MacBook Pro shipping delays caused by UPS 'mechanical' problems
UPS has reportedly been updating some MacBook Pro buyers, saying the unexpected delays to their orders were caused by unspecified "mechanical failures."
Apple relies heavily on air freight (here with iPhone 12) Source: Apple
A number of people expecting to receive their new MacBook Pro on their first day of availability, October 26, instead just got emailed about delays. In each case, the emails contained a new delivery date in December, but no further details.
Now according to MacRumors, distribution company UPS has been following up Apple's initial email with ones giving slightly more information.
"A mechanical failure has caused a delay," one email reportedly says. "We will update the delivery date as soon as possible."
Users tracking their orders say that they are being told the MacBook Pro is back in China, after presumably having left. Specifically, they are listed as being in Shanghai and Seoul, South Korea.
It appears likely that the mechanical issues are to do with aircraft.
There do not appear to be many UPS flights scheduled to depart from these cities. One flight that had been scheduled from Seoul to the UPS hub in Cologne, Germany, has reportedly been canceled.
AppleInsider has reached out to UPS and Apple for more information.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple relies heavily on air freight (here with iPhone 12) Source: Apple
A number of people expecting to receive their new MacBook Pro on their first day of availability, October 26, instead just got emailed about delays. In each case, the emails contained a new delivery date in December, but no further details.
Now according to MacRumors, distribution company UPS has been following up Apple's initial email with ones giving slightly more information.
"A mechanical failure has caused a delay," one email reportedly says. "We will update the delivery date as soon as possible."
Users tracking their orders say that they are being told the MacBook Pro is back in China, after presumably having left. Specifically, they are listed as being in Shanghai and Seoul, South Korea.
It appears likely that the mechanical issues are to do with aircraft.
There do not appear to be many UPS flights scheduled to depart from these cities. One flight that had been scheduled from Seoul to the UPS hub in Cologne, Germany, has reportedly been canceled.
AppleInsider has reached out to UPS and Apple for more information.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
This is one hell of a first world problem, wouldn’t you say?
Not sure why Apple uses them instead of FedEx and DHL. I would like it if Apple offered us a choice and it would not be Oops.
My “signature required” $2000 + laptop was left with no signature at my neighbors house and not because there was nobody home.
This is just the kind of service often seen from Oops in my area. With numbers clearly on the house in broad daylight in 70 degree sunshine they managed to not get the delivery right.
Grrr…
Decades ago, fresh out of law school, five of us newly minted lawyers set out to open up a legal partnership. As managing partner, I contacted the IRS for appropriate partnership tax forms, telling them to send c/o Attorney Lawrence Winkler at our office.
Weeks later a package from the IRS was delivered, but wasn't for us. I figured it was for some hardware store close by. A couple of days later I realized this was indeed our package: c/o A Turning Lawn Sprinkler.
FedEx Ground also has its own terminals. They are separate, which is why you'll see a separate Express truck and Ground truck outside the FedEx Office stores in the evening. The history behind it is that FedEx didn't do ground. A company called RPS only did ground (and only commercial addresses). About the turn of the century, plus or minus, FedEx bought RPS and renamed it FedEx Ground. RPS used contracted drivers. For a long time after the merger, FedEx Ground had completely different tracking number formats etc from Express. Over time they've unified things between the two a lot. So now they share a single tracking number for at etc.
https://twitter.com/kaptanbaha1/status/1453331764513017870?s=21
Overall, I've no confidence with UPS. I've not been disappointed or lied to with FEDEX. UPS makes up reasons why my package is delayed. It's crazy.
Also, during the holidays when there is a surge of business, they may get more packages on their routes than they can normally handle. Since they are responsible for teh complete physical route, I've seen some drivers hire their own employees and use rental trucks to make up the slack and handle the temporary extra business.
This is all according to my understanding after talking with multiple FedEx Ground drivers over the years. I used to run an online and phone order sales business (early 2000s to about 2012) and mostly shipped through FedEx. One driver that covered my location with his route became really good friends with me and told me a lot about how it worked. I also talked with other drivers at other locations (I moved and over those years ran the business from a few different locations).
In the early 2000s, I also wrote a Mac app that would allow you to ship through FedEx from your Mac, with very quick data entry and label printing (when I started you had to either use a dedicated FedEx PC, which I didn't have, or a web browser, and you couldn't use a Mac browser as the labels would print low res and not be any good so I decided to write my own app -- they eventually fixed their side and now you can use their website to print labels, though my app would still be faster if it still worked // they changed their back end and I never updated the app). I wanted to sell the app or make it available as a subscription but FedEx would only certify it for my own use. To certify it for others to use I had to join some sort of consultants program, at the time, and pay $X000s to have some third party certify it. I didn't have the money to pay for that certification. But I used it about 10 years on an almost daily basis so I became quite familiar with how their system worked.
Oh wait, there was that one time a FedEx driver did deliver it to my front door. From the road 50 feet away. Without leaving the truck. Fortunately, my daughter saw it happen. One of the reasons I'm trying to find a good HomeKit doorbell camera that I can hardwire to power.
Remember, IF YOUR TRADE-IN IS NOT RECEIVED WITHIN 14 DAYS OF THE KIT ARRIVING, YOU LOSE 100% OF THE VALUE.
This means you have to give up your current computer and wait indefinitely for the one you spent a fortune on while UPS changes your expected delivery date daily.
TIP: When the trade-in kit arrives, DO NOT ACCEPT DELIVERY until the MBP arrives. THEN go pick up the trade-in kit.
Consider yourself warned.
You're welcome.