MP 7,1 Mac Pro delays, supply issues?

[codehead1]

I ordered a Mac Pro from the Apple Store 4/15, right after the W5700X option appeared, with options 16 core, 2TB SSD, W5700X. Delivery quoted 4/24-5/1.

Yesterday, it changed to 5/11-5/13. Are other people getting this? Details:

On the morning of 4/18, I got a notice the billing authorization bounced, over my Apple Card limit. I called and split some onto another card. Status was Processing by this point. Paranoid, I called on 4/22, a person verified both cards had been authorized, I was fine. 4/29 I'm still in Processing with no change to the 4/24-5/1 delivery, called and the guy put me on hold and called billing, and said he told them to run my billing to ensure that as soon as the computer is ready, it would ship wihtout delay in billing. Everythign was fine, this would ensure the quickest ship.

Yesterday, the delivery date changed to 5/11-5/13. Coincidentally, the same as I would get if I ordered another one right then. I called, got forwarded to a "specialist" (loooong hold, 2 hour 29 minute call in total). She said she'd have it checked out for the reason, but it could be supply issues. I called back today and a guy said it was requoted due to supply issues. He couldn't tell me what part.

Seriously? Anyone getting else getting pushed out four weeks on delivery? Or did they drop the ball and I went to the back of the line when they unwedged it? He said they requote when they can't make the delivery dates, but why would they wait till 4/30 on a 4/24-5/1 window to decide they would miss the delivery? And, coincidentally, immediately after I had someone goose the billing department.

 

[Aboo]

It might be your W5700x. I had the same issue with my standalone W5700X card I literally ordered the minute they were available on the online store.

Did you order with expedited shipping? It seems that those that ordered form the US with expedited shipping got their cards shipped out rather quickly.

 

[codehead1]

It might be your W5700x. I had the same issue with my standalone W5700X card I literally ordered the minute they were available on the online store.

That's the main reason I'm asking, though my experience is that when Apple brings a new option online, it's because they have the parts available. I ordered within an hour of it getting added to the store. I think it's more likely that the stand-alone card order would have delays—companies always want to sell a $10k+ system with the card first, rather than prioritizing the $1k card orders. So I'm really asking about Mac Pro shipments.

Did you order with expedited shipping? It seems that those that ordered from the US with expedited shipping got their cards shipped out rather quickly.

There is no expedited shipping with a system order, it's always "fast free delivery", no other option (in US anyway). With non-system orders, you can pay extra for expedited shipping. I happened to order two adaptors from Apple about 48 hours ago, expediated shipping would have added $8, I didn't select it. I received one of the adapters about 24 hours later, from California, the other arrived midday today, from Kentucky.

I live in Southern California, the Mac Pro would ship from California, so deliver time is pretty quick.

 

[Aboo]

That's the main reason I'm asking, though my experience is that when Apple brings a new option online, it's because they have the parts available. I ordered within an hour of it getting added to the store. I think it's more likely that the stand-alone card order would have delays—companies always want to sell a $10k+ system with the card first, rather than prioritizing the $1k card orders. So I'm really asking about Mac Pro shipments.


There is no expedited shipping with a system order, it's always "fast free delivery", no other option (in US anyway). With non-system orders, you can pay extra for expedited shipping. I happened to order two adaptors from Apple about 48 hours ago, expedited shipping would have added $8, I didn't select it. I received one of the adapters about 24 hours later, from California, the other arrived midday today, from Kentucky.

I live in Southern California, the Mac Pro would ship from California, so deliver time is pretty quick.

The Mac Pro actually ships from Round Rock, TX which is where their plant is. Having been through the order process recently enough, there was an expedited option for 8 bucks when I ordered. I got it about one week after placing my order.

The issue with the W5700X cards is that the MPX modules are still made in China and have to be shipped to the US factory for assembly. If you order standalone MPX modules right now on the online store, it quotes your exact time frame for delivery.

What's equally interesting is that my MPX module scheduled delivery date was exactly the same as your original Mac Pro's scheduled delivery date and it too slipped to your new Mac Pro expected delivery date.

