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What are the chances UPS will screw up and deliver early?

H

HXGuy

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 25, 2010
1,679
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Not for me personally...I ordered a 3G iPad so I have a while to wait.

But I was wondering...with upward of 500,000 of these out there, do you guys think at least one UPS location will muck it up and deliver their batch on Thursday or Friday?

Would love to see some threads or reviews pop up online early!
 
It's quite possible, but it seems Apple is being pretty extreme in insuring that no one will get one before launch. I'm sure they have a pretty fineprint agreement with the shipping company that NO ONE will get their order before April 3rd ("Or else", knowing Apple). I really, really wouldn't count on getting your iPad early, to be completely honest.
 
This has already been covered at least dozens of other places but we'll do it again.

They are all held at the main UPS hub in Kentucky. That way your local UPS facility cannot screw up and deliver them by accident.

It happened that way with at least the iPhone 3GS in June 2009.

Edit: for the curious, they come out of China, fly to AK for customs, then fly to KY. From there they are routed through some path depending on where you live. Hence, the final hold point for ALL of them is their KY hub. Most likely Friday night/Saturday morning they will be dispatched on flights to your local facility and be on a truck by about 6 am. So chill.

Edit2: can we please stop making new threads with speculation that UPS can be fooled into delivering/will make a mistake and deliver your package early? The process it will go through has been well documented (see above) so hammering www.ups.com or phoning them up every 17 seconds doesn't help anyone. Neither does making new threads here. Go read a book, play video games, or go for a run in the mean time.
 
If the 3GS street date got broken, which I understand it did, I think chances are good we'll see an 'unboxing' video before Saturday.

I know people are speculating that Apple is doing tricks with the customs paperwork, but still...once it gets solely into UPS's hands, that's 500,000 potential points of failure in the big plan.
 
monksealpup said:
This has already been covered at least dozens of other places but we'll do it again.

They are all held at the main UPS hub in Kentucky. That way your local UPS facility cannot screw up and deliver them by accident.

It happened that way with at least the iPhone 3GS in June 2009.

Edit: for the curious, they come out of China, fly to AK for customs, then fly to KY. From there they are routed through some path depending on where you live. Hence, the final hold point for ALL of them is their KY hub. Most likely Friday night/Saturday morning they will be dispatched on flights to your local facility and be on a truck by about 6 am. So chill.
Click to expand...

I am chill...I don't even have a WiFi version on order, just a 3G.

The thing is, some people are reporting that their tracking numbers already show that their shipment is at their local UPS hubs...thats why I brought it up.
 
Well i have a good feeling i will get mine tomorrow lol it's already at my local UPS hub 5 miles away from my home. Hope the driver makes a mistake and loads my package on his delivery truck with my other UPS packages :) w00t!
 
SchneiderMan said:
Well i have a good feeling i will get mine tomorrow lol it's already at my local UPS hub 5 miles away from my home. Hope the driver makes a mistake and loads my package on his delivery truck with my other UPS packages :) w00t!
Click to expand...

Go back and read the tracking thread. It's (probably) not at your hub.
 
monksealpup said:
Obviously the people still holding out for UPS screwing up cannot read/refuse to accept reality. Prolly best just to ignore everyone below this post.
Click to expand...

I have to admit I find it 'vaguely' interesting just because street date does seem to get broken and I'm almost willing to bet money we'll see that unboxing video...Because UPS is not Apple. But yeah, when it's framed in "maybe it'll happen to me!" it does get a little pathetic.
 
HXGuy said:
Not for me personally...I ordered a 3G iPad so I have a while to wait.

But I was wondering...with upward of 500,000 of these out there, do you guys think at least one UPS location will muck it up and deliver their batch on Thursday or Friday?

Would love to see some threads or reviews pop up online early!
Click to expand...

Not impossible but very unlikely. UPS will conduct employee meetings explaining the specific prodedures for handling and delivering all ipads.

Plus with their tracking system someone at UPS will be tracking the ipads
each step of the way from origin to destination.

