McNot Happy w/ McSupply Chain - McFix It.

[therealseebs]

Furthermore, Apple has a stick quality control over their products, that's why they can charge more for their products, if you prefer to have your MBP rushed then go for it, but that's not how they work.

Given the number of returns/exchanges I've seen so far, I am sort of thinking that maybe a little more quality control would have given them more effective inventory.

 

[idunn]

Seriously Apple, WTH, you ask people to pay as much for a Macbook Pro 2016 as they might spend for a second hand car.

Release date: 27 October 2016. And yet you are then asking people to wait six weeks, while you mess around with your supply chain. You've had, what, since...since May 2015, right, to plan for this? That's well over a year. Well over a year to organize your supply chain, deal with Intel, get your secondary vendors ready to go.

This is not a drive-thru with people buying $5 Happy Meals, where you can just tell the customer to wait in the holding bay for the soft-serve machine to be reloaded because you stuffed up.

You want people to pay premium prices, you have your manufacturing organized. This is not a fast food outlet - many people on these forums are spending a MONTH's pay on this investment.

And how are you behaving as a corporation? You are designing great tasting meals, but your service is starting to smell a little off.

Premium prices = premium supply chain and premium service.

You blew it. You blew the service part. The only thing that sets you apart from the competition, and you're in the process of ruining that reputation. The only reason these people are loyal to your company? The quality of the machines, but mainly the world's best service.

Well done on doing it again, this time with the AirPods - another 6 weeks wait. Good luck asking teenagers to wait 6 weeks...meanwhile your competitors will have their products already sold.

Premium prices = expectation of premium service.

Fix your supply chain.

A certain point here.

I just heard anecdotally that, at least in some places, the usual time it takes to make an appointment at an Apple store has slipped from next day to a few days to more like a week or more.

If more to the point it seems that very thing that Tim Cook was supposed to excel in, logistics, is where they are increasingly slipping up. Products are delayed or largely unavailable on introduction. Two examples come readily to mind: the AirPods, which Apple had every intention of being available well before Christmas, and will not; then the 2016 MBP being AWOL for purchase on introduction.

Tim Cook obviously has no love for the Macintosh but this trend is extending into iOS products and peripherals, something they do presumably care a great deal about. The wheels seem to be coming off in various directions.

Perhaps a mixed blessing. Should they repair various breeches in all Apple, maybe even extending to reconsidering the abject state they've left Macintosh in.

 

[Phwoar]

You have options... It is up to you.

Agree on consumer choice, but disagree that the money paid is in order to stand in a queue for 6 weeks - I would have thought that cost to the purchaser's productivity should come as a discount. Why should the purchaser pay for the vendor's compulsory delay at the vendor's convenience?

This is what I'm concerned about: "We have milk for sale here $1 a gallon...you all haven't had milk for a year right? HOW ABOUT SOME MILK Y'ALL..step right up step right up...MILK YEWWW!! Ok thanks for your credit details, now you've committed, we are sorry but we didn't plan for any of this so we don't have the milk yet, but just be good fans and wait in line for...for 6 weeks".

Sound right to you? No? Problem is it's not just a gallon of milk- this is 2500 gallons of milk. This is not messing around.

It's at the consumer's expense. They are making money by reducing their credit risk, through not preparing properly unless they have the deposit of funds guaranteed.

This is the carpenter who makes you pay for the entire table, and all their time, before they've even gone and got the wood to make it. And by the looks of things there are some scratches and glitches in these tables!

They have found a neat way of using their popularity to reduce their cost of obtaining credit to run the manufacturing, by literally doing direct lines if credit from consumer to factory. Ever wondered how it is that your credit card authority doesn't go on until 24 hours before "preparing for shipping"? No? Ever wondered why you sit at "processing" for weeks at a time, and are free change the color and the specs at any time during those weeks of waiting? No?

It's because they haven't been building anything for you during those several weeks in "processing" before the purchase authorisation. They haven't touched it. Instead of having market research dictate X thousand units per type before their big 27 Oct announcement, they've instead been optimising their supply chain so they don't have to pay premium amounts to creditors to meet the demand. And the consumer instead pays, through having to wait. Simple.

What version did you order? Was it BTO? Or was it one of the stock versions people are picking up in an Apple retail store, just by walking in and asking? If BTO, it is just that. Built to Order. So it takes time to build. When did you order?

Agree. After the announcement was made I ordered the advertised 13 inch tb with upgraded ram, 16 Nov. But didn't see the keynote advertise a 6 week delay. It was either that delay, or no computer advertised as the keynote.

What they should have said at the keynote was: "upgradable ram, 2.9 processor, and also to keep our credit costs cheap and low risk, we'll pretty much lie to you and say oh no we can't cope it will be there in 3-4 weeks, then we'll actually make you wait 6 weeks instead, until we bank your money, so we don't have to borrow that amount first".

Good business sense right?

 

[thesaint024]

Given the number of returns/exchanges I've seen so far, I am sort of thinking that maybe a little more quality control would have given them more effective inventory.

Yet more great anecdotal evidence. Everyone you know hates the MBP 16. Everyone has had a defect. Everyone has returned it. I know.
[doublepost=1481836438][/doublepost]

Agree on consumer choice, but disagree that the money paid is in order to stand in a queue for 6 weeks - I would have thought that cost to the purchaser's productivity should come as a discount. Why should the purchaser pay for the vendor's compulsory delay at the vendor's convenience?

