For those seeking accurate information on Dell's responsibilities via the FTC mail order rule never take the work of someone from Dell or someone who advocates for Dell.

"One of the laws that the FTC enforces is the Mail Order Rule, which requires us to obtain your permission to proceed with processing your order when it has been delayed more than once." 

I will kindly take the above statment as a mistake and not something else...........

This is from http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/adv/bus02.shtm

What is the Mail or Telephone Order Rule?

The Rule requires that when you advertise merchandise, you must have a reasonable basis for stating or implying that you can ship within a certain time. If you make no shipment statement, you must have a reasonable basis for believing that you can ship within 30 days. That is why direct marketers sometimes call this the "30-day Rule."

If, after taking the customer’s order, you learn that you cannot ship within the time you stated or within 30 days, you must seek the customer’s consent to the delayed shipment. If you cannot obtain the customer’s consent to the delay -- either because it is not a situation in which you are permitted to treat the customer’s silence as consent and the customer has not expressly consented to the delay, or because the customer has expressly refused to consent -- you must, without being asked, promptly refund all the money the customer paid you for the unshipped merchandise.

Note within the time you stated or.....  Nothing about being delayed more than once..

I feel that Dell needs to get back to having local customer service reps for the markets they serve.

USA should have local customer support in USA

France should have local customer support in France

UK should have local customer support in UK

India should have local customer support in India

Germany should have local customer support in Germany

Costa Rica should have local customer support in Costa Rica

i want the resonable rate of dell latitude d630.

I thought the delyas were limited to notebooks but I just got an email  that the ship date for my two desktops has been extended by a week.

I have been away from Dell for two years and now I remember why I moved away from it.

This problem isn't just limited to full systems.  I have been trying to order a replacement modem for my in-laws' computer which is only 6 months old.  They first told me they didn't have any over chat and then when I called to get the specs so I could order somewhere else, they told me they had one for $40.40- -- outragous pricing.  It was due to be delivered yesterday 8/7/2008.  Last night I got a "courtsey call" saying my order was cancelled and that I had ordered a refurbished modem (I didn't) but that he could sell me a new model for $29.99 if I would only give my credit card number again.  I ranted a while about why they tried to sell me a refurbished modem and then cancelled the order without my request and he hung up on me.  I called back and was told that my credit card had been declined (lies) so I called my bank to confirm it was a lie and the charge had been approved and was pending.  I called Dell back and talked to another agent, and told them they had lied to me about the credit card charges.  She told me she would take my concerns down and forward them (yeah right). 

Then she would still not give me the specs for the modem so I can buy it somewhere else at a reasonable price.  One of the agents actually tried to sell me the story that the modem was proprietary to Dell.  They changed that story when I asked where the factory was that built each little component -- come on -- I know better than that.  Dell just assembles parts made by other companies and puts their name on it.

Just give me the specs for the modem!!!!

My suggestion -- by HP -- their customer service is AWESOME.  I'm an IT Administrator -- I should know -- I deal with tech support all the time and Dell has cancelled orders on me before for my company -- and that was working through a US Dell Business Account Exec!!!  NO MORE.  All the Dell junk mail will hit the trash before it even gets put in my mail box.  I've already talked to the mail room about it.

I ordered a Dell laptop on 5/19/08.  My order has been delayed 3 times.  I've called a few times and they just read from the script and refuse to give any compensation for my computer being delayed for over a month.  I'm very frustrated at this point.  The last customer service eprson I spoke with said that they can't delay an order more than 3 times.  I'm hoping that she's right.

It seems to me Dell is coming perilously close to violating the FTC mail order rule by knowingly providing incorrect shipping information, or, in the words of the FTC, by taking orders "when it had no reasonable basis to expect to be able to ship some or all of the merchandise within the time stated." http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1998/04/dell.shtm

Dell – some customers may be understanding that unexpected surges in orders or unexpected delays from a parts vendor could lead to delays in shipping computers.  However, you are a computer company, so customers expect that you can electronically track the reason for delays and provide customers reasonably accurate information.  The lengthy train in this e-mail shows that your ineptness in fulfilling customer orders is driving away scores of potential customers (and, most likely, the friends and co-workers of potential customers).  A response indicating that someone at Dell has a grasp of this problem and is doing something to fix it would be appropriate and much appreciated.

On December 16, 2007 we spoke to Shannon in sales to order our XPS One (The Performance One) because we wanted an all-in-one system (we were thinking Mac originally) and online there was the added bonus of free 2nd-day shipping plus the $200 Dell gift card (which we were supposed to receive in 6-8 weeks).  We had planned on using the Dell gift card to get some add-on components for the computer for gaming. 

When I called and spoke to a CSR (if you can call him that), he said my purchase wasn't eligible.  When I asked him which system was eligible for the "rebate", his exact words were, "Ma'am, I understand your concern but your conflagration (no, that isn't a misspelling) isn't eligible for this rebate" and terminated the phone call from there.  I personally don't think he even looked up the rebate information. 

So, my question is this.  I spend over $2,000 on a computer system, get the 2nd-day shipping (and the computer didn't show up until the 22nd - 5 DAYS LATER PEOPLE!!) and then I'm told that my sytem configuration doesn't qualify for the rebate?  If I remember correctly, the offer was for Inspiron and XPS computers over a certain amount.  And if I didn't qualify for said rebate, why did the guy who took my order say I did?  And of course, there is no more information available anywhere that says what the original offer was. 

By the way, this was my first purchase with Dell.  It's pretty safe to say that I am LESS than impressed with the service that we have received. 

I purchased an XPS 420 on Nov. 27, 2007, I was eligible for a $100 rebate at this time.  The offer that was going on was for a 100-200 rebate, depending on how much  money was spent.  On Nov. 30, 2007 I modified the order to add a monitor, which cancelled out the first order.  I was then told I was eligible for a 150 rebate.  Were now in MArch 2008 and I still have not received a rebate.  I have been trying to get this problem rectified for a month.  I have received about 10 different phone #'s to call and have been transfered numerous times and still no one can help.  Everyone just pawns me off to the next person.  ITs the principle of the matter, they offered this rebate, its not like I'm asking for free money.  I am so livid and am tired of being jerked around.  I have talked to several people in sales who say they remember this offer, but there is nothing they can do.  Does anyone know of someone I can call or email to try to get this matter rectified. I know want to buy an XPS 630 so I can give the XPS 420 to my kids and I would like to have the 150 rebate to use with this order.

I've had a nasty nasty experience with Dell customer Service with my order on inspiron 530.  During Nov. 07 time, it was promotion $100 gift card for purchasing a system Inspiron 530 over $999.  I purchased a system with $100 gift card then I changed my mind to update the memory through a Sale Rep.  Now it'd been 3 months, I'd never get my Gift card.  Howerver, the worst part is talking/emailing with Customer Service.  There are about 7 emails from 3 different Customer Service Reps.  One said I am qualify just wait for 2 more weeks, then next Rep. said system down and wait for 2 more weeks then his last email was I am not qualify for $100 gift card.  The last Rep. said I should call Sale Dept.   The worstest exprience is starting by calling Dell #.  I'd been passed through 6 people in an hour with same answer that is not his/her authority to over-right the system.  The last Rep knew very well how to treat a customer. After I was expressing my eager about this issue, she said that she will tranfer me her Manager name Paul.  then you guess what.... she stood me up for 1/2 hr for waiting on phone hearing classic music.  !!! I feel so stupic that I am dare to messing up with Dell customer service!!! I should have more read more feed back before I called them.  I am so scare them now about how Dell customer Service treat customers like this....I decide to stay away from Dell... I've bought over 10 systems from Dell specially 3 systems with same $100 gift card in same time frame.  It won't have the next time for me with Dell.

There is absolutely no willingness on Dell’s part to correct their mistake and there is very genius way to cut off the customer by puting on hold by Dell customer Service.

Ordered  Dell Inspiron 1520 Notebook Computer along with Printer and 3 yrs Warranty on Dec 10, 2007; on the 24th I got a delay notice; the 27th another notice that estimate the ship date as Jan 9, 2008; Jan 9, I another Delay notice, new estimated ship date Jan 16, 2008.

The next notice I got said my order would be canclead unless I call Dell and consent to yet another delay.  I got this message a day after it was sent, along with a new message that states that my order was canclead due to mail order rules; I never had a chance to make a decision either way!  What makes me mad is that at no time was I given a reason for the delay or other options that would take care of this problem.  Customer Service was rude and offer no solution or compasation.                                                                                                 

I end up ordering a HP and it came before the estimated arrival date.

Just for informational purposes, I would like to point out the rising shortage of LCD glass due to high production rates of portable computers and large screen LCD TVs.  This is not a Dell centered issue, this affects all of us as computer manufacturers as well as TV manufacturers, too bad TVs aren't made to order (Not so much IBM as Lenovo now handles the portable computer line).  I hope this puts things in perspective.

I am student studying in Germany and I have ordered Insprion 1520 from Germany (www.dell.de) on 17th Dec 2007. My status on website was not getting updated at all, and also the contact person given in order acceptance mail is not reachable on email and telephone. Finally i called dell customer support service and they told me that my order has been cancelled. This was done without any information given to me. Since i am not in USA the Federal Trade Commission  rule or Mail Order Rule is not applicable to me. Today again i called to Customer Support and they have sent me new offer with new model DELL Vastro 1500. But i am not sure about this product and how can i decide now of changing my choice? What about my old order?

Should i recommend Dell products to my friends and relatives in future??????????????????????????

Hello Joe,

 Did DELL hire you to come on here and spread the good news of DELL servcing one of their customers.  I am glad you got your 2 computers in a timely fashion.  However Mr. I Don't Get It if you take a second and look around this forum you will see the thousands, yes thousands of other comments where people are not being served in a timely fashion.  So next time you decide to open your mouth realize that you are not the only person out there and because you don't have a problem does not mean other people aren't. Better yet why don't you order all the computers for us so we can all get them a week early because apparently you know something about ordering from DELL that we do not.

I don't understand this delay stuff.  Is it just certain systems?  I have not had a problem at all this year. 

On March 22th, 2007 I ordered an Inspiron E1705 and received it on April 3rd, 2007.   Just 11 days after ordering.  The original ship date was supposed to be April 11th, so I got it a week early.

On November 1st, 2007 I ordered an XPS 420 and received it on November 9th.  Original shipdate was scheduled for December 4th. 

I am completely satisfied with Dell and I offer them my support.

Hello all,

I ordered a XPS 720 on the 10th of October, spending around $6,100.00, then the day after, phoning to have them include the physics module.

They cancelled the original order, and made a new one, bumping the estimated delivery date back 5 days, after I was assured by the man with poor english, that this would not be the case.

After a few phone calls on the 15th, my CSR told me that I should expect the delivery on the 17th.

After calling on the 16th, concerned that the Order Status page had not updated passed the "being built" phase, I was handed to different people.

Eventually, I was called back by someone other than my go-to CSR man, who was calling on behalf of my fellow (Ethan T). He explained that (in terrible broken and mumbled english) my system had been delayed, due to "unexpected delays", and would ship early mid November, adding, "Im sorry no-one told you this".

I'm frustrated that I'm spending AU$6,500, and getting jerked around, and having to speak to ESL people, I don't mean to disrespect, but for such a position as this, I got the feeling they only understood half of what I was saying.

 The time frame of deliver is not as severe as what the laptop people are suffering

As some sort of compensation, I have been offered $150.00 back.

Keep my money, and hire more staff and financial planners.
 

Latitude D830 

Order Date: 29th August

During the order process the Sales Person (whom I will not name - yet) told me that it would only take 8 days to fulfill my order!

5th September, Laptop had not showed up so I called the aforementioned sales person, told me that he should not have told me 8 days, but 16 days and that he would now 'fast-track' my order.

12th September, no laptop.  Checked OrderStatus Page, estimated delivery date now 4th October.

19th September, Dell took payment for the Laptop from my bank account, so it is now earning interest for them without any laptop being supplied. 

Called Sales Person, spoke to his superior(did not understand the name).  Was told that there was a delay due to supplies of LCD screens, but that Dell were getting a delivery this weekend(15th/16th September) and that my order would be 'fast-tracked' again.

4th October, Still in pre-production, order date now showing 8th November!

Spoke to Sales Person, Can do nothing about this.  I asked him why he originally told me that it would take 8 days (before I confirmed the order).  He 'apologised' (didn't actually say sorry!), and said it was out of his hands.

I asked for compensation in the form of a memory upgrade, and a laptop backpack.  "I can't do that".

So Dell have my money AND my laptop.  I am down over GBP£1000.

I am a small business now losing money  due to the lack of laptop which was promised to take only 8 days from the order date.

Can I expect any compensation, and can I expect my laptop to be delivered this decade (albeit, out of date and obsolete when I receive it)?

 
Yours irately

Paul
 

What about the printer delays?

 I received an e-mail that my order for a Laser Printer 1720 has been delayed. This is extremely unacceptable.

 
I'd just like an explanation as to why it was delayed...My printer had went out on me recently, so I looked around and ordered a 1720. I have something due the 26th of this month, but with no printer right now, that's very difficult.

 Explanations...please???!

Ted 

You know it is shocking that here we are on October 3rd, and people are still having problems getting there computers.  I ordered mine in the beginning of July and did not receive it till the end of August.  I was really in the first batch of customers who had problems.  I figured that once I got mine things should just fall into place for everyone else.  However I see people are still not getting their computers in a timely manner.  I suggest everyone should report this incident to the BBB.  It will not solve the problem, but the more complaints that Dell gets the more they have to explain themselves.  Besides what else do you have to do since you are still waiting and want the computer, why not make Dell have do something.  Either way I really hope you all get your computers soon, and DELL apparently you are still giving the people that are still waiting the same tired excuses for your inability to perform.  I assure you all here that I got the same excuses you are getting and they are not warranted.  Obviously not because I have my computer.  DELL you have really gone down hill and if you plan to get back up major changes are going to need to be made at your organization.  Here is a list of things to change:

1.  Customer Service - The customer service department is really anything but.  They can not answer your questions, because no matter what they say they have no authority.  They are pawns of their managers and do and say what they are told.  This makes them unable to do anything for you.  Then they have the nerve to be mad at the customer because the "customer" is not getting answers but repeated lies.  Another thing, after waiting all of this time for my computer I get several calls at my home from your customer service department.  Finally when they catch me when I am at home they try to get me to spend almost $200 on an extended warranty.  Give me a break, yes I want to spend more money on something you took two months to deliver, very funny.

2.  Organizational Responsibility - Stop blaming your suppliers.  The problem is not your suppliers, the problem is you.  The problems that you are having stem from your companies inability to properly design and manufacture your product.  When you build a product next time make sure it works before you market it to the public.  Otherwise when people start ordering them you won't be able to deliver them.

3.   Business Sense - Since when does a company market a product they can not deliver.  The number one excuse I heard about why my computer was delayed was the "paint."  Now it maybe me but for some reason I would think if you were making a product you would learn how to paint it before you start selling them.  Then the response to that comment was that DELL could make them in small numbers but in large quantities there were quality issues.  Let me ask you a question.  How many of these computers did you expect to sell, 2?  DELL is a large corporation that sells all over the world.  Wouldn't you make sure you could paint large quantities of your product anyway?  Absolutely ridiculous. 

DELL everytime I talk about this it honestly makes me laugh that you actually want people to believe the nonsense that you are saying.  Maybe you think customers are inept, but you are not fooling me.  Oh well all I can say is you really think that your current business model is working, please by all means continue, Sony, HP, Apple, etc. will thank you. 

Have a great day.

DELL, this is a ONE to ONE forum (YOUR words).

Where are your replies please?

September 22, 2007

Although when I have CALLED on the telephone and gone thru the annoying menues, the Dell representatives have been quite helpful and knowledgeable about the particular problem(s) at hand, I must admit that I am quite disappointed and AGGRIVATED at the fact that a company would sell ANY kind of divice WITHOUT an INSTRUCTION MANUAL for it. There are color coded keys on my Inspiron 1501 that I have no earthly idea WHAT they do. I am leary of just automatically "playing" with it lest I crash the thing and THEN I would have REAL problems.

