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mintcake · Nov 19, 2003, 11:22 AM

They said "you will have your Powerbook in 3 to 5 days, a week tops." A week later and the order tracking system on the site says that they're still reviewing my order - hasn't even been assembled yet. Bah!

Sorry, just had to vent.

janmc · Nov 19, 2003, 12:14 PM

all sales staff are liars. they are trained to sell you stuff...

after reading the posts on these forums, you should have realised that there would be a delay.

mintcake · Nov 19, 2003, 12:17 PM

Yeah yeah, I know. I didn't seriously believe him.

But even so. He shouldn't be so definite if it's obviously not going to happen. And it's nice to get these things off one's chest.

petehammer · Nov 19, 2003, 12:21 PM

Originally posted by janmc:
all sales staff are liars. they are trained to sell you stuff...

after reading the posts on these forums, you should have realised that there would be a delay.

Why is it the mac users always defend Apple first?

I'm surprised that with the 15" PB white spot issue, people didn't say "What did you do to your computer?"

If someone says 3-5 days, they should be held accountable. Yes, they are liars.

anaphora68 · Nov 19, 2003, 12:30 PM

If any of you have ever worked retail or any kind of tech support job sometimes the sales staff are not made aware of delays in shipping, and for the most part they are not the ones that assemble your machine. Stop taking out all of Apple's problems with the first person you see, it's not productive.

janmc · Nov 19, 2003, 01:14 PM

I can speak for the staff at my local store which sells Macs... they are completely clueless and would promise you the earth if it would give them a sale.

I am not certainly not defending apple - I'm just saying that you need to double check anything sales staff tell you, and get it in writing if it's that important to you. Apple's own sales support staff lied to me repeatedly over the phone... and every time I rang I got a different answer. My point is just that dedicated mac fans who read this forum regularly probably have a better idea of what's actually happening than a sales person who just get given the company line to regurgitate to customers.

my 2 cents.

anaphora68 · Nov 19, 2003, 01:20 PM

I wasn't trying to defend apple, just saying that in any corporation you are going to find that a sales staff is not clued into what the tech support side knows, they don't get paid for that.

(",)PB12 · Nov 19, 2003, 01:26 PM

Quit the hogwash you guys, like i've posted in so many occasions...so far non is able to beat my record. This coming sunday will mark the 61st day of waiting for my powebook. It might stretch all the way back to christmas...how's that for size when it comes to talking delay?

mintcake · Nov 19, 2003, 04:54 PM

Jeeeeebus. I'd better not even come close to your record!

Pete has a point. Sales staff shouldn't glibly tell you "3-5 days" when they have no real clue. Of course they have no real clue. That's a given. But then why sound so confident? I knew this guy was giving me the runaround, I'd spoken to another sales guy the previous day who said, just as confidently, "eleven days". They couldn't both be right.

I wonder how many sales they would actually lose if they were simply honest about it? If they said "our shipping department currently estimates between two and three weeks for delivery, sir" instead of feeding us with some bullshit line? They're the front end of the company, the first dealing someone like me has had with Apple. As a new customer and a potential repeat customer, I'd far rather the company took me seriously and told me the truth instead of giving me some salesman's spiel.

madmacgames · Nov 19, 2003, 05:04 PM

Originally posted by mintcake:
Sales staff shouldn't glibly tell you "3-5 days" when they have no real clue. Of course they have no real clue. That's a given. But then why sound so confident? I knew this guy was giving me the runaround, I'd spoken to another sales guy the previous day who said, just as confidently, "eleven days". They couldn't both be right.

That doesn't necessarily mean he was giving you the run around... the guy that said 11 days probably had more information than the other guy (maybe he actually takes an interest in macs and visits forums like these)... every person does not have the same information...

ok let me put it this way: incase Earth is not your native world, we humans are not omni-present

(that should help you from getting upset the next time 2 people tell you 2 things... just remember... they're 2 people not 1).

mintcake · Nov 19, 2003, 05:12 PM

Mmm. Saying "3 to 5 days, definitely no more than a week" is - in my book - giving me the runaround. Now if he'd said "maybe 3 to 5 days, hopefully no more than a week" - that would be different. But he didn't.

And if you make your living selling a given product over the telephone, I hardly think you need to hang around on fan forums to get a feeling for how long your product usually takes to ship.

xylon · Nov 19, 2003, 07:55 PM

Originally posted by janmc:
I can speak for the staff at my local store which sells Macs... they are completely clueless and would promise you the earth if it would give them a sale.

I concur, the floor staff at the Apple store I've been to knew little to nothing about what they were selling. They were merely capable of regurgitating a few specs. Any question of real importance was differed to the Genius, who was able to provide an answer.

Slightly peeved about this as I applied for a summer position and would've been 30x better than the majority of the floor personality. Oh well.

TheIceMan · Nov 19, 2003, 08:30 PM

Originally posted by (",)PB12:
Quit the hogwash you guys, like i've posted in so many occasions...so far non is able to beat my record. This coming sunday will mark the 61st day of waiting for my powebook. It might stretch all the way back to christmas...how's that for size when it comes to talking delay?

Man, I would hope/expect that Apple compensates you for the long wait! Hopefully you kept your receipt as well as all correspondence with Apple to verify your "agony." Man, I would write them a long letter. 61 days is a LONG time. Absolutely no excuse without some sort of "here's an ipod for all your troubles."

shadowofleaves · Nov 19, 2003, 08:57 PM

this is kinda disheartening as i am a apple store employee

xylon · Nov 19, 2003, 08:58 PM

Originally posted by TheIceMan:
"here's an ipod for all your troubles."

Ooooh, now this I like.

I hope you've been bugging Apple (",)PB12. Not that I've heard of it happening but maybe your record got (gasp) lost? That'd suck big time.

mintcake · Nov 20, 2003, 06:58 AM

So I called Aftersales to check... and finally got an honest answer! "Well it went to production on the 18th, and it takes 3-5 working days to assemble, then it'll be shipped... Actually I don't think you should expect it before the beginning of December."

Fine. At least they were being straight with me.

/stern look at the guy who took my order