what's the real situation for delivery times?

Hello,

I am thinking of buying a Dell. However, in the Dell forum, there are really a lot of people who complain about the bad treatment they had regarding very long delays in delivery (or orders that are cancelled and rescheduled at a later date), in addition to incomplete or not reliable customer support.

So, the question is, are just whiners/exceptional cases, or there is indeed a diffuse problem for Dell about keeping the promised delivery times?

 

Theres no smoke without fire... Dell are great for a good deal but their customer support sucks hard, they transfer you in circles, theyre all from india and either cant understand you or you dont understand them or they dont have a clue what you are talking about and give a generic answer thats got zilch to do with what you asked in the first place. They still play cyndi lauper time after time (same as 2 years ago) while you wait 20 odd minutes for someone to answer your call, presumeably to calm people down so the semi useless support guy dosent get an earfull when he eventually answers.

You get what you pay for! But theres light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a great spec laptop for a low price with discounts. I bought a vostro 1700 two years ago, took ages to deliver but it was worth it in the end. Now im getting a studio 1747, ive been quoted an estimated delivery of 31st of december which kinda sucks, however im assured it will be delivered before then, i dunno though, i cant beat the spec for the price so im not complaining.

 

I ordered Dell Studio 1555 with a couple of extra options and 3-5 day delivery on November 11. It was delivered on November 17. I am in the US.

 

Dell service is crappy. they usually dont make their EDDs from what i've seen and experienced.

 

Dell service has been great here.
If you browse a forum about customer service you're bound to find the worst possible stories. Only very few people will actually start a topic about how great they've been helped....while everyone will rant about how unbelievably bad they've been treated.
Add to that the possible issues Dell has with certain parts being on backorder like RGB LED screens. Dell offers great customisation option but that definetly has a downside. When the M4400 just came out they offered it with RGB LED WUXGA, they probably only had a handfull available because they option was cancelled within the first 2 weeks, it took over 8 months before they were available again and even then the waiting list was long because everyone jumped on it.
Not saying Dell never just messes up but there's quite a lot of reasons for delay and such which the clients experiencing this issue will hardly ever consider.

 

well, you'll hear good and you'll hear bad. basically, what youre looking at is getting a laptop in under 4 weeks on average. a lot fo the time, it's 2-3 weeks, depending on the availability of components you ordered. i base this on having personally ordered more than 5 systems from dell, the most recent being an exchange scenario you can read about here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5523980&postcount=168

the first laptop in that post, the core2duo i sent back two days ago, i got in 3.5 weeks, and the i7 that is being shipped now, i ordered on Nov. 5 was shipped Nov 16, and will be here this Friday Nov 20. so from order to my door, is going to be 15 days. including weekends.

 

I had 1 within 4 days, 1 within 5 and one took about two weeks.
I think it matters in which country you are though.

 

Dell has ~12,000 complaints every 36 months to the BBB, and only resolves 4-5,000 of them.


They have a "C" rating with the BBB which is terrible.

 

ya, but you can only make people so happy. I'm in the trades, and ive had people complain about painters getting paint on the t-bar ceiling after I've finished and left the site. which makes zero sense. that would be like if you bought a car, and someone scratched it at the mall where you parked it. then on top of that, complained to the BBB, about the dealership.

my point, is sometimes the general public is a bit of a whiner. so while they're nice to have, you cant put all your stock in them. ^-^

 

lol i placed my order Oct 3rd and am still waiting with a revised EDD of dec 7th... Dell seems to think that its ok and they can just get to it whenever they please.

 

at the same time, still standing behind my earlier post, there do seem to be quite a few people waiting a long time. I however, am in love with Dell's style these last 5 years, so I take the chance that I'll get it soon. Also, I'm in canada, so my experience may be different.

 

Dell Small Business support, however, is legit. Love 'em to death.

Dell Home and Home Office...that needs some help.

 

I think it really depends on where you're located. Dell Benelux for example does seem to be doing a good job (so far). I remember them coming over to my house to fix an old Dell within a day or 2 (and from what I remember I don't think I had Premium Service support or anything).