I'm sure some people will post " I just got my ipad early" just because they think Its funny.
 
Well I'm still confused on this whole UPS and Sat delivery. I talked to a UPS guy on Monday and he said UPS doesn't normally deliver on Sat. That usually they will only deliver on Saturdays for Overnight deliveries ONLY and ONLY after the customer pays an additional 25 bucks ontop of the overnight cost which no one does.

It is possible that Apple worked out a deal with UPS as this was probably the main reason they used FedEx since they do normal deliveries on Saturdays without additional charges.
 
SchneiderMan said:
Well i have a good feeling i will get mine tomorrow lol it's already at my local UPS hub 5 miles away from my home. Hope the driver makes a mistake and loads my package on his delivery truck with my other UPS packages :) w00t!
Click to expand...

Exceptions listed on your tracking data indicate nothing about the current location of your package. Most of us have gotten the old exceptions from Kentucky, and most have gotten more tonight from our 'home' ups location, and most of the packages are still in China.

Note the following--- my package did not skip five jumps (China-Alaska-Kentucky-Dallas/San Antonio-Austin) That exception has somthing to do with a action required by all of the 'home' UPS locations tomorrow morning, most likely in regards to Saturday.


AUSTIN, TX, USA
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 9:00 AM
UPS INTERNAL ACTIVITY / UPS INTERNAL ACTIVITY
GUANGZHOU, GUANGDONG, CHINA
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:16 PM
LOCATION SCAN
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:14 PM
LOCATION SCAN
SHENZHEN, GUANGDONG, CHINA
Monday, March 29, 2010 10:12 AM
ORIGIN SCAN
CHINA
Monday, March 29, 2010 10:10 PM
 
redshift1 said:
I'm sure some people will post " I just got my ipad early" just because they think Its funny.
Click to expand...

And people will ignore them unless they have pics. (Or at least, anyone with an IQ above room temperature will.) Unfortunately I do think the pics are going to show up.

I'd love to be wrong.
 
HXGuy said:
The thing is, some people are reporting that their tracking numbers already show that their shipment is at their local UPS hubs...thats why I brought it up.
Click to expand...

The people reporting that are reading their tracking info wrong. Showing local "internal activity" doesn't mean the iPad is there.
 
dissdnt said:
Well I'm still confused on this whole UPS and Sat delivery. I talked to a UPS guy on Monday and he said UPS doesn't normally deliver on Sat. That usually they will only deliver on Saturdays for Overnight deliveries ONLY and ONLY after the customer pays an additional 25 bucks ontop of the overnight cost which no one does.

It is possible that Apple worked out a deal with UPS as this was probably the main reason they used FedEx since they do normal deliveries on Saturdays without additional charges.
Click to expand...

UPS delivers on Saturday in many, not all locations... if your tracking includes a line item about 'service not available at selected address' then you will not receive your package on Saturday
 
Anyone work, or worked at UPS? The way they have to sort so many items for delivery, would they really have the ability and resources to pull out the iPad boxes, and then set them aside a day or so (as in the case of the poster above) so they could sit a day + so they can ONLY deliver it on the Saturday run. Just seems like a lot of headache for them. And if APPLE made some special arrangement for all of this "non normal" UPS delivery to work out, I wonder what that cost them? UPS wouldn't do all of this extra legwork for free
 
dissdnt said:
Well I'm still confused on this whole UPS and Sat delivery. I talked to a UPS guy on Monday and he said UPS doesn't normally deliver on Sat. That usually they will only deliver on Saturdays for Overnight deliveries ONLY and ONLY after the customer pays an additional 25 bucks ontop of the overnight cost which no one does.

It is possible that Apple worked out a deal with UPS as this was probably the main reason they used FedEx since they do normal deliveries on Saturdays without additional charges.
Click to expand...

UPS has provided Saturday deliveries for at least 15 years they do not normally deliver ground ...yes there is a surcharge for Saturday deliveries
but large corporate accounts occasionally pay reduced fees.

