Is Amazon the most assured way to hold that Tiger?

Tic-tock, Appleheads! Any minute now and it'll be here! The Tiger OS is days away from release and all the Mac Daddies and Mamas are flippin' their wigs about their pre-ordered fast new Mac operating system that's about to hit the streets.

It seems like only yesterday the "Night of the Panther" had reports of people lined up around the block cramming their way into the stores and ultimately sitting outside of their local Apple Stores installing the software like the junkies we all know we are. And now comes Tiger, the anxiously awaited promise for nearly a year now, the yummy features whetting the appetites of Mac users since well before Steve Jobs' keynote address at the Mac Conference & Expo in San Francisco.



"Who's the man!" proclaimed Steve Jobs... in my mind.




And then to make it even more tantalizing Amazon.com had a special offer... $35 mail-in rebate to all residents in the US. for a limited time, which knocked the Apple retail price down to $94.99 after the rebate with FREE shipping thrown in . Plenty cheaper than the price at the Apple Store or the website. Well, mark me down for a yes! 1-click's never felt so good.

But lately there's been some question about just how soon Amazon buyers will be riding the Tiger and whether the rebate is any good.

Many buyers noticed that Amazon's rebate was good only until May 31st before Apple made the release date announcement. It was the tip-off that Job's promise of a Tiger release in "the first half of this year" would be fulfilled in April or May. In fact, it began an April 1st release rumor amongst Apple cultists and bloggers. But a few days after Apple announced that Tiger would be unleashed April 29th, Amazon buyers discovered that Amazon had listed a ship date, June 5th, for Mac OSX Tiger. This would invalidate the rebate causing the cost to return to it's original price and making the whole thing pointless. For the first time, buying from the overpriced Apple Store would be wiser.


Well, that won't do. We dashed off a missive to Amazon threatening to cancel our order and that you readers would follow suit. (You'll notice I refer to you as my colleagues despite having never been invited over for a drink...)


And I received the following reply:

Thank you for contacting us at Amazon.com.

When we show mail-in offers for items listed on our web site, they
are generally available for printing. Customers qualify for the
offer as long as they submit their order for the item within the
offer's listed qualifying dates.

If your order was placed within the qualifying time frame and you do
not receive your order until after that time frame has passed, you
are still eligible if you send the mail-in offer and any other
necessary materials (such as the UPC code) to the manufacturer before
the postmark deadline displayed with the offer on our web site.

To view the complete mail-in offer on our web site, go to the item's
product detail page and click where indicated. Click each offer to
enlarge. You can print it using your browser's "Print" option. If
several coupon pages are displayed, please make sure you print and
complete all rebate offers for which you are eligible.

You can also view the correct coupon at the following URL:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0002G71T0.01.RB10.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Please note that most manufacturers require that you send in the
original UPC barcode. If you need a receipt to enclose with the
offer, you can print an invoice for your order by clicking the
"Your Account" link at the top of our web site and then selecting the
link to "Print invoices."

Further, I checked and found that this item is currently scheduled to
be released on April 29, 2005.

As soon as the item has been released, we'll be able to ship it to
you. As per our standard policy, we do not charge you for items
until they enter the shipping process, so you will not be charged
for this item until it is available and we have shipped it to you.

Best regards,

Thupten Choder
Amazon.com Customer Service

Phew. So if you are ordering from Amazon you WILL get the rebate, provided you order soon and it will be delivered for free on April 29th, making the price after the rebate $94.99.

Yeah. You're welcome, fellow colleagues...