Apple Macbook Air from US

E

ebendl

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Hi guys,

I'm heading to the US in September and thought it a good idea to get the missus a Macbook Air 13" with 128 GB SSD. Now I have a couple of colleagues and because I know this particular Air's stock is rather limited, I thought I'd order it online now and have it deliver to a colleague of mine.

Originally I tried to buy it from Macmall.com - cheapest prices - but after a long discussion with them, I realised they don't take international credit cards (And neither does the official Apple store). At that point, the Rand started dropping against the $ so I jumped onto Bestbuy.com (who takes international cards) and purchased it from them on Monday the 8th, as well as a stylus for my iPad and a Macbook Displayport adapter. Total came to around R9,700 (considering the Macbook costs 11,999 in SA, I thought 'great').

Wednesday I got an e-mail stating that the stylus and adapter had shipped, but not yet the final Macbook. I thought 'fine - bit stupid not to ship everything together, but ok with me'.

Yesterday (Friday) I saw an e-mail from Bestbuy that my order payment can't be processed. I talked with them on Skype and discussed it - seems like they booked the original authorization on my card, but when they shipped out two items, they re-booked those separately and then tried to book the Macbook separately yesterday as well. Pain is - my card's limit had been reached and thus they couldn't pay for the Macbook. I gave them a call and asked that the original authorization from Monday be "banked" instead of booking another, but the girl was a bit clueless. In the end, gave them FNB's number and let them phone them. Hoped everything was ok...

... now, Saturday, I got a mail from BestBuy saying that my order had been cancelled. Gave them a call and the lady said they couldn't process the payment but she can re-process it which will cause another authorization on my card. Gave FNB a call and they said the original authorization should time-out by Monday or Wednesday. So I can pay off my card immediately so that I have sufficient credit and phone BestBuy and tell them to re-instantiate the order and process my card again.

So - what would you guys do? I'm rather sick of the whole thing already and don't really know if the +- R2,500 is the trouble worth (considering I have to get it through customs as well and I can only receive it between the 2nd and 23rd of September, and I fear the original authorization will never disappear!). I also started worrying that the Core Group doesn't really support the "grey" Macbooks - i.e. not purchased through them.
 
Why not just buy it from a store when you get there? There's stocked a-plenty in all the Apple stores I've been here.
 
Buy it when you arrive or ask you colleague there to pick it up and transfer him the monies. If not try ebay.
 
Online Apple store in the US were willing to take non-US credit cards, but not ship outside the US. I'd say just buy when you're there.

The inability to cancel a hold that is never going to be banked is actually quite ridiculous.
 
If you are going to be a good little citizen and walk through the "something to declare" gate at OR Tambo, there might not be much left of that R2500 difference.
 
koffiejunkie said:
Like all insurance. Until you need it.
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If you look at what Apple care costs it is much less worthwhile than insurance. If you could pay like you do for insurance and at a similar rate, then it would be different. But then Apple makes a big chunk of money off Apple care, and they wouldn't offer it otherwise.

Those people who take Apple care, do you take extended warranties on everything?
 
That may be true, but with insurance you're always at the mercy of their whims - will they pay? How much will they cover? etc. With apple care you know what's covered and what isn't. Of course, as I said, it doesn't really apply to S.A. But in countries where apple have retail stores, they're pretty good about fixing/replacing stuff when you take it in.
 
OK, well, Best Buy (where I ended up re-ordering the machine from) just let me know that they are only expecting stock in 3 to 4 weeks. This is getting dangerously close to the end of my trip, so I think I am most likely going to cancel the order and buy it directly there (if I can find stock).

Thanks for all the help in this thread!

E
 
koffiejunkie said:
This is your problem. If you're in a country where Apple has their own shops, you have no reason to buy anywhere else. Except maybe Amazon.
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Have you bought a laptop from Amazon before? With a South African credit card? As far as I know it is a nightmare - had a friend who bought an HP Envy and ended up paying way more to get it in the country. He had to fax proof of his address and bank account through to Amazon and had to use a third party payment service (MyUS) in the end in any case, because Amazon didn't want to ship to SA.

BestBuy is one of the largest retailers in US, has excellent 24 hour 7 days a week support and says specifically on their site that they support international cards as long as you ship to a US address - sounds fine to me.

As to buying locally, yes well, perhaps. Shame nobody knows when we'll have stock again.
 
ebendl said:
Have you bought a laptop from Amazon before?..... and had to use a third party payment service (MyUS) in the end in any case, because Amazon didn't want to ship to SA.
Click to expand...

Why are you going on about shipping to S.A.? You said:

ebendl said:
I'm heading to the US in September
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ebendl said:
With a South African credit card? As far as I know it is a nightmare - had a friend who bought an HP Envy and ended up paying way more to get it in the country. He had to fax proof of his address and bank account through to Amazon
Click to expand...

That may be but if you consider that you'll save on sales tax unless you happen to ship it to WA, I'd say it's worth the trouble. Besides, not too long ago I had to go through do all of the above to buy something on-line from South African sites using a South African credit card.

ebendl said:
BestBuy is one of the largest retailers in US, has excellent 24 hour 7 days a week support
Click to expand...

I know a lot of people who will disagree with that.
 
koffiejunkie said:
That may be but if you consider that you'll save on sales tax unless you happen to ship it to WA, I'd say it's worth the trouble. Besides, not too long ago I had to go through do all of the above to buy something on-line from South African sites using a South African credit card.
Click to expand...
Not just WA - the states where tax is currently charged on purchases made from Amazon themselves are KS, KY, ND, NY and WA.
 
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