M17x Order Status Discussion - Part 4

Just to give everyone a quick update -

I have just finished speaking to dell and according to them the following parts for the M17X are on back order - Cyberlink DVD, Wireless Bluetooth adapter and RAM. When asked when they are due in they replied with " According to our manufacturing team they may arrive by the end of November.

 

Was looking for the dell plants in china and found out from another thread that Compal
is behind AW manufacturing in china Compal Electronics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Compal was founded as a computer peripherals supplier in 1984.[2] The company is known for producing select models for Dell (Alienware included), "
and then stumbled on this NEWS which could explain partialy the delays
Worker Dispute Halts Production at Chinese Electronics Plant - WSJ.com
even though they say it didn't affect production line (for the sake of stockholders ofc)

 

Supposedly, it was only for the weekend and they are now back on the line.
Compal Electronics: Chengdu Factory Operations 'Back to Normal'

 

FINALLY!!! MINES HAS COME, SO EXCITIED, ,i havent even unboxed it yet cause im at work, but i am still pissed, only cause others have not receive theres on time, im wondering why mines cames then, i mean its only been a week off. but still people on here been waiting forever, 2 things i did on mines was upgraded the ram to 8gb, and did a personalized name plate, but that was all special on mines, everything was left the defualt

 

^ Congrats mines EDD 4th december not even in production yet .


I want it so badly.

 

ok so with some more concern over them not having already taken payment and wanting to be sure i told my roomate to email them about it, i dont know the full info of what was sent in response but from what i was told is it was a canned response, standard yea its in production, heres your estimated date and all that stuff. he did a chat after that and was given a little more info that way but still nothing i wanted to hear. so the new update is saying they are short on:

stickers (really? again drop it from the order if you dont have it on hand)
hard drive bracket
keyboard
network card
ram
hinge cover
and now the LCD

guy said most of the items he listed were minor items and they have been ordered. dont really think the lcd, keyboard and hinge cover is really that minor

 

Well, 11 days and after over 10 hours on the phone with Dell, they've finally placed an order and have "verified" it this time. after giving me countless reasons one after the other (we need to verify your name, address, email, phone number, email, university email, phone number, billing address and shipping address, etc.) they finally gave me a new order number. And my shipping EDD went from 22nd nov (on site, when i first called to order) to 3rd Dec (when i paid and everything was confirmed) to 19th Dec (now, after they've re-instated my order and charged the card. again.)

Seriously hope i get my laptop before 7th Dec (my birthday), or at worst before 20th (My flight out of the country for a month) ...

 

Did anybody get their laptop from FedEx? And if anyone did, did you have to sign for it because I may not be there and FedEx assured me you didn't have to sign for it

 

I thought the rule was that if it were declared to be over $200 in value, a sig was required, but I could be wrong. If it is and no one is home, they will leave a tag that you can sign that night and they will deliver the next day, whether you are home or not. If you are really dying to get it (aren't we all), you can always call them and pick it up when the truck arrives back at the depot that evening after trying unsuccessfully to deliver to your door.

 

the m17x r1 i won in a contest years ago came via fedex, dont remember needing to sign for anything but that was 3 years ago. if dell tries to extend my delivery time cause they didnt charge my roomie im calling bull on that and canceling my order, not going to wait another possible month cause they dont want to charge properly after my roomie confirmed his info multiple times, its been hell not having a laptop i can actually play games on and im not waiting another month with a bunch of part shortages and other stuff.

 

That's what I thought but I was just making sure. We are ups dominant in western Oklahoma so tge nearest FedEx building is in Oklahoma City which is almost a three hour drive lol

 

well if they dont leave it at your house but they leave a note you can have them deliver to a nieghbors house, ups did that for mail order meds for me or you might be able to call fedex up and have them deliver to your work if your work will allow and your lucky enough for them to do it, its a long shot but if they wont leave it at your house and you dont have any neighbors then its pretty much your only option

 

Summary : I've been talking to dell since late oct. Salesperson finally told me on 4th Nov that if i ordered he'd see that it's delivered before 22nd Nov (which is when my current laptops international warranty expires. first year) , that failed and after like 10 days of Dell's inconsistency (they had to ask me my card info 3+ times, and kept re-verifying addresses giving excuses like "Oh he's out of office, pls hold and i'll cut your call then not call back, etc.) I finally gave up with that first order and spoke to a salesperson to give me a new one which according to her got cleared the same day (i hope so this time.)

