In-Store - MacBook Pro Delivery times

[Roburt]

Hey, newbie here..

I will soon be travelling from Germany to Los Angeles and would like to purchase a MacBook Pro because they are sooooo much cheaper in the USA.
My question is, do Apple stores carry a lot of stock so you can walk in and walk away with your MBP? or do you need to wait a few days for your own order to come through? Can they do upgrades in-store like ram & harddrives or must these be done in the factory?

Thanks guys.

[Guartho]

You can definitely walk in and walk out with a stock MBP. I think they can do in-store upgrades for you too. It may depend on how busy the "genius" is at that particular store.

[Roburt]

Thanks Guartho,

Also... Is it true that on the US Apple website, the tax is not included?
Do you know if USA offers tourists tax-free / tax-back / duty-free purchases?

[PBG4 Dude]

Thanks Guartho,

Also... Is it true that on the US Apple website, the tax is not included?
Do you know if USA offers tourists tax-free / tax-back / duty-free purchases?

If you buy from a physical Apple Store, they will charge you the sales tax rate for that physical district. If you buy from the online Apple Store, they will charge you sales tax based on the shipping address. AFAIK, only Oregon and New Hampshire have no sales tax.

Also, if you have the store do an upgrade, you'll pay the full price for the hard drive. I'm sure you'll pay a labor fee as well. This could cost more than buying a BTO model from the website, but it doesn't sound like you have the time to wait for a custom order to be built and shipped from China.

[wmf]

In-store upgrades are a really bad idea, because Apple will charge about three times the market price.

[MacLemming]

Roburt you should install the RAM yourself, it takes about 2 minutes. I purchased mine from Newegg.com....

What Hard drive were you thinking of putting in your new MBP?