Buying a Mac during Mercury retro

[Sanity Claws]

My Gateway laptop is acting up again. I've had it three years and think it's a piece of junk. I'd like to move up to a Mac.
Can anyone talk to me about the dangers of buying electronics during Mercury retro? What if I'm just careful? New Macs are supposed to be very reliable.

[Kookaburra]

1. I wouldn't risk it, unless you're tying up loose ends

If this is something that has been "hanging" for a while (maybe you've been shopping for quite some time, etc.), then a Mercury retrograde period might be okay for making a purchase.

From my own personal experience, every time I've thrown caution to the wind and bought electronics, signed a contract, etc. during Mercury retrograde I've regretted it.

[FloriTexan]

21. Isn't Mercury Retrograde favorable to

changes that qualify as "about freakin' time" kinda changes - like you should have done it back when? That said, I'd wait.

I hate this aspect and its so frequent. We had planned to go to pull the RV to Florida for two weeks (leaving on the 15th returning on the 1st). It took us 3 months to pick the date and find a park to stay at (the one we wanted to stay out is under renovations). After we booked it I learned about this aspect and developed heart burn. My husband got laid off 3 weeks ago, the campground that took us 3 months to settle on was under water due to floods, and there is a tropical depression sitting over the state bringing substantial rain for at least the entire first week of our vacation.

I'm really glad we had the foresight to cancel when he got laid off. :crazy:

[liberalmuse]

2. There's rarely a bad time to buy a Mac.

I can't say enough about these computers or the Mac OS. They are the best machines I've ever encountered.

[Sanity Claws]

6. That's what I'm hoping

Thanks for the response.

[Why Syzygy]

9. It goes direct in less than two weeks.

Is that too long to wait?

[northernlights]

3. couldn't you just do your research now

on exactly which mac to get and what software and peripherals and whatever? And hold off on the actual purchase until mercury changes direction?

Mercury retro is supposed to be a fine time to do research. I'll never start a major project in a mercury retro again, for electronics or otherwise.

p.s. I bought a gateway once, many, many years ago. After a prolonged battle with the company, in which over the course of 4 or 5 days I was sat on hold for many, many hours and was hung up on many, many times, I was able to return it. I was so irate (I had ended up screaming at some sales rep "how do you people look yourselves in the mirror when you get up in the morning?!?!" before I finally was given the reutrn info I needed) that I sent a multi-page letter detailing how many times I'd called customer service, how long I'd sat on hold each call, how many times I'd been hung up on, the actual conversations when I actually reached an actual person in one group or another -- to the ceo, the coo, and the cmo (because I couldn't figure out which group was responsible for c.s). As a result, I not only got a refund, I got back back the shipping costs and got a phone call of apology from some poor middle manager. :)

[Sanity Claws]

7. My Gateway is now deceased

I hear your advice but I need a replacement now and don't want to wait two weeks. I might end up taking a chance but I'll make sure I get an extended warranty.

Sorry to hear about your experience with your Gateway. Even though you got your money back, you had to waste your time and energy to do it.

[RayOfHope]

4. We've had 4 macs in the past 10 years

our purple imac lived for 6 years without one single problem. We now have an emac that's 4 years old and has never had a problem and own 2 macbooks. They have been nothing but reliable. There was a battery recall with our first macbook, but I called apple at 3pm one afternoon and had a new battery on my doorstep by 9 the next morning. I've had excellent service with them.

[Sanity Claws]

10. That's the stuff I wanted to hear!

By any chance, was any of them bought during a Mercury retro?

[RayOfHope]

14. Yes, two of them!

if you can look up past merc. retrogrades

Sept 1998

April 2004--I checked, bought during retrograde

Late June/early July 2007--retrograde also

Feb 2009

[eilen]

5. I would wait

stuff still happens... like, you could buy a macbook and purchase the Applecare and think all bases are covered and something happens like your dog knocks it off the bed or couch and the screen is broken.

You go to the Apple store and find out it's not covered by Applecare and it will cost you about $700 to fix it there, and if you don't have it fixed there, you will void your warranty....

That is a Mercury Retrograde, my friend.

[Sanity Claws]

11. Has anything like that happened to you?

I can't believe that all transactions in Mercury retro go bad. Nobody could stay in business if they did. After all, Mercury retros about 12 weeks every year, right?
So, while the chances of something going bad increases during Mercury retro, not everything sours. Well, that's what I'm telling myself.

