MacBook Pro Shipments Being Delayed Due to UPS 'Mechanical' Issues

As others have mentioned, I'm seeing a similar issue with my  Watch. It was sitting in China for days and now it's been sitting in Japan for over 24 hours. In my experience, UPS is far more unreliable than FedEx. I just love how UPS gives you a delivery date and then changes — or entirely removes — it. Happens to all sorts of packages for me, from pet food to QVC orders to Apple products.

And DHL is just amazing. I ordered wheels from the UK, and they hit my front door 2 days later, before 10am. It was 'standard shipping' too. Impressed. I've had several things shipped DHL in the past 6 to 7 years, and it's always been on time, or early. UPS and FedEx have been great too, but not as fast as DHL. DHL blew me away with that last shipment. Wow...
 
I feel for those that didn't get theirs. Mine was delivered yesterday but this same thing has happened to me before with my previous MacBook Pro. It took another 3 days for it to arrive but it did finally get to me.
 
As others have mentioned, I'm seeing a similar issue with my  Watch. It was sitting in China for days and now it's been sitting in Japan for over 24 hours. In my experience, UPS is far more unreliable than FedEx. I just love how UPS gives you a delivery date and then changes — or entirely removes — it. Happens to all sorts of packages for me, from pet food to QVC orders to Apple products.
my watch is securely locked in "processing" since I ordered it on launch day - far away from dangerous "mechanical failure"
 
UPS overlooked that parcels that tall wouldn't fit under the wing and they'd have to go around.
 
If I have to I will work around it. Doesn't mean I want to or should have to. This is how the world works. If my food delivery doesn't come I won't starve but its an inconvenience. If my car breaks down and takes a week to repair I will still be able to get places, its just harder.

My very simple point that seems to somehow offend your "I don't care if stuff doesn't arrive when it should" point of view is that plenty of people do need these machines and aren't just buying them on a whim to play with.
Sounds very entitled.
 
I wonder if they have been hit with a cyber attack because if you look at the news for the past couple of days, a large number of businesses have been reporting 'problems' of one sort or another.
 
I didn't think I'd be a new MBP buyer right now, but M1Max does sound interesting, so I checked Apple's site yesterday and scheduled one for pickup same day. No UPS delays or breakdowns required.... ;)
 
No, I'm using a low spec computer to do my work while I wait for this to arrive. I quit my job to build a startup and had to give back my old computer last week so I have two options. Expect this MBP to turn up before I have to return the temporary mac mini to apple within the 2 week window or buy another computer because apple can't fulfil their delivery dates.

Quite amazing you can't imagine any scenario where people need these to arrive in a timely manner.
He probably is amazed that anyone would trust their livelihood to a preorder coming from a country thousands of miles away during a pandemic and knowing there are already hundreds, if not thousands of cargo containers that can’t even be trucked from their originating ports.
 
That explains why my shipment has been sitting in Shanghai for 2.5 days with it only saying “We are updating plans for your delivery” and other weird and vague tracking status notes such as “the package will be sent to your destination city.”
Surprised by UPS’s lack of contingency plans
This is same tracking we got with our 13 ProMax and our Apple Watch 7. The packages all seem to sit in airport after all those scans for 3-5 days. Shipping out of China is sluggish and prone to long delays this fall. One thing I read was that there was a shortage of planes due to the shortage and backup of shipping containers some customers are moving to air shipping and taking a lot of plans so the number of planes available for our apple toys is diminished and thus prone to delays til a flight is available. There are also some kind of restrictions/slowdowns in UPS (found elsewhere) due to corona in China and one I found even said up to 4-5 days delays will be likely seems to match this experience also. Interesting now UPS is saying mechanical delays before they were vague and often this was all we saw
 
If I had a choice I would only ever use FedEx or DHL. I ordered a 14" MBP and an XDR Display. With the XDR Apple said Oct, 28th, FedEx said the 26th and it actually arrived on the 25th. My 14" MBP has been sitting in Shanghai for 3 days and has no delivery date. Typical UPS.
 
Everything is a you problem if you want to look at it like that. If it affect you then its clearly a you problem eh. Screw it, who cares about customer service, timescales or anything because thats a you problem.

