Apple removes shipping times for many online items

Something of an aside this, but as someone new to to Macs I was initially unimpressed and finally very impressed with Apple.

I just bought a customised iMac. When I couldn't find on the web site how to pay extra to have it guaranteed delivery on a certain day (like every other company I have ever ordered anything from) I phoned my order in instead. I was told that there was no way to specify a delivery day, yay though I crossed their palms with hoards of silver. You had to accept their delivery time. This was estimated as the 6th Sept. Later I was notified it would be the 5th. It came on the 2nd! Fortunately someone happened by chance to be home when it arrived, otherwise it would have gone the 40 miles back to Gloucester and spent the night in the van.

When i got my customer survey i mentioned that it was bizarre that I couldn't arrange a day to have it delivered. The next day I was phoned by the secretary to the head of Apple's operations in Ireland (where the machines are shipped from for the UK) who said that they were going to discuss the matter in their board meeting that afternoon and what would I like to tell the board!

So nil points for delivery but full marks for actually reading and taking notice of customer feedback.

Hey guys I've just sent you an email regarding this issue I think you will want to read.

I think the simpler assumption is that what used to be "ships within 24 hours" is now "in stock" and everything else remains the same.

This is why we can't have nice things, rumour mill.

Most likely due to rumor blogs, which they do read, speculating on new product launches based on delays in estimated shipping times. Now that will be internal information.