[northernlights]

12. which house is mercury retro in?

I think it's in Taurus now. Which house is that for you? Maybe that could give you some insight as to how it might effect you...

I've had some mercury retros be nothing. Some be minor stuff. So I never really worried about them until... In recent years, they've been a nightmare for me. This one so far is not a problem, but I'm not taking many chances either.

[Sanity Claws]

13. 8th house

I was born during a mercury retro, if that makes a difference.

As for how the Mercury retro is affecting me thus far, I think the death of my Gateway is probably due to it.

[MorningGlow]

18. That does make a difference, SC

My former elder was born during a Merc Ret and she hardly ever had the problems other people had. You could be the same.

I have only always owned Macs. My first one (I forget which--it was back in '95) lived for a good long time and I only replaced it because I needed more power. My G3 also lived a long time and was put through its paces while I had it. It went toes up after five years of hardcore use. I now have a white iMac (or iBoob, as I like to call it), which is five years old and doing fine, albeit a bit slow for modern apps (Flash etc.) I still use it to update my Web sites. But I mainly work on my MacBook, which I LOVE. It fell off a butcher block about a week ago and there was absolutely NO harm done. I boggle at the wonder that is Mac. :loveya:

Best of luck with your Mac, SC! I'm sure you'll love it!

[BlueIris]

8. I'm in a position to have to do the same thing,

but I'm going to try to wait until Mercury goes direct to actually make the commitment, if not wait until it's out of the shadow.

[Cleita]

15. I love my Mac, however, I would pay attention to the signs.

You will know the right time to buy one and you won't be disappointed.

[teenagebambam]

16. Bought my macbook during the last retro

Have had no problems yet!

[Sanity Claws]

17. I just did it.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.
Thanks for your input.

[MagickMuffin]

19. I'm sure you're gonna Love your NEW MacBaby ;=D

I certainly :loveya: mine and we have 4 in house (2 laptops, one desktop, and a swivel iMac) and sold my G4 15" to my SIL and I got a used G4 17" xmas before last. I wish I could afford a newer one but as long as this one works I'll live with it.

We even did a surgery on the iMac (replaced hard-drive) and it still works just fine.

When will you receive it?.?.?

[Sanity Claws]

20. It's in my hands right now.

I got the cheapest one and am using it now to write this message.
This is my first Apple so I don't know all of its features. Did you take any of the workshops? I plan to take a couple to make sure I'm making good use of this baby.

[MagickMuffin]

22. Kewl and Congratulations, SC

I have gone to some of their workshops, however, that was after already knowing my way around, but there is always so much to learn. The free workshops should help a lot since you're new to the platform. But Mac's in general are VERY user friendly. I mean look at you, you are already up and running through the "intertubes" :-)

You can even buy into a yearly plan ($99) to get One on One sessions, where you can go for an hour once a week, but if there are two stores close enough nearby I've heard that you can fudge it and go to each store, although I never tried it. I had a plan for a couple of years, but didn't use it as often as I should have since the nearest Apple store was 20 miles from home and the traffic was horrifying. There is now a store closer but don't have the money right now. I mainly went for Final Cut Pro help. They also have a Mac Genius Bar plan (same price) the only benefit was you get to bump people without the plan from the queue.


I'm sure you will be enjoying your Mac for years. You also have Mac people here who would be willing to help you get over any hurdles you might run into.

edit: added Congratulations :hi:

[ricochetastroman]

23. I would wait till the 30th

I love macs too. Even so, it relies on billions of tiny switches of 0's and 1's. Mercury is famous for screwing with them, for some reason. IF you can wait, I recommend you do so, AND I'd give it a 2 or 3 days beyond that and give Mercury some time to start forward.
You may very well buy it now and be ok, but why risk it?

good luck

[Sanity Claws]

24. I felt I really needed to do it now for productivity reasons

The Gateway laptop is now deceased and not worth sinking more $$$ into it.
I have a desktop PC that is very old and very slow. After six years, it has so many bugs and incompatible software in it that it does not reliably run Word and the Internet at the same time. This means I can't do internet research and save my research in Word, something I do a lot of.
If I waited two more weeks, I'd practically get nothing done during this time. That's why I took the chance. So far, so good.

[Proud_Lefty]

25. I expected this to be on geting heartburn eating a Big Mac during the retro

And I even own a Mac. Being on a diet sure can effect one's train of thought. :9