All of a sudden, there seems to be a flurry of progress on my new computer. It's built now, has passed quality control (though I'm not sure how much testing they really do), and it's been shipped! I'm so excited! I received a total of six emails, three of which were all shipping messages telling me that some part of my order has been sent out.
This email was received at 1 PM on March 28th:
Assembly Completed
Your system has been assembled and your order has been
forwarded to the Quality Control (QC) department’s queue. During the QC
phase your system will be inspected for assembly and physical defects
and then it will have MS Windows and needed driver software installed.
All systems will also undergo a series of tests during this phase so
depending on the complexity of your build, your system may spend one or
more days in the QC phase before moving to the Burn-in phase, or may
even return to an earlier phase if a problem is found. Your status will
be updated online and you will receive an email update when QC is
completed.
The Next Step: Quality Control (QC).
The next email you will receive will be notification that has been passed QC testing.
This email was received at 3 PM, on the same day:
QC Completed
Your system has passed the initial Quality Control (QC) inspection/testing, and
your order has been forwarded to the Burn-in department’s queue. During the Burn-In
phase your system will undergo a final inspection and put through a series of grueling
stress tests designed to identify any issues that may not have been caught during
the QC testing. Depending on the complexity of your build, your system may spend
one or more days in the Burn-in phase before moving to the Shipping phase, or may
even return to an earlier phase if a problem is found. Your status will be updated
online and you will receive an email update when Burn-in is completed.
The Next Step: Final Burn-in Testing and Inspection.
The next email you will receive will be notification that has been passed Burn-in
testing and inspection.
This email was received at exactly the same date and time as above, which leads me to believe that no kind of burning-in was done here. Even on their website, they have the two status messages one second apart (see below). I'd never even heard of the term, "burn-in." It turns out that it's either a kind of stress test, or just leaving electronic equipment running for awhile, to make sure it's running at optimum efficiency. It doesn't look like I received either, from the information given. Here's that email:
Burn-in Completed
Your system has successfully passed all
inspections/testing and your order has been forwarded to the Shipping
department’s queue. During this phase your system will be carefully
packaged and shipped according to the method selected. Due to shipping
cut-off times, it is possible that your order will not ship the same day
that burn-in is completed. Your status will be updated online and you
should receive an email update with the shipping tracking number the
evening it ships out.
The Next Step: Shipment Complete/Tracking Number.
The next email you will receive will be notification that
your order has shipped; the tracking number will then be provided.
Here's one of the shipping emails that I received on March 29th, at 10 PM, of all times. Working late, iBuyPower? I didn't think Fedex was open at that hour. Oh, okay. Fedex picked up the package at 4:28 PM. This must have been connected to Fedex's shipping from their own local facility, since they have their departure time listed as 10:06 PM. And I'm an hour ahead of them anyway, me being in Arizona (Mountain Time, currently), and they in California (Pacific Time). Anyway, here it is, with the tracking number and other info obfuscated. One of my favorite words, obfuscated:
Your order#BlahBlah has been shipped! Your shipping and tracking information
is below:
FEDEX http://www.fedex.com/us
Tracking Number: 5203blahblahblah
Ship Date: 3/29/2012 10:10:40 PM
We’d
like to ask you to take a quick survey. In order for us to provide
better products
and services, to our
customers we need your input! Your opinion is very valuable
to us, and the survey
will only take a few minutes to complete. To participate,
please click the
following link: http://www.ibuypower.com/Testimonial/CustSurveyblahblahemailandordernumberwerehereetcblahblah.
Thank you.
I don't find it necessary to paste in the other two shipping messages. They're identical, save for the tracking number. I knew that the computer and monitor would be shipped separately, and I guess the third box is the accessories, such as the keyboard and headset.
Here's the rundown of the progress on iBuyPower's website:
| Status Date | Status | Notes/Tracking# |
|---|
| 3/29/2012 9:59:28 PM | Shipped | Shipped: FEDEX 520blahblahblah |
| 3/29/2012 9:59:28 PM | Shipped | Shipped: FEDEX 520rewrewrew |
| 3/29/2012 9:59:28 PM | Shipped | Shipped: FEDEX 520roarohnogodzilla |
| 3/28/2012 2:50:08 PM | Processing | Burn-in inspection/testing is complete and has been sent to Shipping. |
| 3/28/2012 2:50:07 PM | Processing | Quality Control inspection/testing is complete and has been sent to Burn-in. |
| 3/28/2012 12:50:06 PM | Processing | Assembly of the computer has been completed and has been sent to QC. |
| 3/23/2012 2:50:29 PM | Processing | The materials needed for the order have been gathered. |
| 3/7/2012 4:50:45 PM | Processing | Materials are now being gathered to complete the order. |
| 3/1/2012 4:00:49 PM | Processing | Payment has been successfully received/approved. |
| 2/29/2012 4:46:00 PM | Processing | The order has been received and will be reviewed/processed by a sales rep. |
| 2/29/2012 2:39:02 PM | Submitted | Order Submitted by Customer |
If I remember correctly, Ground Shipping is supposed to take... wait a minute! These are Fedex tracking numbers! They upgraded me from Ground Shipping to Fedex Express Saver! That's probably because of the length of time it took to put my system together. (Hey, they didn't see my blog, did they...? Nahhh!) Anyway, that was pretty cool of them, and now it should get to me in 3 - 4 business days. Fedex says I should have the packages by 4:30 PM on April 3rd; 4 business days. Seriously, though I wasn't able to reproduce this while typing, I was completely oblivious to the fact that I was dealing with Fedex, when this was supposed to be UPS Ground! Here's the info from Fedex's website (click to enlarge!):
As for this survey they mentioned above, I'm not filling anything out until a week after I have the computer running fine, with no issues whatsoever. I hope that'll be a week after April 3rd.
I'll probably pop in with a post or two before the packages arrive (hopefully all at the same time), just to report on where my package is at the time. I'm not worried about Fedex, but things do happen (knocks furiously on wood), and it's good for posterity, I suppose.
5:55 - a rather intense start for having done nothing but look around and jump... love that Wheatley guy!
9:05 - interesting puzzle. Hard to imagine many more puzzles coming up that don't require a portal gun, though.
10:33 - Interesting feature - the entry/exit chambers display video messages?
11:44 - Uh oh. More graffiti...
15:06 - The elevators dual as vacuums, cool!
Interesting game so far.
• Watching people play portal is one of the most frustrating things but good video.