The UPS guy you talked with has his information confused.
 
bludodge said:
Anyone work, or worked at UPS? The way they have to sort so many items for delivery, would they really have the ability and resources to pull out the iPad boxes, and then set them aside a day or so (as in the case of the poster above) so they could sit a day + so they can ONLY deliver it on the Saturday run. Just seems like a lot of headache for them. And if APPLE made some special arrangement for all of this "non normal" UPS delivery to work out, I wonder what that cost them? UPS wouldn't do all of this extra legwork for free
Click to expand...

I know this may come as a shock, but a lot of UPS sorting is automated (i.e. robots/computers). Moreover, the plane that brings things in from China through Alaska to the hub is either full of iPads on palettes or mostly full of iPads on palettes. Soooo they simply set these palettes aside. This isn't rocket science (and it probably doesn't even require the robots, just a guy with a forklift to go to the appropriate planes as they come in).
 
bludodge said:
The way they have to sort so many items for delivery, would they really have the ability and resources to pull out the iPad boxes, and then set them aside a day or so (as in the case of the poster above) so they could sit a day + so they can ONLY deliver it on the Saturday run.
Click to expand...

They aren't pulling out individual packages, these are shipped as huge palettes of iPads. They can hold them before they even get broken down to individual shipments.
 
bludodge said:
Anyone work, or worked at UPS? The way they have to sort so many items for delivery, would they really have the ability and resources to pull out the iPad boxes, and then set them aside a day or so (as in the case of the poster above) so they could sit a day + so they can ONLY deliver it on the Saturday run. Just seems like a lot of headache for them. And if APPLE made some special arrangement for all of this "non normal" UPS delivery to work out, I wonder what that cost them? UPS wouldn't do all of this extra legwork for free
Click to expand...

I worked in UPS operations quite a long time and they can absolutely control these deliveries they do the same for high value packages every day so they have plenty of practice.
 
diabolic said:
They aren't pulling out individual packages, these are shipped as huge palettes of iPads. They can hold them before they even get broken down to individual shipments.
Click to expand...

redshift1 said:
I worked in UPS operations quite a long time and they can absolutely control these deliveries they do the same for high value packages every day so they have plenty of practice.
Click to expand...

Look in the huge "iPad Shipping Emails" thread above this one in the iPad section of the forums. Look on page 19-22 and there should be some pictures from a user in Alaska who actually caught pictures of the pallets coming off a 747 that came direct from Hong Kong.

thats what they look like :)
 
diabolic said:
They aren't pulling out individual packages, these are shipped as huge palettes of iPads. They can hold them before they even get broken down to individual shipments.
Click to expand...

I understand somewhat about some of this. You have different hubs right? So one in Dallas, would have iPads for many cities and suburbs and would be the conduit that you would see the small towns get theirs through, but would they ALL sit in a shrink wrapped pallet? I wouldn't think so. I mean at some point the pallet shipment of iPads has to be broken down. So I get the example of a pallet going to Alaska. Makes sense they would all show up that way, duh. But within that Dallas pallet, some may just be going down the street, and others a few counties over. Maybe I am not asking my question correctly. Lets say the Dallas terminal has 10 pallets of 50 iPads a pallet, those 500 iPads eventually have to probably end up on 300+ smaller trucks. So in the meantime, for 4 days they are working around these 10 pallets? all so they can orchestrate a magical Saturday?

Thanks for the insight everyone that has worked there.
 
bludodge said:
I understand somewhat about some of this. You have different hubs right? So one in Dallas,

a bunch of other stuff

Thanks for the insight everyone that has worked there.
Click to expand...

The palettes aren't broken down until Friday at the KY hub. KY is the MAIN hub. Boxes are sent out to regional hubs/individual ports of entry (typically main airports like PDX, SEA, LAX, BWI, etc., often these are the same place), then trucked to your local office for delivery Saturday morning.

They ALL SIT IN KENTUCKY UNTIL FRIDAY NIGHT. Why is this so difficult to understand?
 
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