International Keyboard?

I've got a HDD version on pre-order at NCIX Canada. Checked the site for availability just now and the ETA is still Mid-August; but as of today they're saying it will come with the "International keyboard".

Is this an issue? What's the difference? Am I about the cancel the order and wait for the Dell?

I wonder if it's too late to pre-order at Tiger Direct ... what models are they getting over there?

 

to my knowledge NCIX is the only place doing pre orders for 6 cells.

And here is the difference in the keyboard viewtopic.php?f=4&t=243

It's a shame but every A1 being shipped to canada is going to look like that unless it comes from america first

 

Yeah - I just found this thread:

http://forum.ncix.com/forums/index....mber=2&msgcount=37&subpage=1&product_id=31428

and it looks like I'm going to cancel my order. There's a couple of nice pics of the US and International keyboards.

Supernerd wants US; Supernerd don't want International. I'm off to write a smarthy email to Acer next: give me something I can use and maybe I'll buy it ...

 

Holy smokes I was so close to buying from NCIX.

Uhhh, so can I just order it from an american site? Or would they not ship an item to canada?

Worst case scenario I could ask a friend to buy it from Michigan and ship it to Toronto, as it's not too far.

 

I've had a lot of trouble finding a US store that will ship complete systems to Canada. Let me know if you find one. I also have several contacts in the States that will take delivery and reship ... but then you're running into customs issues; GST problems; etc.

I'm looking for an alternative, let me know what your find and I'll post my progress here, too.

 

Well according to this site Newegg only offers the version I want (1GB, 120GB HDD, XP) but I don't even see it on there. It shows 512mb 8GB SSD.

 

You could buy from america but you'll end up paying duty and a brokerage fee making it not worth it

Honestly the only truly annoying thing about a bilingual keyboard is the smaller left shift, which I have on my other notebook and just registry hacked to be shift. It's really no big deal to me anymore. Would I like a US keyboard? Sure. Hopefully soon companies realize 90% of canada is english speaking

 

How much are we talking here? I've had people from America ship me something here and I haven't heard of any of these fees.

 

You have to pay duty on things not manufactured in US or Mexico if its coming into Canada, on top of that the courier will charge a brokerage fee for bringing it through customs which is about 10% I think. I don't know how much the duty is or if its a flat free. But on electronics I have heard they try to make it as painful a process they can. I'm not an expert by any means it's just whenever I have ordered things from US warehouses they have ended up being 10-30% more expensive

 

Most of the major Computer manufacturers have switched to supplying Multi-lingual (read: french/english) keyboards to the Canadian market. I believe it is for cost savings. I don't know who started it first, but most companies have jumped on the bandwagon. It is a general pain in the arse for English-only speaking Canadians. I am not sure how French-speaking Canadians like the keyboards. But the shorter shift and enter keys, in addtion to all the extra (useless for english) symbols on the keys is ...well, undesireable.

We order Toshiba laptops at my work and I complained to our sales guy and he said "no problem, with any machine you buy I can get you an American keyboard". He said many (english) customers have complained about these multi-lingual keyboards.

I think putting some pressure on Acer may help. I will call their support and bitch at them for an American keyboard. It's easy as pie to remove the existing keyboard. I'd say just as easy as removing a sim card from a cell phone or changing the battery on your Blackberry...should not void your warranty if it is done right and instructions are given...