False delivery date info on site when placing order

Did you read the Dell FAQ at the top of this section on delivery delays?  Click Me

I'm not a Dell employee but all the Dell's are "built to order" and if there is a delay from a supplier for whatever parts, for whatever reason, there can be delays beyond Dell's control. 

I did read that but that’s not my only complaint.

Dell should NOT

1) put a date on their site that they can’t meet. They can look down in the supply chain at inventories and know.

2) put one date before you order and another after you order, within minutes.

3) then after the order was placed and the real date shows up on the purchase, still offer a bogus date on the site to entice people to purchase fraudulently.

4) list a special on something they are NOT certain they can deliver. I mean who looks at the suppliers inventories and says I know we don’t have these but let’s discount them. I assume most discounts are for items that there are a good supply of or they got a quantity discount on.

Not all orders are that way.  I've bought two Desktops from Dell, since 2002 and both were delivered early (before the supplied date).

A lot of their promotions are printed and sent out way before they even know of production delays.  Same way with the ads you get in the newspapers for Target, the Supermarkets, etc.  Often times they will advertise something and if you go to buy it the day of the ad there are none available because the vendor couldn't ship on time, for whatever delay.  Many ad's are "finalized" 6 to 9 months before the actual "sale" date in some cases.  My Daughter is a department manager for a mid-west supermarket chain and she has been on committee's that determine what is put on sale in her department (at all locations) and those meetings are 4 to 6 months ahead of the actual sale flyer.

I know it makes customers angry but it happens to every company.  No company wants to make customers mad and drive away business.  About a year ago ALL PC companies were experiencing delays on laptops due to a shortage of LCD displays.  I remember years ago there was a major delay because of a fire in a memory manufacturing plant in Japan that affected the entire computer industry - new and aftermarket.

Even if you accept that they don’t actually know, then why the difference in dates?

Why would you show people you can get it on the (ex.) the 1st but minutes after they hit buy show it will actually be on the 21st?

And if the person goes back in after say the “site learns” that the 21st is the more appropriate date, would the site still show others they can get it on the 1st?

That is why they put "est" (estimated) which means they are only guessing!

This was an Online Dell.com order from a front page special on XPS laptops.

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I too, ordered a new laptop, my fourth Dell 3/18. The delivery date has been pushed back at least 4 times, the latest being into May. I called 3 times and emailed and escalated to the supposed top tier and was told I could not receive any type of credit, expidited delivery, or even cancel my order. So here I sit,,,waiting. If I waited months to pay them, I wonder how well they would like it.  I could have a new laptop from HP or somewhere, anywhere else right now. An unhappy customer tells at least 10 people...if they care so much about their service, Dell had better clean up their act. I will NEVER buy another Dell.

The saga continues ......................

I have been in touch with the Consumer Global Escalation Management Team about the continued delays in receiving my order for the Dell XPS 435T and my attempts at getting the order cancel due to the revised delivery date. They are now indicating that the video adapter is the issue (ATI Radeon HD 4870) is the component that is causing the problem. They are also STILL insisting that they cannot cancel the order and that I must receive the computer and then ship it back to DELL and wait for a credit to be issued to my credit card.

My original delivery date was 04/30/2009 and I have given them until 05/08/2009 to deliver the computer. I have a project that must be completed and it willbe delayed because of this.

My primary complaint is the "BAIT AND SWITCH TACTIC" used by Dell to secure the order and then after the credit card informtion is obtained changing the date and then indicating that the odder cannot be cancelled.

delayed again till 5/11

Looks like my discussion with the Consumer Global Escalation Management Team have paid off. I received notification today that they would be shipping my computer and I just received the FedX tracking numbers. The delivery date from FedX is 05/02/2009. I started communicating with them after I sent them a message by using the Unresolved Issues link at the bottom of the page. Initially they indicated that the date could not be improved and the order could not be canceled. I made it very clear that the only options were to deliver the computer by 05/08/2009 or  cancel the order. My original delivery date was 04/30/2009.

I am still sticking by my [collapse]original message that Dell needs to provide more accurate delivery information PRIOR to accepting the credit card. If not then they need to make it easy for the customer to cancel if the computers generates a date that is unacceptable. The current system changes the date as you modify the configuration and I do not understand why this information changes once the  order has been finalized which in my case only took about five minutes to complete.

Good luck to everyone that is still waiting on their system.

so is the use of astersks in a post.