What has happened to Dell?

I just spent 3 days attempting to get help.  I still have no idea whether I will get a laptop or not.  Will I get a dvd player?  Will I get 2 laptops?  I can assure you this will be my last purchase with Dell.  Never have I experienced wait times like this and being transferred from team to team with hours of being on hold in between.  I'm not exaggerating.  I just put my phone on speaker and leave it sit until I hear a voice.  Now the muzak is stuck in my head.  The orders are taking days to process with no updating emails.  If there is a problem processing orders why doesn't my email say that?  Why is it taking so long?  Are you using your own computers?  If so now I'm really worried.  What has happened to Dell?  I read that Dell is in trouble because they haven't kept competitive in the products like Apple with iPad and iPod, they were stuck in a antiquated market.  That's not the only problem right now they are about to shoot themselves in the foot with their own customer service.  If you want to survive in a struggling market you need to set yourselves apart.  A good value is certainly going to hook people but they won't stay loyal customers if the service is bad.  I'm going to look to Apple to get my next computer or who knows maybe even HP.