called FedEx and Apple today...
Well, I called both companies today... After investigating the Apple web site a little bit I found the following statement: "Some of our products are shipped from our overseas warehouse. All products shipped from overseas are shipped via three-business-day international service. Overnight shipping is not available on products shipped from overseas." So I guess that means that if you order one of the macs that is built in Taiwan (all of them or just the laptops and displays?) that it will be shipped using 3 business day int'l shipping regardless of what shipping method you choose. Possibly something to take into account with next mac purchase since I could have saved $15. Anyway, the Apple guy looked at what I assume was the same info I had available and said that it looked like it would be delivered by Friday AM. I asked him about the 3 day shipping and he said that it was usually 3 days but that it looked like it would be 4 business days b/c of Thanksgiving. I let him slide on the fact that its journey actually began last Friday which means that it's going to take 5 business days (if it makes it). Well, that still didn't satisfy me so I called FedEx. Their guy told me the same thing, but he then added that the computer had yet to leave Taiwan b/c they had "equipment problems" on Monday. Yeah, the plane broke down. He told me that if my ibook makes it through customs without incident that I'll have it by Friday AM. If it gets stuck in customs, it might be delayed by a day. If it gets stuck in another higher level of customs where they do a detailed check of every package in the entire shipment (463 or so packages in the shipment) it could take a bit longer. I took that to mean sometime next week. So that is where it stands now. If any of you are out there suffering with me it looks like we have a broken down airplane to thank for the delay and the fact that it looks like our babies sat in a FedEx shipping facility alone for days. Too bad they couldn't have fired up the Bluetooth so they could have at least talked to each other while they sat waiting to meet us. I'll keep you posted. PS- Sorry this was rather wordy but at least you all know what is going on now.