I hope DELL reads these blogs. I have gone to your website and have gotten absolutely NOWHERE. No matter WHAT you put in the little window asking for a "keyword", you are thrown back the the HomePage which has nothing to do with my questions. HELP!!!!!!!

WHY Microsoft (and the companies who blindly accept their VISTA) think it is such a great idea to mess with something that WORKED WELL, I don't know. But the least you all could do is supply explicit instructions.

I hope that you respond to my blog. I am NOT using this just to VENT. I want to be able to use my computer and the software to honor the Lord. Please help me.

We liked the first d830 so much we bought another one and it was ship to us in less then 6 business days from date of purchase.

All of you with delays, maybe consider moving over to the business side of things.

My laptop shipped today, and I have the tracking number!

On August 13, I ordered a Dell Latitude D630 (black), 2.4 GHz, bus speed 800 MHz, with 2 GB RAM (667 MHz).  ESD date was Sept. 7.   At midnight on Sept. 7, the ESD incremented to Sept. 14.   On Sept. 14 (around noon), the ESD incremented to Sept. 21.   Since this is a US order, and the “Mail Order Rule” applied, I authorized and extension of one week (to Sept. 21) for my order. 

About two hours later, when I searched for my order, the Dell website said I had “no orders”.  My first [incorrect] thought was that Dell had cancelled the order.   When I was able to view “previous orders”, the webpage displayed my order with a shipping date of Sept 15 (this was Sept 14).  The next day, Sept. 15, I found the order with a “Shipped Date:” of Sept. 15, along with a tracking number!  At 9:30 am this morning, I received an email from Dell verifying that the order was shipped (also providing the tracking number).  I should receive the laptop via DHL sometime this week.

This has been a traumatic experience. After having received previous Dell orders in 3-5 business days, a 5 week wait is a long time!  I am so happy it is over.   I am also happy to have the laptop.  Best wishes to each of you.

Well, I ordered a 1720 notebook, pink on 8/22 before finding about all the long delays.  When I was putting my order in, the ESD was 9/15 which is about three weeks, I can handle that.  Well, once the order was finished, and went "In Production" almost immediately, the ESD changed to 9/27.  Now I wasn't too upset, I am not really waiting on it for anything other than convenience.  So I wait. 

Then I see all the comments made about all the long delays.  I keep reading and am very upset.  I think to myself, "If they were so far behind, why did they advertise a product and then let me buy it, knowing they may not get it done until it is obsolete!"  I am trying to patient, as I have not been delayed yet.  I feel terrible for those who have been. 

I called CS and the woman I talked to there told me that I will get my machine on or before 9/28.  I wanted to know if any of my components were slowing it down at all, and she said no.  However a chat person I talked to 2 days earlier suggested that I go and change my configuration to get if faster, but didn't tell me what I needed to change.  I hope I get it on time, or I will most likely cancel.  This is not life or death for me.  I want this computer, but I am not willing to wait until I am 90 to get it.  I have never bought a Dell before, and was warned not to deal with them, and so here I am dealing.  

I have just 12 days to wait, I am going to keep hoping that I don't get let down.  It will be like Christmas or my B-day when it does finally come! 

Placed an order on 3rd sep 07, and got an ESD of 13th sep 07. Order was taken "apparently" on the 3rd, and manufacture etc was done by the 5th. Order status also said that the order is "shipping from factory" dated 5th september- and has been shipping from factory ever since. today is the 16th and hell, still no update as to where the order is.

I will DEFINITELY cancel my order if this will take more than a week,  so thats time till 23rd sep 07.

Hi,

unfortunately same happened to me and a friend of mine. This is especially annoying since I  pursuaded him into purchasing the same Latitude D830 notebook by telling him about the amenities of  Dell products and services. According to him we would have purchased a much cheaper device.

We both ordered in Germany  on 8/16 with an ESD of 9/19. Until today the order in the order status page stayed in state "production preparation 8/16". But today the production preparation changed to 9/14. So I assumed Dell is finally starting to work on my notebook. But after scrolling downward the ESD was set to 10/23!

For support in deciding how to proceed with my I tried to contact the person taking my orders at the hot line via email, since he told me he is my contact person in case of any questions or problems. Until this moment I haven't got any answer from Dell but I'm sure that my credit card is charged in time.

My conclusion of this affair: "Dell customers also believe in fairy tales".

Hi,

Like many others, I wish I had found this blog before ordering my XPS. I have a "empty status" on Dell's website order check page, with no delivery date information or anything, and yet Dell still debited my account. I rang them and they said my order (a UK order) had not even been processed, when the sales person said the machine was being constructed.

This is awful, awful service and I am gobsmacked Dell would lie and annoy their customers like this. Dell seem to have no logistical information about their orders at all either... what on earth has happened to Dell?

Mark

Well I just canceled my order. This was a mess anyway you look at it.

I first placed the order for my wife’s Inspiron 1720 on 7/29/07 with a shipping date of 8/23/07. My wife wanted Pink so we accepted the long build time. I changed the order on 8/1/07 (stupid me) to upgrade to a better processor, estimated shipping date 9/5/07.

I went on-line a few days later to check the status of my build only to find out that the updated order was CANCELLED. As is the case with everybody else, nobody from Dell contacted me to let me know my order was CANCELLED. They simply cancelled my new order and resumed production on my old order. If I hadn’t checked, Dell would have sent me a computer that I DIDN’T want.

So, I had to place my revised order a second time, which I did on 8/8/07 with estimated shipping date of 9/12/07. Yes folks, that’s a 5 week wait. Dell said that they would put my order on “priority status”, which obviously has absolutely NO meaning what-so-ever, and give me free next day shipping (thanks Dell)!!!

Well I waited and waited and finally the shipping day came. And low and behold I get an e-mail TODAY, the supposed shipping day, telling me that my order is delayed and is now expected to ship 10/15/07. Yep, that is another 5 week delay and over 2 ½ months since the day I originally placed my revised order.

Question, how could Dell not know before today that my system was going to be delayed for another 5 weeks? It is obvious that Dell is blatantly lying about the shipping dates in an attempt to keep customers in the dark and on the hook for as long as they can? They did offer me a whopping $50, but this pales in comparison to the production time lost from my wife not having a computer.

I strongly suggest that anyone still waiting for their system to CANCEL their order and go to HP, Gateway, or anybody else that actually has computers to sell. Even if you have not gotten the dreaded “Order Delayed” e-mail, CANCEL NOW because it is almost certain that one is headed your way (probably on your expected shipping date).

Well I just canceled my order. This was a mess anyway you look at it.

I first placed the order for my wife’s Inspiron 1720 on 7/29/07 with a shipping date of 8/23/07. My wife wanted Pink so we accepted the long build time. I changed the order on 8/1/07 (stupid me) to upgrade to a better processor, estimated shipping date 9/5/07.

I went on-line a few days later to check the status of my build only to find out that the updated order was CANCELLED. As is the case with everybody else, nobody from Dell contacted me to let me know my order was CANCELLED. They simply cancelled my new order and resumed production on my old order. If I hadn’t checked, Dell would have sent me a computer that I DIDN’T want.

So, I had to place my revised order a second time, which I did on 8/8/07 with estimated shipping date of 9/12/07. Yes folks, that’s a 5 week wait. Dell said that they would put my order on “priority status”, which obviously has absolutely NO meaning what-so-ever, and give me free next day shipping (thanks Dell)!!!

Well I waited and waited and finally the shipping day came. And low and behold I get an e-mail TODAY, the supposed shipping day, telling me that my order is delayed and is now expected to ship 10/15/07. Yep, that is another 5 week delay and over 2 ½ months since the day I originally placed my revised order.

Question, how could Dell not know before today that my system was going to be delayed for another 5 weeks? Has anyone looked into any legal avenues that can be explored since it is obvious that Dell is blatantly lying about the shipping dates in an attempt to keep customers in the dark and on the hook for as long as they can? They did offer me a whopping $50, but this pales in comparison to the production time lost from my wife not having a computer.

I strongly suggest that anyone still waiting for their system to CANCEL their order and go to HP, Gateway, Apple, or anybody else that actually has computers to sell. Even if you have not gotten the dreaded “Order Delayed” e-mail, CANCEL NOW because it is almost certain that one is headed your way (probably on your expected shipping date).

I ordered my Inspiron 1720 on July 17th. I got Spetember 11th as the shipping date. Could not wait...however, on 11th morning I found out, delivery has been postponed to 25th October!!!!!

THIS IS SOOOOOO BAD... 

SHAME, SHAME ON YOU, DELL... 

So it shipped 10 days sooner then expected and was upgraded to overnight shipping for me.

I've now been using the laptop for the last week and I'm very happy with it. It is a far improvement over the 600m I was using prior.

Thank you Dell.

BTW - if you want better service, buy under a business. You get sales people in the US.

On August 13, I ordered a Dell Latitude D630 (black), 2.4 GHz.  ESD date was Sept. 7.  Based on the insight I received from this blog, I monitored the estimated shipping date last night (Sept. 7) until midnight.  As expected, at midnight, the ESD incremented one week to September 14.

In the intro to this blog, Lionel Menchaca, Digital Media Manager with Dell, notes that if you live in the United States, the “FTC enforces is the ‘Mail Order Rule’, which requires us [Dell] to obtain your permission to proceed with processing your order when it has been delayed more than once.”

So, in order to avoid an automatic cancellation of my order in the future, I will send the send an e-mail to US_Dell_Notify@dell.com or call 1-877-868-3355 with the requested info:

• Your first & last name
• Your order number
• A message that you are okay with the delay and revised estimated ship date provided in our last notice to you, and want to keep your order in place

Knowledge is power.  If we cannot control the progress of the manufacturing process, at least we can keep our order from being cancelled automatically (US only) because of a legal requirement of the FTC.

I have searched the market and, for the money, I cannot find a better valid than Dell.  Also, having recently done extensive research to repair/upgrade both a Dell PC and a competitor’s PC, I find Dell’s printed manual and online manuals superior to the competitor’s.

Best wishes to each of you (and to me) that our PCs ship soon with no compromise in quality!

So not only did I get my 1520 warranty replacement in record time but my d830 showed up quickly too.

So I've made a big stink about nothing... I'm still feeling for the rest of you. Maybe we should get off the color thing though?

ORDER DATE JULY 12

TODAY SEPT 5 --NO COMPUTER

 Guess what--I am the meanest stepmother ever--back in June I went to install a wireless adapter in my 18 year old son's desktop because I was sick of the USB cord running through the house to his room--anyway somehow I fried the motherboard so to make up for it I ordered a GREAT DELL LAPTOP!  That was July 12th--delay after, after delay--now they are estimating a ship date of   9/27!!!!!!  But this is the 7th delay! 

I believe that my stepson is beginning to think that I never really order the stupid thing and that I am really just taunting him!!! Actually it is DELL that is taunting us!  I can't believe that I have let this go one so long.  I think it is time that we all realize that DELL is just not what it used to be.  So after a relationship with Dell spanning several years and 7 computers--I think it is time we broke up for good!

Consumers--Keep in mind that it is against the law to for any company to charge you for an item before it ships!!!  If it has not shipped they are not allowed to charge you even 1 red cent!

Dell you had a good thing going--I think that you just got greedy!

I ordered at 1721 Inspiron on 7/15 for my daughter to take to college.  The ship date has been changed three times and is now 9/5.  When I called today to check on the likelihood of the computer being shipped, I got no useful information.  I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told the supervisor would return my call within 15 minutes.  That was an hour ago.

I certainly will not use Dell again and will steer anyone I know away from Dell computers. MOreover, I am worried about getting someone to cancel my order;  I can't spend my day on hold.

Apparently my laptop shipped Sept 1st. DHL tracking says the tracking number is not in their system yet.

If it has shipped, it will have shipped about 10 days sooner then expected. I will keep you all posted.

Purchased a Dell Vostro 1000 through Dell Canada on August 1st. Still waiting. I find it unbelievably frustrating that:

• The first order was canceled and replaced with a new order with no notice back to me.
  
• The date of the new order keeps changing to make it look like the time between the order and building is close.
  
• Calling into Dell was no use, except for the fact that they gave me a date much further off on the phone. Sure enough, a few days later the date on the web site was put off as well.

In the end, this is an unacceptable business practice to not provide any forewarning of the delays. Dell knew when I ordered the laptop that this kind of delay would happen, but I only found out once I started looking into it that the delays would be unaccetable.

Last time with Dell, and I am starting to look around for a replacement; another delay and I will cancel the order. What a pain.

It's all about honesty.

 Know exactly what you can do when you make a sale.  Say clearly what what can be delivered and when.  Deliver what you promised.

 If you don't do that, don't expect us to trust you.

I've ordered Dell for the LAST time.

I placed my order July 11th. Estimated delivery date the 27th of July...

My order was nowhere near completion a week after the aforementioned edd. And, as someone already mentioned, I was the one who had to contact Dell and ask about the status of what I thought  would soon be my new laptop. Dell did not bother to let me know that I was on back order. That's just bad business.

Weeks later I was told my order would be shipped late August and delivered in the first week of Sept. I thought I'd stick with it.

Now it looks like the cows will come home before my laptop does. Last I heard they're "still waiting for parts" . I've decided to cancel my order, but Dell's customer service kept me on hold for 30 minutes and I had to hang up. And, so far,  they're not responding to my e mail regarding the cancellation.

Thanks Dell...

I placed an order yesterday and having read the comments here I will CANCEL today. I was a DELL customer about 5 years ago and due to the worst customer service ever withdrew my custom. Stupidly I was sucked in by the advertising and a 'good' deal advert.

 In the UK there was a TV character called DEL Boy, a big talking but shoddy businessman, whose character represented losts of promise and no delivery. Seems like a useful advertising angle for over here. What do you think DELL Boy?

It also seems a bit cowardly that the Dell representative has not replied to to the comments in this Blog since his posting 17 August.

My experience with Dell has so far been very good.  My sales rep, Chandler, was very courteous, and made sure I understood when I ordered that the 1330 was in VERY hot demand and there were parts shortages.  I had an expected 1 1/2 month wait when I ordered, so I knew it would be a while.  Nevertheless, I received my 1330 today, almost two weeks early!

The down-side?  I'm away at work and won't get to check out my new toy till Wednesday :(

Well, I have a very happy update (I'm the one who posted above about Dell Cx Care Rep)--my Ruby Red Inspiron 1721 was shipped today--yay!

 That makes exactly 30 days since my initial order. While that's an inexcusably long time in itself, I still feel rather lucky, given the amount of time many of you have been waiting, which for some has been several months already with potential ESDs ranging out till at least October. I've been frustrated and pissed at the delays in my order, but under the circumstances, I now feel I got off incredibly easy.

Maybe this is a sign that Dell has finally started weeding through the backlog in earnest. I wish everyone else good luck, and hopefully all the orders will start rolling out soon.

--Jennifer
 

Its hilarious.. Do Dell think people post here because they've got nothing better to do?

 People are posting because DELL ARE RUBBISH.. plain and simple!  241+ posts and counting should give Dell AND their CSRs a clear indication that the company is messing up in every way possible..

 I've been using my Macbook for two weeks without issue now - best move I ever made.  I just hope Dell go out of business and their employees work for someone better!

finally got my white m1330.  the grossy paint job is worst than i expect and on top of that there are two little tiny dents on it.  well, i will live with it.

just found out that finger print reader is not working.  and now waiting for replacement of the palm rest.

i should order this unit a year later after their production.

so now i am one of the experiment mouse.

Waiting since August?  How about waiting since July 9th!  First the LCD screens were backlogged, then the color red was unavailable - of course no one told me that if I wanted black instead, my order could be filled in three days!  I found that out by calling to cancel my order after the third delay notice on August 6th.  The CSR offered the Black so I wouldn't cancel my order, and no, it wasn't shipped in 3 days, but in 10 business days.  At least my daughter got her laptop before classes started.

 Now I'm having a problem with software that was part of the original order.  Dell shipped it to my home instead of to my daughter's school, even though there was a change of address request, and the laptop was delivered to school.  Dell has now sent out a 3rd software package because, regardless of the number of times I called with the correct address, they have continually made errors that made the package undeliverable.  Still waiting for the software, even though it was supposed to ship overnight. I just wish I was able to speak with someone in the United States who might understand shipping rules and how we address things so they can be delivered.

