SXPS 16 alternatives?!

Hi all,

Im getting severely annoyed with Dell now! My order has been in 'pre-production' for 12 days now! Im sick of the constant 'your EDD is 25/2' 'everything is fine' 'your order will be delivered on or before the EDD' from the pretty much non-english speaking Dell reps

Im getting very close to cancelling my order now! My only issue with that is, are there any decent alternatives that you can buy off the shelf? Or at least ones that will be delivered within a week?!

 

That's a tough one. My brother in law ordered a 1647 on Jan 27 and it was delivered Feb 5. His main diff from your spec is he had the 1600x900 WLED instead of the RGBLED 1920x1080. I've ordered the 1558 and mine is slated for delivery tomorrow (we're in Italy btw, and both machines started from Germany according to UPS).

 

I think with a screen like what this laptop has I don’t think you can find an alternative matching this one. I tried to find one but none came as close as this. i know there are a couple of Sony's out there and the new hp laptops and ThinkPad.

But this is laptop is at the top of its game (obviously apart from the obvious issues which are being addressed right now)

 

Yeah im pretty sure there waiting for delivery of a/some part/s, most probably the screen. BUT if you phone them up and ask them straight if there is a problem with stock of a part they give you one of many answers:

1: I do not have access to that information
2: None of the parts are showing as end of life or out of stock
3: Everything is fine, you oder will be delivered on or before the EDD

HIGHLY ANNOYING AND CONTRADICTORY!

Sidenote: Yes i am impatient, but theres no way you should have to wait 4 weeks for a laptop to be built/delivered form such a big company as Dell! Its ridiculour

Rant over..

 

I can totally understand 4 weeks is way too much but I would imagine there probably missing a part or ran out of supply for something guessing the screen. I ordered mine back in January and it only took 5 days for it to come all the way from China. So definitely there’s a cog somewhere in manufacturing it.


Try to argue for a discount or something and hint at the fact that you want to cancel it, should get them off their back side.

 

Yeah next time i phone them up ill hint at cancelling. All im asking is that they tell me if they are waiting for a part. Tell me the estimated lead time on the part and then i can make a decision with regard to cancelling my order or not

All i get told is that theres a lot of orders and thats why theres a delay...

 

I ended up deciding to go with the HP Envy 15 v2. The lack of RGBLED on QuadCore sorta killed it for me, in addition to the lack of bluray... I almost never use disk drives on my laptops, so that the Envy lacks an internal one is really not an issue for me.

But yeah, I dunno, I also played around with an XPS16 in a store (MicroCenter) and found the keyboard flex. That was sorta surprising to me.

Regardless of what I'm experiencing, I'm certain that you'll be happy with the XPS16 if you just wait for it patiently

 

The part you're waiting is the RGB display more likely than not there's a mass shortage of those and blu-ray drives. If you really don't want to wait cancel the order and get the WLED you'd probably get it sooner.

 

Just spoke to a guy called 'Rakesh' threatened to cancel my order, he replied 'sir, there is no need to cancel your order' lol, also asked to speak to his supervisor/manager, he said 'sorry noone is available, they are all in a meeting' again lol!

He told me that there is a high demand for the XPS systems causing a delay in production of some of them, clearly its the screens that are causing the delay.

However he told me that he has notification that it will move into production in the next 24-48hrs, and i made him aware that i will be making a formal complaint against him if it is not showing as in production in 48hrs time

 

I ordered the system back in October 2009 and it took two months to arrive. The throttling issue aside, it was well worth the wait -- add in the coming throttling fixes and it's a near perfect system as far as I'm concerned.

 

I ordered my 1747 12/9 and they still can't provide me with an EDD...no bluray..just the upgraded screen...thought about cancelling and going with the xps 16 but the new Asus seems pretty nice @ around $1800 CAD including taxes and shipping with better specs...not sure how the screen is ...but in the Asus thread the few that have trickled out they are impressed...so I am still on the fence....still looking for a reason not to stay with Dell lol!!!cheers!!!

 

Glad it's not only me getting the run around from Dell.

Had three different reps fob me off and been pissed about all last week
(spent at least 6 hours on the phone or typing emails to them). Looks like to 500gb 7200rpm drive and the RGB 16" screen are all on back order.

The guy today suggested a 1 month lead time on the screen, so I hope he's talking rubbish.

Tried to offer me a alienware as an alternative, but god those things are ugly!

I'm waiting for the supervisor (who's in a meeting!) to get back to me.

Dell's customer service is an absolute joke.

Any suggestions of an alterntive?

 

RGBLED Screens are not on backorder. I ordered mine on 2/17/10 and today its shipped. They are known to give any excuse to let us get off the phone.

 

I'm based in the UK, so maybe a different route to/from the factory. agreed they will try and fob you off at every point!

 

latest update -

..."Please accept my sincere apologies for not responding to your earlier mail as I was awaiting for response from our Factory team.

I have now completely reviewed your requirement and concern.

