HUGE delays with UXGA T series?

[maruchan]

First I want to say that the IBM T series is probably the best laptop money can buy and it is worth the extra money and extra 2-4 week wait. I placed my order on June 18th for the following:

1 SYS.2379EZU CONFIGURED SYSTEM

2379EZU T42 INTEL PENTIUM M 1.8GHZ
73P2818 CTO BLUETOOTH/MODEM CDC CARD
73P2890 MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME
09N4278 60GB 7200RPM HDD CTO
31P9705 CTO 802.11A/B/G WIRELESS MINI
31P9837 256 PC2700 DDR SDRAM CTO
31P9857 CTO TP 6 CELL LION BATTERY
73P3289 CTO IBM 24X CDRW/DVDROM


It was supposed to ship 6/26 originally which is pretty ridiculous in its own right and since it hasn't switched to customizing/packing I started inquiring about the order with the "oh-so-nice" salesperson that was happy to place my order. He hadn't returned my calls or answered his email and I decided to write a complaint letter against him with his supervisor, amazingly enough, before I was able to fax it over I received a call from him. He said that ALL UXGA T42p's are on backorder and that it would be another 2 weeks before IBM gets more. I checked my order status today and it said that it is scheduled to ship out on 7/24/2004 bringing up the ETA from ordering to a whopping 9 WEEKS.

Since I basically have to wait another long 4 weeks at minimum, is there a potentially better system I can configure for cheaper? The system outlined above ran me 3,150.00 and has everything I need. The RAM is only configured to 256MB because I was able to get 1GB off pricewatch for 184.00 instead of IBM charging more than double that. I'm tempted to cancel the order and order one off ebay perhaps as right now IBM is on my [censored] now and won't see any business from me after I get this unit.

Thanks in advance for your replies

[Skywing]

they ALWAYS say theres a backorder and that the wait time is going to be horribly long, and it always comes within a month. dont get worried, i ordered mine of the 19th of last month, and if their estimated ship date was right, i would still be waiting for it right now. i ended up getting it about a week ago.

[esquire]

I was just chatting to an IBM rep from the 'chat' thing on IBM.com and he told me 4 weeks for the 2379DXU without any additions. Hmmmm not so bad.

[maruchan]

Skywing: what model T42 did you order, was it the UXGA model? I wonder why you got yours so early and mine is still on the backburner. I'm losing sleep over my excitment of being able to use this fine piece of work and tend to check the order status 5 times a day. The sales guy said that he "escalated it to the highest priority" so hopefully mine is assembled out of the new parts. I just really hope it gets here in one piece without any problems because my experience with them so far might indicate that it will take just as long for a replacement...

thanks for the replies

[maruchan]

well well well... could this be one of the many bugs in IBM's web software or am i gonna be a happy person next week?

1 SYS.2379EZ CONFIGURED SYSTEM
2379EZU T42 INTEL PENTIUM M 1.8GHZ
73P2818 CTO BLUETOOTH/MODEM CDC CARD
73P2890 MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME
09N4278 60GB 7200RPM HDD CTO
31P9705 CTO 802.11A/B/G WIRELESS MINI
31P9837 256 PC2700 DDR SDRAM CTO
31P9857 CTO TP 6 CELL LION BATTERY
73P3289 CTO IBM 24X CDRW/DVDROM
Status: Customizing\Packing More info
Shipment tracking available the morning after shipment.


I've seen it before and the salesguy told me it was switched to it temporarily when he put the "priority" request in (read above). Someone should add a T-series futures chart that graphs the expected receive date vs. time. HAHAHA

[PTzero]

I ordered mine on 5/11 and it shipped 5/24. I guess it pays to order early.

[fox_napier]

I agree, in general ordering earlier than when you must have it in your hands is best, but IBM tends to be very unpredictable in their ship dates, which incidentally is when your credit card is charged.

To give you an example, I ordered a ThinkPad on 6/22/04 around 4PM EST. It stated online that it was being processed. The following day, 6/23/04 it stated that it was being packed. This is the twilight zone of ThinkPad delivery times. Based on parts availability, degree of customization and assembly schedule, your ThinkPad may take a few hours to assemble or weeks. (I've known people to have their systems delayed for as trivial reasons as the customization/addition of Microsoft Office to the laptop.) The circumstances are well beyond your or your sales reps control or anyone else at IBM, since many parts are handled by external vendors: e.g. UXGA lcds, 7200rpm hard drives, or Fire GL T2 chips.

IN ADDITION, I've also noticed that IBM sends these machines out in batches. So, if you are fortunate enough to be on the tail end of a batch of 300 shipments (i.e. you ordered and they were scheduled to send out 299 laptops out tomorrow) they'll do what they can to get your laptop out with that shipment. I was fortunate enough that it actually shipped on 6/23/04, so I benefitted from being on the tail end of a batch and had no customizations or additions to my order. (Or it may have been a prebuilt model and waiting to ship.) If you're on the head end of a 300 batch order, you may have to wait till the rest are ordered and built. But usually the wait is not that long, since IBM gets in excess of 300 orders on a regular basis, especially from the corporate front, and easily has enough orders to send out 300 laptops weekly, if not triweekly.

I ordered mine on 5/11 and it shipped 5/24. I guess it pays to order early.

[Leon]

It packed on the 23rd... when did you recieve it?

[fox_napier]

According to IBM Order Status Page it stated that it was customizing/packing on June 23rd. Today, June 24th, I checked again and it said shipped. I clicked on the track shipment link and it is in UPS's system and In Transit, picked up from Kowloon Bay, HK on June 24th. I have yet to receive it. I really don't expect it till next week at the very earliest, given travel time and customs clearance. I also have free regular ground, not expedited, shipping.

It packed on the 23rd... when did you recieve it?

[Leon]

silly me! I wasn't paying attention to the date when I posted the question. Yours/mine are in the same shipment.. picked up from Kowloon Bay at 5:32 AM East Coast Time this morning (5:32 PM Honk Kong Time).... Let's wish them God Speed!

[dclee012]

several times i've been quite fortunate, and received thinkpads via 2day shipping in 2 days: first day, leaving hk; second day, in my office.

i've also had some held for fda. who knows...

[Mofongo]

Leon and fox_napier,

Odds are that you will get your Thinkpad tomorrow! Hong Kong is 15 hours ahead of the west coast and 16 or 17 hours ahead of Alaska, which is usually the first stop from HK. So your Thinkpad will actually hit the U.S. "before" it left HK. It will make it to somewhere in the middle U.S. by tonight. Usually they make it through customs in time to be delivered the next morning, although people have occaisionally reported holdups. So expect it tomorrow, but don't panic if it gets held up.

maruchan,

Unfortunately, the open bay configurations take a lot longer than getting the standard models. If you want to wait less, you could get the 2378DYU or 2379DYU Express model (and do not add any options to it) and you would get the DVD burner, more memory, and only sacrifice the 7200RPM drive. This is what I ended up doing. At the time, it also ended up still being cheaper than an open bay config like yours. I would have preferred the 7200RPM drive, but in reality it's not that much quicker than the 80GB 5400RPM one (see my spec comparisons in the " T42p (2373GRU), T42 (2373CYU), T42p (2379DYU) Reviews" thread). I ordered mine on 5/18 and it was shipped 6/26, arrived 9:30am 6/27.

Mofongo