Lucky!

Tonya Engst over at Tidbits was the happy recipient to a brand new copy of Mac OS X 10.5 ‘Leopard’. She purchased her copy through the Apple Store and no doubt elected the most speedy delivery option. However I in my infinite foresight decided to support Ric Ford of Macintouch and pre-ordered at Amazon back in July. Each time the ship date for a new OS comes ’round I always try to opt for the speediest most sure method of getting boxed product into my hands.

Round 1: Back in the days of Cheetah, I stupidly waited the day of release for 10.2 to purchase said item at our Local CompUSA. By the time I got there on Saturday morning, they had a waiting list 150 signatures long. So I bailed out, and decided to purchase at University computer store.

Round 2: Panther, I pre-ordered through the Apple Store, but elected to get the next day shipping. However the next day after the release on the Apple Store website delayed the shipment until the following Monday. Again, I was feeling a little taken advantage of by Apple as they lured me into the more expensive shipping, but didn’t deliver the earlier receipt of the product. So I gave up on the Apple Store.

Round 3: Tiger, I pre-ordered through Amazon but not through Macintouch and hoped to get the pre-mature all to early shipping that some Amazon customers had claimed they had gotten with each release. For 10.3 and 10.2 I kept reading that Amazon purchases always got shipped early. Apparently Apple went out of its way to curb this unwarranted reward to Amazon customers. So Amazon closely hewed to the Apple Rule of Law and I paid a high price to get 2nd day shipping again. And I didn’t receive merchandise until 5 days later from the release date. Worse yet, co-workers got it the day of release due AppleCare UpToDate program.

Today: I pre-ordered again, through the Amazon link on Ric Ford’s website back in July. I originally chose to get FREE shipping. I figured if I don’t get early shipments on the day of release, I might as well get it at the lowest price. $109.00 tax free, shipped to my door within 5-7days of release was good enough for me. Then my selfishness got the best of me. Apple Stores worldwide were going to have boxed product ready to go at 6pm on Friday evening. I was again going to be the last one in line to get the new OS X release. So I realized, “Hey I can change the shipping on my order right?” So I made it next day Air, and paid the premium price of $17.25 for the premium shipping. And still no sign on Amazon’s website that it has shipped. Oh, woe is me.

So to Tanya and Adam Engst I say, good for you. Hopefully all the years of editing and maintaining tidbits.com has probably paid off handsomely in getting new products on time. I just wish I could once in my life get the new version of the OS early