3 months waiting period for IBM laptop memory !

[VJ]

Can anyone believe this : our office recently bought an IBM Thinkpad (I believe a T23, but I'm nut sure about this), it was just before Christmas. Delivery was to be no problem within 2 weeks, but when it didn't get here the set date, we called them.

-"The laptop is here, but the extra 256 MB memory module has not yet arrived."
-"When will you have it ?"
-"Probably March."
-"March !?!"
-"Yes, but we'll contact you when it arrives."
-"We'd like a specific date arranged now."
-"Well, the modules won't arrive before March 25, but we can deliver the laptop earlier."
-"Can we have any guarantee that the module will be available at all ?"
-"Euhm, well, it should be available."
-"Yes, well, we should have gotten the laptop now..."
-"..."
-"If the module is not available, we don't want the laptop (we'd have bought another make !)."

After quite a discussion, we managed to get the laptop delivered next Tuesday (seperate payment from the memory module), and a written statement that the module will become available (adequate settlement should the module fail to hit the market).

Three months for 256 MB ! At an official IBM dealer...

Longest I ever waited for hardware is still 7 months on a Kensington Expert mouse 5, but they are very hard to come by here in Belgium...

Jörg

[KeiFront]

We had the same problem at our company ordered a Apple G4 through a retailer of Apple, it took two months to deliver . And when it was delivered it contained only 128Mb of ram instead of the 256 Mb ordered. So it took another two weeks until they delivered the remaining ram stick.

We even figured out the G4 was stocked for 3 weeks in a warehouse (waiting for transport) 1 Km (0.6 mile) away from our company . We ordered another G4 (dual one) directly from Apple and it took only 3 days to deliver. The dual was ordered later than the normal one, but was delivered much sooner.

We never ordered any equipment anymore through that retailer .

[Gurm]

"Ring, ring..."

"Hello?"

"Hello, Computer Discount Warehouse?"

"Yes, how can we help you?"

"I'd like a 256MB Memory Stick for an IBM Model Blah-Blah."

"Yes sir, how would you like that shipped?"

"Internation expedited UPS, please."

"Ok sir, that module will be there in 4 days."

- Gurm

P.S. This really works.

P.P.S. Local dealers get the shit left over at the bottom of the barrel after BIG dealers get their stock.

[VJ]

What!?

And we placed our order with one of the bigger official Belgian IBM dealers (according to the IBM website, that is where we found their number). The order consisted out of the laptop, the memory and some accessories...


They said everything was in stock, delivery was to be made within two weeks (Christmas and Newyear were inbetween). On the day of delivery - when nothing had arrived - we called them and got this news about the memory.
One would think an official dealer can supply the parts within a reasonable timeperiod ?


Jörg