After a bunch of hoops for 10 days w/ dell making excuses to not start production, they just gave me a new order number. Now problem is, i spoke to the rep and told her even if the laptops not here before 22nd Nov, i NEED it before 20th Dec (cos im going to be flying out of Canada for more than a month), though the Dell websites EDD is 19th Dec, do you guys think i'd receive it before 20th?

The agent said that i'd be getting it in hand after the whole postage and shipping and everything is complete by like 13th (15 business days to build, 5 business days to deliver at most) and she said she'd put it on 'expedite' or something which indicates it's a priority.

Do you guys think i'd receive my system by then? Or did i make a huge mistake trusting Canadian Dell? I could have just ordered from US (and got the custom nameplate) and had it shipped to Dubai, UAE . where i'd be in like a months time for winter break. But i thought i'd get it faster ordering and shipping it here to my university in Canada, and now i'm faced with a possibility that i may not even receive my system until mid-late Jan, which is when i'll be returning to Canada. and that if the package is not accepted, it'd be shipped back to dell to be sent to me at a later date, AT MY EXPENSE? ...

 

All I can say is, best of luck getting it at any promised time. The Dell order support department has to be one of the crappiest I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. I tried to get a status update on mine this morning and the rep said they couldn't help me because my order had been transferred to the Dell employee department. I don't work for Dell, but if they want to start sending me paychecks, that's fine.

I just want my laptop, and am now almost within 1 week of my EDD, and it has been in production since 10/30. They assure me it will be here on time, but who to believe since every rep tells a different story as to why it's still in production for so long.

 

Just got a confirmation that my laptop has finished construction and will be shipped to the US tomorrow and then to me

 

They probably meant their EPP (Employee purchase program) department. I had ordered on Oct 25 and mine has finished construction as of 10 minutes ago with expected delivery on or 1 day before my EDD of Nov 23. You may well get yours soon too. Try calling Dell EPP if that is indeed where you ordered from, their reps are a lot better from personal experience.

 

I might just do that. All I ever get from these other guys is some random parts shortage and no guarantee of delivery on time.

 

this is really sad, my edd is 19th Dec and my flight out the country is 20th Dec. my earlier edd was 3rd Dec but because of THEIR mistake, i have to suffer?..

 

Did you call them up to get the confirmation?

 

Yup, Dell EPP customer service has never failed me the past 1-2 years so far.

 

I finally got a bit more info from a helpful rep after the redirect to the Employee Purchase group. They still can't pinpoint my date, but at least they were friendly and it still appears to be on time to be delivered as promised on the 27th or before.

My side question is, has anyone experienced where the item arrived before the order status page changed to shipped and showed a tracking number? I want to be sure I am home that day, but have a sneaky suspicion that the laptop will arrive before I know it's even shipped.

 

Guys, what do i do if i'm leaving the country on 20th Dec, my original order edd went from 21st Nov to 5th Dec and now it's ing 19th Dec. (Because Dell made a mistake and the order number was the same as a US company order. so they had a ton of issues which they couldn't resolve until they cancelled the previous order and re-issued a new one for me).

i'm so worried that they'll make the system and ship it too late for me to collect it. Could i get a refund if that happens, i'm honestly very disappointed and if i don't get my system in time (before my flight) i'm just going to buy a sager/clevo notebook or something else in Dubai. Honestly have never hated a company as much as i hate Dell right now. Their customer service is terribly horrible, ALL their staff members are Indians/Pakistanis (not being racist, just that the accents on some of them, they spoke english in such a way that they made me feel like i was being treated like a mental case eg. "What's your name?" "Jay" "Jungle Apple Yoyo?") and after finally getting my order i'm now getting different things on EDD though all of the reps i've spoken to said i'd receive my system around 13th Dec because it's already in production. *sigh* fingers crossed.

 

remember your now the only one with a laptop in production. There are probably a ton of other people waiting for their laptops as well. It's like managing a circus as they have so many orders and such.

