Just off the phone to "Sean" at the apple customer care. He told me that due to the fact that the quad core iMacs are still in production, they can only put an estimate at shipping at the end of November, saying also that no money will be taken from my account until the items are ready for dispatch.
He also refused to offer me any form of expedited delivery - saying that no such service was available to me, wether I was going to pay for it or not.
Conclusions there - Mixed messages being put out across the board, but a recurring theme of end of November as an Estimate seems to be appearing.
Perhaps being from Scotland is the reason for not offering expedited shipping, or perhaps they are becoming wise to the attempts to get a free upgrade.
Oh well, looks like it's gonna be a loooong Autumn wait for this computer.