Alienware Delays

After a very frustrating day of waiting for my new Alienware to arrive and finding out it was delayed, I decided to post my frustrations here hoping that maybe someone (either another customer or a Dell representative) could tell me something to make me feel a little better. Instead I was met with even more frustration to find out that my post was deleted. I certainly hope that one is allowed to voice concerns and frustrations here without being edited. I have after all been a good customer who has ordered at least 6 or 7 computers from Dell over the years. 

In an effort to "comply" with the moderators and take yet another stab at getting some comforting words from someone I am resubmitting my edited post. I have made an effort to remove my rather harsh opinions contained in my previous post and am just presenting the facts as I see them. 

I ordered a new Alienware R4 on 12/14/2011 that was supposed to be here today 1/2/2012. It did not arrive. I am extremely upset and let me explain why.

This is the second time an Alienware purchase of mine experienced a delay, and by surfing the Internet I can see that I am far from alone. What irritates me the most is that after my first experience with delays I decided to call Dell on Friday 12/30/2011 just to verify that my estimated delivery date was still today (1/2/2012), and the rep said something to the effect of “yes, it is for sure still due on Monday 1/2/2012, and I will add overnight shipping to your order for free just to insure you get it on time”. 

After doing some work this morning I thought I would log into the Dell site to get my tracking number to see what time my machine would be here. I was greeted with the disturbing news that my estimated shipping time was changed to 1/18/2012!

I received no earlier email or warning that my date had changed, it literally did not show up as a new date until today, the day it was supposed to be here!

I find it amazing that the rep I spoke to just ONE business day ago didn’t even know the date had changed! 

Adding insult to injury is the customer service experience. I called them and nobody was able to tell me anything more than the website told me. They seemed to be reading a pre-written script! When I became upset about what happened AND the lack of a logical or caring response from them the “best” he could offer was to cancel my order, like this would resolve my problem! When you are waiting for something for weeks, and have cutout other choices in the process and in my case had an important need for the computer on the estimated delivery date, offering to cancel my order is not helping! Canceling the order means I have to order a new one from somewhere, then wait for it to be shipped, therefore losing all productivity I could have otherwise had if I purchased it elsewhere on day one, not to mention the lost hours on Dells site picking out my system, and I then have to monitor my bank statements to see that the money is returned properly, costing me even more lost productivity.

Now that this has happened to me twice, and I have taken the time to read that others are routinely having the same problem it is really causing me to question whats up.

Maybe a helpful Dell or Alienware person can better explain the situation to me.  

Thank you