I would rather have had them charge me when I ordered the damn thing a month ago than all this crap. Fortunately I used my Amex card, and they don't block charges they think are fraudulent unless I call them. I love Amex for that. I never have to worry about anything going through. But it IS irritating. Either charge me when I order it, or charge me when you ship it. I don't care. But they need to quit doing this because you guys are right, those not paying with Amex could see problems with the fraud department blocking the real charge. This crap is getting out of control. It's dumb, and NOT what I would expect from a top-tier company such as Apple.