Day / April 24, 2010

The Mystery of My “Disappearing” iPad

As time progressed and early April turned to middle and then late (the 24th qualifies as late April, I think) I began to wonder on what day the order would actually ship. Rumors abound on the Net, but there didn’t seem to be anything official until Apple announced that orders had exceeded their capacity, they were delaying the International rollout, and people who ordered after April 19 would have their orders shipped “by May 7.” My first thought was, “Great! Since they know exactly when the NEXT batch of orders will be shipped, they should know when the FIRST batch will go out.”

So a few weeks ago I made the decision to join my Dad and some other early adopters and ordered an iPad 3G. At the time, Apple (about whom I normally would have little negative to say) was predicting the shipping date for this product as “Late April.” Since the time of my order was “early April”, I was okay with that.

But you know how things are… As time progressed and early April turned to middle and then late (the 24th qualifies as late April, I think) I began to wonder on what day the order would actually ship. Rumors abound on the Net, but there didn’t seem to be anything official until Apple announced that orders had exceeded their capacity, they were delaying the International rollout, and people who ordered after April 19 would have their orders shipped “by May 7.” My first thought was, “Great! Since they know exactly when the NEXT batch of orders will be shipped, they should know when the FIRST batch will go out.”

After checking my order status (I’ll admit, repeatedly) over the past week, I see that the expected ship date remains “Late April.”

Hope sprung eternal on Monday, however, when I noticed that the charge for the order showed up in online banking. And, knowing Apple’s policy about charging for products when they ship (“Apple will not bill your credit card or process a transaction under your debit or check card until your order ships.”) I grew… well, expectant, is the best word I can think of. Surely this was a sign that things are moving forward…

On Tuesday, however, the charge remained “pending.” Same on Wednesday. And Thursday. And there it sat, pending — taunting — until it disappeared on Friday. Well, I’m an optimistic guy, most people would tell you that. So I took this odd occurrence with the thought that — maybe — it moved from pending so it could become a real live charge and I would shortly receive the shipping notification that would create a whole new level of anticipation.

Nada. Nothing. Ain’t gonna happen. I’ve read a few places that Apple expects me to have it on April 30, a few hours before they are released in local Apple Stores. But strangely, Apple hasn’t bothered to tell me that, either with an email, an automated phone message, a carrier pigeon, or by simply updating my order status to reflect this information.

On the other hand, I did get an unsolicited email from GM the other day telling me that they’ve paid back their loan (with interest) five years ahead of schedule. I have no idea how I got on their list.