I wish I read this forum before ordering. 

I've been a longtime fan of Alienware, ordering my 4th laptop over the last 10 years on 7/2, and the estimated shipping date was 7/19. Since ordering, the status never updated, so I contacted customer support on 7/19 when it was supposed to be shipping out. All they said was "the ship date is an estimate, and orders may be shipped BEFORE the estimated date". That was a bad sign, and sure enough, late last night I got an email saying the revised ship date is 8/6. I'm very skeptical that they'll be able to meet that target date, given everything I've seen from other posts here.

Dell's supply chain management is abysmal, and it's a shame that Alienware's brand name is being dragged down by this. For those interest in high-end laptops, there are a number of ASUS and Razer laptops ranked higher than Alienware by Tom's Hardware and PC Gamer. I haven't seen any sign of order delays, and Razer has a particularly impressive customer experience.

I spent nearly $4k on this laptop, and not knowing when I'll receive it is a big turn off. I hope this raises awareness and helps others avoid surprise delays like this.