Transcription:
I'm kind of going on a rant about buying holiday gifts and some of the frustrations we're feeling from those supply chain delays. Alright, as I mentioned this time, it's gonna be a little bit different. I'm not really talking about anything technical security wise as normal. I'm kind of going on a little bit of a rant here. Just be careful with the supply chain stuff. Hopefully you didn't fall victim to it. This video is going to be coming out in January, but in December, here's what happened.
So my youngest daughter's birthday is on Thanksgiving this year. She's been saving up for over a year and she needs a new iPad. She wanted to get a better one. We knew some stuff was coming out so we were waiting and we couldn't decide between 64 gig or a little bit bigger. One because she likes to take videos and pictures a lot. Again, she's the one that got me started doing these kind of video blogs and stuff. Look back for episode one if you never saw that one.
She is the one that got me started on this. So we kind of waited a little bit late. We went looking for it on Monday before Thanksgiving and come to find out. The larger ones were actually selling out pretty fast. I would have thought the lower end ones, the cheaper ones would have been, but no. Some of the higher storage ones were also selling out. Apple told us, hey, it's not available, you're not going to see it till mid December, so that wasn't good. So we went to another online retailer name list, not Amazon. Not going to tell you who it was, but their website said, hey, we'll have it by Friday. So Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day after birthday, were thought, you know, that's not too bad. We'll go ahead and get that order. So we order it.
And Black Friday starts, and there's a of course deals going on, so I go on the same online retailer site and I order my wife’s Christmas present because it gets a discount on that one. Our daughters wasn't going to be part of the discounted stuff because it was again the entry level. So got online and ordered it, then got the text that that order was good. Waited awhile, went down later on in the afternoon thinking that I could just pick up both even though I was only notified on one. Get there pick up the one I ordered my wife of course, but the one for my daughter still isn't there and I asked about it and they're like, oh, there's been some delays in transit and we can't really see much other than that it's on it’s way. Will let you know. Maybe it'll be tomorrow or the next day, OK? It's not a problem.
Days go by Monday, Tuesday. Give them a call, actually I get online and chat with them as it was easier, with less wait time and going back and forth to check on the order. Well all we can see is that it's been a shipping stat that we can't change anything. We can't even cancel the order for you. So you got my money, I can't cancel it and you can't tell me when I'll get it, so I can't think about maybe getting something else. So, I tell the person that in chat and they come back and say, well you can do what you want, because if you don't end up wanting it when it comes in, you can just return it and we'll refund your money. So refund my money but I gotta wait for it to show up first and it was just crazy.
I couldn't believe that that was the whole thing with today's technology at this time that they couldn't see anything on shipping status where things were. Good news is a couple days later after that all happened, I get a text hey, your order is ready. Go down there, pick up the iPad for my daughter. It's a week, week and half late, but you know my daughter's got it at least. So that was good. So hopefully you guys didn't fall victim to this. Lessons learned again, kind of order early. Everybody was saying that. When I was looking at things and everything that I was looking for was available. But we didn't think this would be an issue, so you gotta be careful when doing that.
Also, for the business, we're still seeing supply chain issue for business computers and stuff, so that's where this kind of really leads into. I'm constantly being asked for desktops and laptops and monitors and stuff and it it's crazy I still can't get anything when I'm looking stuff up. It's March, April, may before things have dates on them, and then there's no guarantee, so you can, gladly pay them today, but you might not get it for four or five months. Which is a little crazy and then stuff will come in, then I'll buy it and stick it in inventory here and then let clients know I've got stuff in stock just so we have something.
Again, computers and laptops you're running out of choices a lot of times may have to buy more of a laptop than what you really need or want and pay more money for it, plus prices on everything are going up. It's just really crazy. I mean, network switches. I wouldn't have thought this but we waited 2 1/2 almost three months for a network switch to come in just because of all the chip shortage and supply chain. So again hopefully you didn't fall victim to this, but when you're planning out this next year for 2022 and you're thinking about if you need some different equipment. My suggestion is, get it on the board sooner rather than later.
If you're one of our clients or you want to become one of our clients, let’s get on a call and let's discuss. Let's plan some stuff out. Let’s start looking for it now, as we may need to place that order and get stuff in the pipeline so that we can actually do it when you need it. You don't want stuff to die. Older equipment which a lot of people were holding onto because of COVID in 2020. They're gonna break on their terms, not on yours. They're always going to happen in the busiest and worst time for you and your business so try to think that through and maybe get at least one or two, or think about some spares or something that if something bad does happen we can get you up and running.
We don't want people buying junk that they're just going to throw away later if at all possible, so I don't want that to happen to you. That was my rant. Sorry about that, but just wanted to share a story about what happened to us during the holidays. Hopefully it didn't happen to any of you. If you're looking for anything for your business, please reach out the number is 760-770-5200.
