Leopard Deliveries Delayed at Apple's Request?

Update: Wait, what's going on? Is Apple actually the one responsible for FedEx shipment delays? This is what we just got in our tipbox:

This is absolutely astonishing.

I'm on the phone right now with [redacted], Customer Advocate for FedEx. She, and [redacted], employee #[redacted], Operations Manager at the San Jose Express delivery station, are claiming that Apple specifically requested that FedEx disregard the "Priority Overnight, delivery by 10:30am" service Apple shipped Leopard out under, and instead "DEC17" the Apple packages, which means to deliver them by 5pm instead of the contractually-obligated 10:30am time dictated by the Priority Overnight delivery requirements.

Update 2: Another reader says this.

i have an update to the fedex debacle for leopard shipment, i too had issues this morning with my delivery showing an exception and stating "customer not home", i was home the whole time and they didnt come, i called fedex and bitched and they said that it said "delayed by management", none of the three reps that i spoke to knew what that meant, but i was able to get them to talk to the driver and have him come back at 1130 with my leopard

Original: We've had three separate confirmations that some Leopard deliveries are failing via FedEx. When we say fail, we mean there's a "Delivery exception" and the status says "Future delivery requested." We're sure the recipients didn't request a future delivery for something they pre-ordered, so what's the deal here?