The amount of time I have spent on the phone and on line with Dell representatives totals 23 hours and 47 minutes and I have received 43 emails - between chat logs, delay notices, and case number letters.  All for a simple order.  I was offered a $10 coupon for future use.  Compensated?  Not even close!

I've been reading these blogs for weeks now and haven't bothered commenting because my experience is mostly just an echo of hundreds of others (for the record--ordered Ruby Red Inspiron 1721 on 7/30 with an original ESD of 8/9, delayed to 8/24, delayed again to 8/31). I want to post now, though, because I can understand where Dell Cx Care Rep is coming from and I don't think most of the replies to him/her have been fair.

I used to work for another major electronics manufacturer doing something similar to what Dell Cx Care Rep does. I didn't deal directly with consumers, though, but rather with the technicians at our authorized service centers who ordered parts from us to do their repairs. They would call us to find out ETAs on their parts orders, and sometimes to vent and complain about how long it was taking. Our parts came from dozens of different suppliers from all over the world, and many times there were shortages and our suppliers were giving us fluctuating (or extremely unpleasant) ETAs on the parts we'd ordered from them--which translated into extremely pissed of techs call me every day to complain about why they'd been waiting six weeks for a part.

Believe me, it's not fun to have to field calls all day long from people who seem to be personally pissed off at *you* and somehow think you can wave a magic wand and conjure their order out of thin air (granted, not all of them were like this--some were extremely pleasant and had the patience of Job). I could only tell them what I'd been told, and sometimes I hadn't been told much at all and could really only say, "We're out of stock on that, and the ETA is pending." And sometimes I knew more than what I was *allowed* to say: for instance, we had one supplier that had constant problems getting parts to us on time. (They were technically part of our company based in another country, so it's not like we could dump them in favor of a different supplier.) They consistently had backorders as far out as eight months, and in some cases we had been told that the part would most likely be discontinued eventually because it might *never* be produced, but we weren't allowed to tell that to the techs calling about their orders. We had been told to never give an ETA further out than four weeks unless specifically told otherwise by a manager, even if we knew for a fact that the real ETA was six to eight *months*. When the techs called back in four weeks to find out why their orders still hadn't shipped, we had to tell them there'd been a further delay and it would be another four weeks before we had the part to ship out. I didn't like having to be this deceptive and tried to be honest with the techs that called, since I knew I'd appreciate similar honesty if it were me on the other end, but I was reprimanded by my manager and told never to do that again.

And speaking of managers, we were also told never to hand a call over to a manager or supervisor; if a tech asked to speak to a manager, we'd hand the phone to one of the other CSRs, who pretended to be a manager instead. In my opinion, that's a pretty crappy idea, but that's what we were *told* to do, and none of us fancied the idea of losing our jobs by sending a call to someone we were explicitely told not to.

As an obvious caveat, I worked for a completely different company than Dell and I have no way of knowing if they conduct things similarly, so no one should start assuming from this that Dell CSRs know more than what they're saying and that Dell is deliberately telling them to withhold information or anything else like that. I'm just trying to show another perspective, from someone who's been in a similar position as Dell Cx Care Rep. And I only had to field about half the calls per day that he/she does, so I almost had it easy by comparison. Dell Cx Care Rep posted here out of frustration, and while I'm a frustrated (and increasingly pissed off) customer right now, I've *also* been a frustrated and stressed CSR having to deal with pissed off customers and not being able to do for them what they  most want done. It's crappy work you don't get paid *nearly* enough to do, and you go home every night stressed, hating life, and wishing to God you didn't have to go in tomorrow and do it all over again. My husband was glad when I left that job because I was a lot more pleasant to deal with at home afterward, without that stress and constant anxiety. I don't blame Dell Cx Care Rep at all for the posts he/she made, and were I in their place, I would likely have done the same thing.

 In any event, I'm still waiting for my Inspiron, going on a month now at this point, and from the dates I've been seeing in these blogs, I've probably got  along wait ahead. I ordered this laptop for school, and I only have two semesters left (this one and the Spring semester). I'll be lucky to get the thing in time to use it for my last semester, at this rate.

--Jennifer

Wow.... what a sap I feel like..... thank goodness I found this blog.  I ordered my daughter's laptop through her school bookstore - so I don't even have an order number to reference in order to get a fictitious rescheduled ship date!  No, I just check in every few days and hear, "well, we hope they might ship this week (as opposed to last week, and the week before), we aren't getting any firm commits from them....".  In the mean time, classes have started and my daughter is left scrambling to find open terminals around campus.

At least I can call the bookstore tomorrow and cancel my order and get a competitor's product instead!  Of course that will quickly be followed by a call to my daughter so she can alert any other chumps sitting around waiting for Godot.....

I'm one of the nicest customers you can have. While talking with my sales rep via email, I allow lots of time for replies and make no demands. However I have not received one bit of compensation for my waiting more then a week for the order to ship.

Personal, I think there is something very wrong with how dell is doing business. I'm not talking legally, I'm talking morally. Parts that I ordered with my laptop at the time were not considered out of stock, and then things like my CPU model are 17 days out. Well I bet the higher end version is not, but I have not been offered that, even at a small charge; which I would pay.

For me this business machine I've ordered, is just that, for business. Now I've purchased many times from dell and never waited more then 5 days for it to ship.

There is something terribly wrong with the corporate culture if it is considered acceptable to mislead customers.

I'll leave it at that.

July 16th I placed an order for a laptop that was intended for school... which began yesterday. Originally it was scheduled to ship August 1st; that day came and went with a phone call stating it'd been delayed until the 28th. What do I receive again this morning? An e-mail telling me to confirm continuation or the order will be canceled, however, it is supposedly pushed back only another 8 days. Somehow, I doubt that will truly be the case and rush shipping is hardly compensation for this any longer.

Dell has lost my business, on this laptop and any future sales. The only positive part of this experience has been the great CSR (Christopher Rivera) that initially helped place the order as it was a messy ordeal that took almost an hour and a half. Unfortunately, he's just the front line, and can't exactly get my computer built. I'll certainly be telling people about how fantastic he was.. and to never order from Dell.

My order for an Inspiron 1521 has now been delayed 4 times. It gets delayed by just a few days each time. This is done to keep me thinking, "well if it is just a couple days, I won't cancel." In the mean time I have ordered four, yes 4 laptops for work (where we spend millions each year with Dell) and each has shipped on time. The excuse changes, but I am getting the "your custom color has delayed the shipment," currently. As a plastics engineer, I find this to be complete BS. Dell commands a great deal of vendor hoop jumping and this excuse does not hold water. Even if, the resin is a problem, there are multiple suppliers. Even if the molder is a problem, there are hundreds of capable shops. This is poor program management and customer service. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. Dell needs to pay restitution and be reprimanded.

Kevin

Ok, so some of the views encapsulated in Dell Cx Care Rep's comments reflect his or her personal views....which then reflect Dell's views? This person is flaming the customer base for being upset about this entire situation and certainly there has been nothing positive about any of their posts.

So tell me, if only some of their views are personal then which of their views are shared by Dells hive-mind? The one about reading the terms and conditions? Opps, ok, ya got me, should have realized that a 2 month delay and a charge on my card was a distinct possibility when I ordered this product, past history with Dell notwithstanding! Perhaps the part about attracting more bees with honey...the thinly veiled threat that if we aren't nice when we call for information about our shifting dates and canceled orders then we will not get compensation? This person has posted in two different threads...and none of it pretty.

Of course they have a right to speak up, as we all do, but to think that claiming some of their views are personal is going to blunt the impact of having a Dell CSR flame an already upset customer base on an official Dell blog shows that you might misunderstand the frustration level of customer. Simply put, we do not need to be publicly lectured by a Dell CSR about our behavior. What we need is very clear; the product that we ordered and paid for. Anything else is simply not important.

Are your CSR's upset by all of this? It would be ridiculous to think otherwise. I can only imagine how tough it is to answer the calls of an outraged group of folks on a daily basis. Yet, what is the root of the problem? Is it we the customers for being angry at the pushed dates, the charges, the waste of time, the out-of-date status pages, the cancellations, and the different answers to the same questions? Is it the CSR who has to answer the calls and get them processed, listen to the anger, deal with the frustration and personal attacks, make promises that will not be kept, and then do it over again, and again? Or is it simply a broken system?

It really doesn't matter I guess. When a Dell CSR feels justified in posting those comments onto this blog, venting and accusing and flaming the very people who have been wronged by Dell and yes, please, let's call it what it is, then it is pretty much a moot point. The difference between the CSR and me? Not much other than I paid money for a product and end up getting abused for it while the CSR is getting paid and taking abuse for it.

Based on yet another pushed and quite probably false estimated shipping date (I should make an entry in Wikipedia for Estimated Shipping Date, anyone want to take a shot at a definition?) without answers I see no light at the end of the tunnel. Just more anger, more frustration, more stressed out CSR's, more canceled orders.

More of the same. 

WHERE IS MY LAPTOP?

Here are some posts from another blog on Direct 2 Dell where a so called CSR made some comments see what you think.....there are also some responses from other bloggers.  The blog is in case you want to see it for yourself: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/08/24/25755.aspx

Dell Cx Care Rep said:

RE: I still speak with the same characters every time I call to request information on my order and I receive the same lies and misdirection to the same questions, the same language barriers, the same frustrations waiting for someone to pick up and answer a simple question!

I AM one of those "characters" that you speak of and trust me, it is just as annoying for you to sit and wait for us to answer the phones than it is for us to have 130 calls waiting to be answered from yelling customers that blame this back order on us as a person. This back order is not only stressful for you as a customer but it is as well for us frontline customer care reps that are getting the blunt of everyones frustration. WE are only relaying to you the information that head office is advising us. So try to remember next time you call in and take it out on the front line rep you speak with, that WE ARE the ones that CAN do something for you as far as compensation goes, therefore, you can get more flies with honey than vinagar.

As for the launguage barrier, you are obviously speaking with the wrong dept because I can assure you that I AM CANADIAN and ALL customer care reps are as well.

Take care, and THANKS FOR CHOOSING DELL!

August 28, 2007 8:58 AM

Dell Customer Care Rep said:

The reason Gateway, Apple,Sony and HP are having no problems is because they don't have half the orders we do.. I know because i am one of Dell CSR.. Try coming into 130 plus calls a day with upset customers we deal with a lot in a day and it is not our fault that the systems are on backorder.... We can only give you the infomation that we are provided to us..

August 28, 2007 9:09 AM

Dell Cx Care Rep said:

RE:However they have no problem sending out the poor CSR's who have no authority to do or say anything

 I have lots of athority to say whats going on and I am well advised of the issue, as far as "the porr CSR's" that don't "do" anything for you, I know from ALOT of experiance with this back order that the more someone yells at ME for this issue the LESS I will do for you.....it IS NOT "our" fault as a person, we only work here so remember next time you take it out on us, the less we want to be nice and help you......just like my last comment, you can attract more bee's with honey than vinagar!!

August 28, 2007 9:10 AM

Dell Cx Care Rep said:

and BTW the reason that the "majical date" keeps changing is because the manufature keeps changing it on us.....if you read the terms and conditions it will tell you that back orders are subject to change and estimates are NOT gaurentee

August 28, 2007 9:26 AM

Dell Cx Care Rep said:

RE:CSRs are useless and don't have a clue as to what to say to anyone anymore about the delays.

 Obviously you must think that we answer the phone, take the orders AND make the systems. WE ARE ONLY THE FRONT LINE THAT RELAY WHAT HEAD OFFICE TELLS US TO TELL YOU!  We are just as sick of these delays that are beyond our control as you are waiting for your system! If you don't like what we have to say, then stop calling us and make use of DELL.CA

August 28, 2007 9:31 AM

Customer Care Rep said:

You know there is a lot of people have a lot to say about us Customer Care people but we are only relaying the infomation to you customers.. You customers have no idea what we go through in a day..  

August 28, 2007 9:33 AM

To the Dell Customer Care Rep said:

Hello Dell Customer Care Rep,

 I agree, I do not blame you for anything that is happening.  You as a person have nothing to do with it.  I am the one who posted the "poor CSR" comment.  Now based on what you said: "We can only give you the information that we are provided to us.." that was my point.  You all can only tell us what is being told to you so thus I want to speak to the person that is telling you what to say because what "you" are saying is not helping me at all. 

Also I have spoken to several CSR's probably you for all I know and I have never been rude, yelled, or said anything derogatory to any of them.  So this comment: "I know from ALOT of experience with this back order that the more someone yells at ME for this issue the LESS I will do for you.....it IS NOT "our" fault as a person," does not apply to me so don't group me in that category.  Now the only compensation I have been given as such is free next day shipping which I am not even sure will happen because someone else said they were promised that but still got the same 3-5 day shipping.  So your comment about: "So try to remember next time you call in and take it out on the front line rep you speak with, that WE ARE the ones that CAN do something for you as far as compensation goes, therefore, you can get more flies with honey than vinegar. "  Maybe I need to call you directly so I can get the $100 credits, free bags, and all the others compensation I have heard because I surely have not gotten anything like that and I ordered my computer on July 10th. 

So don't take it personally but your company sucks and it sucks they are making you and your co-workers into human shields.  I sympathize with you having to go into work a take 130 calls a day, but if "you" were waiting that long for a computer I do not think you would be very happy either, and before you say that is no excuse to yell at CSR's I have not and do not plan to.

Signed

Considerate Dell Customer who would like more flies because I have honey......

August 28, 2007 9:57 AM

Ridiculous said:

@ Dell Cx Care Rep...

You are actually threatening your customers, the same people who are ultimately responsible for paying your salary...wow, now I am getting a sense of some of the internal problems at Dell.

 "So try to remember next time you call in and take it out on the front line rep you speak with, that WE ARE the ones that CAN do something for you as far as compensation goes, therefore, you can get more flies with honey than vinagar."

So are we to believe that if you simply don't like a disgruntled customer you will not offer compensation? Folks waiting 2 months for their product are supposed to offer you some sort of "honey" before you will help? This answers the question posed by many, many customers as to why some are getting compensated and many are not.

You get paid to resolve issues and you have the nerve to complain and threaten those folks who are getting ripped of by this whole thing? Are you looking to redirect this back on them? If your company actually did what they are supposed to do, what they are paid to do then this would not be an issue would it? Dell screws this up and you get mad at folks who are getting hosed by this situation rather than getting upset at the real culprit.

Interesting that you claim the reason other manufacturers are not having problems is because of volume...nice try. 

I am pretty certain that your comments will end up on numerous websites along with the all new pushed shipping dates. But thanks for clearing this up for me...you have painted a very clear picture of at least one problem.

Customer service? Yeah, right.

August 28, 2007 10:41 AM

I purchased two 1720 laptops on 7-26-07 for my nieces who are freshmen in college.  I've just received my second notification of delay of shipment for both laptops.

 Dell's customer service is nothing more than a joke.  When I call Dell to order a new computer, I never seem to have any trouble reaching an english speaking individual with whom I can carry a conversatition with.  However when I have a problem with an existing order, I'm always connected with someone who can't speak english, who is always reading from a script and can't deviate from it to answer my question OR I'm sent to a voice mail that says "please leave a message" and then another message that says "you can't leave a message at this time".  What type of customer service is that?

My nieces need these laptops for college.  Hopefully I get them before these first year college students graduate with their PhD's!!

UPDATE:

I was one of many that had an order delayed to 8/28 (today). 

This morning I noticed my 1721 was delayed again with a new ESD of 9/5. So I just sent the required email to Dell to cancel my order. This is the first order I've ever cancelled with Dell. The reason for cancellation is that I had first read several other posts where fellow customers also had their ESD's moved from 8/28 to 9/5, and I just don't believe that 9/5 will be any more magical than 8/28.

Good luck and take care.

So, Dell, why has my UK laptop been delayed for 55 days now, when US orders have been seeing shorter and shorter delay times? I wasn't even contacted after my first delay - I had to find out for myself that my laptop was delayed from 31st July to SIXTH OF SEPTEMBER.

 I'd like to reiterate the comments of someone else on this comments section: "You are going to lose a whole generation of customers". Not only are you shafting a whole load of students who need(ed) these for Uni, but also I'm one of those people that my friends come to from time to time to ask me about my opinion on electronics, and this ordeal has guaranteed that I shall never buy from or recommend Dell ever again.

