Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
OMG...Amazon 20% coupon on NEW Macbook Airs
- Thread starter ace36
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Ordered on the 6th, updated shipping address and now the estimated delivery date is August 30, 2011 - October 3, 2011... jeez
october!
I'm almost wondering if I should cancel the order and just get one from best buy. Saving $300+ sure is nice though...
Dammit. Maybe I should keep the $200 white macbook I just picked up off of Craigslist.
So how much $$ do you think I'd lose if I bought a 11" and sold it when I got back from Hawaii in 3 weeks?
Dammit. Maybe I should keep the $200 white macbook I just picked up off of Craigslist.
So how much $$ do you think I'd lose if I bought a 11" and sold it when I got back from Hawaii in 3 weeks?
That sure is a long time away. If I had to wait that long, I would of just bought from Apple or best buy. Nice to save money, but have to wait like two months is outrageous.
Haha yea. Good thing that Best Buy Trade-In made my decision easy for me. I never asked, but how did the mail-in trade thing end up working for you?
Oh, the conspiracy theories around here! More likely no other retailer had thousands of Slickdeals.net messages talking about getting Macbook Airs for 20% off. Don't underestimate the quantity of orders Amazon has gotten on this promotion -- remember that if any retailer is mentioned as having HP Touchpads for $99 on that one Slickdeals topic, within 2 minutes their site is essentially "Denial of Service" attacked by all the people scrambling to get deals.
Amazon is a huge company that sells millions of products. And they run a tightly staffed company where nobody has spare time or can get their work done in an eight-hour day, from what I hear from people who've worked there. I highly doubt there is a person at Amazon specifically plotting strategies to try to get notebook purchasers to cancel their orders.
Also, see this:
Full article here.
The 13s are just in short supply everywhere. Apple stores get first allocation, so all the third-party sellers are having shortages.
Last edited:
Went well. Got the full amount in a little over 2 weeks. I will do it again if the value is there.
I don't know if Amazon flags people who abuse the support system, but consider this:
A typical phone support call, depending on the company, the volume they do, and their policies for getting people on and off the phone, costs a company between $8 (outsourced) to $50 (domestic tech support), with customer service calls falling somewhere in the middle.
I'm sure chat costs less than that -- I assume chat techs probably have a couple of conversations going at once -- but it's still a significant cost. Say it's $5 -- 100 chats with a CSR would put would Macbook sale hundreds of dollars into the region of costing the company money. Even 20 chats would.
Cutting support costs is key for any large company. Not because they don't care about their customers, or they don't want to talk to them, but because support can amount to 8 to 15% of a company's entire operating costs! That's huge, particularly with Internet companies that operate on very small profit margins.
So whether or not folks waiting on their Macs actually get flagged as problem customers for abusing the support system by calling or chatting frequently for updates (when it should be clear from reading this topic that it accomplishes nothing), in the end it costs Amazon significant money. Overall, this can only result in bad things. Higher prices overall in the future because they have to pay for dealing with Slickdeals behavior, or deciding to never offer customers a deal like this again because the expenses were so high and the abuse so great that they take a lesson that it's not worth doing.
Alternatives to waiting
If you're in a hurry for a 13" MacBook, Apple.com is shipping in 24 hours, and almost all Apple Stores (the real ones, not necessarily third-party Apple dealers) have them in stock.
----------
Another alternative for those in a rush: With the 3% AppleInsider discount, and their price already being 3 to 4% off retail, MacMall has the 13/256 for $1,503.49 and the 13/128 for $1,212.49, both with same-day shipping.
It's only 6-7% off instead of 20% off, but the laptop will ship today or tomorrow, depending on when you order. If you're going nuts waiting, is it worth a smaller discount?
----------
The wait is annoying -- I'm waiting on one too -- but it's not an Amazon-specific problem (Best Buy, for instance, isn't even offering the 256MB 13" online because they don't even have enough stock for their retail stores). I'm anxious, but I also realize it's the price I pay for the awesome discount. I could have a 13" today by going to an Apple store 10 minutes from work. But I'd be paying $1,599 instead of $1,250ish. So, I'm willing to be patient.
Checking your order 16 times a day or costing Amazon big bucks in customer support chats isn't going to make your notebook ship any sooner. I don't think switching to a 13/256 is likely to either -- the folks it did work for were lucky and fell into the right place in the queue. Amazon's still heavily backordered on those as well.
Can't you just use the $200 MacBook for the trip? Not as much fun as a new notebook, but if the savings is important, that seems like a viable solution. Otherwise, bite the bullet and hit the local store or MacMall.
If you're in a hurry for a 13" MacBook, Apple.com is shipping in 24 hours, and almost all Apple Stores (the real ones, not necessarily third-party Apple dealers) have them in stock.
----------
Another alternative for those in a rush: With the 3% AppleInsider discount, and their price already being 3 to 4% off retail, MacMall has the 13/256 for $1,503.49 and the 13/128 for $1,212.49, both with same-day shipping.
It's only 6-7% off instead of 20% off, but the laptop will ship today or tomorrow, depending on when you order. If you're going nuts waiting, is it worth a smaller discount?
----------
The wait is annoying -- I'm waiting on one too -- but it's not an Amazon-specific problem (Best Buy, for instance, isn't even offering the 256MB 13" online because they don't even have enough stock for their retail stores). I'm anxious, but I also realize it's the price I pay for the awesome discount. I could have a 13" today by going to an Apple store 10 minutes from work. But I'd be paying $1,599 instead of $1,250ish. So, I'm willing to be patient.
