This is the first time I’ve pre ordered or ordered anything from Apple off their online store for that matter but I can tell you what happened with mine. Mine sat on preparing to ship for a day and a half and then I woke up in the morning to a shipment notification.
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2021 iMac order thread
- Thread starter caligurl
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It hasn’t moved from preparing to ship to shipped during the night. So i gave up the idea of getting it tomorrow. My est. date of shipping May 31, i think i will get it at the middle of next week (about Wednesday). Plus next Monday is a bank holiday in Hungary, everything will be closed, no delivering during that day…
That’s promising 😊. That probably means it’s looking like delivery early next week for me (as pretty sure Apple deliveries don’t arrive over the weekend), but after I have a little sulk about not getting it Friday I can then start getting excited for getting early next week 😊!
A few points on preorders, especially for those in the UK/Europe:
Credit card charges: these can be misleading. There are no fixed rules as to how these things work and even two different transactions with the same card and supplier can be treated differently. A pending charge is usually a good sign, but they don’t always mean something is happening. I’ve had pending charges appear and disappear with preorders. Only when the charge moves from pending to confirmed does it mean your item is definitely on its way. I have had a pending charge for my Apple TV for a couple of days now and it is likely that this means it will be dispatched soon (a week before the stated date) but not certain.
Preparing to Dispatch: Recently Apple have been putting items to preparing for dispatch status very early. People were reporting this happening almost immediately after preordering with the Airtags and then they stayed at that status for nearly a week. I have seen items staying at preparing for dispatch for days a lot recently (ie iPhone 12). If your item has been showing this status for a few days this is not unusual and doesn’t in itself indicate that anything is wrong.
Will your item arrive tomorrow? I’ve seen a few comments saying that it is too late to arrive tomorrow as the status is still preparing for dispatch. In the UK (and I believe Europe) this is generally not the case. When I preorder items from Apple i usually get a dispatch notification during the afternoon or evening of the day before. The latest time that my item has moved to dispatched status was about 8pm the day before. Rarely does it happen before midday. There is still about 12 hours to go before I would say it is too late for delivery tomorrow. If items had been marked as dispatched my now that would have been unusual.
Will people on this thread be reading too much into things and panicking? Yes, of course, that is basically what these threads are. Every release lots of doom and gloom because of order status and credit card charges and then the vast majority of people get their items on time.
The great unknown this time is that so many people have estimated delivery dates so far after release date. I almost always get my order in time for release date delivery but this time I have 27 May for the Apple TV and 3 June for the iMac. Given comments here I expect most of us to receive these items earlier than those dates. I am hopeful that the Apple TV may arrive tomorrow (preparing for shipment and pending charge), but equally it may not arrive until nearer the estimated date. As there has been no movement at all on the iMac the chances of dispatch for tomorrow is remote but I’d day there is a good chance for next week.
Credit card charges: these can be misleading. There are no fixed rules as to how these things work and even two different transactions with the same card and supplier can be treated differently. A pending charge is usually a good sign, but they don’t always mean something is happening. I’ve had pending charges appear and disappear with preorders. Only when the charge moves from pending to confirmed does it mean your item is definitely on its way. I have had a pending charge for my Apple TV for a couple of days now and it is likely that this means it will be dispatched soon (a week before the stated date) but not certain.
Preparing to Dispatch: Recently Apple have been putting items to preparing for dispatch status very early. People were reporting this happening almost immediately after preordering with the Airtags and then they stayed at that status for nearly a week. I have seen items staying at preparing for dispatch for days a lot recently (ie iPhone 12). If your item has been showing this status for a few days this is not unusual and doesn’t in itself indicate that anything is wrong.
Will your item arrive tomorrow? I’ve seen a few comments saying that it is too late to arrive tomorrow as the status is still preparing for dispatch. In the UK (and I believe Europe) this is generally not the case. When I preorder items from Apple i usually get a dispatch notification during the afternoon or evening of the day before. The latest time that my item has moved to dispatched status was about 8pm the day before. Rarely does it happen before midday. There is still about 12 hours to go before I would say it is too late for delivery tomorrow. If items had been marked as dispatched my now that would have been unusual.
