Coming out of the windows closet

February 15, 2007 11:21 PM

Wherein the apple gods torment me; or why does it take so long to get my macbook?

So I ordered a fancy pants black Macbook, and the cheque finally cleared yesterday.

My new iPod--part of the order--arrived today (v. efficent!), but when I go to the order status page I see this for the macbook:


Ships by: 19/02/2007 - 21/02/2007
Delivers by: 26/02/2007 - 28/02/2007


What did they suddenly get all inefficient? What happened to it arriving the next day, like my iPod? Is it because I decided to be all difficult and order it with 2GB of ram? Do they have to specially ship it from Narnia?

Is there anything I can do to get it earlier? (I start Uni on the 26th so it would be nice to have some time to play around with it before then)

Can I end another question with a question mark?

I'm in the topsy-turvy world of Australia, if that helps.

posted by oxford blue to shopping (13 comments total)

If the memory upgrade is the only upgrade from a stock, black MacBook, buy the stock MacBook and buy your memory from somewhere else.

You can get a stock MacBook very quickly, and your memory will be about 50% cheaper, to boot.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:24 PM on February 15, 2007

The machine's being custom-assembled at the factory in Asia, and will ship directly from there to you. Because of the International Date Line it may actually arrive before it ships!
posted by kindall at 11:28 PM on February 15, 2007

A small problem; I've already paid, and I imagine getting a refund would only take additional time, plus the time it would take for the cheque to clear again, plus the time for the memory to arrive, etc.

From my research, at least here in Oz, the price difference wasn't that dramatic.
posted by oxford blue at 11:33 PM on February 15, 2007

If your order is constantly inexplicably delayed, and this is happening to a lot of people, Apple may be planning to upgrade some of the specs on your MacBook. This isn't usually the time of year they do it, though.
posted by oaf at 11:39 PM on February 15, 2007

My experiences with Apple Australia have been pretty good - just about every time I've ordered something, the courier has turned up with my new toy on the last "Ships by" date.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if yours turns up next Tuesday, while you're out getting drunk at O-week.

(I'm not sure they do drop-ship from Asia - at least with the desktop hardware I've ordered, everything has come through Apple in Sydney.)
posted by Pinback at 11:55 PM on February 15, 2007

This is normal.

I live in Hawaii, and I too (last June) ordered a Macbook Pro and an iPod Nano from the Apple Store on the same invoice. The Nano arrived lickety split, as it shipped from Ontario, CA, but the MBP arrived about two weeks later.

A cursory look at the FedEx tracking showed that the MBP was trudging it's way back to America from Shanghai, China. It was held up in at least 2 other stops once it entered the US (something about customs clearance or something in the Midwest), and then made a loop back across the West Coast of the US before it finally made it over the Pacific to my house.

Annoying, yes...but apparantly very normal.
posted by melorama at 12:39 AM on February 16, 2007

I just went through the exact same thing, only in my case it was the 140GB hard drive upgrade that delayed the thing more than a week longer than the "ship date" I had been promised.

I happen to spend $75K a year with Apple as an institutional customer, so they don't like to piss me off and usually make efforts to put such things right. I called my campus Apple rep, who informed me (after I threatened not to buy a $15K server I had ordered, but I think this is available to anyone) that I could use my purchase order to pick up the same machine, if it was in stock, at an Apple retail store (I needed it quickly). They called the store and set it up, except that when I arrived at the store, they *also* didn't have the larger drive. So the solution failed, and I ended up waiting for the machine anyway. But if your only upgrade is RAM, you might be able to follow this route successfully, as the stores (if there's one near you) should have that.

I agree it's annoying that Apple can't predict ship dates more accurately. Really annoying.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:45 AM on February 16, 2007

FWIW, Dell did the same thing to me, but didn't tell me until after I had requested the two-day shipping. ("two day shipping... ONCE THE THREE WEEK BARGE FROM ASIA ARRIVES!") So, yeah, it's probably the RAM installation.
posted by clarahamster at 5:57 AM on February 16, 2007

Based on my experience with Apple, if you call to cancel your order and ask for a refund (based on the fact that you can't wait this long and could just pick it up at a store) they may just offer you a little something-something to keep the order as it is. YMMV, of course, but I'm just sayin'.
posted by natness at 7:48 AM on February 16, 2007

I'm not sure they do drop-ship from Asia - at least with the desktop hardware I've ordered, everything has come through Apple in Sydney.

The portables typically are, though. Apple's not the only company that does this, either -- my Fujitsu Lifebook came directly from the factory to me as well.
posted by kindall at 9:48 AM on February 16, 2007

Actually Apple doesn't really screw you on RAM upgrades anymore. The prices have come down a lot.
posted by drstein at 2:25 PM on February 16, 2007

Strange. I just ordered my Macbook Pro on Monday night. It was supposed to take 5-7 days to deliver but I got it yesterday afternoon. I didn't order it from Apple though, I ordered it from Amazon because they had a sale.

I hope you get it really soon!
posted by miss lynnster at 4:44 PM on February 16, 2007

Half your luck! (:

On Monday I'll give them a call and see if I can plead/cajole/beg/threaten them. But I'll keep my fingers crossed for Tuesday!
posted by oxford blue at 5:43 PM on February 16, 2007