Another Alternative to Dell

Like many here, I've been a loyal Dell customers for many, many years, but this last round of problems has changed that.  Without going through all the details, I tried to purchase an XPS 720 desktop and had the first order mysteriously cancelled without any notification.  I re-ordered and then went through a series of delays without any resolution.  So, I cancelled the second order and here is my good news.

 I decided to order from Puget Custom Computers (www.pugetsystems.com) after reading company reviews and their blogs (none of the dissatisfacation you find on the Dell blogs).  I started by configuring a possible system using their online configurator (many more options than Dell and all standard parts--not OEM).  Within a couple of hours I received an e-mail from a rep (William) with his comments/recommendations on my configuration based on my stated primary purpose for the system.  He even recommended a LESSER graphics card (I'm not a gamer).  After several back and forth e-mails and refining my configuration, I decided the next morning to make the switch.  I cancelled my Dell order and placed my order with PCC.  A couple of hours later I received an e-mail from William stating that he noticed that I had, in fact, ordered my system and that he would personally keep track of it and advise me of any developments.  He then went and checked on all the components and wrote me back and told me that everything was in stock except the video card I ordered but they had 40 more due in the next day.  He also gave me the option of changing cards if I wanted to (without having to cancel and reorder). 

The very next day (after I placed my order) the unit went into production. You can follow the progress on their website.  And, this is NOT like Dell--there are over 50 steps in the build/testing process that are listed separately and as each one is completed it is annotated with time/date and individual who did it.  It was fascinating watching these processes being completed throughout the day (as I checked back in to the site).  By the end of the day (again, this is the day after I placed the order), the sytem was completely built AND tested.  They even include the PC Mark and 3D Mark results on your order status page along with the complete temperature readouts during the testing. 

On the next day, the system was completely boxed and shipped and I have a tracking number.  One other thing.  Just before boxing they took picture, inside and out of my new system and William e-mailed me the pictures!  This has been the absolutely most enjoyable computer purchase experience I have been through.  Yes, my system is costing me a couple hundred dollars more than a comparable Dell XPS system would, but you CANNOT beat the customer service.  They are still a small company that truly believes in customer care and you can either get a person (right there in their building--not out sourced) on the line immediately or they WILL return calls within a couple of hours (during business hours).  The president/CEO even participates on their blogs and very everything I have read (mainly on the blogs) is that if there happens to be a problem/delay (which is rare), the customer is normally contacted personally by the president of the company.

I just wanted to post this to give those who might be looking for an alternative another option.

I ordered a Dell Latitude D630 some time ago and the original date of delivery was August 29. I thought it is strange taht it should take such a long time but I thought that as long as I get it before September, I can live with it. Now it was rescheduled to the end of September.

 Well... Sorry. I cancelled it and bought a Lenovo.

I also told about it to friends of mine who had planned to buy Dell's laptop.

They will buy something else.

 I don't think I will buy from Dell again. When I placed my ordered they knew they are having problems. They should have said something.They should have also suggest some compensation. Bad judgment call of their part.

As my ship date of 9/12 gets closer, I am waiting anxiously.  A call last week to CS indicated it was still on skd BUT the dvd drive and the T7100 processor was on backorder - interesting. 

I'm as disappointed as evderyone else at how poorly Dell has handled this crisis - obviously they have a poor PR team amongst others.  Great companies attack things head on - Dell for what ever reason - chose not to commmunicate.  A very bad decsion and surprised Mike Dell went along with this.

Reality is that many or most of those professing they actually cancelled orders will be back to Dell for future orders assuming Dell has cleaned up their act and have the best price/performance/function/looks products - myself included.  In the end - Dell has great products/ good price points.

Never fear y'all... your 8/28 dates are sure to get postponed.

"Due to unforeseen circumstance, we have experienced another delay with your order number 787234650. Our new anticipated ship date will be on or before 9/4/2007. Due to this additional delay, the Federal Trade Commission requires we receive your consent to continue with this order else we will be forced to cancel the order automatically. "

Thanks dell, just ruined my wife's birthday gift.

Ordered Inspiron 1521 on 29th June 2007

Estimated Delivery Date 17th July

Then Estimated Delivery Date 1st August ... no apology for change

Order status checked on 7th Aug stated that "Your order has been dispatched on 26th July"

Better still under the heading Status of Delivery: "Your order has been delivered".   Wasn't that wonderful? EXCEPT FOR THE MINOR FACT THAT I HAD NOT GOT MY LAPTOP

After various time wasting phone calls to Dell I was assured that would be delivered one day, then another day.  Then my 2nd piece of wonderful fantasy.  The Courier Company rang me to say that they had my laptop and would deliver tomorrow. Surely that's it .... nothing can go wrong now.

Tomorrow came and went .... no sound from the Courier gang.  Rang a few days later. The phone must have hurt his head because he reacted as though this was the first he had heard of it. Said he'd check it out.  Got onto Dell .... they would check it out.

Guess what? the Courier and then Dell tell me that the laptop is lost.  Dell tell me that "a replacement is in production" 

Meanwhile Dell have taken my money which is presumably earning interest in Dell's bank account.

The reason I had ordered the laptop in June was for my daughter who had a serious back operation in June, so that she could use it whilst recovering in bed. So instead of helping her I have only frustrated her.

I am going to cancel the order tomorrow.  I will never deal with Dell again. In my work I am in a position where I often advise people re buying computers.

I am beyond angry

Vinny Mc

On 8/28 (delayed from 8/3) I too am supposed to receive my 1520 spring green .... with an anti-glare screen. Like most other posts I've read, I'm skeptical about receiving it on that date. I know my anti-glare screen was going to cause a bit of a delay but Dell seemed to be the only place I could find one. If I had known that the color choice was also a factor in the delay I would definitely have tried to change the color. It's not that important to me. I'd rather have the machine - black would be fine. I wish Dell would have told me this and offered the color change.

I have received my Lo Jack software. (Can use it to locate my laptop now????  It might be able to tell me which stage of "in production" my machine really is.)

My family has had great luck with durability of their machines. My son's even successfully survived the sand and dust of a tour in Iraq. That's part of the reason I ordered again. And, with all of the discounts (Dell's and employee discount), I can't find a machine configured like mine at that price. Maybe that's been Dell's downfall. If I receive another delay on 8/28 I'll definitely reconsider my choice.

I'm glad I found the blog. I didn't know I could "talk" Dell into some sort of compensation -- free shipping, ..... It's worth a try.

Well gang, I ordered an Inspiron 1520, midnight blue and it was delayed a couple times as well. I was given the magic shipping date of 8/28 as well but today recieved a message that the laptop was shipped yesterday, 8/24 Next business day. I have a DHL tracking number as well. This has been a rough time for Dell loyal customers and it will take time from them to repair the damage. Hopefully the product will remain top quality and Mr. Dell can return its customer service to its award winning service from a few years ago. Here's to all of your 8/28ers out there and hoping your PCs ship earlier as well.

Stay strong and remember:

"Blessed are those who are flexible for they shall never get bent out of shape" 

and

"Smile for awhile and while you smile remember another smile is always worthwhile"

Of course I should remember these words as well because two days ago I was as ticked off as the rest of this blog.

Mike D.

Grammer Corrected: Sorry for the poor writing

To Dell:

Why do you not give a posting that has real information? Half of the anger I see here is the total lack of communication. Many of us have been waiting an average 50 days with no honest idea why. Are you so afraid that if you tell the real story that everyone will cancel their order?

Many of these computers are for kids and young adults, who need them from school. You are going to lose a whole generation of customers. When my kids were younger a major shipping company delivered their stuff to another house and would not tell us anything for days; to this day they gripe every time they have to use them. Are you the next Edsel?

To Dell:

Why do you not give a posting that has real information? Half of the anger I see here is the total lack of communication. Many of us have been waiting an average 50 days with no honest idea way. Are you so afraid that if you tell the real story that everyone will cancel their order.

Many of these computer are for kid and young adults who need them from school and your are going to lose a whole generation of customers. When my kids were younger a major shipping company delivered their stuff to another house and would not tell us anything. to this day they gripe everytime they have to use them. Are you the next Edsel?

I know for a fact, part of the reason the inspiron notebooks are being delayed is because of the colored casings. Dell did not expect sales with those items to be as high as they are, and have had to put all of the colored systems on backorder. Although last I checked, there was no wait/short wait on the white ones. Most of the colors are backordered anywhere from 15-30 business days. My fiancee ordered our inspiron 1720's July 27th, we had gotten esd's of Aug 13 and Aug 23. Now they're saying September 14th.

You also have to understand that most of you are ordering systems in the midst of back to school days. Everyone and their children are buying new PCs. Did you really expect a company that holds a fair share of the market to really be prepared fully for the sales of their new products?

Soooo.... I ordered my M1330 back on July 11.  The good news is... they managed to ship the mouse in just ONE week!  Now I am able to wirelessly navigate... nothing, because I am still waiting on my laptop like so many other customers.  Being a part time consultant (full time student), I have now forgone several hundred dollars in billable hours that I could have logged working from home had this laptop arrived in the time I was first quoted.  Dell now has four days to build and ship my laptop (Aug 28th is my new estimated ship date) or they will lose my business indefinitely.

Also - How is it that absolutely no individuals on the support team are able to tell me: a) where my laptop is in the build phase and b) if its not in the build phase, where it is in the build que?  Is it that Dell really doesnt track orderes once they enter the build phase or are they just shipping random sh!t to people.  I guess that might explain why someone who posted above received all the upgrades to the laptop they never ordered...

Unbelievable... and sad.

Hey, Big D....at the rate this seems to be going, you may have to wait until 2010 all right!  :)

I guess I'll be using the C-series that I had to borrow from my boss for a while, SINCE MY LAPTOP IS ON "BACK ORDER". 

Hey Mike ... Gig'em ...

I ordered an Inspiron 1721 on July 24 2007.  It was supposed to ship on August 10th 2007 but was delayed until August 24th.  On August 24th its was further delayed until August 31st.

Now it will never come since I've canceled the order and I will specifically NOT  buy a Dell.  Goodbye Dell.

Thanks again for nothing, Dell. I've ordered Dell computers in the past, but they've never had a problem until my most recent order. This would have been my 4th Dell computer. Do yourself a favor, and CANCEL YOUR ORDER NOW. I canceled it and on my lunch break went out and picked up an HP Pavilion a6125n. This computer includes a monitor, and the specs are TWICE as good as my Dell PC would have been. The best part about it is that the HP WAS CHEAPER THAN MY DELL.

www.HP.com

www.Apple.com

www.Lenovo.com

www.Sony.com

You will NEVER have my money again, Dell!

Very sad DELL... very sad.

I've been pleased with all the other products I've bought from you, with no delays at all in the past.  But now you've delayed my 1420 for the 2nd time, after I placed the order almost a month ago.

I hate to do it, but i'm cancelling the order.  I don't have all the time in the world to wait for you to get your supply problems ironed out.  You've put me (and obviously a lot of others) in a difficult position, and all the apolo-blogging you do won't save a company's tarnished reputation.  How the mighty have fallen.

Very sad.

Guys..

Dell don´t care what you write here.

The only language they understand is money.

So just cancel and buy something else.

It is not like the M1330 is something so superhot, that no other company can´t deliver. 

Although I'm not glad this is happening to others, I'm glad it's not just me! I ordered my Inspiron 1521 on 7/22 and was not made aware of any delays, etc. at the time of my order. When I found out my expected ship date was 8/13 I called customer "care" to inquire to that accuracy of that date and was told that it is ONLY AN ESTIMATE and he saw NO REASON why my laptop would be delayed and it would more than likely ship before the 13th. As the 13th got closer and I still had no shipment notification, I logged on to check the status and saw that the date was changed to 8/28! Please keep in mind while this is going on, my coworker ordered an XPS laptop AFTER I ordered my laptop and he received it in less than 2 weeks! Anyway, I called anyone and everyone to try to pin down a reason for the delay or some better information and I have been given the run around ever since. At one point I was told it was because it's the 15.4" screen so I asked to change that and was told that I could change to the 17" but then that wouldn't ship until the 28th either... So it's not the screen size?? This same agent also told me I could go to Walmart to buy a laptop off the shelf if I wanted one right away... sorry, but Walmart does not customize or upgrade!!! So, today I called to check on the status and was told by a customer "care" agent that if I change the color of my laptop it will ship sooner because the green I ordered is probably NOT going to ship on the 28th. So I call the change department and they tell me that customer care probably only said that to get me off the phone and if I change to the white laptop (which has no delay posted on the website) the order wouldn't ship until at least 9/6!!! But I could call customer "care" back and ask for them to put an "expedite" notation on my order. So I call customer "care" again and ask if they can do this because I am now beyond frustrated with waiting over a month and a different person tells me she sees no reason why my laptop won't ship on the 28th and with the next day shipping (which I see is what they use to try to pacify anyone who complains) I should have it on the 29th. So now not only am I getting the run around, I'm getting lied to! To anyone who's reading this and considering buying a Dell, look elsewhere. The pretty colors are not worth the wait and aggrivation!!!! What really sucks is I've waited this long and ordering from anywhere else is only going to add to my wait... If I had ordered elsewhere before, I'd be writing this on my new laptop!!!! AND, to top it all off, go to www.msn.com and look at the ad posted in the top right corner for Dell... it actually has the audacity to say "JUST IN TIME FOR BACK TO SCHOOL!!" I don't know when they start school over there, but around here it's the 28th!!!!!

There is no reason... that I should order a laptop.... for college... IN JULY... and... in SEPTEMBER... I cannot have it in time to start my classes.  I needed that laptop... FOR COLLEGE... by September... and I won't have it.  Thank-you Dell.  You will not recieve any payments from me... until I recieve my laptop from you.

Ordered on 13.07.2007 now i have to wait til 20.10.2007

canceled .. no future business with dell

rest in peace .. DELL ... happe welcome HP

I'll try again to post this....as reported on NPR last week.

 Morning Edition, August 17, 2007 · Computer maker Dell will have to restate more than four years of financial results. An investigation found that accounting tricks were used to meet performance targets. The restatement will cut reported profit by as much as $150 million.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12866099

My Inspiron 1720 was ordered on 7/31/07.  256MB nVidia graphics card, Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 2 GB RAM, black lid.  Original ESD was 8/13/07.  I didn't get an email notification when they moved my ESD back to 8/20/07, but it shipped on 8/16/07.  It's a good system so far, no complaints.

But now, I'm past the ESD for a thumb drive (a 4 GB cruiser micro).  This time, I did get an email notification.  My concern is for the other laptop we ordered.  An Inspiron 1520 that is the same as the 1720 except for a red lid and a different video card (orignal ESD 8/27/07).  When I called (the first time) to find out about the delay to the 1720, I asked if there was anything that would delay the shipment of my second laptop.  The nice lady who could barely speak English (I think she said her name was Courtney?) told me there should be no problem with that order.

Here's my question, if the problem is with parts for the LCD screens or painting for the covers, why is an order for a product Dell doesn't even produce being delayed?  That seems odd to me.  I guess I'll call about that tomorrow.

After the (only) 4 day delay with the 1720, I will remain cautiously optimistic that the 1520 will ship on time, but given the horror stories told here, I won't hold my breath.

For those of you that are posting information, thank you, I did find most of what was here useful.  Alex, how's the working through the backlog going, and am I going to get my computer on time?

Yes, it's Rob again.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine. Do you think this falls under questionable business practices?

Like selling tickets to a show you're going to cancel, or tickets on an airline that is about to go belly up?

Something isn't right. EVERY sales person should be educating customers prior to purchasing about the on-going issues. Failure to do so boarders on unethical.

There I said it.... All I want is to remain a Dell customer... I like there stuff.

I'm really torn here, my product is still waiting, though well within the regular wait time.. If this Dell doesn't ship, there really isn't another computer out there I want.

I'm disappointed to have found all this out after my purchase, and would have really liked to have known prior that there were problems.

We didn't order a laptop or a desktop.  We ordered a Dell computer projector in MAY. No LCD supply problems with that, right? Wrong.  It is the end of August, three months later, and we still do not have the item ordered.