This is what I'm concerned about: "We have milk for sale here $1 a gallon...you all haven't had milk for a year right? HOW ABOUT SOME MILK Y'ALL..step right up step right up...MILK YEWWW!! Ok thanks for your credit details, now you've committed, we are sorry but we didn't plan for any of this so we don't have the milk yet, but just be good fans and wait in line for...for 6 weeks".

Sound right to you? No? Problem is it's not just a gallon of milk- this is 2500 gallons of milk. This is not messing around.

It's at the consumer's expense. They are making money by reducing their credit risk, through not preparing properly unless they have the deposit of funds guaranteed.

This is the carpenter who makes you pay for the entire table, and all their time, before they've even gone and got the wood to make it. And by the looks of things there are some scratches and glitches in these tables!

They have found a neat way of using their popularity to reduce their cost of obtaining credit to run the manufacturing, by literally doing direct lines if credit from consumer to factory. Ever wondered how it is that your credit card authority doesn't go on until 24 hours before "preparing for shipping"? No? Ever wondered why you sit at "processing" for weeks at a time, and are free change the color and the specs at any time during those weeks of waiting? No?

It's because they haven't been building anything for you during those several weeks in "processing" before the purchase authorisation. They haven't touched it. Instead of having market research dictate X thousand units per type before their big 27 Oct announcement, they've instead been optimising their supply chain so they don't have to pay premium amounts to creditors to meet the demand. And the consumer instead pays, through having to wait. Simple.



Agree. After the announcement was made I ordered the advertised 13 inch tb with upgraded ram, 16 Nov. But didn't see the keynote advertise a 6 week delay. It was either that delay, or no computer advertised as the keynote.

What they should have said at the keynote was: "upgradable ram, 2.9 processor, and also to keep our credit costs cheap and low risk, we'll pretty much lie to you and say oh no we can't cope it will be there in 3-4 weeks, then we'll actually make you wait 6 weeks instead, until we bank your money, so we don't have to borrow that amount first".

Good business sense right?

This is business friend. This is what Walmart and Dell pioneered and perfected. Minimize inventory and cash by decreasing days on hand. Apple is not trying to piss off customers, they conservatively estimate demand and build up to it. It would be very bad balance sheet management to expect record sales and be sitting on millions/billions of inventory. It sucks for the consumer, but again, we all have choice. You can buy a base, off the shelf model, or you can walk into Best Buy or any other store and buy whatever you want.

I don't buy Apple for their service. I buy it for their well made product. I've waited weeks for a few of their products. It's just part of doing business with Apple, not a personal affront on consumers. They are one of many manufacturers you can buy from. You also can cancel your order anytime. And you can also return it if you're not satisfied. I can't ask for much more as a consumer.

I can assume part of the reason they have to announce earlier than they want is due to all the media leaks. They have to show that they innovated, not someone else. It's inevitable that the rest of the industry will just rip it off as they have been doing since the beginning of Apple.

 

[richinaus]

Yet more great anecdotal evidence. Everyone you know hates the MBP 16. Everyone has had a defect. Everyone has returned it. I know.
[doublepost=1481836438][/doublepost]
This is business friend. This is what Walmart and Dell pioneered and perfected. Minimize inventory and cash by decreasing days on hand. Apple is not trying to piss off customers, they conservatively estimate demand and build up to it. It would be very bad balance sheet management to expect record sales and be sitting on millions/billions of inventory. It sucks for the consumer, but again, we all have choice. You can buy a base, off the shelf model, or you can walk into Best Buy or any other store and buy whatever you want.

I don't buy Apple for their service. I buy it for their well made product. I've waited weeks for a few of their products. It's just part of doing business with Apple, not a personal affront on consumers. They are one of many manufacturers you can buy from. You also can cancel your order anytime. And you can also return it if you're not satisfied. I can't ask for much more as a consumer.

I can assume part of the reason they have to announce earlier than they want is due to all the media leaks. They have to show that they innovated, not someone else. It's inevitable that the rest of the industry will just rip it off as they have been doing since the beginning of Apple.

It has changed a lot since they have got bigger and the delays are longer. So I would say that yes, now this is typical of Apple however previously it wasn't. People who have used Apple products a long time like myself, get a little pissed off at the way it is all managed. However I appreciate the issues and difficulties of manufacturing as they do, and also the fact that they do offer customised machines, and are able to deliver.

When you actually look at what they do, the logistics must be mind boggling. I am actually super impressed at the way they deliver now considering the issues they face. Take a quick look at Microsoft [especially if you are outside the US] and you will see a bunch of amateurs in action. My recent experience with them has been the opposite of Apple, and has convinced me never to purchase any hardware ever again from them. Utter crap isn't a bad enough description.

Also the quality of the MacBooks and every other product I get from Apple is always great. Never had a lemon, or had to return due to a defect in 20 years of buying. Sometimes things go wrong in any product, but for the majority of people, very impressive, which is why I stick with them.

 

[EndlessBuffoonery]

Given the number of returns/exchanges I've seen so far, I am sort of thinking that maybe a little more quality control would have given them more effective inventory.

How many returns have their been specifically? Don't give me anecdotes, give me data.

 

[PieTunes]

How many returns have their been specifically? Don't give me anecdotes, give me data.

Judging by some of the recent threads I've seen on here, we can chalk up a number of exchanges to Silver vs Space Gray indecisiveness