Slow Boat from China

S

stizz

gorilla beta tester
A small victory was won in my house a few days back. My wife finally caved and actually demanded that I buy her a mac.

Her PC had Win98 SE on it when we got married, and that same box now has XP with the same 128MB of ram. It is a slug, it moves so slowly. plus it is liteally infested with crap spyware and critters.

When she saw that the Intel based macs could dual boot XP, she decided it was time to switch.

So I bought her the top shelf mini fully loaded from the online apple store. I even paid for overnight shipping thinking I would have it here in a day or two.

Turns out her new mini was just born in Shenzhen China and is currently in transit from Hong Kong to Alaska.

My invoice says estimated delivery on the 7th, and I bought it on the 29th.

Does anybody have experience buying online from Apple and know how long the trip from China really takes?
 
For something that has been released and on the books for more than a couple of months you shouldn't have to wait too long. I'd say they'll probably meet their shipping date without too much hassle.
 
My brother just bought a Mini, too, and was also a bit surprised by the timetable. They said it would arrive by April 10. It arrived on Friday. I forget exactly what day he ordered, but I think it took only 3 or 4 days total.
 
I have a very well traveled Mini coming.

China, to Hong Kong, to Alaska, to Fort Worth TX, to Los Angeles, to North Hills,...

North Hills Fed Ex is like 10 miles from my house, should be here very soon.
 
My PB G4 took a hot minute to come from China. Don't remember the timetable, but I remember being antsy when the quoted delivery time came near! ;) It will be worth the wait, enjoy!
 
stizz said:
I have a very well traveled Mini coming.

China, to Hong Kong, to Alaska, to Fort Worth TX, to Los Angeles, to North Hills,...

North Hills Fed Ex is like 10 miles from my house, should be here very soon.
Click to expand...
You might be able to drive over and pick it up. I did, anyways.
 
Mine took 3 or 4 days. I was very surprised on how fast it came from China. It came from California, to China, then to Massachusetts in 3 days total.
 
I ordered 2 Mac Minis (same time). Following the FedEx on-line I was surprised just how fast they arrived - one before the other by about a day - perhaps 3-4 days in transit depending how you count days (China is ahead so you get a looong day). It was delivered a day ahead of Apple's scheduled time. Now I have a MacBook en-route from SUZHOU CN:

Sep 21, 2006 2:57 AM Left origin SUZHOU CN

It's scheduled to arrive the Sept 25th (ordered on Sept 15th). I consider
that excellent, especially since shipping was free.
 
Just a question.
Why order Mac Minis (for example) when one can go to the store and see "it" and then "purchase" it? With tech support, etc. to boot. I don't want to sound cute, I'm just curious. Is it cheaper on line with the China, Alaska, etc. routing deal?
I could use the info. Thanks.
 
Well, Apple stores may be around every corner in the US, but not everywhere. For instance, in Portugal, there's only 2.
 
Thanks Esquilinho,
I see what you mean. Only two? Wow. I suppose it also depends where one lives in Portugal. Lisbon must have more then two. No? In Paris (Europe, in general) there are several but not around each corner like for PCs.

PS What happens if the material is not "in tact?"
 
You call AppleCare and they'll collect it and send you a new one, but...

I ordered my iBook in 2004 from the online store (now I know a store is around the corner, but then I didn't notice it for some reason) and after about a month, it didn't work at all. They gave me an iBook back, but not mine, a totally different one. It had the right keyboard etc... but the files were gone and it had a big, red scratch (looks like lipstick, just cut into the plastic) on top. After about a year, it (again) crashed and really broke this time, and again they gave me a different one, this time with Norwegian or something installed. I think the iBook I bought 2 years ago might now be somewhere in Russia or Asia, who knows? But what I can tell you, is: Never, ever, ever return your Apple after using it sometime. They won't give you "yours" back, they will just give you a different one they just fixed from somebody else. They aren't very reliable (at least in Europe they're not!).
 
You could find a dealer in the US that has mac minis in stock; like Small Dog Electronics: http://www.smalldog.com/product/41263

I was on vacation in Vermot on HWY 100 and was lucky enough to drive right past Small Dog's driveway. Cool sign on the side of the road, in a remote area just south of Burlington.

And no, I'm not getting paid by SM to say any of this. :)
 
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