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Macquesera · Mar 21, 2002, 08:55 PM

After being strong enough to walk out of CompUSA without one of the in stock 800s a week or two ago (not too difficult consdering my past experiences there) I now struggle with the news of the price hike. CDW and Amazon both list available 800s at old price although I called CDW and they said they were still awaiting a shipment. Amazon lists them at $1794 2-3 day availability. Neither will charge me sales tax. Should I take the plunge? Any advice on these two stores? Thanks.

iMan · Mar 21, 2002, 09:06 PM

Hey,

I don't know about those two places. But, I just checked and Outpost.com has 800s in stock and they have at the original price.

Macquesera · Mar 21, 2002, 09:32 PM

Yes, but Outpost will charge me sales tax.

Montezuma58 · Mar 21, 2002, 10:04 PM

I would suggest CDW. I called Amazon to order one after I placed my order they determined they could not get the computer after they had told me it was in stock. They canceled the order for the computer. They did not backorder it. Also the number I called to place the order disappeared from the web site and I could not find any contact info to get ahold of someone to discuss this.

With CDW it will be much easier to talk to a person if problems should arise.

If you can get it from Outpost at the old price it might not be too bad of a deal even with tax. I should be receiving my iMac from them tommorow

[ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: Montezuma58 ]

RAzaRazor · Mar 22, 2002, 11:45 AM

Originally posted by iMan:
Hey,

I don't know about those two places. But, I just checked and Outpost.com has 800s in stock and they have at the original price.

Actually, Outpost was blatantly lying about their availablility. I ordered one a few days ago when it said "Same Day".

When I checked my order tracking page, it said "In Process". Not knowing what that meant, I called the number and the girl told me they are backordered.

It was only this morning that they updated the page to say "Call for Availability". It took them 2 days to update it!!

I'm a little pissed at them right now. If I wanted to wait, I could have ordered it from one of the other Mac shops and got a free RAM upgrade.

Montezuma58 · Mar 22, 2002, 12:09 PM

I guess it all depends on how these places systems for updating the web pages and orders work for these places. When I placed my order order with outpost I did it by phone. A couple hours later I checked the order status on the web and it had shipped.

Back to the original question though. I would not go with Amazon. Any of these places are capable of lying (or having inacurate systems for reporting inventory). But at least with places other than Amazon you can easily talk to a real person who can lie to you.

TheGeneral · Mar 23, 2002, 12:40 AM

Quick recap of my first outpost.com experience...

After clearing the sale of six month old iMac 600 CD-RW to a friend, I finally had a chance to try to order from amazon.com (availability based on article at zdnet.com) on 3/18 and they were sold out. I went back to the article (http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-861557.html) and noticed outpost.com was also mentioned. I did a bit of web research on customer experiences here at macnn and other sites and decided to call outpost .com directly so I could ask about availability in real-time. This, coupled with the fact that I feel uncomfortable placing internet orders from my workplace, led me to place my from Outpost over the phone.

As I asked about availability, I learned that there would be no sales tax and also that there would be free ground shipping (3-4 delivery time). Also, Mac Office v.X full version was cheaper ($349) than anywhere I else I had looked. With the MS rebate, and knowing that my iMac would ship immediately and therefore qualify for the rebate that expires 3/31, I placed the order for both items. Outpost could not give me the shipper's tracking number, but said I could call customer service with the order number that night to the get the tracking number. Within two days the iMac had arrived... and I am a very satisfied Apple/Outpost/Airborne Express customer. (See my reply to the iMac thread "the good things about the price hike" about my conversion from Wintel to Mac.)

Theresa · Mar 23, 2002, 02:52 PM

"Yes, but Outpost will charge me sales tax. "

That's odd - I bought my imac from Outpost.com, and they didn't charge me sales tax or shipping.

Montezuma58 · Mar 23, 2002, 03:15 PM

Originally posted by Theresa:
"Yes, but Outpost will charge me sales tax. "

That's odd - I bought my imac from Outpost.com, and they didn't charge me sales tax or shipping.

That's because Outpost/Fry's does not have an office or store in VA they have stores in Texas.

EmAn · Mar 23, 2002, 04:41 PM

Originally posted by RAzaRazor:


Actually, Outpost was blatantly lying about their availablility. I ordered one a few days ago when it said "Same Day".

When I checked my order tracking page, it said "In Process". Not knowing what that meant, I called the number and the girl told me they are backordered.

It was only this morning that they updated the page to say "Call for Availability". It took them 2 days to update it!!

I'm a little pissed at them right now. If I wanted to wait, I could have ordered it from one of the other Mac shops and got a free RAM upgrade.

They did the same thing with the iBooks in June. It said in stock so I ordered and it turned out to be backordered. I was so pissed I cancelled the order and got my iBook somewhere else.