Dell Venue Pro 8 Stylus Discontinued ?

I had the same reaction. I was able to pre-order the stylus and keyboard folio 8 weeks ago together, with estimated delivery date of Jan 6th. Jan 7th no package, and an updated delivery date of Jan 16th. Fast forward to Jan 10th, and i get an email and a phone call from Dell saying that my order was canceled due to the product no longer being available. Keeping in mind I had been on a wait list and charged (paypal) long ago for my product. I called and talked to support, then to India to get some more help. They had no indication in their system that the stylus was discontinued. Fast forward to the next supervisor level and a reference number in my email - Yes the stylus has been discontinued. 

Here's hoping Dell makes good on this and has a replacement ready to ship in the next week or so in order to not completely upset a lot of consumers. I do admit that the first batches of stylus had no reason to hit the market as faulty as they were, but with the new firmware fixing the stylus screen response. I am very upset that they removed it from the market. 

Same here.  I've been monitoring the "out-of-stock" stylus since December, and this morning I saw it was no longer listed as an accessory.  I bought the tablet for my wife because she wanted a stylus like I have on my Samsung Note 2.  She gave the tablet back to me because there is no stylus.

Without the stylus, it has less to offer than the other brands (especially those that offer hdmi output.)

What a disappointment.  I may be looking at an exchange.

Well, I certainly hope that Dell is redesigning and/or improving the stylus and that's why it's currently not available. If they've dropped support for the stylus completely with no plans to replace it, then I'll be jumping ship to something else. The Asus VivoTab 8 with the Wacom digitizer maybe?

I too just ordered one of these then found this thread

the stylus was a huge reason i went with this tablet.

Do other ones work with it the way it's intended?

Dell, any comments?

I have had three (3) of the Dell pens for my V8P--- not one of them lasted more than a week!    The first one (I got with the tablet) never worked properly.  The next replacement worked fine for about three days.  The third one worked very well for about a week.

I purchased this V8P for taking notes.  Without a working pen and handwriting recognition, I find the device no more useful (probably LESS useful) than my Android tablets.  I'd very much like to return it-- but now I've passed the point where Dell will accept a return and provide a refund.  Yet they continue to advertise the Stylus and its benefits . . .

I totally agree with you. They shouldn't advertise what they don't have. What I hate the most is that lack of transparency from Dell, not even letting us know what is the real problem and when (if ever) it will be fixed.

Returning my Venue 11 to get a galaxy note.

I advise you to do the same.

Good luck.

im having this same problem, i contacted Dell Live chat and the representative told me that the Dell Wacom Active Stylus item # 331-4193 would work with the Dell Venue pro 8, i told him that the technology used in the dell venue 8 was from Synaptics and not from wacom but he reassured me that it would work, has anyone tried this? im unsure, don't want to go through the hassle of ordering it and then not working and having to ship it back for a refund

Don't buy the wacom one. They use different technology. The venue pro uses synaptics (their first try)

I was told the same thing. I just got the Wacom Stylus in the mail, and it does NOT appear to be compatible with the Dell Venue 11 Pro. I wish I had seen this information before relying on Dell Tech support.

Yeah I'm not sure how you don't put an internal note in for the product that says it's temporarily unavailable.  Tech support people sending people Wacom and capacitive styluses claiming they will work in place of the active stylus is just wrong.  It's really baffling.  

Equally as baffling is trying to return the bluetooth keyboard and case, and having it sit in "hold status" for a week.  Now I'm going to have to waste a ton of time calling someone at Dell to try and get a return authorization.  

My first and likely last Dell purchase.  

Woo! Something special 'bout that keyboard; same thing happened to me — even tho they admit to getting it back 5 weeks ago... 

Same here! ordered my Venue 11 pro for note taking and no stylus..... I called last week and was told they have one, paid over the phone and in my confirmation email they sent me the Targus Stylus...... called back and asked that my order be cancelled. I was told it was and 4 days latter the Targus stylus shows up :/  to add insult I was also charged for it. Way to go Dell! (sending it back would cost me about $6.00 in shipping so it's not worth it)

Yes, my experience with Dell has been bad as well!

Tech support was useless, I could do more and faster by googling over attempting to explain the issue to them.

I had a venue 11 pro, and it was a basket case. I finally got an exchange. The new one works great other than some random quirks on the windows side, not the tablet (i.e wake up issues)

For technical issues, I advise heavily to go thru a Microsoft store if you have one near by. They can service Dell tablets and laptops. If you need an exchange, they can do it, but with a 50 dollar fee (worth not having to deal with Dell and whatever random country the horrible customer service comes from)

As far as the stylus, I asked the Microsoft store person if and when it was coming. They said all accessories were pulled recently for technical issues. Just recently, they added the soft cover keyboard (cheaper than Dell...hmmm) and Dell added the battery inclusive keyboard. So it seems the accessories are starting to trickle back in. The panel firmware update was there solely to address the stylus issues, so I doubt very much the tablets will never have a stylus. And the Dell instruction to use a Wacom stylus is evidence of their exceptional technical prowess (being sarcastic). These tablets are great machines, just a shame they are from Dell. 

Same deal here......the tip out of my stylus fell out and disappeared( I think it went on permanent vacation), and they don't have them at the MS stores here either. 

What's worse is that I'm sure there are HUNDREDS of these tips sitting in a bin in a Dell warehouse somewhere, and there's no way to even ORDER replacement tips. It's crazy. :emotion-6:

I ONLY purchased the DVP8 because of the stylus functionality. Just a bit bummed.