I'm curious about the wait times others have had because I'm debating about cancelling an order I have with Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha, NE. Here's the entire fiasco that's causing this possible decisions.
In late March my father started looking into tablets to buy my mother a school teacher to use to take attendance and integrate into her curriculum. We quickly narrowed it down to the ipad. Then after researching online, several phone called to our local Apple store to see if they had the model we wanted in as well as some phone calls to local resellers we decided on NFM because their wait time was on par with the 2-3 week wait Apple had posted on their website, but with NFM I could ship to store.
On April 14 I ordered a 32gb wifi only black model from NFM. I was told a wait time on par to possibly shorter than Apple- May 1st but call before because it might come in sooner. I called about 4 days before it was suppose to come in. I was informed that they did receive a shipment and my should be ready for pickup on April 30. However on April 29th the day before I was suppose to pick it up (and just days before their big shareholder meeting), I received an automated telephone message saying that my order was delayed until June 1st (today). When I called customer care they informed me that the customer service agent I talked to before had no clue what he was talking about and must have looked up a different product. Then I got this whole thing about how Apple had obligations to their direct customers and would be fulfilling the orders for NFM soon.
I checked their website a few times during this time and they continued to take orders for ipads during this time with an expected pick up for June 1. I called their customer service several times during this time period making sure that all of the info was correct, my last direct contact with customer care being on May 28th. At that time I was informed that everything looked great and there seemed to be no new delays. On May 30th I called the automated customer care system "Your order will be ready for pick up on July 2, 2011". Today I received that dreaded automated phone call again "This is an important message from Nebraska Furniture Mart... your order has been July 2".
This time to get their excuses in writing I emailed them and got this response:
"[FONT="]Thank you for your email. I am sorry that the delays in the Ipad have caused disappointment for your friend. And it is very much a problem for NFM to have so many disappointed customers due to the delays from Apple. We are unhappy and frustrated as well by these delays however we do not have control over the delays that Apple keeps having with their shipments to us. I am sorry that I am unable to provide further assistance to you. Unfortunately there is the possibility of further delay, we are certainly hoping this does not happen because we understand how disappointing that would be. However we can not guarantee the arrival date due to the shipping process being out of our control. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns."
[/FONT]My email to Apple directly to see if they would respond to what Nebraska Furniture Mart says is their fault has gone unanswered so far.
A special surprise my dad had for my mom on her birthday has now turned into a fiasco. Even if we cancel the order with NFM we aren't sure if she'll have an ipad in her hands before her new school year has started. The May 1st date was perfect a few weeks to get it set up for her, 2 1/2 months for her to learn the system and figure out how she could use it with the kids. Even the June 1st date was fine, my dad and I setting it up would cut into her practice time but still she would have time with it. Now we're given a July date that we can't even trust and I don't know what to do.
Info about others wait times would be a start. The Apple website is saying 1-2 weeks. I'm not sure if this is accurate.
In late March my father started looking into tablets to buy my mother a school teacher to use to take attendance and integrate into her curriculum. We quickly narrowed it down to the ipad. Then after researching online, several phone called to our local Apple store to see if they had the model we wanted in as well as some phone calls to local resellers we decided on NFM because their wait time was on par with the 2-3 week wait Apple had posted on their website, but with NFM I could ship to store.
On April 14 I ordered a 32gb wifi only black model from NFM. I was told a wait time on par to possibly shorter than Apple- May 1st but call before because it might come in sooner. I called about 4 days before it was suppose to come in. I was informed that they did receive a shipment and my should be ready for pickup on April 30. However on April 29th the day before I was suppose to pick it up (and just days before their big shareholder meeting), I received an automated telephone message saying that my order was delayed until June 1st (today). When I called customer care they informed me that the customer service agent I talked to before had no clue what he was talking about and must have looked up a different product. Then I got this whole thing about how Apple had obligations to their direct customers and would be fulfilling the orders for NFM soon.
I checked their website a few times during this time and they continued to take orders for ipads during this time with an expected pick up for June 1. I called their customer service several times during this time period making sure that all of the info was correct, my last direct contact with customer care being on May 28th. At that time I was informed that everything looked great and there seemed to be no new delays. On May 30th I called the automated customer care system "Your order will be ready for pick up on July 2, 2011". Today I received that dreaded automated phone call again "This is an important message from Nebraska Furniture Mart... your order has been July 2".
This time to get their excuses in writing I emailed them and got this response:
"[FONT="]Thank you for your email. I am sorry that the delays in the Ipad have caused disappointment for your friend. And it is very much a problem for NFM to have so many disappointed customers due to the delays from Apple. We are unhappy and frustrated as well by these delays however we do not have control over the delays that Apple keeps having with their shipments to us. I am sorry that I am unable to provide further assistance to you. Unfortunately there is the possibility of further delay, we are certainly hoping this does not happen because we understand how disappointing that would be. However we can not guarantee the arrival date due to the shipping process being out of our control. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns."
[/FONT]My email to Apple directly to see if they would respond to what Nebraska Furniture Mart says is their fault has gone unanswered so far.
A special surprise my dad had for my mom on her birthday has now turned into a fiasco. Even if we cancel the order with NFM we aren't sure if she'll have an ipad in her hands before her new school year has started. The May 1st date was perfect a few weeks to get it set up for her, 2 1/2 months for her to learn the system and figure out how she could use it with the kids. Even the June 1st date was fine, my dad and I setting it up would cut into her practice time but still she would have time with it. Now we're given a July date that we can't even trust and I don't know what to do.
Info about others wait times would be a start. The Apple website is saying 1-2 weeks. I'm not sure if this is accurate.
