Would be interesting to see a response from Dell. I ordered an Inspiron Laptop at the beginning of August, with forecast delivery in early Sept. A few days before the f/c delivery date I rang Dell to check everything was on target only for them to change the delivery date to early October! I composed a carefully worded Email outlining what I thought about this, and also made the point that if I had known how long the delivery would take I would have chosen a different make. To my surprise, Dell responded by accelerating the delivery date to the following week… Something must have changed at Dell for them to get their production and delivery schedules so badly wrong. If it is the result of massive additional ordering e.g. c. 300% up on expected then ok, delays can be expected. If it’s production difficulties or quality control then we all have things to be concerned about. How are they prioritising orders?

I too aordered a Dell at the beginning of August, due original delivery second week of September, then delayed toi the 28th Sept. When I heard it still wouldn’t be ready and the website showed it ws still in pre-production I cancelled my order by email and phone (after wading through zillions of options on the call and holding for 20 minutes). The following day I got a call from their courier telling me they were ready to deliver said laptop! I suspect so many people are cancelling their orders they bump up those who make a fuss to the top or the list and deliver the cancelled ones to them.

Needing a laptop for next week I went the eBay route, partly because I wanted a machine with XP for use with dual monitors (Vista reputedly being very flaky with external monitors). A Samsung X11, described as new & unused, arrives tomorrow. For half the price it was a year ago, too. No regrets (yet)… best of luck.

Ha! It’s you guys complaining and getting bumped up the list is pushing our kit back We’re in the midst of take overs here so it’s been cancelled and it’ll be re-ordered when we know who are the new masters preferred suppliers - good job we weren’t in a hurry!

Did you order a laptop with a 1600×1200 screen by any chance? I tried to and was told that delivery would be at least a month due to a scarcity of this part. I changed my order to a 1920×1200 instead (Dell offered this at the same price as the 1600×1200) and the machine was delivered in just over a week.

whoops, only just seen this comment - sorry Tom. I don’t actually know what the spec was. It seems that long ago that I think it was 640×400 and running Dos 3

Would be interesting to see a response from Dell. I ordered an Inspiron Laptop at the beginning of August, with forecast delivery in early Sept. A few days before the f/c delivery date I rang Dell to check everything was on target only for them to change the delivery date to early October! I composed a carefully worded Email outlining what I thought about this, and also made the point that if I had known how long the delivery would take I would have chosen a different make. To my surprise, Dell responded by accelerating the delivery date to the following week… Something must have changed at Dell for them to get their production and delivery schedules so badly wrong. If it is the result of massive additional ordering e.g. c. 300% up on expected then ok, delays can be expected. If it’s production difficulties or quality control then we all have things to be concerned about. How are they prioritising orders?

There ought to be a law against promising what you can’t deliver! It’s the kind of poor response you might expect from dodgey_bits@ebay.com not a substantial firm like Dell.