Is it honest to sell hardware you do not have in stock?

Only if the customer knows and is not billed for the wait. We show the real availability, promise a window, and start the subscription when the machine is live, not at checkout.

How do you not charge for the wait?

The subscription is created with a trial that covers the provisioning window, so billing begins when the machine is handed over. If it is ready in an hour, the trial is an hour of grace, not a month of free service.

What if you cannot fulfil in time?

The customer can cancel before the trial ends at no cost. The commitment is a promise with an exit, not a charge for something that does not exist.

← blog

Selling a Mac you don't have yet: deferred billing done honestly

October 18, 2026 · 6 min read

For a while our site did something quietly self-defeating. When every machine was leased, it said so and effectively ended the conversation. A visitor ready to pay was told to come back later. We were turning away the one thing a young business needs most, which is a customer with a credit card out.

The fix was to let the sale through even with an empty rack. It does that without lying about stock or charging for a machine that is not there yet.

Say the true thing

Availability on the site is read from the actual fleet, not written as copy. When a machine is free it says available now. When the rack is full it says available in 24 hours, because we can bring one online within a day. The number is never more optimistic than the hardware.

Rack full

Site says "available in 24 hours"

Checkout still works

Machine brought online

Billing starts when it is live

An empty rack changes the promise, not the ability to buy.

Start the clock on delivery, not on checkout

The subscription is created at checkout, but with a trial that covers the provisioning window. Billing begins when the machine is handed over. If we deliver in an hour, that is an hour of grace. If it takes a day, the customer still pays from the moment they get a working Mac and not a minute before.

Charge at checkout

·Customer pays for a wait

·Refund needed if you are late

·Pressure to overstate availability

·Trust spent on day one

Charge on delivery

·The wait is free

·Cancel before ready at no cost

·No reason to overstate stock

·The first bill maps to a working machine

How it works underneath

Sale is accepted with no unit attached

The order records that it is waiting on stock. Nothing about the checkout depends on a machine existing yet.

A trial covers the provisioning window

The subscription starts in a trial state, so no charge lands while the customer waits.

A freed or new machine is attached automatically

When a unit becomes available it is matched to the oldest waiting order, provisioned, and handed over.

Billing begins at handover

The trial ends when the machine is live. The first invoice corresponds to a Mac the customer can actually use.

Why this is the honest version

There is a dishonest way to sell out of stock, which is to hide it and hope you can catch up. This is the opposite. The customer sees the real wait, pays nothing for it, and can walk away for free if you miss the window. Removing the incentive to overstate availability is what keeps the number on the site true. It is the same principle behind describing our hosting exactly as it is. The constraint is the feature.

Questions

Is it honest to sell hardware you do not have in stock?: Only if the customer knows and is not billed for the wait. We show the real availability, promise a window, and start the subscription when the machine is live, not at checkout.
How do you not charge for the wait?: The subscription is created with a trial that covers the provisioning window, so billing begins when the machine is handed over. If it is ready in an hour, the trial is an hour of grace, not a month of free service.
What if you cannot fulfil in time?: The customer can cancel before the trial ends at no cost. The commitment is a promise with an exit, not a charge for something that does not exist.

Run your own numbers on the calculator or lease a runner.