Fed up with Apple

[sokukodo]

To review:
  Ordered a Dual 1.42 w/ Cinema Display 6/11/2003; received the display a few days later, the tower to be shipped on 7/2/2003; this was pushed to7/8/2003, then to the 24th. On the 24th, I received an e-mail informing me to call them immediately: I was informed that the Dual 1.42 had been discontinued (although it WAS available when I placed the order) and would I prefer a dual G5 instead? OK. I ordered it, and to shipping date was 9/2/2003; that was pushed to the 29th of this month. I checked my order status tonight and found that it had been cancelled, or, as they put it, "the order is no longer valid" ... I've received no email informing why this is (the money has been sitting in my bank waiting to be deducted when it was to be shipped) ... I'll call tomorrow, reinstate the order (at which time the ship date will be pushed even farther into the distant future).
This whole thing has left me appalled with the way Apple does business: I can't believe that I would have had such a hard time spending $4000+.  

[()]

I personaly wouldn't buy from the company in advance, I prefer it to be in the store so I can check it out the product in person and see if I like it or not.

When I bought my Sony Vaio over eBay, I went to stores to see if I would like the Sony product.  

I did and made the buy, but on eBay it was a saving of about 570.00, if I had bought from Sony I would have paid the full price as well as Bestbuy and CompUSA.

Go through other companies to make your orders in advance such as http://www.outpost.com  or http://www.macmall.com

I think you will be better off doing it that way.

I am sorry that you are having a hard time, but Apple is and will all ways be (in my opinion) the better machine, and you shouldn't let a flaw discourage you.

love, huggs, kisse and prayers to you and the  reat of the people at Techsurvivors.

[sokukodo]

actually, I've always have done ok in the past through Apple's web site. The nearest Apple store is a few states away (actually I'm sandwiched in between NC and GA) and that precludes jumping on my bike and just running down and checking one out ... I don't think that thew dual 2 gig G5 is anywhere yet (except VA tech's 1100 of them just purchased) ... I'm tolerating Apple's shoddy business side of things precisely because of the product superiority ... but my patience is wearing thin. I may just keep this Summer 2000 edition iMac: it hasn't failed me yet. If I cancel the G5 order, I'm stuck with a Cinema Display that I can't use.

[Spartacus]

While I can understand your frustration about the canceled order, the fact that Apple didn't ship your G5 quickly is nothing to be upset about. I haven't received mine yet either. I'm expecting mine around the end of September (and I have ordered two days after WWDC).
And by that time Apple (hopefully) has produced G5s in a large enough quantity so you won't have to wait as long as you had to before.

Good luck!