I just penned an email to Tim Cook, Apple's new CEO, in hopes that Apple addresses why it's selling products that its customers can't use:

Tim,

I hope this reaches you or someone who can explain what's happening - or better yet, solve my and my client's problem with Apple.

Between my company, three of my clients and two friends, we've collectively ordered seven Promise Pegasus R6 Thunderbolt RAID arrays from Apple.  All but one has shipped.  Apple's Thunderbolt cables have not.  Six different Apple customers are sitting with what amounts to a $2100 paper weight ($4200 in one case).  In each case, Apple has credited us for free shipping, but in each case, we don't care about the money involved.  We want to connect our new RAID arrays.  Some of us NEED to.

None of us noticed when adding the Thunderbolt cable to our online orders, that the ship time was out of whack with the ship time for the arrays.  I hope it's not lost on you that six people didn't notice the ship times for the cable - that people don't expect you to be out of stock on a required accessory.  For each of us, Apple's customer service staff were eager to point out that we SHOULD have noticed the ship times and that it's our fault.  Well, I have to tell you, that this kind of response has really, really irked me.  It's a cable.  And it's the only cable that transforms our new arrays into something useful.  You're the only company who makes them so our arrays sit idle because we have no options.

Why is Apple selling RAID arrays that require a Thunderbolt cable, which isn't available?

Apple has created a scenario by which it's almost impossible not to piss off their customers.  As a long time share-holder, Apple consultant and someone responsible for funnelling lots of business to Apple, I'm thoroughly unimpressed.  It's bad business. Those arrays should not be available for sale if you can't get the only accessory in the world to connect them to your Mac.  Why is the online Apple Store so unintelligent as to sell you a product you can't use?

All of us expect more from Apple.  If we wanted this kind of disconnected customer service experience, we would have shopped at Dell.

So now, each of us waits for upwards of a month with our money tied up in products we can't use.  I'm asking that someone explain to me how Apple thinks this is acceptable sales practice.  And I'm asking for someone to explain to me what Apple is doing to fix our $2100 problems and what's being done to improve the online Apple Store.


Chris