I wrote about the Dell 1420 I ordered last month, and it has turned out to be one of my most commented on posts. It turns out there is good reason for so many comments. Dell is apparently WAY behind in production on most of it’s modern laptops. A recent posting, and enormous discussion thread, on the Direct to Dell blog shows that people who ordered XPS 1330 as well as Inspiron 1420, 1520 and 1720 laptops are experiencing major delays in receiving their new computers. The article places the blame on production of the new color lids for these laptops as well as some issue obtaining enough stock for the displays.
My laptop was originally ordered on the July 13, with a shipping date of August 16. Yesterday morning, after reading the postings on the Dell blog, I connected to Dell’s customer care/support chat. I talked with Randy Furlong who told be, in no uncertain terms that my laptop would ship yesterday. I asked him the question directly, and he confirmed. Here is a snippet from our chat:
| 08/16/2007 09:16:31AM | Agent (Robert Furlong): “Thank you for being online, Sean. I see that the order is in production and the Est. Ship Date: 8/16/2007. The order is going to be shipped out by end of the date. The Est. Delivery Date:8/23/2007. Once the order ships out, I will email the tracking information to your email address. |
| 08/16/2007 09:16:34AM | Agent (Robert Furlong): “How am I doing so far at resolving this issue to your satisfaction? At the end of our interaction an instant survey will be offered to you in this chat window, so please keep the window open to participate in the survey.” |
| 08/16/2007 09:17:13AM | Sean Brady: “So you are confirming that the computer for this order number will be shipped on the 16th of August?” |
| 08/16/2007 09:17:23AM | Agent (Robert Furlong): “Yes Sean.” |
Needless to say I was very excited. I awoke this morning to see that my machine had not shipped, and that the date had been changed to the 28th of August for shipping.
I got back onto chat with Dell. I use the chat mostly because it is faster, but also because I think it is easier to keep my cool on chat. I can think about what I want to say, and I fully believe that if I am polite, I will get better service. Regardless, I connected back up to discuss why I was lied to. I was told, of course, that they gave me the best information they had, but it was pretty obvious to me that the lids and some of the displays were backordered. If it was obvious to me why was it not obvious to them? I was told that the parts were backordered, and they had anticipated them to arrive, and they thought the order would ship. It seems unlikely to me that if, at 9:00 am yesterday, the lid or the display was not available for my laptop that they would be able to receive the parts, install them, QC the machine, and ship it still in the same day.
Of course this is not REALLY the fault of customer care, but more of Dell as a whole. The customer care folks can only report what they know. Randy Furlong, who I chatted with yesterday, should have never said it would ship , he should have been less sure that it would. Then he would not have lied. I asked to talk to a supervisor today, who told me that they are simply looking at the same status page that all customers can look at. They can also look up which part is causing the backorder, but they really don’t have any direct information about when things will ship. They should really be honest with customers about this. This should be added to their script. I did ask the supervisor to upgrade my shipping from 3-5 day ground to next day. He gave me a run around about it, which I thought was uncalled for. If you look at the screen shot above, you can see that my order already correctly reflects the upgraded shipping. A very small thing to argue about, especially since upgrading it kept me from canceling the order.
What I am most dissatisfied with in this whole thing is that I have yet to receive any contact about the delay from Dell that I did not start myself. I went to the status page, I followed a link to the blog article, I contacted chat. Some people have said they received phone calls or e-mails, but I have received neither. Dell I recommend that you take a couple of proactive steps to keep your customers happy.
- Call every customer with a delayed order directly, and explain to them the situation. Make sure the person calling is a native speaker of that customers language, and be honest about the situation. So many people are looking to get laptops for school right now, and it looks like most of the dudes are not going to be getting a Dell in time. BE HONEST ABOUT THE PROBLEM!
- Upgrade everyone’s shipping to next day. Just do it as part of this call. And check with these people to see if they need it shipped to a different address. Some of the people waiting for orders are going to be moving for school.
I have owned a lot of computers. I purchased a Packard Bell 386 a long time ago. I got a good deal on a Toshiba 486 when I worked at CompUSA to replace that. And since that machine I have only purchased Dells. I think I am a pretty loyal customer. I wonder if I still will be on the 28th of August?
Tags on Ma.gnolia: dell, laptop, rant, customer service, delay, dell inspiron 1420, inspiron 1420
Comments (7)
Hey Sean,
Thanks for getting your frustration out there, it helps if the word is passed around and maybe someone at Dell will realize the communication problem. The website still says my order will ship on July 18 and Customer Care just tells me my order is late because I ordered a popular new model.
I ordered a Dell Vostro 1400 on August 14 and my EDD is August 31, the order is still in pre-production and I’m beginning to be concerned about them meeting that delivery date, especially since I ordered the large display and a couple of other non-default components. I hope they don’t delay on me, because I placed my order in UK and I’m going abroad for a long time on September 14… fingers crossed
I’m sure Dell would love to call each and every one of us one by one and tell us that our computers are on backorder because of their lack of judgement when it came to ordering parts, but alas, we are not that lucky. Besides, 90% of Dell’s customer care agents are not even really employed by Dell, but by third party outsourcing operations. My fiancee happens to work for one of those companies, on their Dell contract.
My computer was ordered on July 27th. My “estimated” shipping date was August 23rd. Now they’ve changed it to September 14th. And even my fiancee, who can get direct contact with the people at Dell, is given quite a run around. I suppose that’s what we get for ordering systems in the midst of back to school season.
Sorry you had such an ordeal getting your notebook. I guess I got lucky and had a rare combination of components that didn’t get delayed. When I ordered my Vostro 1400 late last month it had an estimated ship date of August 23rd. Imagine my surprise when it showed up on the 10th.
Hope you enjoy the new notebook!
I ordered a Dell Inspiron for my child on July 20th, 2 days after she was diagnosed with a life threatening illness. The computer was intended to help make a housebound summer more tolerable. The result of Dells incomptence and their failure to be upfront about the reason for the delay made an already difficult situation much worse. I cancelled my order.
Great Rant! I too ordered the Inspiron 1420 in Pink for my daughter on July 22. After getting many order updates for delayed shipping and many calls to their “customer service liars” (they must get trained by the same people who train the airline customer service liars) find that my estimated ship date is now Sept 22nd. I’m considering cancelling the order and buying an Apple (which by the way is far superior to Dell in the laptop space). I agree with you Sean that they should be up front with customers and not just nickel and dime us to death with one week delays (this is customer service lying 101, to keep you on a string). I have been told boldface that some people who ordered a week before me were shipping so “be patient”. I for one will never by a Dell and everyone that I know that wants to get a computer will be told of this story.
I too have ordered a Studio 15 from Dell and have had shipping problems. I ordered the laptop on Julyu 20th and my first ship date was August 1st. On August 1st they moved the ship date up to August 8th and said to expect it on August 16. I am so frustrated with Dells shipping I am also thinking about a Mac.
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