only for them to turn around and have UPS pick them all up again to ship to customers.
All of this would be hidden from customers, as there's just no need to over-complicate the information that customers receive. Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but for a highly expected product like this, everyone is obsessively checking status and paying more attention than normal, so the nuances in each status get more scrutiny.
UPS also has to maintain a certain level of service, and part of that is reporting. They would have to report on how often they hit or miss their guaranteed delivery times (not Apple's estimate but their own standard of service for each type of shipping they offer {e.g. "overnight"}), and something shipped "overnight" needs to be delivered within 24 hours (or whatever) in order to maintain those numbers. They will not mark an overnight delivery as "shipped" until they actually want to start that 24 hour clock, and since they're not allowed to deliver until Friday, they give them a status other than "shipped" until they can comfortably assume the delivery can be made. This would only apply to logistics customers, not a typical retail customer (before anyone starts making accusations that they could just hold everyone's packages all the time to always make their numbers look good). All of this would apply to many other carriers as well (Fedex, etc...)
Now that we are within the 24-hour delivery window for "overnight", I would expect to see those statuses changing more to shipped. Of course, deliveries can also be made after Friday, but anyone seeing "Preparing to ship" can be confident that their wait time for delivery will soon come to an end.
Now we can all worry and moan about what time it'll going to arrive tomorrow...
'Can't believe I've got to wait till the afternoon
'
'Can't believe I've got to wait till the afternoon
'I am thoroughly disappointed with Apple
I ordered the
42mm SS Black Classic Buckle at 2:18 AM Central Time on April 10th and was told 4/24 - 5/8
Apple has known they were releasing these watches for several months and should have been well stocked with the different watches themselves and some kind of inventory of bands.
Then they have had plenty of time to order more bands based on orders.
I SHOULD BE GETTING MINE TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!
I am still stuck on "Processing" and got the vague "be patient" email last night.
Now I'm hearing that people who were initially told May or June delivery are getting them tomorrow!!!
This sucks so freaking bad!!!
I ordered the
42mm SS Black Classic Buckle at 2:18 AM Central Time on April 10th and was told 4/24 - 5/8Apple has known they were releasing these watches for several months and should have been well stocked with the different watches themselves and some kind of inventory of bands.
Then they have had plenty of time to order more bands based on orders.
I SHOULD BE GETTING MINE TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!
I am still stuck on "Processing" and got the vague "be patient" email last night.
Now I'm hearing that people who were initially told May or June delivery are getting them tomorrow!!!
This sucks so freaking bad!!!
Ordered 42 SG sport black band, confirmation 302 am 4/10....card was just billed at 205 pm eastern time. However still says processing on apple site so who the heck knows.......indiana......keep hope alive.
That's because your time zones are all messed up... lol... kidding of course...
Still wondering if the watches ordered immediately after preorder still "processing" are being shipped via FedEx and there is some glitch there which will be fixed at the last minute. Wishful thinking
My CC was charged yesterday afternoon. My order status changed to "Preparing for shipment" a few hours later. This morning I tracked by reference on USP using the phone number on my order, and there is a package listed as weighing 2.2 pounds and for delivery by 3 PM on 4/24! Just checked my order status and it shows that shipping number!
This will be my 42mm Space Gray Sport Apple Watch!
Just got the notification of the charge from BoA at 2:15pm EST. Ordered 42 SG sport black band, confirmation 3:03 am 4/10. Still says processing on apple site, and I have not received the "Be Patient" email. Hoping this means I'm still in the running to receive it tomorrow.
Same here in NorCal. Preparing for shipment, no tracking number, no "email of death". One of my watches is the 42mm AlSport+White, which someone in this thread with a 4-6wks estimate got a tracking number for. At this point I'm going to assume we'll be receiving our watches tomorrow, even if we don't get a shipment notice today.
Something is happening as it can't be a coincidence that this many of us are all of the sudden getting charged for the black sport. Maybe this is going to be a fedex batch??
You beat me by 5 minutes with preorder! Haha. No credit card charges yet. My extra charging cables will be here today though!
I'm not upset, just disappointed, and curious as to what others who have purchased the same as me are getting. Ideally, I'd love to have mine by May 1st because I wanted to sport it at my graduation (M.Ed in Reading Education), but it's not a huge deal.I wonder if the status update mess is due to a new integration with UPS' backend systems. Apple usually uses FedEx for shipping, so these tracking issues may be part of a new partner shakeout.
But this is a brand new product launch with multiple product offerings. It is much harder to gauge what the public will gravitate towards or even if they will buy it at launch. If they would have overproduced and customers were slow to purchase it would be deemed a failure.
Apple saw the demand was higher than they anticipated and scrapped the original plan of launching in stores on the 24th to fulfill preorders. From a business standpoint a delivery range was the smart thing to do. There are far too many unknowns. The range was provided before customers placed the actual order(I used that information to make my decision).
Sorry so long. Enjoy your new watch tomorrow.
For everyone that is complaining......I ordered about 30 minutes after the orders went live. My estimated shipping was mid may. It still says processing on my order status on apple.com
But if you go to UPS.com and track by reference number, which is your telephone number and then put your destination country at United States and destination zip code as your zip code, then it should pull up your tracking information. Mine shows it will be delivered tomorrow and yet on Apple.com it still is showing for mid May delivery.
But if you go to UPS.com and track by reference number, which is your telephone number and then put your destination country at United States and destination zip code as your zip code, then it should pull up your tracking information. Mine shows it will be delivered tomorrow and yet on Apple.com it still is showing for mid May delivery.
Hey, I have 42mm steel+milanese loop that's still stuck in "Processing" purgatory. Almost wondering if I should cancel then take my chances in the stores
I have a feeling it's about where you are more than what you ordered...
Ordered SS BSB at 2:08 central; confirmation email 2:10 am for 4-6 weeks, May 13-27. Still shows processing.
Wonder if it's the Black Sports Bands for the SS that caused the initial delay?
My other problem, kept trying to get in-store delivery since my iPhone 5 arrived at 9:00 pm when others got their phones at launch time by lining up. Won't make the mistake again since I was ready to pay using iPhone app at 2:02 am central. Interesting how 6 minutes makes a 4 week difference.
Wonder if it's the Black Sports Bands for the SS that caused the initial delay?
My other problem, kept trying to get in-store delivery since my iPhone 5 arrived at 9:00 pm when others got their phones at launch time by lining up. Won't make the mistake again since I was ready to pay using iPhone app at 2:02 am central. Interesting how 6 minutes makes a 4 week difference.
Hey, I have 42mm steel+milanese loop that's still stuck in "Processing" purgatory. Almost wondering if I should cancel then take my chances in the stores
I have a feeling it's about where you are more than what you ordered...
You won't find them in stores for a while, if what they say is true, so you might just want to wait on cancelling for a while...
Woohoo! CHARGED for 42mm SS Milanese Watch
Credit card was just charged for my 42mm SS Milanese and the apple care! Not that this means I'll get it tomorrow, but I'm excited I got charged at least. My husband's watch (Black 42mm Aluminun Sport) has not been charged though.
Credit card was just charged for my 42mm SS Milanese and the apple care! Not that this means I'll get it tomorrow, but I'm excited I got charged at least. My husband's watch (Black 42mm Aluminun Sport) has not been charged though.