I will be fine if this turns up in another weeks time. That doesn't mean this isn't annoying and an inconvenience. I could have gone out and bought a high spec computer last week and taken a large monetary hit on the off chance UPS have a massive delay but that seems like a silly way to cover for something unlikely to happen.

Most people just do what they think is best at the time and hope that its a decent decision. If this arrives before next Tuesday its not an issue. If it doesn't, I will sort something out.

I disagree. Your job is to mitigate your risks as much as you reasonably can...

If you absolutely need a computer today then you buy a computer from Apple or Best Buy or MicroCenter in store or whoever has stock today. So you’re absolutely sure you have what you need on hand.

If you buy it for delivery then you do it ahead of time where you can buffer if anything delays the shipment...

What would you do if you get it DOA like another poster in this thread and Apple told him he’ll get a replacement in December… Again, you have to mitigate your risks. That’s always your job.
 
Sounds like a wider issue in Shanghai, from the way some other posters were talking about their unrelated shipping delays on various carriers. This would be indicative of a wider issue related to staffing on the ramp, fuel shortages, or power outages effecting air traffic control perhaps?

Sounds more wide spread than just UPS or Apple shipments.
Yep as I mentioned two areas with shipping that I saw with my 13 ProMax and Apple Watch 7, shortages of planes due to many customers using them with the costs, shortages and glut of shipping containers at China and our coasts. Second shortages of staff, power issues in china and on UPS site during my shipping I found indications of known delays due to Covid-19 issues in china (all of what you mention I suppose). The mechanical delays scan/info from UPS is new however in the info users are getting.
 
One of my friends that was a pilot in the Air Force now flys for them has been complaining about a lack of maintenance on the planes and the inability to get replacement parts for them due to shortages. He joked a few weeks ago we may be back to rail and container ships only before thanksgiving as it’s getting unsafe to fly.
Interesting I have a wiring harness for sensing fumes in my car fuel tank (not sure what it is needed for even LOL) I need replacing due to squirrels but it is not crucial or safety related but finding one is getting hard. My furnace guy has been looking for a piece to update a flaky one on my furnace (which has been behaving since he started looking to just replace to avoid the issue). I think he finally found and will be brining. This is going to be important in all aspects and the shipping containers are jammed up at ports, cost 10 times what they used to. Going to be interesting in even getting our items as to the costs for shipping and receiving them besides the important aspect of safety on those planes.
 
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I disagree. Your job is to mitigate your risks as much as you reasonably can...

If you absolutely need a computer today then you buy a computer from Apple or Best Buy or MicroCenter in store or whoever has stock today. So you’re absolutely sure you have what you need on hand.

If you buy it for delivery then you do it ahead of time where you can buffer if anything delays the shipment...

What would you do if you get it DOA like another poster in this thread and Apple told him he’ll get a replacement in December… Again, you have to mitigate your risks. That’s always your job.

I can completely mitigate the risk. I can go out today and buy a top spec 16" macbook pro for £4000 to completely remove the risk. I don't need to though. The computer I am working on now is OK. Its not great. Its slow for what I need but thats not costing me any real amount of money. If this blew up tomorrow and the one coming from China never arrived I would be fine. I have backups and could buy a new mac in about an hour.

If the new one arrived DOA I would have a think about what fits my needs best and go to the nearest apple store and pick that up.

Just to clear it up once and for all. This delay will not bankrupt me, kill me or cause me any real issues. Its just annoying as I am working on an underpowered machine that I thought I would be on for a week or so. I *need* a more powerful machine long term but a few more days won't cause me issues.
 
COVID, supply chain failures all over the world. Cargo ships backed up, not enough truck drivers. Planes are overtaxed & you need trucks & ground teams to on & offload everything. All points of failure.
Precisely all this is going on, in china UPS even says due to Covid-19 there can be up to 5 days delays on packages moving. Saw that with my watch 7 and 13 ProMax. Cargo containers also cost 10 times as much to ship if you can get on and even get it to port and on trucks with all the pileups at ports. I read we are short 60,000 truck drivers to load and ship the containers at our ports. Lots of folks going to air shipping to avoid issues with the shipping containers and taking over many planes hence shortage for UPS to get out of china. A perfect storm on a just in time system that is unable to handle these supply chain failures.
 
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