I understand – you are looking to purchase of XPS 15. However we are experiencing huge Global constraints on our LCD , HD & Power adaptor products.

I have checked with my factory team, if we could expedite this order as an exception, but they gave me a direction that it won’t reach you until 2nd week of March.

Your order stands cancelled in our system and funds will be reinstated back to your account.

Thanks

Chitra"...

No word of an apology for all the time i've wasted trying to get this resolved.

Nor the 3 weeks wasted since the order was placed.

Just a polite F##k off. Thanks Dell. Great customer service...

 

They don't need your business obviously. I would take my money somewhere else. I would like to see where Dell stands 10 years from now.

 

Mine has been delayed waiting on an unknown part. At least they upgraded me to "air" shipping.

I didn't get the RGBLED nor the Blu-ray drive, so I don't know what's holding up the order. Perhaps there is some truth to the 500GB 7200RPM hard drive being. Unless they are waiting on the 130W adapters to come in.

 

i'll keep you posted on my order. got them looking at upgrading the spec as some sort of compensation for the messing about. Earliest they could get the RGBLED for was the 11th March, with the earliest they can get the other out by is the 5th!

 

I got my S-XPS 1645 just two weeks after i ordered it (core i7 RGBLED screen and all) and i had free shipping (ground shipping)

 

I got my XPS 16 today, 18 days after I ordered it. It has RGBLED.

If your order is delayed, you can find out which part is holding it. I had a lot of aggravation with Dell and ended up ordering through one of their higher level managers. It went smooth after that.

Don't give up on XPS, it's a great laptop with very few decent alternatives and I looked at them all.

 

i ordered on 1/16... see my signature -- ... gives you an idea of number of EDDs i have got...

Its finally on its way ... with fedex now - should get it tomorrow....

As OP mentioned, it was a nightmare to deal with dell.. and i had to escalate it via various channels - not sure if it helped though

 

Still trying to get this order sorted out. Getting nowhere fast with Dell despite it being dealt with by more senior staff. Thought the issue was resolved by them upgrading parts to compensate for the lack of available RGBLED screens. They agreed to upgrade the processor from 720qm to 820qm and put a blueray drive in. But now I've actually seen the spec, they have downgraded the screen to a 720p screen, not the 15.6" 1080p. No point paying £1400 for a laptop with a 720p screen! Are they mental....

I can't belive this has gone on so long. My order went in on the 3rd Feb. Dell are still messing about. I've given them until 12pm today to sort it out, or I'm off to sonystyle to order an F series vaio!

Glad to hear other people are getting their orders through. I would warn anyone in the UK to expect long delays if they must have the RGBLED 16" screen.

Starting to think that no laptop is worth this amount of mucking about.

 

Finally got an order sorted, with the right 1080p 15.6" screen! What a nightmare. The order date keeps slipping back for everyday of this messing about. Looks like i've got another few weeks to wait before it turns up.

To Dell's credit they have spec'ed it up with the faster processor and blueray which wasn't on the initial order. Although I've sacrificed the RGB 16" screen and had to drop the hard drive down to a 320gb, because there is a lead time on the hd's as well!

Just a shame their customer service is such a ball ache.

How did Dell manage to get it so wrong? They need to go and have a look at some other companies (Apple springs to mind!) to see how customer service should be done.

 

So you're getting a 15.6" WLED 1080p?

I ordered with that on 2/12 with an EDD of 3/1 but am now being told they are out of stock with no more 15.6" WLED 1080p and this is delaying my order indefinitely. I'm confused as to whether or not they actually have any now..

This was after getting the run-around from 3 people. The last guy (who actually found the delayed item was the screen), I tried asking to get through to the order modification department but he had no idea and put me through to some corporate sales guy's voicemail.

It's a Dell Canada Corporate order if that makes any difference. My current Dell laptop is close to dead, so I do need a new one right away. Might be time to look at an HP Envy or the new Asus instead.

EDIT: Just to be clear, mine is the regular WLED, not RGBLED

 

Wow, I ordered mine 02-05-2010 and received mine yesterday with the specs in my sig. I gues I got lucky getting the 1080p Wled. Too bad its out of stock because the screen is gorgeous. Truely a beautiful laptop.

 

Yeah it's the 15.6" 1080 WLED on my order. The RGBLED leadtime was drifitng back on a daily basis. My order at the moment is going to be sorted sometime between now and the 10th March.
Aledgedly the managers I have been speaking to are going to put it on a priority order, so we'll see if that makes any difference.

 

That's bizarre. I ordered the RGBLED on 2/24 and it appears that they actually just shipped me the WLED instead...ugh.

 

Does it say Premium WLED? From what I've read around here that's actually the RGBLED, the system just shows it wrong.

 

Sounds awesome, thanks jefwic.

 

update: my order is due for delivery today. Credit to Dell for turning it around quicker than the estimated delivery. The upgraded processor and blueray drive were all appreciated compensations for the mess about. just have to see how it runs now with the 90w power supply....