Here's a new one...

[Chupa Chupa]

Well, not sure why Steve Jobs is allowing this shortage of Ipads to affect his business in this way...

I just want to give Apple my business. Soon, I'm just not going to. And I know Apple won't miss me but THIS isn't the way to go about treating loyal customers.

Frustrated!
A.

Sure, the factory calls up SJ and says we don't feel like making iPads today and SJ say, OK, no prob. Let the masses sweat it out then duke it out. Mwahahahaha.

Look Apple sold over 500K iPads to date -- more than it expected. And they have to ramp up the 3G production on top of building inventory for the Euro launch plus trying to satisfy U.S. customers. Yes, supplies are going to be constrained, but do you think Apple likes frustrating customers... customers that at any minute might decide to just hold off and buy an HP Slate instead?

As for the "loyal" customer bit, did you know that entitles you to a complimentary 15" i5 2.4Ghz MacBook Pro (shipping $1799 + applicable sales tax extra, no local pickup available). Seriously, why do people think they are due something because they have bought Apple products before? You buy Apple products because you like them, not because its going to put you in good graces with SJ -- it's not. He doesn't know your name, and doesn't care too.

 

[aristobrat]

And the stores don't have access to the inventory management system to see what is due in? I doubt that. Apple can send hundreds of thousands of iPads to individual customers with tracking yet they can't manage to have a bulk shipment tracked?

I'm sure the depot company that Apple uses to manage the day-to-day of their retail supply chain (which is completely separate from their online store) could tell you exactly where any particular bulk shipment was, but no, the employees at the actual stores have zero visibility into that system.

If their store managers do have access to a system that shows them this information, the managers do not discuss it with the employees, so the net result is again that the employees have no idea what's coming until it arrives at the back door, at whatever time FedEx drops it off.

 

[Francois4256]

Did you think about buying local from kijiji? Not much in kijiji Ottawa, but there are quite a few BNIB iPad in kijiji Toronto starting at $675 for the 16GB.

It's not that bad. Using the 16GB for example, $500 + 8.75% NY tax + 13% Cdn tax ~ Cdn $610. Don't forget the gas, and the uncertainty of availability.

Usually with kijiji, the seller are pretty good in holder something for you knowing that you are from out of town. So buying off someone from Toronto may not be a bad idea. It'll be a much shorter drive. Just make sure the seller will provide a receipt, and perhaps even arrange a backup seller.

Quite a for sale on Ebay Canada...

By the time Apple gets around to releasing them in Canada, i presume most of the glitches will be worked out.

Francois