We have faithfully answered the many emails delaying shipment in order that our order not be canceled.  Last week, we wrote to Dell's small business customer service simply asking "What is the real reason for this delay?"

 We received the following reply:

Thank you for contacting Dell.  Please allow me to apologize for the delay you have experienced in the shipment of your projector. I will do everything I can to expedite shipment and provide you with updated delivery information.

Dell records reflect that order number XXXXXX was placed on 05-23-07. 
The estimated ship date of this order is on or before 8/24/2007.

For your satisfaction, I had upgrade the shipping method 
from ground to Priority Build Next Day. Please note that I did 
not charge your account, and it is free for you.

We note that no reason was given for delay! A reason would
have mattered to us.  None was given. 

I have ordered from Dell faithfully over last several years for two different small nonprofits. Sad to see this sort of thing happen to what seemed to be a good company at one point.

As it is with so many others...I just received notice that my order has been delayed and will ship on August 29th...yeah, right.

48 days waiting for something that does not even exist...my bad.

Does anyone really think that we will see these laptops ship on the 28th and 29th? I am fast becoming skeptical of anything these clowns have to say, the  whole thing is beginning to smell like some sort of mail order scam!

Hard to believe that Dell would pull something like this, this is not the behavior that I have been accustomed to in the past. The total lack of customer service is one thing but to have Dell management actually trying to toss out this mis-direction and call it information is incredible. Dell acknowledges that we have been waiting for weeks and then feeds us a bunch of ridiculous non-info about why we are waiting. I am sure they are sorry and feel our pain...not.

What ever happened to Alex Gruzen, the illustrious Sr. VP? You remember his post some weeks ago? He spoke of painting problems and parts shortages...oh yeah, and the whole blah, blah thing about ramping up production. He knew then what we all know now...that it was all a bunch of lies. There have been no parts shortages or painting problems...this is all about a company who simply screwed up a bunch of product launches and can't find guts to tell us the truth about what the trouble is. They simply throw out this silly stuff about mail order rules and the joys of the My Order Status page...that is a joke! That page only changes when they delay shipping or cancel an order. It is not there to give us any real information. I personally don't care so much about all this how and why stuff...I care about what they are doing to fix it! At this point I don't think we would like the answer to that question...why? Because if it were good news they would tell us.

A true indicator of this company's total disregard for their customers is that they have us wait weeks until the day our product is supposed to ship and then tell us that it is delayed. They had to know that it would be delayed long before the shipping date yet they waited...this company has become a joke. Oh yeah...the whole advertising thing is funny...they continue to advertise products that they simply do not have.

What a company! 

Getting ready to pull the cancel trigger on my 1720....

If it is not here on Tuesday, Tuesday evening I will walk into Best Buy and walk out with my similarly speced HP.

I just got off the phone with customer support/sales.  I was told that my 1420 (green lid with upgraded display) no longer has a manufacturing hold, and that no parts are backordered.  There is an engineering hold, which I am told means that it has not been fully assembled yet.  I was told that the computer is expected to be released from engineering in 2 -3 days and will ship on or before the 28th.

I will beelive it when I see it, but that is the information I got today. 

is OCT 10 the new Sept 28? Asking because my order is cancelled and cant check but looking back this whole dell experience i can do nothing more than slap myself and lol at it

A once great company goes down the drain.... 

nuff said...

I came across more articles of Dell f the 1330 and inspiron line. More websites are now beginning to take into consideration as what is going on. Below i've provided the links to the websites reporting  these incidents: Hopefully this will help anyone reading and posting on the dell blogs along with the Dell Forums

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/article2886475.ece

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=6010

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=720

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39288699,00.htm

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=mobile_and_wireless&articleId=9031898&taxonomyId=15

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2174063,00.asp  

Norway report:

I wanted so bad a Dell and we ordered 2 of 1720 - 30. july, ESD 13. september. No changing on the order site, no production started and nobody knows, but the money have been taken from my account. How can they? They have no product for me, the money is mine.

I am worried about Dells financial state, I think I will cancel the order and forget that there ever have been somthing called Dell. Just hope I get my money back.

The customer service? Just bad...

GET READY FOLKS!!!!!!!

TAKE YOUR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICATION ~ IT ONLY GETS WORSE

I’ve now been waiting 44 days for a laptop that was originally estimated to ship in 7 business days.  I’ve spoke with 4 different Customer Service associates at Dell to ensure that my order did not get cancelled.  I’ve jumped through every hoop Dell has thrown out there and this morning my estimated due date was changed from 8/28 to 7/30 and my order was CANCELLED………

It’s become apparent that these laptops that we are all waiting for are not delayed, but just cannot be produced by the company.  This has been a humbling experience and I could go on in on about my story, but we all have the same one.  Soon, your story will probably have the same sad ending as mine.

I looked into Dell before but when the time came to order my new notebook i decided to go with HP while my sister (who left a comment on this page under the name Jess) ordered hers through Dell. she ordered hers on july 17 and i ordered mine with Hp on august 12th. while her Dell notebook has been back ordered twice due to the color of the caseing my notebook was delivered by august 20th (its estimated build date was august 21st). so for those of you who are having problem after problem getting your Dell notebooks my suggestion is to head over to HP, there service is great and fast and reliable. good luck

I have always promoted Dell and for the last 8 years and have bought nothing but Dell servers, storage appliances, PCs and laptops from Dell, over £2 million ($4 Million) in the last three years. In the last year I have seen an increasing number of faults on equipment, slow responce times from staff and delays going into the weeks with servers and laptops.

I am out to market for two mirrored mid range SAN solutions including the Dell CX340s. Having been waiting since July the 10th for a top spec XPS1330 that is now due on the 3rd of October Dell have almost no chance of getting what was an almost certain contract. I am now going to cancel the xps get a sony and look to change my IT supplier to HP. I have been offered no appologies or reasons other than Black is a difficult colour and the LED screens are hard to get. I have not been given any offers of money back, credit to make it worth keeping the order there or anything else.

If Dell are unable to provide a single laptop in under 3 months what confidence can I have as an IT Director in Dell providing me with business critical systems in the future.

I'm also skeptical of the Aug. 28 date. My original 1721 ESD was Aug. 14 (order date was July 23), then it got pushed back to the 28th. I wonder how many Dell customers overall have been promised the same Aug. 28 ship date. I surely hope the 28th is set in stone, and that all the 'Aug. 28' orders get shipped out that day. I imagine it will take a significant number of trucks from UPS, DHL and FedEx to handle all of these orders. It might even take a few freight trains as well.

August 28 promises to be a BIG DAY for you, Dell. I hope you can pull it off.  <6 more days to go!>

Look at what has happened in the last 2-3 months, which might help explain some of the “unforeseen part shortages” we’re hearing about:

1.  Dell started selling select desktop and notebook models at Wal-Mart.  June 10

2.  Dell introduced new Inspiron desktop and notebook models, and the XPS M1330.  June 26

3.  Dell introduced the new small business line of Vostro desktops and notebooks.  July 20

4.  Dell started advertising “great deals” on desktops and notebooks for back-to-school.  June/July

Very agressive marketing in such a short time span...followed by high demand...and apparently not enough parts to keep up. Oh yeah, and the paint issue.

after purchasing over $250,000 in dell servers, laptops, and notebooks, i bought two lenovo thinkpads last december.  it arrived TWO WEEKS before the expected date.  won't be buying a dell notebook soon.

take a look at the lenovo x61 tablet.  t61 is also great.

I ordered my D830 for my recent business start up. It is critical to my business as my current dell 600m is literally melting out the bottom due to heat damage.

When I reported the issue to Dell to warranty the product they said 20-30 days to do a safety recovery.

So I hoped on the phone Aug 17th to order a nicely spec'd D830 for $2200 delivered. When told it would ship Sept 13th; I said 'um no, get it to me by the end of the month' and they agreed to speed it up.

Now I've received my free printer (that they gave me) today but no laptop. Any idea's if this is a good sign or a bad sign?

What really bothers me most about this is that I want this Dell D830 and that from the sounds of this; no real answers are being given. Now as a publicly traded company all this will be flushed out, so why not talk about it?

After typing this out I'm going to follow up with my American sales person who has been very helpful. Maybe because I'm buying it through the business department I'm getting different people. No offense to India, but if I can't understand you, I take my business elsewhere.

I'm a long time Dell fan, have been very happy. I will report back with more details.

Could it be the SEC filing investigations?  Could it be Michael Dell recently coming back as CEO in Feb?  Could it be Walmart sales disrupting online sales?  Could it be they just wanted to make a valiant attempt to close the gap on the leader, HP?  Could it be Dell not paying their suppliers?  or they just can't get the paint right?   Whatever the cause they need to fix in 7 days because they are about to lose many loyal customers including myself. 

Ordered on July 4th.  Got 3 delay notifications, last one being 08/28.  Recieved free next day shipping and promised a free bluetooth keyboard and a mouse.  If I do not recieve it on the 29th, I will ask for some sort of monetary discount on my $1600 machine.  If not which i think they will not give me a discount, then I will be forced to cancel and possibly cancel my preferred account altogether to go with HP or Asus or Sony.  Many are that do not post on this site is about to do the same.  Our patience is running thin.  Might as well go with the leader in this industry, whom by the way most disgruntled customers are going to. 

I ordered an XPS m1330 on 7/9, and have been waiting in production ever since.  My order went into kitting on 8/10 and then back to "Build" and has never moved since.

 What is going on here Dell.  No one can tell me why my order isn't being shipped while people with identical configurations who ordered in late July have shipped.

What is going on?  Why aren't shipments being ramped up and processed in the order they were received, especially for IDENTICAL systems. I'm tired of waiting patiently while others pass me by, and with no real explanation of what is going on.  I can tell you I don't care that you have caught up on 10% of your backlog until I have mine in my hands.  So PLEASE dell, tell us what is going on now, and for pete's sake, pull your stupid TV ads and promotions on your website if you can't deliver on this product until your caught up.  It is insulting to those of us who are still waiting.
 

I came across the news online through yahoo and customers cries and pleas have been heard by someone and e has finally documented.

Check it out:

http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=9867 

For those of you who have experienced the crappy customer service and poor quality of Dell, there is another way!  I no longer recommend Dell computers to friends, but rather a Macbook (or if PC, an HP or Lenovo). 

 For those who are curious about Macbook, keep in mind you don't deal with the BS of long delays like with an online order with Dell.  Walk into an Apple store and walk out with everything same day!  I've had my Macbook for over a year, and I run Windows, log into work as well in Windows.  I am not going back to PC...

BTW, DON'T get Parallels (www.parallels.com) but rather give VMWare fusion a try on your Macbook, and you'll discover it is MUCH faster and more versatile. http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
 

With nothing else to do but wait, I thought I'd pass along some constructive criticism.

Post more information here-  Since the only time my order status has changed in the last 29 days is the two times it was supposed to ship, and all that changed those days was it got pushed back one week the first time and 11 days the second.  I've tried to limit my calls to the customer care line, since they are sounding a little harried (who can blame them with people like me calling every couple days) and they really haven't had much to offer me since the upgraded me to overnight shipping, the faster shipping is much appreciated, but losses the excitement if it's going to take 41 days to receive it anyway.

Speaking of customer care, in the future if there are supply problems, either make sure they know exactly what they are or tell them that they can say they don't know.  The first time I called (before my original ship date, just to see why it was going to take 20 days to build the laptop) I was told that it was the processor that was taking so long.  The second time I think they said it was the display. Third time was the color.   The other problem is the people you talk to, while nice don't seem to understand why you might be a little angry about waiting so long. If most people are like me, they take their time looking at the options before they order, then wait for a good reason, like all the students on their way to school, or in  my case to surprise my wife on her birthday with a replacement for her recently deceased Dell laptop.  What would have been nice is to hear that they were sorry, and they could replace whatever it was that was taking so long with xx upgraded component for a small fee and it would ship in the next few days.

The final thing is while I'm glad to see that the website does tell people there might be a delay for the colors now (it didn't on July 25th), you should make sure that the people that already ordered these things get all the discounts and upgrades you are offering between the time they ordered and the time it ships. Today for example I received an email about a one day back to school special.  I followed the link and put together the exact same specs as the one I have on order, the kick in the teeth is that it's $20 cheaper.  Now it's not worth canceling the order and going to the back of the line for $20, but it still doesn't instill good will. Now a call to customer care says if I call back after it ships, they'll give me a coupon for $20, the point is, I shouldn't have to, I didn't do anything wrong here, but I have to read the emails, banner ads, see the tv commercials and even catch them selling on QVC as I'm flipping by.  It's frustrating, since I've had good luck with Dell over the years.

Thanks.

As I expected (based on the experience of others here) my 1330 did not ship today as stated. To all the fan-boys out there yeah, I know that ESD is an estimation so please refrain from shaking your pom-poms and telling me again and again.

 You would think that all this time they would by now have things sorted out but...no. The status page has not changed to reflect a delay or cancellation and the 800 number still says that it is in the build-stage. So few have shipped, the lies, the lack of information, etc have lead me to believe that this company is in serious trouble. Sad really, I have used their products for a long time as have many of my clients. I ordered Lo-jack with this laptop and just noticed that it is delayed until 9-12...wow..they can't even get something as simple as that right. I refer you to the prior post in here where things were "explained" to us, ramping up production, new product, working things out, shipping will be on track, blah, blah...yeah, right.

Oh well...I refuse to even attempt contacting CS...I believe that they are worthless when it comes to handling these problems and sadly uninformed.

Thanks Dell
 

So, I on-line ordered a complete Dell laptop system for my son for College on July 12 - with a ship date on August 3.  I got a call on the 3rd saying it was delayed until August 28 - too late for my son to take to school.  I called the customer service number given - and was on hold for over an hour - 5 times - never spoke to a rep.  I repeatedly tried the on-line chat - the que was always full.  I sent 3 e-mails with no answer for 4 days. I finally got someone to speak to via another 800 number with only a 20 minute wait.  I was promised a $100 coupon if I would keep my order open, but the rep said they could not say when the PC would ship.  I canceled the order. 

Two days later I get a response from my first e-mail.  I was told - in writing - the order was canceled due to an issue with my credit card authorization.  They gave me another number in Dell Credit to call.  I called the Credit number and asked for a supervisor because my bank said there was no issue with the card.  The Dell supervisor in Credit said there was no issue with my card, as approval was given when I placed my order on July 12th.  She had no idea why the Dell e-mail rep said there was an issue.

She then tried to get me to a sales rep to try and expidite the order.  She got to a rep about 15 minutes later and he said "he couldn't even get his mother a Dell laptop PC if he tried".  He said the promise date meant nothing, and he was not getting commissions.

Finally, after hours of wait, unanswered e-mails, broken promises and lible on my credit card status I gave up.  We went to Best Buy and got an HP plus all the extras. 

I will never use nor recommend Dell again. 

I just had a brilliant idea. Dell could provide loaner laptops to all college and high school students that will be seriously impacted by Dell's failure to meet their commitments.  Once the promised laptop arrives, the students can ship back the loaner laptop to Dell. I am sure that you all have hundreds of unpopular brands just lying around. Why not put them to use and do a good deed for young people who are trying to better themselves.

 Then possibly you won't have to listen to parents who have the heartwrenching task of telling their young college student that they will not have a required instrument for their success once classes start.

 Oh wait, that might require a little compassion and effort beyond the words, "We are so sorry".  Um, maybe customer service reps in India couldn't handle it either because it would be too complicated for them to comprehend the process. 

Going online to order a computer from Dell, I noticed that the shipping date was some 14 days in the future.  Since my computer just died, I needed a computer right away.  I went to Circuit City to purchase a new one later that day.  This delay does not bode well for your business.

