Dude...why is this taking so long?

[MattG]

Okay so this is somewhat of a rant but I need to get it off my chest.

Why does Apple always take so frickin' long to ship out orders?

My employer ordered a bunch of computers on the 7th. 90+ of them were from Dell. The Dells shipped within about 3 days of ordering them and we had them in about 3 more days after that. All 90+ of them.

We ordered 5 Macs from Apple on the same date. Apple's order status web site listed the 14th as the ship-by date. The 14th came and went. So did the 15th, 16th and 17th until Apple finally went and updated the ship-by date...to the 27th!

What puzzles me is that if I go to Apple's web page right now, configure both the iMacs and the MacBook Pro exactly the way we configured the ones we ordered, they each say "Ships in 1-3 days."

Yes, I realize Dell sells a lot more computers than Apple (computers that are also made more cheaply) and therefore has the means to produce more of them at a faster rate, but come on! It's especially annoying when I'm reading that Apple is posting a $472M profit today -- perhaps they should use some of that money towards ramping up production? And I could understand if these were brand new model computers, but they've each been around for months now, so it's not like the demand is insane like it sometimes is when Apple first releases new models.

I'd hate to see what happens to schools that order a LOT of computers from Apple (Virginia Tech excluded).

 

[OutThere]

Sounds like something's amiss. That's never been my experience dealing with their online store.

For big orders, though, CDW is better prepared for dealing with large-quantities for business and education.

 

[MattG]

Sounds like something's amiss. That's never been my experience dealing with their online store.

For big orders, though, CDW is better prepared for dealing with large-quantities for business and education.

It's funny you mention CDW because that's who we buy most of our stuff from...however, CDW is not permitted to sell Apple to educational buyers. According to my rep they used to be able to, but Apple pulled it from them and everyone else because vendors were abusing it and selling product to non-edu customers. They can sell to government, but not edu.

Before we placed the order through Apple, I called my CDW guy one last time to make sure there wasn't any way I could order through him, but unfortunately he's not permitted to.

 

[medea]

That's somewhat odd. I've always received fast shipping from Apple and my Macbook actually shipped three weeks earlier than the scheduled date.

 

[iAlan]

Could this be the 'cusp' of possible upgrade announcements - thus Apple not wanting to ship what could be a 'lower' model?

Just a thought...

 

[dmw007]

Sorry to hear about this MattG, this is not normal for Apple.

 

[Felldownthewell]

I think the fact that all the edu buyers are buying now may have to do with it...a shortage of computers maybe? Although I don't see that happening with a MBP and an iMac... Hopefully they'll arrive soon.

 

[MattG]

I don't know...I just emailed their customer support and referenced my order number, asked them what's going on with it. Hopefully they'll actually look at it but they'll probably just send me some generic response.