The MPX modules are all manufactured near ZSPD and looking at all cargo flights out from there to the US, there are almost no UPS or Fedex flights scheduled. Majority are other major cargo carriers who are likely transporting various healthcare supplies. This seems to corroborate with our own supply chain experiences based on cargo prioritization ex Pudong.

My suspicion is that Apple probably had a certain number of cards they allocated initially to the US market and both custom-built and standalone purchases exhausted the initial supply and a next bulk shipment is pending. Since our Mac Pro is deployed in COVID modeling research currently, we were able to get our card "expedited", but based on tracking information, it appears to be literally sitting on a pallet waiting for export, despite being marked as shipped.

 

[blackie36]

I know from recent experience (2 separate orders) that Apple are struggling to get inventory out of China at the moment - and you’re right not much leaving Pudong right now in the way of Cargo flights.

I’ve been told by two separate teams within Apple that they are currently transporting via road to Hong Kong in order to get items onto flights.

This happened with my Mac Pro order in February and then again with my W5700X order this last week.

 

[codehead1]

The Mac Pro actually ships from Round Rock, TX which is where their plant is. Having been through the order process recently enough, there was an expedited option for 8 bucks when I ordered. I got it about one week after placing my order.

Two specialists put me on hold and checked, independently, then said it would ship from California. I'm aware of the Texas factory, I didn't address where it was built, but it's clear that when the Apple Store says it has shipped—according to these specialists—it means that it shipped from California, for me. These are the folks you have to wait on hold for about two hours to talk to after getting sent there by the normal "associates". What else can I say—these folks should know, I won't argue with them.

Anyway, I still think this was something other than a typical delay, I think my order went into limbo. The order updated with the new ship date—exactly the same ship date as if I'd re-ordered from scratch right then—six days after the inside date of the window, a day from the outside of the window. And immediately (overnight) after an associate put me on hold and talked to the billing department about pushing the billing process. Not requoted for a 3-4 day slippage, but fully to the back of the line, as if I'd ordered right then.

I still haven't seen anyone say they ordered a Mac Pro with W5700X the first day and got two weeks slippage, or any at all. And I don't think Apple would have put the option up on 4/15 if they were waiting on China shipments, or could only fill a few orders. And if that were the case, I know I wasn't the only one who ordered—I ordered an hour after it went live, certainly all kinds of people would have been pushed back two weeks. I have seen at least one who ordered 4/15 Mac Pro W5700X in the UK who got theirs about a week ago. Even if I were on some magic threshold that missed, we'd have about 16 days of Mac+W5700X orders with the same issue, and a lot of people making noise about it.

Had another slightly strange thing, doesn't matter with the Mac delayed, but my XDR from B&H. FedEx had it being delivered here yesterday. Long bot-call the night before, saying I'd need to be here for signature (5/1), another the next morning with the same message, delivery "today", the website all along agreeing delivery 5/1. I was a little puzzled because it showed the last stop in NJ—no facility in between, which didn't make sense. No further phone updates, but mid-afternoon it switched to "no delivery scheduled", but had arrived in Bloomington CA—what I'd expect. Then got to nearby Carson in early AM and is out for delivery. No bot-call. Funny glitch.

 

[Aboo]

Two specialists put me on hold and checked, independently, then said it would ship from California. I'm aware of the Texas factory, I'm not sure of what it means to say it ships from California, but it's clear that when the Apple Store says it has shipped—according to these specialists—it means that it shipped from California, for me. These are the folks you have to wait on hold for about two hours to talk to after getting sent there by the normal "associates". What else can I say—these folks should know, I won't argue with them.

When your Mac Pro actually ships, I would be curious to see what your origin scan on the tracking states.

 

[codehead1]

When your Mac Pro actually ships, I would be curious to see what your origin scan on the tracking states.

Funny, I was just thinking the same thing I'll post it to this thread...It would make sense if they didn't manage individual shipping out of the Texas factory, batched deliveries to Apple warehouses elsewhere that managed individual shipments, but I don't know if other people are seeing Texas as the shipping origin.

 

[profdraper]

The Mac Pro actually ships from Round Rock, TX which is where their plant is. Having been through the order process recently enough, there was an expedited option for 8 bucks when I ordered. I got it about one week after placing my order.

The issue with the W5700X cards is that the MPX modules are still made in China and have to be shipped to the US factory for assembly. If you order standalone MPX modules right now on the online store, it quotes your exact time frame for delivery.