Dell has totally lost control of its customer fulfillment process. Dell continues to give unrealistic initial order delivery dates knowing they have a substantial manufacturing and procurement problem for a large number of their products. I ordered a Latitude D620 laptop; an All-In-One 810 printer and a 2 GB Cruzer Micro U3 USB Flash Drive on July 17^th with the latest estimated ship date of August 6^th. (The printer was to ship on July 31^st.) I have received 3 order delays and then a complete order “reorder” notification that I received today with an estimated ship date of September 13^th. (Dell cancelled the original order and did a reorder, without my approval, because the D620 went out of production and they needed to ship me a D630. The D620 was configured, price negotiated, and recommended by my university. I approved all the delay notifications to comply with the FTC requirements.) I’m close to 2 months into this insane process with Dell, numerous calls and emails to customer service reps who have no idea as to what is happening within the factory. With Dell usually informing me the day that they are supposed to ship the order that it will be delayed another week gives me NO confidence that Dell has a clue as to when any order will ship….Dell has totally lost the concept of customer satisfaction and continues to be in a reactionary mode of doing business. I hopefully will get my order before Thanksgiving but I’m not counting on it.

well i finally got some sort of resolution to my issue. I called customer service for the 4th time and demanded something be done.
Interestingly enough, they gave me next day shipping with no problem whatsoever! The ironic part about this is I had the CSR on my previous call tell me they could not do that because I placed an order w/ my dell preferred account! once again, CSRs contradict themselves - probably because they don't speak the same language, literally.
And I still have little to no faith in their new ship date, a week later than my original one, based on what I've been reading here. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if I'm eating turkey & mashed potatoes by the time I get my new computer.

I can definitely say that this is my first, and last, purchase from Dell.

08/01/2007 03:00:00PM Tim: "is there any way to confirm that it will be shipped tomorrow?"

08/01/2007 03:00:33PM Agent (Sandeep Vm): "Timothy, I have verified the status and your order is estimated to be shipped tomorrow."

08/01/2007 03:00:45PM Agent (Sandeep Vm): "Please don't worry, your order would be shipped as promised."

That is from a chat with an online Dell CSR, wouldn't you know the very next day my ship date was pushed back to Aug 28th.  Never mind the fact that the next day when I called Dell why my order was pushed back they said everything was backordered due to a high volume of last minute people ordering for school, yet another lie.  I can't believe it’s due to parts on backorder.  I looked up a new dell today to see if I could rebuild mine, wouldn't you know I can't.  They aren't using the same processor, basically my computer is already outdated and it hasn't even been shipped yet.  I think I not only should be getting some kind of compensation and I don't mean next day delivery, but my computer should be up to date.

Letter sent to Michael S. Dell - Do you think anyone cares at Dell??? I am sure I won't get any response from this company.  Is anyone at Dell a parent? What a joke! I am sure that this Dell blog won't last long considering that everyone is really upset.

August 21, 2007

Mr. Michael Dell

CEO

Dell Corporation

One Dell Way

Round Rock, TX 78682

Dear Mr. Dell,

I am at my wit’s end on what to do. I am a loyal customer of Dell who has completely lost faith in your organization. It makes me sad to say that customer service doesn’t seem to be a priority for your organization anymore.  As a consumer, I always felt that Dell “had it down”, that your reliability, products and service were an excellent choice for my computer needs. I am very sorry to say that I will not choose Dell again for any computer needs in my household or at my work.    

My daughter has gone away to college. I took her this past weekend for a week of freshman orientation with no computer. We ordered a Dell computer back on July 22, 2007.  The first order didn’t go through and was cancelled “by mistake”.  I noticed the order said cancelled two days later by your online service and reordered it again on July 24, 2007. The reorder process took several hours but was finally complete.

At that point there was no indication there would be any problems, even with the initial hiccup. The computer expected date of arrival was August 13, 2007.  That would be plenty of time before my daughter started classes at XXX University

On August 13, 2007 I got a call saying that my order was delayed until August 28, 2007 (one day after classes started at XXX).  I called your customer service and was told that I could either cancel the order or, basically, nothing else.  The only thing the person on the phone did was put my order on the list to get free priority shipping when the computer was complete. I still have to drive the computer to my daughter when it arrives (1.5 hours away).

Right now, I am miserable. My daughter is at college with no computer.  Everyone else has a computer, except her and one other girl whos pink dell laptop is on backorder as well. I am scared that she will not have it to start classes. No one even cares at all except me.  I feel very alone and very upset with believing that your company could provide for my needs and has failed me completely. No compensation, nothing, just absolute and utter failure on your part to complete one small request for a computer to arrive on time for my daughter’s first day at college.

In closing, I just want to say that I needed to write this letter just to express my extreme sadness that as a parent I chose your company to help me give my daughter a good start to college and you have failed me completely, 100%.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to me directly, my email is XXX-          Believe me, I am not holding my breath though.- 

WHAT A FARCE 

 My son, and elementary school student is required to purchase a specific Dell laptop—never during the order process did the rep mention the machine would not ship in time for the start of school. And it's not like he has a choice.  Customer Service has just repeated the "in production" mantra when, from reading this, it's clear the company knows there are major supply issues with this Latitude.  Why not TELL THE TRUTH?  So Dell can stack unfilled orders to improve quarterly results?   Some level of honesty would be greatly appreciated. My ten year old doesn't understand how a company can do this to him--at ten you take this stuff personally.  Another laptop ordered for his sister was a Lemon--and that customer service odyssey can't fit on ten pages.
 

I ordered my Inspiron 1420 on July 06, 2007. 

The original shipping date was August 1st, 2007.

After realizing that the order status, was still on Confirm ... i called Dell, just for them to tell me that the notebook has been delayed to August 28, 2007.  I WAS NOT TOLD THAT MY COMPUTER WAS GOING TO BE DELAYED! I HAD TO CALL DELL TO FIND OUT ABOUT IT!

The reason? No one can tell me the reason.

The customer service rep, kept on telling me that she understands my situation, when she obviously does not, because she is not the one with the problem.  She told me to "go ahead and CANCEL my order because, there is nothing she can do for me". I just thought thats really rude of her!

I spoke to a manager, and he said that he does not know why the computer is being delayed, because it is production. In production? How long is it going to be in production for?

I have been in contact with a case manager from Dell ... August 1, 2007 ..... :

1. Please accept my apologies regarding the status of the order. I have checked the details and I see that the order is delayed due to the skin. I am sorry if you were told to cancel the order but, I am sure the order will ship soon. Once again, I am sorry for the inconvenience caused on this issue.

Thanks and regards,
Kiran
Case manager
Dell Inc.,

2. It is upto you to cancel or keep the order going. There is an internal team who is working and sending e-mails to the customer's whose orders have been delayed. They would send you the e-mail regarding the delay.

Thanks and regards,
Kiran
Cas manager
Dell Inc.,

3. I understand your concern and we never anticipated this delay. Unfortunately the orders are delayed. Once again, I am sorry for the inconvenience caused and I will keep you posted with the status of the order.

Thanks and regards,
Kiran
Case manager
Dell Inc.,
 

All i keep hearing from Dell is, that they understand, they understand, they understand ... how the hell can they understand?

My problem is, why are they still advertising and giving deals on these notebooks? This is ridiculous!

When are we going to get our computers? Today is the last day of my summer Classes and Fall starts next week. So i am starting school without my computer!

Dell has no sympathy for us the customers. Dell needs to get there act together.  I will not be surprised, if August 28 comes around and we call and they tell us that its been delayed again.  What are we suppose to do then?

and...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/16/dell_probe_results_released/

hmm, making me think cashflow may be an issue....

Further to my previous post, I wonder if it could be financial....

 http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/07/06/dell_sec_delays_filing/

Hang on, this is obviously not just affecting one particular laptop - my Dimension 9200 desktop ordered at the beginning of August now has ESD of end of September - a 2 month delay. "Overwhelming sales for Dimension 9200" is the best I can get from customer service, which I doubt seeing as 9200 is an old system now.

My order is a stripped down desktop, so its not the screen etc causing delay, so it must be case/mobo/processor/memory/vga/keyboard/mouse/hdd/dvd

Now, according to my trade contacts, their are no component shortages, so either its a Dell specific (case/mobo/keyboard/mouse) shortage, or suppliers have stopped supplying Dell (financial?), or Dell are lying.

I ordered my Inspiron 1420 on July 06, 2007. 

The original shipping date was August 1st, 2007.

After realizing that the order status, was still on Confirm ... i called Dell, just for them to tell me that the notebook has been delayed to August 28, 2007. 

The reason? No one can tell me the reason.

The customer service rep, kept on telling me that she understands my situation, when she obviously does not, because she is not the one with the problem.  She told me to "go ahead and CANCEL my order because, there is nothing she can do for me". I just thought thats really rude of her!

I spoke to a manager, and he said that he does not know why the computer is being delayed, because it is production. In production? How long is it going to be in production for?

I have been in contact with a case manager from Dell ... August 1, 2007 ..... :

1. Please accept my apologies regarding the status of the order. I have checked the details and I see that the order is delayed due to the skin. I am sorry if you were told to cancel the order but, I am sure the order will ship soon. Once again, I am sorry for the inconvenience caused on this issue.

Thanks and regards,
Kiran
Case manager
Dell Inc.,

2. It is upto you to cancel or keep the order going. There is an internal team who is working and sending e-mails to the customer's whose orders have been delayed. They would send you the e-mail regarding the delay.

Thanks and regards,
Kiran
Cas manager
Dell Inc.,

3. I understand your concern and we never anticipated this delay. Unfortunately the orders are delayed. Once again, I am sorry for the inconvenience caused and I will keep you posted with the status of the order.

Thanks and regards,
Kiran
Case manager
Dell Inc.,
 

All i keep hearing from Dell is, that they understand, they understand, they understand ... how the hell can they understand?

My problem is, why are they still advertising and giving deals on these notebooks? This is ridiculous!

When are we going to get our computers? Today is the last day of my summer Classes and Fall starts next week. So i am starting school without my computer!

Dell has no sympathy for us the customers. Dell needs to get there act together.  I will not be surprised, if August 28 comes around and we call and they tell us that its been delayed again.  What are we suppose to do then?

I wish I knew about the delays before placing my order. I used to tell everyone to order from Dell, but now I don't. I would say that Dell sold quality products at competitive prices (I have 2 other Dell laptops purchased last year). But these delays are unacceptable. I use my laptops for work, and any delay affects productivity (my job is on the line!). It's just sad how things turned out. Now I just tell my friends and other people to order from anyone EXCEPT Dell.

I think the problem truly lies within the way management is handling the issues with these delays.  The funds for the computers are taken from people while Dell continually pushes the delays out further and further even though they were aware of these enormous delays at the time of purchase.  So not only were we all mis-informed but have paid for a product and have no idea when we will receive it.  In addition even though these computers can not be shipped to customers Dell continues to run commercials promoting the products and allows orders of these products.  Thus creating huge backlog that is going to take a considerable amount of time to clear.  This kind of service needs to be corrected in the future because as the forums and discussions about this issue have shown the customers are fed up with this and most are cancelling their orders and leaving.  I have been a loyal customer with Dell for a long time and this issue is really calling into question my reasoning for remaining so loyal.  Serious changes need to be implemented, and it is not the representatives it is the people managing them and giving them instruction on what to say.  I hope this can be resolved soon, because I like Dell but there is only so much the customers can take.

I then contacted Dell about the order and asked them to ship to my neighbor as I was going to be out of town the week it was to be shipped...the next day I get a email that my order was cancelled...was I agravated!!!!!  I had contacted them several times and never did ask them to cancel the order...I finally got to speak to a polite young man (who spoke English) and he indicated that the reason for the delay was the color of the laptop cover...he was the first one to tell me that...had I known that was the reason sooner, I would have told them to go with the grey standard color and ship the thing... Any way, I was extremely upset and the reason they gave me was the FTC law, even though it hadn't been 30 days quite yet.

That night I went to Best Buy and bought a laptop...Dell is definitely not on my list as a quality company at this time and their service stinks to high heaven...I am telling friends not to order anything from Dell at this time!

Here is how it works:

Your laptop gets all its parts in. However, it is missing the the colored casing.  So, your parts are left in stock for like a week. If your colored casing does not come in, then your video card or whatever is then shuffled to another machine that is only missing the video card. His is then shipped out. This means that you are now waiting on not just the colored cover, but the video card as well.

You then get your case in. However, your video card was given away to someone else's order, so now you have to wait on that. After a week, your fancy case that took a month to arrive is shuffled to someone else because your video card did not come in. That person, who likely ordered after you, now gets their machine shipped. So now you have to wait all over again until there is enough stock for all your parts to come in within a given time frame.

Just so you guys realize, priority means nothing. Ordering first only means that if there is a delay, your parts will be given away first.

I was given $100 and already used the coupon, but I will cancel my order and risk having the code killed if there is another delay. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. 

I like how there is always some different reason as to why people aren't getting their orders. I ordered a 1521 Inspiron mid-July AND I ordered a 20 inch widescreen monitor. Needless to say neither has shipped.

Why hasn't my monitor shipped?

Whenever I talk to anyone at Dell on the phone I can't even understand them because their accents are so thick. I am going to start talking ebonics to them and see if they can understand a word _I'm_ saying. 

I have bought Dells for the last 9 years but this is seriously the last one ever.
 

I ordered a laptop on 14 July for my little sister to take to college.  The order was processed through your system and shows an order date of 16 July.  Your system has shown an estimated ship date of 30 July 2007. 

 After e-mailing and calling and being called by your very nice, but uninformed and not able to help me support staff I now have the following things:

1. A promise of $100 gift certificate after I receive my system

2. A "possible" completion date of 23 August.

3. Free next day shipping, should my system EVER get completed.   

4. NO COMPUTER YET. 

Why would you accept all these orders if you had no chance of completing them within a reasonable amount of time?  

I will advise everyone I know how horrible your process has become.  I am in the IT industry, and I used to regularly recommend Dell to the many friends and family who would ask me what to buy and where to buy it.  Now I will make sure everyone I know does not get a Dell. 

 
I may be one person, and you may be a multinational, billion dollar company, but you will notice eventually when the hundreds or thousands of people that every delayed, frustrated customer knows starts spreading the word about how bad you have become at fulfilling a purchase order. 
 

I will be contacting you about a refund and canceling my order.   

P.S. Thanks for making me look like a fool to my family also.  

Hmmmm,

 Currently waiting since 7/21 for the red 1721 through Costco.  Costco reps have said that thousands of orders for the at least 1720/1721s have been delayed and there is the likelihood of compensation but they want to see when their customers actually get them in hand as they do not know when that will occur either.

After reading through these posts, I have come to one conclusion whether or not I keep my order or not.  As a prior Dell client and avid investor, I have read enough on this board that has convinced me that I plan to look for the next opportunity to "short" Dell's stock.  I'm pretty sure if these don't ship before Labor Day then Dell is hiding a "heap of trouble".  I will likely see if they can resolve these issues by the end of the month.  Otherwise, my bet will be that my "short" in Dell stock will more than pay more a new laptop (Dell or not) in I bet a shorter period of time holding the short position than it takes them to get these laptops to folks.  Just call it my way of "hedging" the situation :).  Please look before you leap but this situation does sound like more than just a minor mess-up.  It sounds like something that is going to significantly affect their quarterly revs/earns.  Think about the scope of the issue many people are facing on thousands and thousands of these machines right during a crucial "back to school" period.  Not giving investment advice folks.  Just offering my perspective of how I plan to handle this situation either way.

 cheers and good luck to all in receiving your orders :).
 

My Dell Inspiron 1501 came a week earlier than promised.  Since my needs are rather modest, I did not choose the top of the line.  The additional accessories came rather quickly, at least most of them did.  Since I had no need to call Dell, I can only speak to the routine communication.  The tracking information from DHL is quite convenient.  The Dell website was the only drawback.  Finding the page with the links to the order status was a little tricky.  Some of the topline menus probably need better and livelier linkage.  Once I learned how to get past some dead/confusing links, I was able to find the order status rather easily.

The customer comments appended to the accessories was useful in making a choice or two. 

I wonder if dell is fraudulently using the federal mail order rule to cancel orders  mysteriously?

