iPad order for delivery in the summer holiday cancelled by Apple.

[k-strider]

Hi All, i was just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat, we had an Order in place with our Apple education supplier for 170 iPads ready for next year to be delivered in August cancelled on Friday, only to be told we have to re place the order on the new pricing and that anything that was ordered but not delivered would need to be re ordered at the new price, and that it was Apple distribution that has done this not the Authorized Education retailer..  we are now looking at a unit cost difference of over £70. about  30% price hike over the price we ordered at a couple of months ago.

[DrCheese]

Ah.. I've read on reddit about a certain Apple authorised reseller doing this - It's not Apple cancelling it, it's the reseller not ordering the kit early enough in the first place

[Andycat]

I would like to know, privately if necessary, which reseller this was please?

[6Foot3]

Would be good if they gave some notice and not just an instant price hike.

[Brimstone]

This is totally at the door of Apple and has nothing to do with whether the reseller ordered iPads early enough, Apple gave resellers no warning whatsoever of the price increase and any items not shipped on the day of the increase announcement were subject to the price increase.

 

On a related subject I have a customer who ordered a CTO Mac mini in April, this has not shipped from Apple yet and likely never will.

 

If you want to complain contact customer services at Apple.

[DrCheese]

Aye, I've since read more into this - Third party suppliers *were* placing orders with enough time & scheduled for summer, but Apple terminated all existing orders & forced reorders.

 

Massively unfair - It's one thing raising new order prices, but another cancelling confirmed orders at the old price.

I can only guess Apple wanted to avoid suppliers holding old stock/selling at new price but it massively screwed over the education market (or anyone that had projects already booked) Apple get away with it because they are the only supplier....

 

PC OEMs have so far honoured orders on anything that's flown up in price after an order because you could just go elsewhere

 

[DWilson1997]

We've had this, but it is not just apple... we have had surface devices ordered at a set price and just before delivery the prices changed and if we wanted them - we had to pay the uplift charge of the difference. To add insult, the manufactured date was last year so they've just sat in a warehouse! 

 

I currently have another surface order that if it isn't delivered by the end of this month I have been told I will have to pay the 'new' price for them.. it's crazy at the moment.

[Rogueleeder]

I had this issue when I ordered some Mac Minis, first the price went up, then the 256GB Model of the M4s got discontinued. I was about to just scrap the order, but luckily the reseller managed to find me some refurbished ones which I received last week. I'm buying alot of things refurbed these days, Chromebooks are the exception due to warranties, but all my Windows Desktops and Apple stuff is refurb

[psydii]

We were warned to order "right now" back in March, but for reasons, we didn't put it through for a couple of weeks.

The supplier phoned us fairly upset that we hadn't listened. "It'll be late July now, probably, but even then we might not be able to fulfil it" (or words to that effect).

But then they got an allocation and were able to fulfil for a load of their customers  just a few weeks later.  To grossly paraphrase: "Lucky. I hope you ordered everything you needed to..."

 

Well I hadn't. We asked for a quote for iPads  but never heard anything back at all. In my experience when this happens with a reliable supplier who has  good relationship with the OEM and also yourself, this is (often) code for "sit tight. You might think you want them now, but you really don't".  The supplier kinda knows we can make do for a bit, I'm sure they'd take an order if we insisted, but I have no idea when they'd fulfil it. 

 

It wouldn't surprise me if Apple have straight-up (but not announced) stopped making some low-end kit (like iPad) and the price rises are there to discourage people from starting projects based around them, if you are already committed then there's a price but otherwise, hold fire, and wait for the wind to change.

 

FWIW the coded language/behavoiur is not actually apple-specific. It's been used with me in similar conversations around DDR4, Microsoft, Adobe, Merki and HPE/Aruba products/licencing, but sometimes (DDR4) I wasn't paying attention, and other times we just couldn't wait (Meraki).