What's equally interesting is that my MPX module scheduled delivery date was exactly the same as your original Mac Pro's scheduled delivery date and it too slipped to your new Mac Pro expected delivery date.

The MPX modules are all manufactured near ZSPD and looking at all cargo flights out from there to the US, there are almost no UPS or Fedex flights scheduled. Majority are other major cargo carriers who are likely transporting various healthcare supplies. This seems to corroborate with our own supply chain experiences based on cargo prioritization ex Pudong.

My suspicion is that Apple probably had a certain number of cards they allocated initially to the US market and both custom-built and standalone purchases exhausted the initial supply and a next bulk shipment is pending. Since our Mac Pro is deployed in COVID modeling research currently, we were able to get our card "expedited", but based on tracking information, it appears to be literally sitting on a pallet waiting for export, despite being marked as shipped.

Unless of course you actually live elsewhere in the world than America. Mine came from Quanta Taiwan.

 

[Aboo]

Unless of course you actually live elsewhere in the world than America. Mine came from Quanta Taiwan.

Yes we were referring to North American orders.

 

[codehead1]

I'm feeling a little more hopeful today—the charge just hit my Apple Card. I'll update with the shipping origin when I have that.

In the end, I'm completely sure my order got lost in limbo for 15 days (original arrival window was 9-16 days), at which time it went in as essentially a new order, same arrival estimate as placing new order right then, this following immesitely after an Apple associate called the billing department for me to bump it.

Even if those coincidents weren't enough—and even if other people here with essential the same order recevied theres 9-11 days ago, and people ordering several days after my order received theirs days ago—a specialist confirmed that when delivery dates are revised, they send email notification. In my case, there was no email, and I'm sure it's because the date was never actually revised, the order was simply put back in.

 

[codehead1]

The nightmare continues. Ding—text message form Apple 6 AM—an update on your order, new delivery window May 21-26. And yes, those are the same dates as I get if I order another of the same right now. ready for another really long hold and talk with Apple...

OMG, I just realized, 6 AM—same as Groundhog Day...well, it was 6:15...

 

[Aboo]

Interesting! Those are the same delivery dates for the standalone W5700x with expedited shipping. I really hope Apple sorts this out for you ASAP

 

[codehead1]

This seems like a terminal condition. An hour on hold, talked to a specialist. I'll try not to vent too much, but let's just say he figured these reschedules are probably right, tough times, could happen again when this delivery window expires, there is no concept of a place in line with Apple orders, and it doesn't even mean anything to say "if I placed an identical order right now, it shows the same date as my 4/15 order", because if you actually follow through and click "Buy", the date could change, he said.

Anyway, I've talked to a few specialists (these are not the ones that answer to 1-800-MY-APPLE), it's clear they have no idea or way of knowing what delivery times are running, whether there are supply issues or not. He was just spitballing ideas about why I should have no expectations of performance.

PS—Things are looking better after lunch. Just got an text message that it's scheduled to arrive Friday. I really cornered the guy about whether he was going to do something. He only committed, and not convincingly, that he'd have someone take a look at the order to see if it looked OK. That's been done several times already, I wasn't too hopeful. Plus he wouldn't even agree to email me a simple notice that that had been done or was in the process. That was surprising since the first associate weeks back emailed me without being asked (basically with issue number and extention to call back ot the specialist team). Still, I don't know that it would have gone from a new target of May 21-26 and still at "Processing", to skipping past "Preparing to Ship" and immediately to "Shipped" with a date of May 15 on its own. He must have unwedged it somehow.

 

[codehead1]

When your Mac Pro actually ships, I would be curious to see what your origin scan on the tracking states.

And finally we have the answer. It's indeed shipped from Round Rock, as logic would dictate. Two different "specialists" checked on where it would ship from, a few weeks back, and came back with California. Didn't make sense with them not being manufactured here. The specialists didn't really seem to have any capabilities the regular customer care folks had, maybe they are just a layer that could be escalated to, to make cusomters feel something was being done, not sure.

Scheduled for arrival Thursday, so 29 days from order.

 

[Aboo]

Wow! Glad you got it sorted out and it’s on its way over!