Accounting would show income from our order but no outlay of funds for the actual build hold our cash for that 30 or 45 days that would be millions in ghost cash to show creditors etc.

also it would give them an excuse for not being able to build the computers they are selling and there customer service

 CANT speak english , help with this problem,resolve any issue with a reasonable amount of compatancy, reply within 24 hrs a promised give the same reason for the delay they all use a different component as the problem part

I ordered my Inspiron 1521 laptop July 29th and I had an ESD of August 20th... I get an e-mail on August 20th, in the evening stating that the shipping won't be until the 28th... I had a friend who bought a desktop and received it within 3 days of ordering it... Why are desktops easier to obtain?!? I need my laptop for school... I think if Dell continues to push back dates, every single costumer should receive some sort of break, including free shipment... There's a reason why people spend money on Rush Delivery... Rush delivery means rush delivery, it doesn't that the purchase should be put off some more... What's the hold up?!? I've had issues with the last Dell Laptop I had (not running right, and overheating for no reason) and all of the computer techs that I've spoke to on the phone couldn't even help me... I decided to try it out one more time and it seems like I'm already having issues just obtaining it... If I don't cancel my order now, I know I definitely won't be purchasing from Dell again... I know a lot of people switching to Mac's and Apple's and they're loving them right now... It doesn't sound like a bad idea at the moment... I think we all deserve a break in price... There should be some sort of credit towards our accounts... I know I'm furious... I can't even begin to imagine how angry everyone else is who has waited longer then me... I personally think it's asinine...

It has been 7 hours since the last message posted. Why are messages not being posted? 

The story continues. If my daughter did not want this laptop so badly, I would have cut my losses a long time ago.

·         Received an e-mail from the CSR on 08/20/07 at 4:06 AM. Turns out the person I thought was his manager was a representative from the Customer Resolution Center. What a joke – when I was on the phone with him, there was no resolution other than him telling me the laptop was backordered and there was nothing Dell could do. I tried getting him to offer up some type of solution – send me a loaner, discount the price – anything to make this ordeal less painful and show that Dell was willing to try to fix their mistake. His only solution was for me to order a black laptop – as they were not in back-order and could be delivered in about 1 week. If I’d wanted a black one, I would have ordered it first and saved myself a huge amount of suffering. The e-mail from the CSR showed that the rep had contacted me on 08/08 and that the CSR sent an e-mail to the rep indicating he should call me again to give an update on the status of my order. Whatever happened to my escalation to his supervisor – it never happened! And Christ – I need another status update like I need a hole in my head. The printer is supposed to ship tomorrow and the laptop on Wednesday. I doubt the rep is going to tell me anything positive – we’ll wait and see if he even calls.

·         On Tuesday, 08/21/07, received voicemail that printer is back-ordered with a new ship date of 08/28/07. Oh no – the dreaded date that everyone is getting. I certainly hope the magic pixies will come in and fill all the outstanding back-orders on that date! Laptop is supposed to ship tomorrow – fat chance that will happen. I’m just waiting for the voicemail that tells me it is back-ordered and the new ship date is (drum roll please) 08/28/07 (gasp)!

@ Bluefox

You know what happens when you ASSume.  I got my higher education at one of the nation's top institutions.  Biology major with a minor in Engineering...all without a laptop.  Buddy, a LIGHT semester for me was 21 credit hours...all without a laptop.  That was on top of all the other crap we had to go through (think military academy).  Yeah, buddy; back in my day (early 90's), we actually had to know how to write with our hands and crunch numbers in our brains (gasp!)

Being the meticulous student that you are, you failed to notice that I was commenting on people who claimed to be buying "better, CHEAPER" systems from other manufacturers.  I thought it was funny because it begs the question: Why didn't they buy those systems to begin with? (Answer: Because they're not cheaper; or they're not better)

I wasn't commenting on those who may have to dish out MORE money to get a comparable system, or those who may have to sacrifice specifications to keep prices reasonable with other systems because they need their laptops in a hurry; that course of action is regrettable, and perfectly understandable.  If I get fed up enough with Dell, even I may have to do just that.  But I certainly wouldn't say I'm getting a "better, cheaper" system.  If it were out there, I wouldn't be waiting for my 1330.

Good luck to you in school, and I hope you get your reading comprehension issues under control before you start.

I actually feel a little better after reading this. I am not alone. 

Have to order a Dell for my child--required hardware, software and the school requires Dell. Never even imagined a more than 4 week estimated ship date for this school mandated machine.  Useless customer service -- hard to understand and just kept repeating the "In Production" mantra. Even told me the extra power cord (estimated 3 week wait time) was "In Production".  Other people received their machines in a few days. So I guess Dell is cruel to college students and elementary students alike...makes me happy I can use my MacBook to write this.

 

This is absolutely riduiculous! This makes it coinvienent for DELL does't it I believe this shows how poor DELL customer service has become. I would say that once a customer has placed an order and is expecting a product to be delivered the effort should be on the seller to make up for the delay!

I like a number of other customers were never kept up to date on the progress of production. I may have been more understanding regarding the delay if I was informed more in advance the day I was origanaly expecting the computer to be shipoed. I was so upset that I was told It would be another tweo weeks. And frankly that is no garuntee since the email I recieved was tiled "First notification of delay".. I half  excpect to recieve an email on the August 27th the new scheduled ship date titled "Second Notification of Delay".with a mid September delivery date.

This experience has assured that after this purchase, If ever recieved,  I will no longer Do business with DELL. They have already lost several customers due to me sharing my experience with several friends and family members. They were directed to Visit HP and Best Buy for there Laptop purchase needs.If I ran my Bussiness the way Dell is I wouldn't be in Bussiness.

Dude, apparently I'm not getting a Dell. 

 
I ordered a system on 14 July for my little sister to take to college.  The order was processed through your system and shows an order date of 16 July.  Your system has shown an estimated ship date of 30 July 2007. 

 After e-mailing and calling and being called by your very nice, but uninformed and not able to help me support staff I now have the following things:

1. A promise of $100 gift certificate after I receive my system

2. A "possible" completion date of 23 August 2007 (that's 39 days).

3. An upgrade to free next day shipping, should my system EVER get completed.   

4. NO COMPUTER YET. 

Why would you accept all these orders if you had no chance of completing them within a reasonable amount of time?  

I will advise everyone I know how horrible your process has become.  I am in the IT industry, and I used to regularly recommend Dell to the many friends and family who would ask me what to buy and where to buy it.  Now I will make sure everyone I know does not get a Dell. 

 
I may be one person, and you may be a multinational, billion dollar company, but you will notice eventually when the hundreds or thousands of people that every delayed, frustrated customer knows starts spreading the word about how bad you have become at fulfilling a purchase order. 
 

I will be contacting you about a refund and canceling my order.   

P.S. Thanks for making me look like a fool to my family also.   

I have tried several times before to post and somehow they never make it up . . . so here goes again!

I am adding my sad story to the rest. I ordered an Inspiron 1521 on July 13th and got an ESD of 8/1. On 8/1 my ESD still showed 8/1 on the website and I called in just to make sure it was shipping only to find out it had been delayed . . . new ESD (you guessed it!) 8/28! No call, no email, no nothing. Finally the next day, my ESD on the order status webpage was updated.

I have run the gamut of customer service nightmares, from endless hold times, being disconnected and lied to. At one point I was transferred through 3 different departments and got 3 totally different reasons for the delay. When asking for a manager I had 1 CSR basically refuse to transfer me up - after arguing with him for over 5 minutes, he finally did transfer me, unfortunately, it wasn't to a manager! He transferred me back in to the regular CSR line!!

I'm just thankful this laptop was NOT ordered for a college student . . . it was ONLY a birthday present for my daughter, which will now be miserably late! I guess I'll have to change it to a Christmas present instead!!

After having been a loyal Dell suppporter through 2 desktop systems and 4 laptops, I have to say I am totally turned off and will no longer recommend or purchase their products. If 8/28 comes and goes with no laptop I'm done!

- Used to Love Them

I am glad I am not a procrastinator. In saying that, let me explain:

My daughter is starting college, has her first class on-line via home computer.  We are buying a DELL laptop now so we will have it by January '08, when she goes on campus full time.

If they don't have this mess straightened out by then.....close DELL's doors.

 We feel for those customers out there that are on pins and needles; ready to commit "Hairy Carrie".  Suggest you take actions or wait it out. Choices are always there.

My XPS 1330 was to be shipped today 8/21/07!!!

For the record, I have over 60 exchanged emails with my sales agent and Dell dating back to June to back everything up in this story.  There are also recorded conversations and "Dell Chat" records as well.  I cannot seem to get the ear of anyone beyond front line employees that cannot provide acceptable answers and lack the authority to offer any alternatives to the customer. 

For anyone that thinks that Dell is cancelling basic orders in favor of higher profit, upgraded orders, I beg to differ! 

Before I tell my story, I want to say that although it shouldn't matter, I ordered a $4,200 laptop computer that I planned to use to run my business!  If I weren't in need of a new, mobile computer, I would not have ordered such a powerful and expensive laptop to begin with.  This is not a TOY for me!  I am being treated as if my next "WarCraft" game will have to wait for now.  No offense to the gamers, I wish I had time to play them,  but I need another computer and I needed it yesterday.  Without one, it causes my business to run less efficiently which in return costs me money.  I could have easily bought a different computer elsewhere, but I was willing to wait for this awesome machine that Dell's marketing department has presented so well.  Unfortunately, it appears that I have bought nothing more than marketing hype!

My well documented story...

I ordered my $4,200 Red XPS M1330 (yes, I did not miss a single upgrade) on July 4th.  I was given a ship date of August 21st, my Birthday.  Woo-Hoo!  After reading about Dell's delays recently, I decided I better check on my order myself.  Exactly 8 days ago, I visited the online "Dell Chat" customer service department to verify my order.  I was assured that my ship date was still set for August 21st and that my order would be shipped overnight delivery for my patience (I have the entire "Dell Chat" transcript in detail). 

Well my Birthday came early I guess!  Yesterday, I received a phone call from some lady from Dell asking if I had authorized an order for a laptop.  I was pretty excited because I thought that this must be the last step before shipping my new laptop.  I told her that I had approved the order and then she thanked me and told me the order was set to deliver November 14th.  I almost fell out of my chair!  I explained that there must be some kind of mix up, because my order was scheduled to ship the next day, on my Birthday. She explained that she had nothing to do with actual ship dates and if I had questions, I should contact my sales agent. 

It just keeps getting better! 

After speaking with my sales agent and doing some investigative work on my own, I discovered that my order was conveniently cancelled yesterday (one day before today's confirmed ship date) without any prior notice or without any attempts to contact me.  On top of that, an entirely new order had been placed for the same unit with a new delivery date without my knowledge, thus the morning phone call seeking approval.  Talk about a bold assumption!!  I had no idea that the lady who had phoned earlier was actually referring to a brand new order.  She made no attempt to tell me this, nor did she offer a new order number or any clue as to what was really going on. (this conversation can easily be verified by reviewing the recorded call).   

My sales agent checked further into it and then called me back with an awkward attempt to explain that my entire order had been cancelled because my order contained an option that was offered upfront for both a 4 cell battery and a 9 cell battery.  Seems the 4 cell battery is no longer deemed powerful enough for the upgraded video card option that I had chosen.  Remember that the unit was to be shipped with two batteries, so we easily could have dealt with this issue at a later date.  Yep!  She blamed the exact same 4 cell battery that I questioned long ago in which I have an email stating that the 4 cell battery would work just fine with less graphic intensive programs such as Word, Excel and other Office programs.

Now I'm a pretty reasonable guy, but what are the odds that this single 4 cell battery that was sold to me right up front slipped all the way through the cracks until exactly one day before the scheduled shipping date?  The same shipping date that was confirmed by Dell just 8 days ago with no mention whatsoever of a configuration issue?  Am I really supposed to believe that everything was good to go, but that one of two batteries not only stopped this $4,200 laptop from shipping, but it also caused it to cancel my order altogether?  We're talking about a battery for crying out loud.  Send two of them and then ding my credit card for the $4,200 I had authorized you to charge!! 

The fact is, it has nothing to do about a battery.  I fit were about the battery, one email or one phone call would have solved the issue immediately.  Please don't play me for a fool Dell.  At least show me a small portion of the respect I showed your company when I authorized charges to my charge account based on your word and promise to deliver.

Either your front line employees have made a mistake that they are not willing to admit or you have chosen to cancel an order that you could not fulfill.  I would not have been happy to hear of a delay one day before my scheduled ship date, but to cancel me out of the system completely and start a new order without my consent is just reckless.   

If you valued your customer at all, you would not allow unethical strategies like cancelling orders without notice to take place, period!!  It appears that you have a great product with the XPS 1330, but to treat your customers this way and then expect us to hang on for the ride is extremely arrogant on your part.  Your customers deserve better than that and I deserve better than that!  

Dell, you have made this mess, not us!  We just happened to be brand loyal customers that bought off on your marketing, and now we're left scratching our heads and wondering where the Dell Company we used to feel good about and trusted has gone!

I'd love to fall out of my chair one more time by getting a response from someone with authority at Dell that cares about what has happened in my transaction.

Try taking the high road once in a while.  It's easier than you think! 

RM

I am the same student of previous post. Today my order's page shows, as the date of consignment, the 17th 7th September.

I am disgusted 

(note to previous poster Kev)  Mine has said "undergoing routine maintenance check back in a few minutes" since 7/20 too.

Talked to a rep last night 8/20, and asked when I could expect my 1721 and if my dell credit card has been charged yet... he said billing has been put on hold until the unit ships, and mine is scheduled to be shipped on 8/24.  I asked if he will guarantee that... he said, "we'll try!  So I guess I'll wait to see what Friday brings... I'd hate to cancel after waiting this long, but I also don't want a 'defective' product!
 
I had no offers of freebies either!
 

@Unreal

To clarify, I have not just placed my order.  I too have been waiting several weeks myself.  I am by no means patting Dell on the back for the delays, but rather I am supporting them for the products and the services that I have received for the several years that I have been a customer. Is it too much to look past a delay in shipping for a good priced product that has received very high reviews from a company that I have had a good history with? If you read all of my post rather then just selecting the parts you wanted to make a point, I clearly state that the current delays are unacceptable, but I am choosing to ride it out.

As for Dell caring about my "cheering", it does not really matter to me. If one person reads my post and decides to ride it out because there is more to a product then when it ships, then I have accomplished something. There is no shame in supporting a company through trying times; that is called loyalty. If I continue to receive poor service or have other negative experiences with them, I will change my tune. I do feel for all of those people who needed their computers on specific dates and I am not at all blind to what is going on. You ordered from Dell in the first place and you have not yet canceled, so at least a small part of you agrees that the wait is justified. If someone decides to cancel and go with another company, then that is their decision. Do not criticize me for mine.

By the way, sliced bred is still the greatest in my book!

~ Dell’s "Biggest Fan"

I ordered a 1520 and an all in one printer on 7-30-07. PRINTER HAS BEEN DELAYED! Both are due to ship 8-24-07. After reading the blogs, I have no confidence that they will show up. My son is at college with no computer!

For those of you that cancelled, how did you proceed? Were you refunded immediately? I'll be cancelling if my stuff it doesn't show.......

It maybe helpful to post "HOW TO CANCEL YOUR ORDER"!!! 

We ordered a Notebook Inspiron 1420 on July 26, 2007; was told that it would be shipped on August 3, 2007. Since that time, we have been told 7 different ship dates. It wasn't until August 14, 2007 that we were told it was because of the color that was ordered. As I read all of these comments, Dell has KNOWN about this delay because of the colors since before July 26, 2007; yet the sales staff at the kios in Madison, Wisconsin was NEVER informed of this delay. We would have NEVER ordered a Dell if we would have been informed of this delay.

The computer was ordered for our daughter to take to college; now the estimated ship date is AFTER she leaves for college.

Not only are we so disappointed with the lack of communication that Dell has provided to us and their own sales staff, but the rotten communication that we have received. Each telephone call we have received is by someone who DOES NOT speak English and we can't understand the person. The messages that are left on our answering machine are cutoff in the middle of the message. When I spoke with Josie, one of the customer service reps, she lied to me twice, telling me that our computer was moved up the line and would ship on the 13th of August. We have been given 7 different ship dates.

I teach at a technical college in Wisconsin, and we use Dell computers across our college. I am also on the technology committee, and I will RECOMMEND that we NO LONGER buy/support/use Dell Computers. Not only will I make this recommendation; but at least 10 - 20 students ask me each semester what type of computer to buy and I will NO LONGER recomend a Dell Computer. I am so disappointed with the lack of customer service and the LACK of honesty from Dell.

