Shipping estimates
Posted on March 31, 2005
Filed Under Uncategorized
As far as the online stores are concerned, a lot of comparisons are made between the way [Apple](http://www.applestore.com) and [Dell](http://www.dell.com) handle online orders. Most are intentional because Apple said in the beginning that they considered Dell the leader in this area and wanted to do it better.
Here’s an area that Apple needs to learn from Dell once and for all: shipping estimates. When you order something from Apple, the estimated ship date is “if the world is a perfect place, and nothing goes wrong, when you’ll get your stuff.” When you order something from Dell, the estimated ship date is “if there is a nuclear disaster two miles away from where this machine is being built and everyone working on the product gets malaria, when you’ll get your stuff.”
Most of the time, Apple’s reality-based “it takes two days to get this in stock so it will ship in two days” estimation is fine. But when a product is new and hot it’s a bit of a joke. Anyone who has purchased an Apple product that was announced less than 2 months prior knows what I’m talking about. They might as well add “in your wildest dreams” after the date on the order page.
I ordered my Dell laptop on Saturday, March 26th. Since I changed my order a few times, it didn’t show as “InProduction” until Monday when the dust settled. When I placed the order, the estimated ship date was on or before 4/8/05 which didn’t surprise me since the laptop was introduced less than a month ago. Same thing happened when I ordered my Axim last summer when it was new. I was hopeful that it would ship earlier than 4/8, but I wouldn’t have been annoyed if it shipped on that date.
This morning, on a whim, I logged into my Dell account and the laptop shipped! Looks like I should have it on Monday, a full week “early” (got free 2 day shipping when I ordered). So now Dell’s looking pretty good in my eyes, when I know the reality is that they knew all along that it would ship within 4 days of the order.
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I disagree with you, in that I think that Apple does a good job giving you the estimated arrival date. Remember that for the most part the world does operate on some level of consistency and reliability and I have no problems with my order being delayed because of some freak of nature incident.
This is not to say that Apple does a good job maintaining proper estimates when products are extremely popular. They also could benefit from fulfilling their online orders at hte same rate that their Apple Stores get the merchandise. Nothing was more painful than having to wait 2 weeks for my PowerMac G5 to show up even though both Apple Stores in town had them in stock.
I should also note that my G5 was delivered 2-3 weeks before it was initially scheduled… a pleasant surprise.
As you mentioned, Amazon and Dell take the opposite route as Apple, artificially adding in for delays so your package never arrives late. While this seems fine, they do themselves a disservice by scaring away potential customers because of long wait times. In Amazon’s case, the delay is introduced with their free “Super Saver Shipping” that always promises 2 week delivery times and usually shows up in well under a week.
Given the choice, I’d still prefer the company whose estimated arrival time was nearest that of the actual, not the one whose estimated time was always a week later.
But Apple *consistently* misses ship dates on new products. I waited months for my G5. How many times do they introduce something and dates slip due to “unexpected” demand? You can only get away with that so often.
I disagree that customers are scared away by long wait times. If you want something, you want it and if it’s a product you can’t easily get elsewhere (such as stuff from Apple or Dell) you’ll wait for it. Apple should pad the estimate more often than they do.