I’m annoyed with Apple. At least, I’m annoyed with the insane wait times to get a Mac Mini and the misinformation I got from one of their reps.
I ordered a Mac Mini back in January, and knew I’d have to wait until mid-February to get it. Then I decided I’d really like to have the wireless and BlueTooth options, so I called and asked “will it delay my order significantly if I change it now?” For some insane reasons, most companies can’t just change an order. Oh, no… they have to cancel one and start a new order. When there’s minimal wait time, that’s no biggie.
Well, the Nice Lady told me it would delay the order about 48 hours. With a wait time of three to four weeks, I could live with 48 hours, so I said “go for it,” and waited for the e-mail confirmation to roll in with my new order confirmation. I didn’t get that, so I went to Apple website the next day to check my order status.
My estimated ship date had been pushed back from February 18 to March 3. 48 hours my ass.
So I called Apple and asked “what the heck?” (I really did say “heck” because I have to do some phone support in my “day” job as well, and I try not to be abusive or mean to people who have to answer phones. I know customer agent X isn’t going to have any control over what customer agent Y told me the day before.) Basically, I got “sorry, nothing we can do.” Well, they offered me a whopping $25 discount on my order. I said I’d think about it. I thought about it, and decided that it wasn’t worth the wait, and called to cancel today. They offered me a whopping $40 discount if I’d keep the order, but wouldn’t give me a discount on any computers that they could actually ship before the end of February.
So, I’m mulling my options. I wanted a Mac Mini so I could work with OS X, and so I could possibly pull in a few extra bucks writing about OS X. I also wanted a tiny computer that wouldn’t take up too much space, since I already have an ungodly number of computers as it is, and it’s getting kind of crowded…
So, options:
- Say screw the whole thing and save my money.
- Buy an iMac 20″ computer locally. It costs more, but I was planning on buying a large LCD monitor anyway, so it would even out.
- Buy a really large LCD monitor and beef up one of my existing computers a bit.
- Go bug nuts and buy a G5 tower and LCD…
- Give up computers entirely and see if there are any Amish communities accepting new members.
Well. I’m in a similar situation. I orded my mini late Jan and will get mine “On or before Feb 22nd”. Mine has a superdrive BTO @ 1.42, so I couldn’t buy mine at the fashion show apple store here in Vegas. So I’m stuck using windows in the mean time because I sold my upgraded G4 AGP Graphics for $600 once I saw the Keynote. I was lucky I got $600 @1000MHz, 60gb, 620mb pc133, and with a new superdrive. I bet used g3 and g4 prices are going to drop big time. Anyway, I’d reorder and wait it out like the rest of us. Good Luck.
Well. I’m in a similar situation. I orded my mini late Jan and will get mine “On or before Feb 22nd”. Mine has a superdrive BTO @ 1.42, so I couldn’t buy mine at the fashion show apple store here in Vegas. So I’m stuck using windows in the mean time because I sold my upgraded G4 AGP Graphics for $600 once I saw the Keynote. I was lucky I got $600 @1000MHz, 60gb, 620mb pc133, and with a new superdrive. I bet used g3 and g4 prices are going to drop big time. Anyway, I’d reorder and wait it out like the rest of us. Good Luck.
I am in Australia ordered a BTO mini on 29th Jan. It is now 3 March and no Mini. The local reseller isn’t exactly being helpful either. I’m starting to get reaallly annoyed. I’m looking at 5 weeks now! I mean, come on. What happened to 2-3?