I think you are being far too naive. If apple really wanted to do something about it I think they could, if they really put their minds to it. I just dont think they feel its an issue and thus don't have the inclination to reduce wait times.
From their perspective its more cost effective to have less stock sitting in warehouses around the world. That means we get shafted on delivery times.
I don't think there are many companies that could pull it off and not loose customers but it just so happens that their products are usually best in market so people just put up with it.
It doesn't change the fact that A LOT of people would rather not wait. Yes its not the end of the world but could they do better? Yes I think so.
Oh and fyi these are not pre orders. This is a released product. Released means 'Available to buy now'.
No, Apple will want to get the order queue down to "In Stock, within 24h", because that maximises sales, and sales equals money. Shipping times as they are right now are simply not the intention, and are caused by Apple not being able to fill demand - for whatever reason. The rMBPs are drop-shipping from China, not local stockpiles, which is what Apple do when they simply don't have enough to go around.
If you were right, Apple would keep us at 3-4 weeks shipping for all their products...but they don't. Everything else is within 24 hours, because they have stock on hand to sell. Ergo, there's a shortage somewhere in the supply chain (one of which is the 768GB SSDs).
You're right in one respect, it's a released product, in high demand. Back on day one it was basically a queue, and you knew you'd be waiting. I signed up, and was perfectly ready to wait until 13-19th July for my computer, but was happy when it was several weeks early.
I agree with toadfish, you are being naive. The fact that they don't "charge you until your order ships" is splitting hairs. The fact is I have to leave $3k available on my card for when this order does decide to ship. And I have a $100 free gift card that I was charged for with no system for it to be discounted from or used on.
And this was NOT a pre-order. As toadfish said, this is a shipping product. When they said available today, they did not say in limited quantities. They should of said available next month. That way, they would of had ample time to ramp up production on these and avoid this whole fiasco. If I were one of the people that ordered as soon as the store opened and was still waiting, I would be even more pissed than I am now.
They get away with this because they can. But it's not fair and they should know better by now.
$3k on your card is not money in Apple's bank account. It's not money that Apple have taken away from you without giving anything back. The $100 gift card? You can still use it on an iPhone, iPad, another Mac, whatever. They've still given you a product for your money.
You'll notice that those who ordered as soon as possible all have their machines now - shipping is now on the 3-4 weeks or longer wait people. Everybody was told that it could take that long for their computer to ship, it's what you signed up for, so why moan when it is still in that timeframe? If you were so bothered about the wait, why did you even order in the first place?
Apple were up front about the wait times. Whenever I see "Ships in 3-4 weeks" on Apple's site, I know that this means I'll have to wait (or the product is on the way out), and with a new product I also know that it'll be due to high demand/short supply.
My credit card was charged over 10 days ago and I still haven't seen any movement...
Full charge or a hold? Apple usually do a hold for the full amount, to check you have the money, and then refund it later until they finally take the money at shipment.
This is all completely hypothetical by the way. We don't know the exact reasons for wait times, we don't know the demand quantity vs supply quantities of components or even factory output.
All we know as PAYING CUSTOMERS is that 4 weeks is rather long. I think a little moaning and groaning is to be expected
Ironically the most whiny posts are the ones that are moaning about people not being patient not the ones complaining about wait times!
I actually think if there were shortages with supply of components etc, that would have been communicated to customers.
I don't really think it is the fact that people have to wait thats causing a little discomfort. I think the root cause is the lack of communication going on i.e. 'Processing'. Processing doesn't really tell you much.
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Also not equal would be != not =/=?
We don't know the exact reasons for delays, but we can make a damn good guess. The normal MBPs or MBAs aren't suffering this problem, so there isn't an issue with the CPU, GPU, SSDs, logic boards, RAM, ports, boxes etc. In fact, it means the problem must lie with what makes the rMBP different:
1) Screen - LG can't make a brand new screen type fast enough
2) Enclosure - Unlikely
3) 768GB SSDs - 256/512 is fine, but delays on these orders
Everything else about the rMBP can be found in other Macs, shipping in normal times. I'd personally place money on LG not being able to make enough screens to fill demand right now, as they're brand new.
You're totally contradicting yourself there. One minute you say that if somebody has to wait 4 weeks for their precious laptop then they can have a moan, and then you say the moaning is due to a lack of communication? Make your mind up!
Oh, and =/= is perfectly accepted mathematical usage.