Will people on this thread be reading too much into things and panicking? Yes, of course, that is basically what these threads are. Every release lots of doom and gloom because of order status and credit card charges and then the vast majority of people get their items on time.
The great unknown this time is that so many people have estimated delivery dates so far after release date. I almost always get my order in time for release date delivery but this time I have 27 May for the Apple TV and 3 June for the iMac. Given comments here I expect most of us to receive these items earlier than those dates. I am hopeful that the Apple TV may arrive tomorrow (preparing for shipment and pending charge), but equally it may not arrive until nearer the estimated date. As there has been no movement at all on the iMac the chances of dispatch for tomorrow is remote but I’d day there is a good chance for next week.
Just received the shipment notification. Arriving at 25 May, i think because of the bank holiday, without it, i would get it Monday..
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UK silver 16GB was showing 3rd June, just got a dispatch email with 26th May delivery! Super excited!
It will arrive on Monday.
The Apple store tends not to update delivery dates. I have had the situation in the past where the Apple store is still saying things will arrive in a few days whilst I am using that device to view the store.
Just had dispatch notice for 1 of my Macs, originally was scheduled for 28 May - 4 Jun. is coming on Monday! So a week early. The one scheduled for 21 - 27 May is still preparing to ship, so maybe here tomorrow - It's express delivery not standard delivery.
Interesting that it is coming from Shanghai. Is it a 16gb?
I wonder whether this is the reason why we have later delivery dates than the 8gb ones. Looks like the 8gb are coming from a UK stock but ours are being despatched direct from China.
Still no movement on mine at all. I suspect that. 16gb/2tb and numeric keyboard put me right at the back of the queue.
Interesting that it is coming from Shanghai. Is it a 16gb?
I wonder whether this is the reason why we have later delivery dates than the 8gb ones. Looks like the 8gb are coming from a UK stock but ours are being despatched direct from China.
Still no movement on mine at all. I suspect that. 16gb/2tb and numeric keyboard put me right at the back of the queue.
yeah yellow 16gb plus trackpad config here so was expecting the BTOs to dispatch from China.
Congrats on the launch day delivery! What was your original delivery window? And what spec did you go for?
Now dispatched with delivery now showing as the 26th. UPS tracking not yet available for it yet.
I feel your pain, same thing happened to me. I placed a new order with B&H photo as the rep I spoke with said they’re supposed to be getting BTO units in 5/31 from apple. They ordered a number of different configurations from Apple so figured it was worth a shot since apple is quoting me mid July delivery if I reorder. Was ticked when I found out apple canceled my order but nothing I can do about it now.
Such an annoying feeling. What makes it worse was that it was over the numeric keyboard which I didn’t even end up getting again. The lady said that my order date will not change and I asked her to confirm it 3 times. Next thing I see, she’s cancelled my order and placed another one. Like come on… I didn’t ask you to cancel it, ask me before you do.
UK 16/512, was 3rd June now 26th May. But the UPS tracking code from Apple is not recognised by UPS
Update: tracking is on track now
I'm a bit pessimistic ... M1 MacBook Pro order last November moved to a week earlier on "Shipped", but actually arrived on the original estimate. (so can't complain) But it did spend a week at an airport in Hong Kong and then after flying to Cologne via Dubai entered the UK by train only to go back to Cologne on a train and then flown back to the UK via Standstead.
Update: tracking is on track now
I'm a bit pessimistic ... M1 MacBook Pro order last November moved to a week earlier on "Shipped", but actually arrived on the original estimate. (so can't complain) But it did spend a week at an airport in Hong Kong and then after flying to Cologne via Dubai entered the UK by train only to go back to Cologne on a train and then flown back to the UK via Standstead.
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