No, no, I haven’t ventured into the doomsayer business, silly. I’m referring to the fact that one can now place an order for the new Apple iPad soon, in a couple of hours time. To be specific, beginning 530am Pacific Time, US. Of course this is for US folks only, which leaves us in the lurch unless you happen to know someone in the US, who is willing to help you get one, and who is coming back to Malaysia very soon.
Or you can use a service called vPost. This is a service operated by Singapore Post. In a nutshell, you go on the Apple online store. You place an order for the iPad. You pay for it using your Malaysian credit card (assuming one can pay for purchases using a Malaysian credit card in the US online store!). You then instruct Apple to ship the iPad to a collection facility in the US, whose address vPost will give you once you sign up as a customer. vPost then batches shipments and sends them to Singapore, to save on shipping costs. From Singapore, your beloved iPad is then shipped to you in Malaysia.
So, to sum up, you pay Apple for the iPad (plus any applicable shipping costs), and you pay vPost for the shipping from the US to Malaysia. Now whether vPost will help you clear the iPad through Customs and SIRIM or not is another matter altogether, because I can tell you for sure that the iPad will be held back in Customs, since they have these super-duper shiny new x-ray machines that can see within a package without having to open them up. How else do you think Customs have become so efficient at sniffing out the “right” merchandise to be taxed? ;-)
Click here to find out more. The service is also available for Singaporeans as well, click here if you’re interested. Obviously this service does not only apply to the Apple Store – you can in fact shop at any US online store that doesn’t ship to Malaysia/Singapore, subject to certain items which vPost will never ever ship to you, for example, components to build a nuclear device :P
Disclaimer: I am not being paid a commission, monetary or otherwise, by any party to promote this service. Nor have I used it before, although there is no reason not to trust Singapore Post, which operates the service. At least it is not being operated by Pos Malaysia.
Perhaps as a token of appreciation to me for making you aware of this, you can help me bring in one unit as well? For buddy buddy sakes? :P That way we can share shipping costs. It’ll be almost heavenly if you “know someone” in Customs and SIRIM who can expedite the delivery of said items as well :P
There you go, then. Press those “order” buttons NOW!!!
). And whining about it won’t change the situation. Just buy another product instead!
