Dell Delays: Adding Insult to Injury

Net, HEAR you and sharing the same leaky boat. I ordered 11/5. Postponed 2x, 12/11 became 12/18 then to 12/28. I know someone at dell knows where and what the condition is of each unit. They have order numbers that are in a data base somewhere that could be accessed by someone to find out what the problem is or isn't. It's the computer age after all. I've heard a lot of stone walling from dell with excuses for not looking into the matter of delays. I can see where a rep isn't able to help much, but a supervisor surely can inquire into this and within a reasonable time frame get back with the problem. The corporation may not want to spend the bucks to implement that kind of service for it's clients, but why provide us with help that can't help and get paid for it. The system may get clogged with sooo many inquiries checking on the status of their systems build, so why give in to the buying public. If you implemented a better info system on the building process, be up front, and answered peoples questions with that data base listing the exact conditon of the system, it might help us and your image at dell.

No, I won't come to work for you dell, so you just can forget that. I wish you luck. We need some too.

All, I really cannot speak to Order policies. Being in Technical Support, I do not know what the cancellation steps are. I do know that if you ordered the GTX 260, a team is supposed to contact you and offer the option to wait or select another solution.

I don't know if that's what delaying your order but I'm pretty sure that's not it.

Hello! I just found out some interesting information from another user on the forum. If Dell cannot ship your product to you within 30 days, or you have not recieved it within 30 days, you are entitled to a refund, IF you live in the US, under FTC 'mail order rules'.  According to it, as long as you do not authorize a delay on your system, you can cancel it without penalty. 

Now if you dont want to cancel, maybe you should 'inform' them of this information and see if they will magically ship your computer?

Hi, my name is Victoria, and I´m from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Sorry for my english, it´s benn ages since I´ve stopped using it.

I ordered my Dell the same day you did, but it was an Inspiron... despite the difference, it got out of factory on 12/14/2009. I´ve called several times, and for me, the excuse was the lack of certain parts that were necessary to build the thing. I´ll copy their answer (sorry, it´s in spanish :(

"Verificando su solicitud, le notifico que su pedido -------- aún se encuentra en etapa de producción en nuestra fábrica. Usualmente, la etapa de producción es de 10 a 12 días hábiles. Sin embargo, su orden estará en producción por un plazo mayor. La razón del retraso obedece a que se han agotado las existencias de algunos componentes, por parte de nuestros proveedores, lo que afecta los modelos pertenecientes a las líneas Mini, Inspiron, (incluyendo los modelos XPS) Studio y Vostro. Estamos trabajando en estos casos de manera que todas estas órdenes puedan salir de fábrica a la brevedad posible.

Le pedimos las disculpas del caso por este retraso y le aseguramos que seguiremos trabajando para que usted, al igual que todos nuestros clientes, reciban pronto sus equipos. El tiempo de entrega en su domicilio, una vez concluida la producción varía de acuerdo con el país en donde será entregada la orden.

Su orden, no tiene un tiempo estimado o fecha de salida de fábrica, ni tampoco una fecha específica de entrega para su país, pueda que aun pase en dicho proceso de 3-4 semanas más; por lo tanto, si por alguna razon, ya no pudiera o no quisiera usted seguir esperando este pedido y deseare usted la cancelacion de este y la devolucion de su dinero, puede informarlo a nuestro Departamento de Cancelacion de Ordenes al siguiente teléfono: 0-800-6660789  De lunes a viernes 9:00 AM-10:00 PM  y con gusto le estarán explicando el proceso de reembolso de su pago". (12/3/2009)

After I bought the thing, and almost a month later, I got a beatiful coupon for a discount, for about 15%. My Dell was still In US, while I found out that they had a new offer: the same laptop I´bought, for US$200 less... You all must know the crisis we´re going throug (and I know that Argentina is not alone in this). I´m a student, in a public university, and unemployed. So, spending almost US$1000 (with taxes) is for me a great deal...

Stll waiting for my Inspiron, ang going for a two months delay...

Greetings from Buenos Aires,

                 Vicky

.

I ordered my Area 51 on 10/25/09 and the current ship date is 12/30/2009 and I don't believe it.

Ya.. current EDD just changed from Dec 29th/2009 to sometime in 2nd week of Jan....2010.

So when do we give up and cancel the order?  From going through the posts here, it sounds like it will be cancelled anyway.  The machine was state of the art when I ordered it but not now lol.

I'm another Alienware customer who is getting the complete shaft. Ordered my Aurora on Oct 22 and actually received it on Nov 4th. I was amazed. Until it stopped working properly on Nov 8th. Hours on the phone with tech support and 2 service calls later including a 3 week delay for a motherboard resulted in them finally admitting I need a replacement system. Per their Resolution Expert I was to receive my "expedited system" no later than a week to 10 days later. Of course that hasn't happened. I call my Resolution Expert back only to find the Alienware offices are closed until 12/28. Must be nice to be able to ditch your customers for over a week. I contact Dell and am told my replacement system is still in production and estimated to be shipped 1/22/10 and their is no explanation why. A replacement system should be moved to the front of the line and any delays should require the customer to be contacted directly.

I ordered a Studio 17 laptop on November 20th, thinking I could give it to my wife for christmas.

Well, it looks like that's not going to happen.  The original shipping date was for December 17th and now it's in limbo.

I was considering buying an Alienware desktop from Dell sometime in January to replace my current gaming desktop.

Well, it looks like that too is not going to happen.

With business practice like this, it's a wonder Dell is still in business, I know I learned my lesson.

I'm another Alienware customer who is getting the complete shaft. Ordered my Aurora on Oct 22 and actually received it on Nov 4th. I was amazed. Until it stopped working properly on Nov 8th. Hours on the phone with tech support and 2 service calls later including a 3 week delay for a motherboard resulted in them finally admitting I need a replacement system. Per their Resolution Expert I was to receive my "expedited system" no later than a week to 10 days later. Of course that hasn't happened. I call my Resolution Expert back only to find the Alienware offices are closed until 12/28. Must be nice to be able to ditch your customers for over a week. I contact Dell and am told my replacement system is still in production and estimated to be shipped 1/22/10 and their is no explanation why. A replacement system should be moved to the front of the line and any delays should require the customer to be contacted directly.

I'm in the same boat. I am having issues with my system that cannot be resolved. After Dell sent out a tech that could not fix the problem they suggested just having the whole system replaced since it was only a few days old. That was over a month ago and I still do not have my replacement system. Like you said, replacement systems should be put to the front of the line. Here I am a month later having already had to pay off the credit card and I still have no fully working system. Like you my system was "expedited".

I just got off the phone with Dell Support and I was delayed also. New date is 1/5/2010 to be shipped! :( So I asked why it was getting delayed and Dell Support told me that they were waiting for the "chassis shipment" which is coming in this week.