maybe we should try another method....?

from what i can tell.. gratis uses a lot of independent vendors to make their shipments.. which would explain why they're coming out at different times from different places and using different freight companies.

if there was only some way to get gratis to tell us which vendor they were using, and what our order numbers from each of those vendors are, we could start heckling the people responsible for getting the pods out to the masses.

I'm not so sure it's the vendors fault. I am not certain but I imagine they wait for the checks to come in from the ads so they can pay for the iPods. It's all about cash flow. Maybe they switch vendors to try and create somewhat of an auction war between companies for their business and they're just holding out for negotiations...who knows I'm just making stuff up now.

[quoteed3f57ebdd="The Jawa"]from what i can tell.. gratis uses a lot of independent vendors to make their shipments.. which would explain why they're coming out at different times from different places and using different freight companies.

if there was only some way to get gratis to tell us which vendor they were using, and what our order numbers from each of those vendors are, we could start heckling the people responsible for getting the pods out to the masses.[/quoteed3f57ebdd]



They are shipping from apple. Apple uses Ingram Micro for logistics. They have warehouses across the nation.

THEY ARE SHIPPING DIRECTLY FROM APPLES WAREHOUSES. They use both fedex and UPS depending on location and cost.

One of the main reasons why it is taking so long is because there are NO ipods avalible. They have been backordered ever since they've come out.

If ipods are on such a backorder, why can I go into any of my local stores and see them? they get their shipments in. and I asked, and they have recieved ipods in their last couple supply shipments. so their supplier has them. just not apple? since you say everything comes straight from apple.

that makes no sense to me.

[quote2568a63159="stuthemonkey"]If ipods are on such a backorder, why can I go into any of my local stores and see them? they get their shipments in. and I asked, and they have recieved ipods in their last couple supply shipments. so their supplier has them. just not apple? since you say everything comes straight from apple.

that makes no sense to me.[/quote2568a63159]

Sounds like a valid point to me. My job has 2 cases FULL of ipods and gets regular shipments without any delays. Maybe the account Gratis has with their supplier puts a cap on the amount of stock that can be ordered. If that is the case then they may run out quickly. But hey who knows if that scenario is even feasible..

[quoteef47ce318f]If ipods are on such a backorder, why can I go into any of my local stores and see them? they get their shipments in. and I asked, and they have recieved ipods in their last couple supply shipments. so their supplier has them.[/quoteef47ce318f]
Well, the store's supplier is typically their own warehouse. Also realize that some of these retailers are selling more iPods that Gratis is giving away... if there is a limited supply, they'll get the orders before Gratis.

A single BestBuy/etc order, especially with post-TurkeyDay shopping only a few weeks away, could deplete Apple's entire inventory. Of course, it would stock the BestBuy/etc warehouses... so the individual stores would continue to receive bi-weekly shipments for weeks to come while Apple could be struggling to keep up.

With the holiday season, I wouldn't be at all surprised that retail stores would be fully stocked & Gratis has trouble metting their demands.

There is NO delay in getting an iPOD. Whether you order from apple.com or go into a retail store. Gratis is doing something on purpose to delay people getting their iPOD's. There is no other explanation for this. Even in the emails people get back and post in this forum they do not ever fully explain WHY it takes so long.

I think they are waiting for the next wave of checks to come in from the referals.

There's no delay to get an iPod from Apple or any other retail store, but that doesn't mean that there can't be a delay for us. There's a distribution stage between Apple and all of us consumers and that's where there might be a delay since I would imagine that Gratis's orders are pretty low priority. Like someone said, Best Buy probably accounts for whole warehouses full of iPods and so pissing them off would not be a wise thing for Apple to do. Apple stores and the Apple website also have priority as they reflect directly on the Apple brand name. Lastly, there's simply no risk in being late with Gratis's orders. If Best Buy were to run out of iPods during the holidays, all of those mom's shopping for their kids might buy iRivers. Gratis, on the other hand, has no choice but to stick with buying those iPods because they already owe them to people, even if it takes two months to get them to their door.

Also, one month to go from manufacturer to distributer to consumer is actually not a very long time. I wouldn't really even call it a delay. There aren't many products that go through that process any faster and you can't really compare it to buying from anywhere else because that would be going from retailer straight to consumer; the last part of trip. The iPod you see in an Apple store or any other store probably took just as long to get there from the time it left China, and an iPod that you order off of the website has probably been sitting in the california warehouse for weeks already.