Whykay's happenings

My 1st PB contd...

TNT rang me yesterday evening. Pick-up for my PB due Monday (early) afternoon.
Sigh... was waiting all morning. Rang at 5pm, very last minute. Typical isn't it sometimes?

UPDATE : Box was picked up on Monday evening from work. Did alot of packaging, but I did not have my PB box, so I asked around and found an Alienware box.

Hello Kitty iPod Mini

It's pink, and that's a given.

And has the little Hello Kitty on the cover as well.

My PB went bye-bye after a few hours!

Yes, you read the heading right... my PB is dead. Just recieved it in the afternoon, did not register as I was not online. Brought it home. Was in the midst ot setting things up. Changed the power settings to never to go to sleep on ac power, and about 1minute later. the fan kicked in (really loudly), and it went into hard sleep! Unplugged the AC supply, took out the battery and unplugged the USB optical mouse. And tried to boot it up, no joy.
Held down the power button, nothing. Did all the apple commands, like hold down Apple-key+p+r and then power on,fan kicked in loudly in an instant, heard the 2 Apple chimes, and got to login screen and it went to sleep. Went into single-user mode, and the kernel message came up :

Power Management received emergency overtemp signal. Going to sleep.

Wierd thing was, the laptop did not feel like it was overheating at all! And ran the system test from the disk supplied with PB, and it failed on the following error :
2STH/1/2 : CPU BOTTOMSIDE and was told to contact Apple support. Left if overnight unplugged, and tried again the morning, situation was still unchanged.
So I rang Apple support. The tech support guy was really helpful, since I called early, PB support engeers were quite numbered, but I was 1st on the queue. After explaining my situation, he tried to find a resolution with the engineers via chat, I was directed to our closest reseller, and troubleshooting folks (in Dublin). Was given the case # to refer to my issue with PB. And I was also given an address of Streamline in Dangon (I think), and I thought I misheard the biz park name, it was "Galway Business Park"! That's miles away.
Anyway, I was given the customer# and phone# to call. Got through to a really helpful girl, who went through some troubleshooting with me, and was recommended to get a replacement from Apple. And Apple can contact her if they wished wrt to my issue with the PB.
So back to ring Apple again, and finally got to another tech support person. Confirmed the replacement, and was forwarded to aftersales. Double-confirmed the tech support#, and PB issue, and put down a replacement for me.
So TNT will contact me, I was to write the return number on the box, and I am on the next shipment from the factory (as I got a faulty PB, I am high on the priority list), and that ships out on March 8th! And that is the earliest they can get to me. I am really happy with Apple support, but was very disappointed that after a month and 2 days wait, I ended up with a broken PB, and now I have to wait again.

Oh, and just got my Apple order confirmation. Now I am waiting for TNT to call...

Posted by whykay at 01:13 PM | Comments (2)

It's here!

It's finally here! My PB, that is. Got a phone call at 12:30pm that it would be another 1/2 hour before it arrives. Only got the call because TNT was not given the full address! But it made it, and funny thing. I was being stealthy, and opened my prized package. And the engineers next to me knew something new was being opened, something shiney. And all because of the smell of fresh polystyrene! But it's here, currently updating the software on it. Can't wait to work on it. Here is the final status of the last leg when it touched Irish soil...

Date Time Location Status
24 Feb 2005 13:04 Dublin Delivered
24 Feb 2005 08:40 Dublin Out For Delivery

And I shall wait a wee bit more...

Yes, I finally picked up the phone and rang Apple Ireland. Apparently it has arrived in Dublin, so I was given the "consignment" number (so that was the Apple tracking number via Apple status page! How obvious was that, since I am using another site to find out where my PB is!). And I was given the TNT Ireland number to ring. A helpful lady told me when I rang TNT, that my PB is due for delivery on 24th. Yipee. So, the trek is nearing its end.

So close

Man, I am getting all excited now. It's now on its last leg to Ireland. It's finally arrived to Europe. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

There's going to be one thing in my mind the next 2 days.

Arrive Terminal LUXEMBOURG, LU, LU 21 Feb 2005 14:14
Depart Terminal LUXEMBOURG, LU, LU 21 Feb 2005 17:08

Update - It should be in Europe by now

According to Apple site, my PB has Departed the terminal on Feb 17th @ 08:10. Now on the Apecode apple tracking site, it has also been updated that the flight has departed on Feb 17th. It must be a batch job of some kind, as the details were only updated this morning, I have been check last night, hence update on my last entry. It should be somewhere in Europe, or on its way to Dublin.

Grr, correction to last post.

It was picked up by KN High Tech Logistics (Dutch company), and apparently, it's still in Shanghai!?!

14th Feb - shipment on hold due to cargo exceeding daily space allocation

And the flights from Shanghai was only booked on 17th Feb!

Well, they did say...

