Since it’s been 24 hours since I ordered from the mWave and MegaBuy web-sites, and I haven’t yet received a follow-up email from either company since the original order confirmations, I thought I’d check on the status of my orders.

mWave

Here is the progress of the mWave order according to the order status link they provide:

Note the red processing status next to the memory module. Apparently, this means that they are in the process of ordering this part from their suppliers. That’s pretty impressive visibility of status. Looks like everything else is in stock at mWave already, and will ship as soon as the memory arrives.

mWave also provides this nice workflow status screen, where you can take one of the actions available at the current order stage, including requesting shipment of any parts already available – although it does warn you this may cost you more in shipping fees:

MegaBuy

Checking in on my order at MegaBuy, the order status page doesn’t provide as much detail. There is a section at the end with messages, which simply states that the payment confirmation is still in progress:

Hmm. Hope they aren’t sending a letter to my bank – there must be faster ways to confirm payment.

Day Two

10:15AM: Received an email from Megabuy telling me that my order has changed status to “processing”, i.e. that payment has been received and confirmed. I’m curious to know if this part of the ordering process will go faster if I use the same credit card information on subsequent orders, because 36 hours to confirm payment seems like a long time to me.

11:22AM: Received an email from mWave telling me that my order has shipped, with a link to the tracking site for the order (I had to copy and paste the tracking ID), and a warning that tracking data might not appear for 24 hours.

2:27PM: Received an email from MegaBuy telling my that my order has changed status to “processed”, and has been sent to the warehouse for shipping.

Day Three

The mWave order arrived today, 24 hours after it was shipped. Nice. Came in a simple box, which we unpacked after dinner.

   

Of course, his big sister wanted to join in.

    

And yes, he really is as cheeky as he looks. No idea where he gets that from.

Day Four

Checked the MegaBuy web-site today, and there was no update to the status of my order. It still said “Processed”. The description of the Processed status is quite illuminating (my red highlight added):

“The order is being picked from stock, packed & prepared for delivery and sent for delivery with a courier. The order will remain in this status until we have confirmation from the warehouse that the order has been shipped, which sometimes may occur as long as 1-2 days after the order has been shipped, so it is not uncommon for the order to remain in this status even once you have taken delivery of the order. If the order is in this status for a prolonged period of time (i.e. more than 5 days), it may mean that some or all items in the order are on back order (i.e. Not in stock and waiting to be received from supplier before they can be shipped to you) and we recommend that that you check the Order History section of your Order Information page. If it is not clear what is happening with the order from the Order History section of the Order Information page, please contact us and we will promptly find out and let you know the exact status of your order.”

Day Five

Just as I was about to contact MegaBuy to find out when to expect the order to arrive – and had resigned myself to not getting to build the PC this weekend – two boxes arrived by courier. The packing slip said “Drop Ship” and the actual supplier name (Altech Computers) was shown. The case was in a box by itself, and the motherboard, keyboard and low-profile tp-link bracket (not pictured) came in a second-hand optical drive box with recycled packaging. Nice to see the packing approach was green.

The motherboard was everyone’s favourite part name, so you get a bonus picture of that. His sister was a bit teary due to some sibling tension over posing rights.

    

PS: Where’d he get the whole bunny ears thing from?

PPS: The megabuy site still says “Processed”. No doubt it will change to “Shipped” at some point. 🙂

Next time: Let the Fun Begin