Aurora R13, order status?!

The optimist in me would think Dell is expecting a huge shipment of whatever is delaying orders to come any time now.

The pessimist (realist?) in me thinks the delivery dates shown are just a simple algorithm along the lines of "today plus X business days" regardless of parts shortages/supply chain issues.

Best of luck and keep us posted.

What’s even more comical is I got the usual private message with every thread start only to be told exactly what I know already and NOTHING useful.  What annoys me to the end of the earth is exactly what you said and their inability to be that transparent.  If they’re waiting on parts, why can’t we know exactly what you said, it’s a large shipment, it was supposed to be here, expected to be here, etc. etc/!?!?!  Tell me something freaking new! I want the truth,the whole truth and nothing but it!

This probably won’t help but based on a little bit of research, what I’ve seen on the forums, and the responses I’ve gotten from Dell, I can at least explain part of what is happening.

The key problem is that Dell uses third party vendors (primarily Compal) with factories in China and Taiwan. These vendors appear to use a Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory system. This means they don’t technically have a stock of computer parts, rather they order what they need when they anticipate, expect, or discover they need it. JIT has been used by multiple companies in multiple industries for a long time. It saves money by removing the need to maintain a warehouse and liquidate excess stock.

The weakness of JIT is that it requires a very good logistics, surge capability, and to do it really well you have to anticipate customer demand. The pandemic has brought out the first two weaknesses, and Dell hasn’t figured out a way to address customer demand,  at least not in a way that won’t hurt their long term business.  

However it appears to be much worse.

In addition to the JIT problems, none of the customer facing parts of Dell seem to have very good communication with the manufacturers (or each other for that matter). Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Dell-cares and Orders Modification seem to only get information from a system that the manufacturer updates. Which is more Dell’s customer service departments seem to be able to do anything other than offer condolences and try to direct customers to other areas of Dell that can help them (usually by canceling the customer’s order).

If everything I just said is right, the only group that can tell you if they have everything to build your computer is the manufacturer, and if they have everything they should be building it. Which would me it would be “in production” on the Orders status page. I’d be very skeptical of marketing, sales, or the orders modification department’s promises.

But wait there is still more problems.

Dell’s order status page seems mostly automated and ties in information from the Manufacturer (when they update it) or will update automatically one business day after the “estimated ship date” is missed. It’s extremely streamlined, so it gives hardly any information. When it updates a delayed order, dates appear to follow an algorithm based on if your order is expedited (in which case it’s two weeks) or a regular order (it sounds like it’s thirty days). This thing primarily serves to aggravate the customer, and to add insult to injury all Dell Customer service will direct you back to it.  

Once your order is complete it still has to make it out of Asia to get to Dell’s distribution point in your region. This can take a few days or (according to some) a few months. On the order status page this is the weird time between “Build complete” and “Order Shipped”

And if all that didn’t insult the customer, there is still one more thing.

While many of us are waiting 90 days or more to get our custom Alienware systems, Amazon and brick-and-mortar vendors are still getting systems, and selling them. So when your told “You’re missing a motherboard” it gets down right infuriating to see that Amazon is selling the same system that has the same custom motherboard. Or knowing that “allegedly” Dell has a refurb machine with that motherboard.

All of this is why Dell is hemorrhaging Black Friday sales and creating extreme animosity with their most loyal customers.

What I haven’t been able to figure out is why refurbished or “stock ready to go” machines are experiencing the same number of problems and delays.  The other thing I can’t figure out is why Dell won’t explain this to their customers, other than saying “things are impacted by current events”.

I ordered my customized Aurora R13 with some of the higher costing parts on December 01 21. It said it would ship by December 15 21. It also currently only says about to enter production. I really hope this doesn't take another 3 months on this status too. Good luck y'all! Any tips on how to expedite the process is much appreciated.

Any change?  I highly doubt it considering myself and Valistar here on the forums ordered R13's in October and just received them this week.  Hopefully I'm wrong, but just pointing that out.

Thanks, this is good to know. I will definitely be following up. 

Hello all,

I stumbled on this thread while waiting for my R13 and thought to share my experience for others who may be still waiting.

I ordered my R13 with the i9 and the RTX 3090 on 12/30. It was expected to ship 1/31 and arrive 2/4.

The day before it was support to ship I sent an email to support because my order was still not showing "In production". 

I received a replay stating my order was still in the expected time frame and was on schedule, but they offered me credit of $195 as a goodwill gesture, and would expediate shipping. 

On the next day (1/31) I received an email my order was delayed until 2/11... no surprise here. 

On 2/2 I receive a message my order shipped. Um ok?

It is now slated to arrive 2/6, fingers crossed.

I know this does not help you jcoop269 but may be of use to others.

I ended up receiving mine on 12/23 I believe, after two supposed credits being promised…just fyi, I’ve never seen ANY of these credits.  I paid with the DFS account too so they could easily be crediting my account or even give some rewards, but nothing.