Armed Guards & "Big" Problems for UPS. Will You Get Your iPad Tomorrow? Probably.
Friday, April 2, 2010 at 3:48PM Security's been tight around hundreds of thousands of iPads sitting at Louisville's major international UPS hub. Earlier today I posted that a UPS employee I personally know told me that they were having "problems." Evidently the sheer number of iPads was overwhelming. My friend equated it with "Mother's Day."
Earlier this afternoon, a completely different UPS employee posted this on my FaceBook wall [which I've since removed]:
"I was so close to the iPads @ UPS last night it wasn't even funny. they had them stored in the tunnel and armed guards were around them, along with customs, all night."
Then my original UPS "source" sent me a text message earlier this afternoon. Here is our ongoing conversation:
1:35 PM EST
UPS employee: "there are ipads as far as the eye can see."
2:01 PM EST
UPS employee: "you may not get it tomorrow. big problems"
3:24 PM EST
Me: "I hope you're kidding."
UPS employee: "nope. big issues"
Me: "you better get my ipad to me!" [kidding]
UPS employee: "man I am looking at thousands and thousands"
Me: "what's the problem?"
UPS employee: "long story...I'll email later...alot of stressed out peeps :-)"
5:24 PM EST
UPS employee: "it's like looking at the warehouse at the end of Raiders...boxes & boxes"
My friend got off work at 5:30 PM, so he called me. He said he's pretty far down the chain and doesn't have all the information, but he thinks some of them got processed but didn't get tracking numbers. He's pretty confident that individual customers who have tracking numbers beginning with "1Z..." will get them on time. He thinks most of the problems were with the ones going to the stores. However, he said that there was another crew coming in that was going to work all night, so no one should lose hope yet in regard to Saturday delivery. He said that everyone at UPS was taking this very seriously and bending over backwards to ensure delivery by April 3.
I also asked him about the security mentioned in the post from another employee on my FaceBook wall. He said they had armed Brinkley guards to make certain that none of the iPad shipments turned up missing. UPS takes such things very seriously.
For what it's worth, although my original Apple shipping notice said delivery by April 3, UPS tracking still has nothing under "Scheduled Delivery:
Nevertheless, after talking to my friend, I'm pretty confident regarding Saturday delivery. Heck, the UPS hub is only a half-hour's drive from my house. If they can't deliver here...
But you know what? In the big scheme of things, who cares whether it's a Saturday delivery or a Monday delivery? That won't even be remembered a month from now or even a week later for that matter. It's fun to look forward to a new gadget and the dynamics of delivering hundreds of thousands of them is kind of fascinating, but these aren't really life and death issues, are they?
If I have any kind of update to the delivery issue, I'll add it to this post.
UPDATE 4/3/2010: Although my tracking information never updated to say our iPads were on the truck for delivery, they both arrived right around noon today. Lots of fun playing. I'll update more later.
Apple, UPS, iPad in Technology
Reader Comments (9)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by R. Mansfield. R. Mansfield said: New This Lamp post: "Armed Guards & 'Big' Problems for UPS. Will You Get Your iPad Tomorrow? Probably." http://thislamp.com/?p=563 [...]
"But you know what? In the big scheme of things, who cares whether it’s a Saturday delivery or a Monday delivery? That won’t even be remembered a month from now or even a week later for that matter. It’s fun to look forward to a new gadget and the dynamics of delivering hundreds of thousands of them is kind of fascinating, but these aren’t really life and death issues, are they?"
Rick, you're a gentle, gentle soul. First adopters pay a premium to be able to brag to their friends how great their toys are. And, didn't you stay up until midnight to get a copy of one of the Harry Potter novels?
No, that was Kathy. See http://mansfieldlibrary.blogspot.com/2007/07/with-age-comes-wisdom.html
I've stood in plenty of lines, though, so I won't say too much.
I'll be in line in the morning. A line of one. Right outside my front door. I think it would be a good morning to sit on the bench outside my door to wait for the UPS man :-)
Wouldn't it be more cool to be in line with the Woz?
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14814623" rel="nofollow">http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14814623
Well? My wife's cousin husband got his two this morning in Lexington.
I've been waiting for you to get on iChat :-)
I've been on iChat all morning.
Rick, I got mine today at BestBuy! I bought the 32gig and I love it!
Wow, Robert, you must've been in the right place at the right time. Most of the Best Buys sold out quickly.
I'm certain he'd keep everyone entertained.