 

When you cancelled the 1st order, you just forfeited your position and by making another order, technically, you are pushing yourself down the line. Dell is a big manufacturer and they just don't manufacture AW only. If you don't want to risk, I suggest you to cancel the order and wait till you get back to Canada.

It's just the way it is. There is always something fell out somewhere...

 

As far as I know, if you're not home when it arrives, you have 2 options. They'll bring it again the next morning, or you can just drive over and pick it up from the (DHL, UPS, etc) office..

 

the first order was over 10 days of them having made a mistake with my order number. wasn't my fault. half of them wouldn't know which order i was talking about because they'd pull up the US info, while the other half pulled up the CA info and said it's all in production and that everythings fine. until they cancelled it themselves on the 9th saying they'd re-instate it. it wasn't my fault at all. i wasn't even aware of the first order being cancelled for re-instatement until i finally spoke to a rep.

 

Hi, sorry to hear of all the problems, and I also have had some difficulty with language/accents of the Indian help-desk. But, having placed a service call just yesterday, they are (for me anyway) very helpful. Yes, the phonetic alphabet is often the only way to communicate, I now automatically do it when dealing with them, but they do get the job done, albeit a little slower than someone with English as a first language.

Anyhoo, yes, you can return the product for a full refund if they don't deliver in-time without any difficulty. It's a legal right but make sure you specify that it is being returned due to their mess up on the original order just in-case you get an ******* who tries to hit you up with a 'restocking' fee

Here's hoping you get your new AW in time for your trip.

 

Mine is still in pre-production since 27th oct, is this normal? :|

I just rang and they said they are gonna start building them now but this sounds like BS to me.

 

Right, but I am somewhat dead in the water here until it arrives. Each day it's not in my hand is another wasted.

 

Looks like my new R4 will be arriving tomorrow!
Ordered: 10/24
EDD: was 11/23, updated to 11/21
Still waiting on email confirmation and a tracking number

Edit: Actually it's arriving today 11/20! Found the tracking number and it should arrive this afternoon. The weird thing is I never received a confirmation email or anything saying that it was this far along. Good thing I'll be home today when it arrives.

 

Geez, I ordered 1 day later and mine is still scheduled for 11/23.

 

^ So not fair.

A few days ago, I did a little shopping in preparation for my laptop:

Spoiler

The only thing I'm missing is a protective sleeve. I was thinking of getting this backpack:

 

I am considering the ThinkTank Shapeshifter as a backpack for this and also some of my camera gear. Seems to hold the M17xR4 without much trouble. For daily use, I got a nice Targus backpack that can pretty much hold any laptop in the world in its laptop compartment.

 

I suggest you take a look at the Slappa MASK backpack. It has plenty of space and a good padding for our M17x.

 

I placed a order on Oct. 28 that was cancelled without my consent last week, no call, no email, just happened to check my order status and noticed CANCELED. When I called to ask why, I was told they ran out of WORLD OF WARCRAFT pre-install kits. I could not believe what I was hearing.... this puts all rumors to rest and now I know for sure Dell has absolutely NO IDEA what they are talking about. I went thru 5 different agents, 2 of them hung up on me. I finally got to a senior sales supervisor who RE-placed the order with an EDD of 3rd Week of Jan in 2013, no explanation of what happened...... IF the laptop comes in Jan, which I have no faith it will, would have taken 3 months from my original order date. I fail to see how this is acceptable for any company trying to run a business. I understand there is a strike at the Compal plant and a shortage of parts, but keep your customers in the loop on what you are doing. Dell has got to be one of the worst run and managed companies and makes me wonder how they are still in business if this is how they treat customers (reading thru these forums suggests I am not the only unhappy customer.) I will be spending my $2500 elsewhere, locally, and doubt I will ever order again with Dell.

It`s really too bad because I was really looking forward to owning an Alienware. I really like the product but cannot deal with Dell anymore.