Checking your order 16 times a day or costing Amazon big bucks in customer support chats isn't going to make your notebook ship any sooner. I don't think switching to a 13/256 is likely to either -- the folks it did work for were lucky and fell into the right place in the queue. Amazon's still heavily backordered on those as well.
Looks like the going price is $850-915 on eBay for a $999 2011 11" Air. (Plus, if you use eBay, you'll lose a chunk to eBay and PayPal fees.) I'd count on losing at least $100+the tax cost on your original order, even if you take the Craigslist route.
Can't you just use the $200 MacBook for the trip? Not as much fun as a new notebook, but if the savings is important, that seems like a viable solution. Otherwise, bite the bullet and hit the local store or MacMall.
Last edited:
How is this thread still alive! In all honesty, when I first ordered mine, they quoted the delivery for September but updated the expected ship date on the 11th and I had it within a day.
Is that why you're all killing yourself checking 15 times a day? Because you know at any point you could be a day away from getting it?
Is that why you're all killing yourself checking 15 times a day? Because you know at any point you could be a day away from getting it?
Because we don't have ours yet, smart#$$, and at least folks can commiserate.
Plus, we need a social support system to reality-check the folks who really are checking 15 times a day and spending their afternoons getting acquainted with Amazon customer service reps...
Even MacMall is hedging on their stock status:
MacMall Part#: 8815564
Mfr Part#: MC965LL/A
Usually Ships: Same Day
Availability: Generally in Stock
"Usually" and "generally" don't inspire confidence.
Well I did it....
Went to Best Buy today and was playing around with the 11" model and once again fell in love with it. I originally planned on buying the 11" model but went with the 13" in the end. But....
I just got done chatting with CS and asked them if I could change my order from the 13" to the 11" and still keep my code. They said YES!
So tomorrow I will have my 11" Macbook Air. I was thinking of calling my local Apple store to see if I could exchange it for custom order. I'd like the upgraded processor to be honest. One thing I was looking forward to on the 13" model was 1.7ghz processor. I'm also a student so I could do the trade in a pay the minor difference all the while getting a 100 App Gift Card. I'll post back tomorrow if the Apple store will let me do this.
Went to Best Buy today and was playing around with the 11" model and once again fell in love with it. I originally planned on buying the 11" model but went with the 13" in the end. But....
I just got done chatting with CS and asked them if I could change my order from the 13" to the 11" and still keep my code. They said YES!
So tomorrow I will have my 11" Macbook Air. I was thinking of calling my local Apple store to see if I could exchange it for custom order. I'd like the upgraded processor to be honest. One thing I was looking forward to on the 13" model was 1.7ghz processor. I'm also a student so I could do the trade in a pay the minor difference all the while getting a 100 App Gift Card. I'll post back tomorrow if the Apple store will let me do this.
changed from 128 to 256
I think I (mtntrance) got lucky. I do know that my family spends thousands a year on Amazon being weekly customers of one thing or another so perhaps its possible that our volume made a difference but I doubt it.
I think I (mtntrance) got lucky. I do know that my family spends thousands a year on Amazon being weekly customers of one thing or another so perhaps its possible that our volume made a difference but I doubt it.
Some of you may be interested in this...
I ordered my 13/128/4 on Aug. 4th before knowing about this deal. Found out about it Aug. 5th and bought a Kindle on the 6th and had them apply the 20% discount to my order. From the start my delivery estimate (1 day shipping with Prime) has been from Aug 19-26. Those dates haven't changed yet and I've been frequently chatting with them to see if they can give me an update as to when it will be shipped. All they have been saying is that it should be delivered by Friday the 26th. My order still says "Not Yet Shipped."
When/if I have an update I will post here. I did ask today if Amazon would cancel my order without my permission and the CSR said Amazon would not cancel without my permission. Friday can't come soon enough... Actually it can because I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out Friday. Boo
I ordered my 13/128/4 on Aug. 4th before knowing about this deal. Found out about it Aug. 5th and bought a Kindle on the 6th and had them apply the 20% discount to my order. From the start my delivery estimate (1 day shipping with Prime) has been from Aug 19-26. Those dates haven't changed yet and I've been frequently chatting with them to see if they can give me an update as to when it will be shipped. All they have been saying is that it should be delivered by Friday the 26th. My order still says "Not Yet Shipped."
When/if I have an update I will post here. I did ask today if Amazon would cancel my order without my permission and the CSR said Amazon would not cancel without my permission. Friday can't come soon enough... Actually it can because I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out Friday. Boo
Well...considering I have a shipping date between August 31 and September 16 for my 2011 Macbook Air 13" 256gb 4GB Ram I went out to best buy and bought their last remaining 13" 4GB 128gb Macbook Air to take with me to Hawaii. I paid $1292.99 out the door and got a free $100 gift card (which I bought Amazon gift cards and applied to my 256gb). So when I get back from Hawaii I'll try and sell the the 13" 128 GB for $1200 and break even.
Had I known all this i would have kept the original 256gb I bought from Best Buy. LOL
Had I known all this i would have kept the original 256gb I bought from Best Buy. LOL
I wish it was possible/they had exact logs on the back orders for the 128/256 models. I originally wanted the 128 model but ordered the 256 because the 128 wasn't available to back order. Now that it is, I would like to switch but would rather not add 1-2 months to my wait.
It's only $22 difference for me. I'm afraid changing the order would put me to the back of the line for shipping, so I'll pass.
It is a very good sign that Amazon is once again taking orders for the 13/128.