The expected delivery time for your order is 6 - 7 days.
Please note that these are business days and that this is an estimated lead-time only.

Then TNT site was useless, the tracking number (whether it was consignment or reference), keeps turning up "Not Found"! I am not the only one having issues with this. Seems to be an issue with Apple European customers. Found Apecode Apple order tracking tool and that was where I found what happened to my order. According to Apple, it's happily and merrily around Europe (since it says it was picked up by TNT Netherland, well, that's what it looks like to me).

So, Apple can't give me up-to-date information, TNT won't tell me, and I had to go through some 3rd party site to find out. Sheesh! They really have to get their delivery sorted. Even Dell always deliver on time!

On the hindsight however, the iPod Shuffles are back in town! I got them for b-day pressies. Plus iLife and iWork for my cutie! He's having so much fun with creation of presentations at the moment!

Update on my PB shipment

Picked up in Shanghai @ 13 Feb 2005 20:05.
Picked up in Netherlands by TNT @ 14 Feb 2005 05:06.

Come on Apple truck!

From Tiger... to Kitten

I saw this comic and I laughed outloud. But it's so not true, we don't fall for cute furry things like kittens... um... ok, ok, I admit it... it's SO true!! Very good comic though.

Shuffled out till next week

Now where have all the Shuffles gone? Tsk, tsk... I like them but it's not for me. They are suppose to be quick b-day pressies, but of course, they are all sold out (laughing at myself as I asked the silly "Do you have the 1 gig iPod Shuffles in stock?" question...). Anyway, hopefully as the days countdown till my PB reaches me, this comic somehow will come true (right, Mick?).

You never know, the Shuffles maybe plane buddies with my PB.

Ah! There it is!

Ok, the notification with the big regret word in it was just received in my mailbox.
(I only mailed them twice, once yesterday and again today.)

Hmm, as suspected, I am actually a day off from the guy who I quoted in the previous post. At least my mind is put at ease... (And keep Valentine's worry free )

We trust you received our email indicating a revised ship date for the product you ordered. We regret to inform you that we must revise the ship date once again, as demand for the product remains beyond our expectations. We now expect to shipyour order by February 15th, 2005.

Sigh, where oh where has my PB gone?

Apple Ireland just couldn't care less, mailed them yesterday, as the status of my order was still open.

Order Date : 20/01/2005 09:59 PM GMT
Est Ship On or before : 01/02/2005

Granted the order was cancelled for the upgrade (last blog entry on PB), but the new order still had the same info wrt to the dates... "Est Ship On or before : 01/02/2005".

So I did a bit of searching and found many folks got theirs already. And finally I saw this comment from powerbookcentral.com :

"I ordered a top of the line PB 15"/1.5 GHz from the UK Apple Store on January 20th to replace a dropped Ti PB 500. The shipping date I was given at that time was on or before 1 Feb. On Jan 31, I learned it was upgraded to a 15"/1.67 GHz model to ship on or before 7 Feb. Today, I was notified that due to overwhelming demand it would ship on or before 14 Feb. At least they're letting me know."

Dates are the same as mine, and exact situation where the order was upgraded. But I never got update or any notifcation of any delays... until I was doing a bit of soul-searching! This is sooo annoying!

We'll just have to get over it

Going to U2? Then you are the lucky ones that got them the old fashion way. As alot of us who went online did not get any at all, here's some chat about it that morning. My BF went online at 8 on the dot, to ticketmaster and it was loading up really slow, and then a proxy error. Some manage to get to purchase page before it timed out!!! Those folks at ticketmaster don't really care one way or the other because they will sell the tickets one way or another. So what if there is no backup system and their IT folks are a bunch of muppets that morning. They deal with major gigs alot nowadays,, so no excuse to upgrade their technology to improve their services online.

And on top of that, the MCD have to clear up if U2 are haing a 3rd gig or not, as fans are buying tickets around €500 a pop!

Shake, stroke, smoosh...

Heh, all you need for a motion sensitive Hello Kitty game on Siemens CX70 EMOTY handset.

Woohoo

I am soo lucky!

So, I have been checking my order day in and day out, and nothing. Last night, the apple order status page was out of commission for some upgrade. And since I was out of the country today, I did not get a chance to check my order. My BF commented on the PB upgrade news when he collected me at the airport, and was wondering if I was one of the lucky ones! Well, would you believe it, I was!

A snip my my Apple order status mail I opened just now:

Today Apple unveiled a new Powerbook. Accordingly, we are pleased to revise your recent order by substituting the original product you ordered with the new Powerbook at no extra cost to you. The new product's configuration either matches or is better than the configuration of the original product you ordered.

So here's the updated PB stuff. My BF is a wee bit jealous! lol And what's more, I get to save €100.

This Applegeeks comic reference is most suited to this occasion. Although I am not sure I can "kick" my BF far enough away from my new toy when it arrives!