I'll keep it simple:

Ordered 4 of the M1330s with the LED screen on 6/28 with ESD of 7/28

Called 7/28 to ensure shipment.

Dell told me about a delay and a new ESD of 8/2

Call on 8/2 to ensure shipment

Dell told me about a delay and a new ESD of 8/28

Dell told me machines went into production on 8/17

Called Dell on 8/20 for status, machines are not in production, and suddenly nobody knows what is going on.

I am more than frustrated, and so are my clients.

Ranya, call and ask for something.  i know someone who called about another issue.  they offered her money, but she knew others got more so she told them want she wanted and she got it!

You know what confuses me about this entire situation with Dell, is that they continue to promote these products with commercials and taking sales through phone, online, and at the Dell direct locations.  How is it you have people who have ordered their laptops since June and July and still have yet to see them (even though we have paid) but they are still taking orders as if nothing is wrong.  Also the delays they have posted online when you go to order a laptop do not match the actual times and they do not say estimated.  For example: 16 day delay for Flamingo Pink and 2 day delay for Anti-glare screen.  Yet my order has already been delayed over a month.  If you don't know something you should not post incorrect information.  Dell I am hoping you can deliver on this magic ship date of 8/28/07 you have been giving everyone.  Otherwise all the money you have taken from people is going to have to be given back and you will be stuck with a bunch of half finished laptops no one wants.  Good Luck

Signed: Still waiting for my laptop...........

Y'know I worked as a computer sales associate at both Circuit City and Best Buy and was always asked the question "why should i not go out and get the same system from Dell for a couple hundred less?" - now I know what to tell my friends and relatives!

My order got delayed because of the 22" widescreen monitor I put on it. At the time of placing my order, this was not stated to cause a possible delay in shipment, my video card was. well apparently the video card is in, but the monitor is not. Great! So I call dell to say hey, swap my monitor out w/ one of the Samsung ones for no change in price and we'll call it a day. They say nope, they have to cancel the whole order, re-place it, and that delay would be even WORSE than the 7 day one I'm already experiencing. Great!

On top of this, go to Dell's site and you can put MY 22" widescreen in your cart alone, and continue right on to check out w/ no notice that your order may be delayed. Once again, great work - now I will not only be unable to surprise my wife w/ her new computer, but I'll have to spoil the whole thing when she asks me why I didn't get her anything. Thanks Dell!

Waiting like everyone else here...but I'm starting to get the feeling that Dell never was the super company it was touted to be.  I tried to post yesterday but the message must have been deleted.  If you are interested in hearing something else about some possible problems with Dell...I suggest you go to NPR's website and search for the word Dell.  As of this morning the second result is for a news report I heard last Friday that may be an eye opener.

I'm holding out until the magic 28th just to see...but I'm starting to wonder if I wouldn't be better off without this system since I too have some serious concerns about qaulity with this kind of backlog going on.

It has been mentioned that there is little news about these huge delays outside of this blog...I have been following it at forum.notebookreview.com and  there are a ton of posts about this but not much reporting elsewhere. It seems that a very small quantity of the 1330's have been shipping but certainly not what we would expect by this time. It is my guess that a great many of the "usual sources" that one would expect to cover a story like this simply will not, perhaps because they wish to stay in Dell's good graces and continue receiving free equipment to play with & write about. It is a possibility...but if anyone has seen "mainstream" coverage of this please post the link, I would appreciate it.

I think it is safe to say that the corporate and educational buyers do indeed get first priority when it comes to filling orders, that is simple economics. Of course just because I understand it doesn't mean that I don't choke on the thought of it. Although the thought occurred to me, how many of the big hitters are actually ordering the 1330 in large quantities? It doesn't seem like a system that would be top-of-the-list for a corporate or educational environment but I could be wrong.

It is hard to imagine that Dell can't keep up with the orders...both corp and private. I would not be surprised if they are actually undergoing a major internal shakeup or perhaps they are just experiencing a total meltdown. No other company is reporting back-ordered parts, paint problems, engineering problems, blah, blah. This would seem to be Dell specific.

Not many people even know that this blog exists. And of those who do, how many are actually taking the time to vent? I would imagine that this is a huge issue...and it isn't going to go away quickly because of the fact that Dell continues to advertise these systems everywhere. The orders are stacking up and the backlog must be staggering. Dell seems to be indicating that August 28 is going to be some sort or "magic" date for shipping orders...I see many folks posting that they have been pushed to the 28th. More smoke and mirrors or does Dell actually believe that the log jam will be taken care of at time? Based on prior experience I think it is just talk to get people to stop bugging them.

I have little faith in what Dell is doing. I especially resent the fact that even when they post something on this blog it is simply trash. So far their posts have had absolutely no content that pertains to the real problems at hand. The talk about "ramping up production" is old and worn out now. The nonsense about the paint is also old news. And now we get this strange posting about rules and regulations and the usual "we understand your frustration and are doing everything we can to ship your orders" blather. Really? Then perhaps you will be so kind as to tell us the truth, give us some real information about these delays. If you understand our frustrations then why add to them with these posts that have no bearing on our frustrations? Address the real reasons for the delays. Explain why you are accepting orders for products that you can't ship. Explain why you take the money then start pushing dates over and over without any real info as to why. Explain why you didn't warn us that there would be these huge delays PRIOR TO US PLACING AN ORDER!!

My ESD is tomorrow...I have been waiting since 5 July. The web status has never changed in all of that time. It has always displayed "In Production" and the ESD has never changed. I have not received a phone call or email concerning my order. My guess is that this will change sometime tomorrow. I fully expect that (based on past examples) this will push like so many others have pushed but maybe, just maybe I will get lucky and it will ship.

It is a sad thing to realize that one has to be lucky in order to receive a purchased product in a reasonable time.

Actually, even for government order, dell behaves the same. Not professional...
 

   You can talk about delays in manufacturing and screens and colors all you want Dell but let’s face facts by looking at what you have on your website.  First I ordered the Flamingo Pink Inspiron 1420 Laptop this carries (according to your website) the highest delay in days of any of the colors 16 days.  I also ordered the Anti-glare, widescreen 14.1 inch display (1280X800) which carries a delay of 2 days.  None of the other parts of the computer are labeled as may delay your Inspiron 1420 ship date. 

   Now if I can do the math correctly that equates to a maximum possible delay of 18 days if it is handled one after the other.  Now I ordered my laptop on 7/10/2007 the original ship date was 7/26/2007.  Then like clock work on 7/27/2007 I got a delay to a new ship date of 8/2/2007.  I let it go and said it is only one more week.  Then again like clock work on 8/3/2007 it was delayed to the magic date that everyone seems to get of 8/28/2007.  Now a little more math Dell.  Taking out the first 11 BUSINESS DAYS I waited to the first original ship date of 7/26/2007 which is build time, to the 8/28/2007 magic ship date that is a total delay of 23 BUSINESS DAYS. 

   So explain this to me where did you get the 16 days for the color and the 2 days for the screen?  As far as I am concerned you really do not know when anything is going to ship.  But the best part of all of this is that you would actually let me order that laptop online knowing full well that people like me have been delayed over month for the exact same laptop.  This is a pathetic excuse for a company.  You continue to run commercial after commercial for the laptops you can not deliver, and continue to take orders from the poor unsuspecting customers that have not had the luxury of reading forums like this.  You should be ashamed.

   You can talk about delays in manufacturing and screens and colors all you want Dell but lets face facts by looking at what you have on your website.  First I ordered the Flamingo Pink Inspiron 1420 Laptop this carries (according to your website) the highest delay in days of any of the colors 16 days.  I also ordered the Anti-glare, widescreen 14.1 inch display (1280X800) which carries a delay of 2 days.  None of the other parts of the computer are labeled as may delay your Inspiron 1420 ship date. 

   Now if I can do the math correctly that equates to a maximum possible delay of 18 days if it is handled one after the other.  Now I ordered my laptop on 7/10/2007 the original ship date was 7/26/2007.  Then like clock work on 7/27/2007 I got a delay to a new ship date of 8/2/2007.  I let it go and said it is only one more week.  Then again like clock work on 8/3/2007 it was delayed to the magic date that everyone seems to get of 8/28/2007.  Now a little more math Dell.  Taking out the first 11 BUSINESS DAYS I waited to the first original ship date of 7/26/2007 which is build time, to the 8/28/2007 magic ship date that is a total delay of 23 BUSINESS DAYS. 

   So explain this to me where did you get the 16 days for the color and the 2 days for the screen?  As far as I am concerned you really do not know when anything is going to ship.  But the best part of all of this is that you would actually let me order that laptop online knowing full well that people like me have been delayed over month for the exact same laptop.  This is a pathetic excuse for a company.  You continue to run commercial after commercial for the laptops you can not deliver, and continue to take orders from the poor unsuspecting customers that have not had the luxury of reading forums like this.  You should be ashamed.

   Oh and on top of all of this I have spoken to your so called customer SERVICE department on the other side of the world and found something interesting.  The day my order was delayed the second time to the magic ship date of 8/28/2007 I saw on the order status screen on your website that I had to agree to the delay and either accept it or choose to cancel the order due to the FTC regulations.  However before I did this I called customer service where I was told that it was the color of my laptop delaying my order and that I did not have to consent to keeping the order and it would not be canceled.  I however went back online and filled in the online check boxes to keep the order and my order is still in place.  Now I have read several comments on this forum about peoples orders being canceled and it seems that if you do not fill out the online order status confimation, your customer service reps can do nothing about it.  I am sure that if I had listened to your cusomer service rep that my order would have been like many others and been canceled. Now that is what I call competent customer service.

Dear All,

Well, you've guessed it, the CSR's can't help (I guess a low paid call centre worker in India, Malaysia or China has apparent issues feeling your rich decadent westerner's pain at not being able to quickly get something that costs half a year of their salary) and the Dell execs don't care because .... well .... why would they, they already have their bonuses for the marketing campaign and for every disgruntled purchaser their are a dozen suckers willing to purchase if you dangle a bauble or two in front of them, offer a pretty colour on the case or introduce some new marketing buzzwords.

Just cancel your orders and move on. Forget Dell, don't brood on it, don't stress, just get your money back and move on. No on from Dell is apparently reading this feedback and if they are they're probably laughing at it. I know the inspirons and M1330's are sexy machines at a good price point, but you simply can't get them and if you're lucky enough to, they seem to have a lot of build issues (from what I've been reading, check google). You won't get justice, meaningful levels of freebies or answers out of them so ..... Dell is a company so it won't feel bad no matter how much you rant and rave, get over it.

I did !

There are a lot of other computer companies out there and the products just keep getting better ! Some even have in-country support from people that can actually help you as opposed to reading a script and saying an empty "Sorry" about thirty times a minute.

I placed my order for an Inspiron last night, 8-20-2007 @ 11:39 PM. It is now 3:20 AM on 8-21-2007 and I have spent the hours in between in reading all the  blogs of frustrated Dell customers. I will be cancelling my order TODAY and pursuing *ANY* other brand than Dell. This situation goes way beyond ridiculous and absurd to the point of monumental incompetence. I will *NEVER* buy anything from Dell *EVER* after reading all the blogs before mine. Let's see, that webpage was at HPShopping.Com, Right ??

I placed an order on 7/7 and after being delayed 2X I received the automated call: "Due to FTC Mail order rule...press (1) to continue your order or (2) to cancel your order"

I pressed 1 and received a confirmation message.  3 days later, I get an email stating my order's been cancelled.

 After 3 hours on the phone with Customer Service, 5 different departments and 3 different managers later I find out that the order cannot be RESUMED, it has to be replaced and a new ship date issued.

I've had another Inspiron 1520 on order since 8/3 and after being delayed again, I'm on my way to the website now to cancel my order.
 

Well, I posted a comment earlier with my whole sad sorry story--but apparently the moderator didn't see fit to post it.  Long story short, I just cancelled my order tonight, after stopping by my local big-box office supply store and buying an HP.  I always thought that Dells were higher quality that HP, but a.) at least I have a computer to start school with next week; and b.) with the part shortage and all the pressure that's on Dell at the moment, I personally was worried that they would possibly compromise their integrity and use lesser parts.  Maybe I'm being paranoid, but if Dell cannot resolve this quickly, it looks like it could blow up in their face--big time.

 Everyone, cancel your orders.  Go elsewhere.  Don't support a company that treats its CUSTOMERS like this.  Maybe if enough of us do it, it'll hurt Dell enough to make them change.  Somehow I don't think all of us complaining on this message board will do that....

If my order is gets delayed I will certainly cancel it and buy somewhere else where my business is appreciated. Would be too bad, I bought my old computer from Dell and was so far satisfied with the service, but what they do now seems to be a joke. 

@z_man300, you "smart" guy need to understand that time is money.  Do not get me wrong it is great that you have the patience and time to wait but if you would get a higher education and be at a university without a notebook for several weeks you would  see it is no fun and therefore consider paying a higher price for an Apple, Sony or HP, too.

I keep reading blogs about the M1330 and about how good they are. I ordered an Inspiron 1520 in Spring Green on July 13th and of course like many of you guys, my order was delayed til Aug 28th. I am worried about their quality and am wondering if the laptop is indeed worth the wait. So can someone please tell me? =]

Recent Order Status:The system is undergoing routine maintenance. Please check back in a few minutes.

Does anyone else have that? Mine has said that for weeks now. I'm pretty pissed too. 

To Ranya:

Just send them a box with a dog turd in it. That's what we have been getting over the email and NET from them.

 Perhaps then they will offer you something. I've also inquired about the bag and they would not give me one. I thought it was included with all orders but i was wrong. So now I get to wait 2 months for a computer and no freebies for my patience and most importantly my money!

-Kev
 

Everybody is in the same boat as I am.  I have spent countless hours on the phone with Dell.  Spoken to over 40 representatives in several countries: India, Manilla, El Salvador and when I finally got thru... to someone in the United States.

No one can help.  No one gives anymore information than what is listed on your "order status", no one at dell is the least bit interested.  I have escaladed my order to the executive offices in Texas.  They are not even interested in helping.  I ordered my laptop on 7/15/07.  My order has been canceled without my permission twice (even though I responded to the phone calls)  I still have not recieved it, nor has anyone offered to help.

I wonder if Dell would mind if we all called our local papers and news stations with information from this blog and our stories.  I bet a big news story about how they can't keep up, how they're still advertising and selling, and how they have broken promises of ship dates would give them a big kick in the pants to try and figure out a solution to their problems.

I don't think Michael Dell cares about his company.  Why else would everyone of his employees refuse to give me his address or phone number?

I am a customer service manager at the 4th largest retailer in the United States.  My locations sell Dell computers.  They won't be selling as well if I am asked by a customer "What do you think about this computer?"

How did some of you get a free Timbuk2 bag or some form of monetary compensation?? I placed my order july 17th and it's been delayed til the 28th but I get nothing. I even called today to complain, thinking they'd offer me some sort of consolation, but no such luck. All I've gotten is free next day delivery, which seems everyone else got as well.

I WANT SOMETHING FOR FREE OR SOME MONEY BACk FOR MY PATIENCE>>> any advice???

I am frustrated because I received the notebook ahead of the delivery schedule and it is not working...AT ALL.

A part was ordered and then I was informed that there was a backorder on the part...yet the technician received the part the day before I got the call...

The technician came out to repair the notebook and guess what it was the wrong part...The issue was not with the LCD as technical support had indicated...

The technician could not order the needed part because Customer Care told him to leave immediately because the notebook was reported stolen.

Finally we got that cleared and the part that is needed was ordered only for me to get another call to say that this part too is on back order...   

I said forget it...I want a new notebook...and I was told I have to wait for 3 to 4 weeks...

I am just hoping that Dell will be sympatheic enough and understanding and at least not send me a bill.........

Not good, Dell.  Not good at all.

I am a Dell Reseller, and you are making me look bad.  I can't get straight answers from anyone in your company.  Just empty promises.

I've had to tell dozens of customers to not even bother trying to order a Dell right now.  They have gone elsewhere.

I am trying to be patient and not lose the orders I already have, but any more delays and I'll just cancel them all.  Way too much grief, on my end.

Dell Reseller.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

 I've been postponed twice.

 After this, I can promise I will never buy from dell again. The product should not have been offered if you didn't have the parts.