An iMac Saga: The Dream of Buying a New Computer

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

After an initial delivery estimate of December 17–23, the Mac impressively departs Shanghai on Monday, December 6, and FedEx forecasts delivery as soon as Friday, December 10.

However, the package experiences a daylong “operational delay” in Beijing before transiting through Japan and arriving for import in Anchorage the night of December 10. Oh well, I ponder, I guess it will be here by Monday or Tuesday.

Additionally, I plan to trade in my 15” MacBook Pro (Late 2013) that I bought refurbished in fall 2014. Apple offered an instant credit of $340. Normally, Apple asks for a trade-in returned within two weeks of receiving the box.

Well, the box for that Mac already arrived on the 7th, sadly uncoordinated with the shipment of the computer I ordered to replace it. I’m left wondering what will happen if my new Mac doesn’t come before the trade-in expires.

By this point, Apple has updated its delivery estimate to December 15. Then, on the morning of Sunday the 12th, FedEx reports another operational delay. Two days into this delay, with no further explanation from FedEx, I call Apple.

Post-Sales Rep Dana explains that Apple could initiate a shipping investigation, but she instructs me to wait until after the computer is scheduled for delivery and doesn’t arrive.

Also, she indicates that if the trade-in expires, I can request that Apple restart it. However, this in all likelihood will result in a second trade-in box shipped to me instead of simply a replacement shipping label—another unfortunate inefficiency in Apple’s systems.

Where’s My Sherlock?

No change in the package tracking, I call back the following day and request a shipping investigation. The post-sales rep connects me with their supervisor to set this in motion. They inform me that it is usually a 72-hour process: In the first 24 hours, Apple reaches out to the carrier; in the second, the carrier responds; and in the third, Apple makes a decision.

Unless the package is verifiably intact and possible to release, Apple will likely issue a cancelation and a replacement, whose shipment is prioritized if possible.

Additionally, Apple will likely use a different carrier for the replacement. As the supervisor reports, FedEx is notorious to failing to honestly report on packages damaged during shipment. Sometimes, he says, there are two or three rounds of Apple asking them about an incomplete delivery and them giving all manner of false excuses before admitting the truth.

I also share with the rep that one of my clients had ordered a similarly configured iMac around the same time. Hers departed China on December 10, arrived in Memphis the following day, and was delivered a few days later to her home in the Bay Area. I’m mystified by the circuitous route my iMac is taking.

The following morning, not 24 hours after I requested the investigation, Apple issues a replacement and effectively prevents my original order from getting delivered to me. Meanwhile, day after day, I continue to track the shipment. Conveniently, I have Junecloud’s Deliveries app in my arsenal.

Come Sunday, December 19, the package finally departs Alaska, arrives in Memphis, waits around for eight hours, and then makes its way for … Seattle!? Only on Monday does it finally arrive in Oakland, and only then to wait around for another 24 hours!

On the morning of Tuesday, December 21, three weeks after my initial order date, my iMac arrives at my local FedEx facility. However, it does not pass Go and does not collect $200. It doesn’t get put on a delivery vehicle either.

I call FedEx and learn that because there’s a case on the shipment (Apple’s shipping investigation), FedEx does not have authority to release the package to me. I’m flabbergasted!

I call Apple again, too, but there’s nothing they can do. I can only wonder whether requesting the investigation in the first place was beneficial in resuming the shipment progress or if the package was actually damaged along the way. I may never learn the truth.

By Tuesday afternoon, the package is marked for “return” to Apple with a new tracking number. No, the computer won’t make its way back to China. Instead, it will head to a regional Apple facility, probably one associated with Apple’s refurbishment process.

And so it goes… leaving Emeryville on the 21st and arriving in San Bernardino on the 23rd. But due to Christmas holiday hours, the Apple facility in nearby Rialto is closed on Thursday and Friday, so FedEx holds the package for the weekend and finally delivers it on Monday the 27th.

Time to Get Paid

When I ordered the iMac, I scheduled to pay for it in 12 monthly installments. It’s December 30 and my first installment is coming due tomorrow, to be paid automatically by my Apple Card. But I haven’t received the computer yet!

I call Apple and, randomly, I’m again connected to Dana. She remembers my case and is impressed by the rarity of a customer reaching the same post-sales rep twice about the same issue.

I ask whether Apple can postpone my first installment of $200.21 until the following month. Dana reaches out to another department and eventually comes back to say this isn’t possible. However, as I’m giving up on any prospect of remuneration, Dana offers a $150 credit.

At first I assume this is an Apple account credit but in fact it will be put back on my Apple Card. Plus, it’s pretax and the final amount of the credit is actually $165.38. For the wringer I’m going through, this is a gracious gesture.

Another Replacement

Meanwhile, I’m left waiting for the replacement to ship. And I wait and wait and wait some more. By this point, the replacement is scheduled for delivery by Friday, January 7. When the 5th rolls around and the order hasn’t shipped yet, I call Apple again.

“I need to speak with someone about an order I placed on the Apple online store,” I say, well practiced, to the artificial intelligence.

I’m getting good, too, at providing the identity verification info Apple wants. Yet, no one seems to know why the order is still marked “Processing.” As it happens, the following day the replacement is canceled and a second replacement appears on my order status page.

Also, the first trade-in expired so I request it restarted. A box ships the following day and arrives on the 7th. Still, I wonder whether the computer will arrive before the trade-in period ends.