 

I know what you mean. I was refreshing the DHL tracking page every 20 minutes it arrived in my country, but I had 2 options: wait til tomorrow after work, or take a 1 hour taxi trip to the DHL office at the airport to pick it up obviously I went to go pick it up

 

After reading about the mess that seems to be going on at Dell I was pretty worried my M17x wouldn't arrive in time. I ordered on the 24.10.12 and it just went into production yesterday. If that order status is trustworthy is another case... So the delivery is scheduled for the 29th and I'm quite curious to see if they can keep it. The good thing in Europe is that European legislation grants you the right to return anything ordered online within 14 days, free of charge. And with that kind of pressure you can sure speed things up a bit. What I don't like about the customer service is how condescending they are when you've got a good offer (7970m, Hi-Res-screen, Killer Wi-Fi for 1448 Eur, approx. 1850 USD) and dare to complain about the delivery time. Maybe they're right. I guess a bit more gratitude won't harm and I'm sure all of the orders that were placed in the last week of October are now in production.

 

Just a bit of piece of mind, mine took about 10 days to get delivered from 'in production' phase, us europeans have a slightly sdifferent tracking system where 'in production' means its literally being built not awaiting parts which is our 'pre production' phase. You should get a EDD when its finally shipped, may be the same date or couple days earlier.

 

Mine still isn't in production and i ordered last week of oct

 

Why didn't you just take the metro? i'd have done that and saved the 200-ish you must've spent on cab. Then again, i live at burjuman so it's more convinient for me

 

I didn't want to bother with the whole metro system, and it would have been difficult to find and walk all the way to the DHL service center which is 'next' to the airport.

Cab was only like 140 because I took a cab straight from work I was in a hurry to get that laptop and get the hell home xD

 

Grrr.. After being promised everything was complete, my EDD got postponed by 6 days! Another 2 days and I will be out of the country for a month. I am beginning to lose my patience with Dell.

 

It's kinda sad that their order support is run so poorly, since their technical support has always been stellar for me. I have never had any issue with support or parts replacement, which is a good thing, since I have ordered and worked on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Dell hardware. At this rate however, I will likely spend my money elsewhere when it comes time to replace this one. (If it ever arrives...)

 

They continue to promise the laptop will arrive on its first EDD of Nov 23 and they are not sure why the EDD was changed, they will "get back to me" with news. Meaning- sorry, I have no clue.

 

Well, when you have Indians trying to communicate with China to report back to a buyer in 'x' country, things tend to get lost in translation.

 

so yesterday my roomate got a 7 second voice mail from the dell phone number, with nothing in it, then got the canned response email saying your order is in production with nothing about parts shortage. if this is supposed to be a follow up from the chat they took 5 days (3 if you take out the weekend) to respond. i asked my roomie to check his credit card but there was no charge, going to ask him to check again today as we still have yet to be charged for the order which is leading me to believe they are going to drop the ball soon and cancel my order right before the delivery date then make me redo the whole order, which if they do and do not take off a LARGE portion of the final price or give me several upgrades, and actually rush the build im canceling my order and going elsewhere. we have had contact with them atleast 3 times and possibly 6 or more if you count calls and emails and none of them have said anything about a billing problem.

 

If they mess up or cancel my order (23 days waiting so far/ due Tuesday...) I will definitely be going somewhere else.

 

i ordered 10/31/12, EDD is 11/28, have been without a half way decent game time since 10/28 (on the laptop im using right now i get 10fps staring at the ground in wow on fair settings), its really depressing that it takes this much time to build, i think on my first laptop which was a compal from xoticpc took maybe 5 days from order to delivery, according to the label on my m17x r1 i won in a contest took maybe a week from order date to delivery back in 2009

-----------------edit-----------------------

so my roomie contacted dell today to ask when he was going to be charged for the laptop order, dell responded that they do not charge for your order until it ships. so when money is pulled your laptop is completed and heading to your doorstep. i am hoping that this combined with the fact they already did place a hold on his card (the hold went away after a day or so) that they wont pull some billing error bull and cancel my order.

 

Having been in production for around 3-4 days my order has now shipped! That was quicker than I'd anticipated. I sincerely hope that Dell has finally managed to resolve their problems and that you will get your orders in due time.Good luck!

 

Why's it always people with <10 posts that say "Dell gave me my order within 10 days" .. I find it sketchy. while it's all the regular people here who're dying due to their customer service and uber-long wait times.

Just out of curiousity. I might not return to Canada once i leave on 20th December. My orders EDD is 19th Dec (even though the original EDD was 22/11 but they messed up over and over again). What happens if they fail to deliver on time. there's no ing way i'm letting them charge me 20% for restocking for their own ing mistakes.