Keyboard Snafu

On Tuesday, January 11, the second replacement is finally marked “Preparing to Ship,” an indication that it will probably ship the following day. Only now does it occur to me that I might want to verify the configuration of the computer that will probably actually deliver to me.

With increasing stress, I discover that while the original order and first replacement have the correct Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad, the second replacement lists the stock Magic Keyboard with Touch ID instead. Guess who will be hearing from me again!

I ask the Apple post-sales rep whether the second replacement is incorrectly listed and actually includes the keyboard I ordered. She says it does.

In retrospect, I realize I should have asked the question differently: “Can you please identify the keyboard included in the second replacement and also reference the one I ordered?”

The computer does in fact ship on Wednesday, January 12. This time, mostly on the 14th due to date and time zone shifts, UPS transports it from Shanghai through Korea to Anchorage (my stomach plummets for a moment), then to Kentucky, and finally the Sacramento area, UPS’ Northern California hub.

On the morning of Saturday the 15th, the package arrives at the regional facility in San Pablo, and finally delivers to my front porch on Monday afternoon.

Naturally, I’m quick to open the package. I’m certain I know what’s inside and my saga isn’t quite over. Though it will be a short-lived, marginally exciting experience, I grab Kimberley to capture the unboxing experience on video.

I’m impressed by Apple’s nearly 100% paper packaging. Only the adornments stuck to all sides and edges of the computer are plastic. Then, I remove the iMac and reach underneath to reveal, as expected, the incorrect keyboard.

Déjà Vu

Barely half an hour after receiving my new baby, I’m back on the phone with Apple to find out how to get the correct keyboard. Oddly, there does not seem to be an easy way to acquire the one I originally ordered.

Can’t they just pull it from the box of my original order that got returned and send it my way?!

Mind you, this is not the same as the silver version that Apple retails for $179. The colored variants are exclusively sold with color-matched iMacs.

The rep informs me that a particular team will contact me in 3–4 days with a decision. Additionally, Apple won’t mind if I dirty the keyboard they mistakenly shipped, so I’m clear to open up the new Mac and start using it.

It’s quite unlikely, they way, especially given the uniqueness of my saga, that Apple would want me to return this iMac in exchange for the correct configuration. After all, it’s only the keyboard!

But first, the plot thickens… I receive a call the following morning and I’m passed from one rep to another as they try to determine which department should handle my case. Is it Post-Sales, AppleCare, or Customer Service? Do I need to speak with a Senior Advisor? Who knows?!

Between Monday and Tuesday, I spend 100 minutes on the phone with Apple and eventually reach Mark, who is really sweet and empathetic about my case. He notes that he and his peers consistently ask for the keyboard with numeric keypad to ease their workflow.

While speaking with Mark, I learn that staff in this department don’t have access to the same order status view as customers. They only see a generic, standardized Mac configuration designation that doesn’t clearly list the items ordered. This is why the rep I spoke to last week failed to identify the keyboard in the box.

Mark leaves me, however, with nothing more than the instruction to wait another few days until the case was originally scheduled to resolve, or to directly contact the rep who took ownership of the case.

And that brings us to today. I haven’t heard from Apple so I’ll be calling hopefully just once more to bring this case to a close. It’s only been eight weeks since I ordered my iMac. And I plan to deliver my trade-in to UPS today, too.

Finally a New iMac

Well, I’ve been using this iMac for almost a week now and it’s pretty incredible. For one, it’s silent. Even with Folding@home running continuously in the background. I wonder if I’ll ever get the fan to spin up.

Second, the display is crisp and larger than life. I’m trying to discern whether it’s really well-sized for my productivity or will take some getting used to.

On one hand, I can spread out my windows a lot more easily. On the other, I sometimes have trouble noticing notification banners as they appear because they’re so far away from my standard gaze. Maybe that’s for the better.

Third, the performance is stellar! I exported an 8-minute HD video from iMovie in under 90 seconds, undeterred by Folding@home running simultaneously.

I set up my iMac with a HyperDrive USB-C Hub that provides USB-A and USB-C ports on the front of the iMac and comes with color-matching faceplates.

I also replaced my external backup and storage drive with an OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual with USB Hub and a pair of RAID-mirrored 4TB Seagate Exos drives.

For an added touch, I removed the rainbow Apple sticker I had put on my MacBook Pro and placed it on the front of the iMac instead. I recall reviewers last spring commented that the front of the iMac seemed unusually bare compared to past models.

The Saga Continues

This week, I spend another 3 hours on the phone with Apple. The first 2.5 (Tuesday) include several departments and advisor tiers as they each try to determine who is best suited to handle replacing my keyboard. In the end, it is treated as a repair and replacement, but hopefully not of the whole computer. The order is still on hold and it’s unclear when it will progress.

In the remaining 30 minutes (Friday), I respond to an email from the Trade In department that my trade-in value was reduced 10% because it was received late. Apparently they didn’t get the memo that I only just received my Mac ten days earlier. For the time being, I’m instructed to ignore the requests to accept or reject the reduction and await further correspondence.

The saga finally comes to an end four weeks from now when I will receive the orange Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad that I had originally ordered — in U.S. English, not Bulgarian layout, which was a brief point of confusion. One week later, Apple will receive the smaller keyboard that I returned in exchange — just 89 days after my initial order date!

The Moral

Most orders of new Macs go swimmingly. I’ve recently consulted with many clients to help them migrate to a new computer. However, in the rare case that an order goes horribly wrong, recovery can be a hassle. Apparently, certain systems among Apple’s sales departments are inefficient and/or disconnected.