13 Posts
1
17216
Order Status: Where's my stuff?
I placed my order for an Alienware on December 10th with an estimated ship date of January 7th and a delivery date of January 26th. The large gap between ship and delivery date leads me to believe that it's probably going to be assembled overseas. Which is important since if the shipping date is delayed, I would expect it to affect the delivery date as well.
There has been absolutely ZERO update on the order page since the day I placed it. It still even shows the my order is "about to enter production". All of the estimated dates blew right past and not a single update from Dell.
I mean I get it, my order included an RTX3080 which is about as hard to source as unobtanium right now so chances are they're just waiting for parts. I would have been understanding if there was simply an update or a message saying "hey sorry we need to push back your delivery date because we're waiting for parts that should hopefully get here by *date*"
But no, that's not what I was told when I spoke to multiple Dell agents. Every single one I spoke to said my order has been built and is in a warehouse somewhere (they can't tell me where because I don't know why) and "will ship soon" and that I can still expect to receive it on the same delivery date which makes no sense (see my first paragraph). The first agent actually said within 24-48 hours but that blew past quickly and she stopped responding to my e-mails. There's also zero explanation for why my order status page seems to have been frozen in time since December 10th.
I don't want to say this but based on what I've read here from others, I feel like the agents are just spitting out scripts regardless of what's actually happening in Dell's factories (aka. I'm being lied to). I'm 100% convinced the order status page is actually correct and nothing is happening with my order. Again, I can be understanding about production delays but not when I'm being misled by customer service. Get your act together and provide some actual updates please.
And if I have one more agent asking me to give them my order number so they can privately tell me the same script I've been fed multiple times already, I will flip my table. Please don't make me flip my table.
Emilim
13 Posts
4
February 3rd, 2021 21:00
Hi everyone. Just wanted to provide one last update. My Alienware PC was finally delivered on February 1 by Purolator. Of course, there was no previous notification so I missed the delivery and had to pick it up from their depot, but whatever.
I am now writing this from the new PC and so far everything seems to be in order. Thankfully no hardware issues of any sort. I will certainly be back if something decides to stop working though.
I want to point out that despite all of this drama, the actually order was only delivered about 1 week late. Considering the currently global shortage in many in-demand PC components (some of which were certainly in my PC build), I want to give Dell's production team a break because I can only imagine how much of a logistical nightmare it must be for them to meet all the delivery deadlines when there's so much uncertainty.
What made the whole buying experience bitter for me was the absolutely horrible online order status/tracking system that fails to do the one thing it's designed for: show me the actual status of my order. Combined with a customer support team that seems to be winging most of their answers, I really felt like I was throwing my money into a pit and praying for my product to fall out of the sky rather than making a confident purchase from a multinational corporation.
All that was needed was for Dell to create a system that would proactively send me a message telling me that a delay is to be expected when a delay occurs, along with a revised delivery timeline, and all would have been fine, since I could at least feel reassured hat things are under control. The amount of chasing I had to do to get answers that ultimately were either uninformative or inaccurate was simply confidence shattering. And that's a true shame since I feel many of us obviously made the purchase because we believed in Dell's products.
DanielDellIcious
19 Posts
0
January 20th, 2021 19:00
Oh man, your story is way worse than mine
I placed an order for a custom XPS laptop on December 21st. Like you, it blew past the delivery date and, like you, the customer service agents I contacted read a script to me. My order also remained on "confirmed" and Dell initiated zero communication with me.
Fortunately for me, there appears to be an upcoming happy ending - a shipping label was created 4 weeks after the order was placed, and it is due to arrive tomorrow evening (exactly one month later).
xSOJUx
4 Posts
0
January 20th, 2021 20:00
I have experienced the exact same song and dance from dells customer service. Today I wake up to find out that Dell has just canceled my order that I placed on 17 NOV 2020. I received this notification via email. No explanation. They simply cancelled my order after 2 months!!!
This means I missed out on possible saving using other vendors. It means that I faithfully stuck by dell for no reason for 2 months! Every time they told me it was built and waiting shipment I gave them another week. Yet they found it ok to cancel my order just like that.
This is the absolute worst customer service I have experienced in 23 years as an adult consumer.
Emilim
13 Posts
0
January 20th, 2021 20:00
I'm happy for you. Do update us if it indeed shows up tomorrow. I mean I could be wrong and my order could magically show up at my door next week but I'm not holding my breath.
The funny thing is I have received emails from Dell TWICE already asking me how I liked my "new Alienware" and to write a review for it. Somebody at Dell is clearly not earning their pay. I'm tempted to write one just to praise how quiet and invisible it is.
Emilim
13 Posts
0
January 20th, 2021 21:00
Man that's horrible. Yeah I suspect this might be a possibility with many of our orders since they clearly took on orders they did not have the capacity to fill. I'd try escalating because it's unacceptable that they do this and waste customers time and even the savings they would've had if they had simply shopped elsewhere during the holidays. I know I will if this happens with my order.
DanielDellIcious
19 Posts
1
January 21st, 2021 15:00
Man I'm so sorry for what you all are going through. I'm relatively calm now, but a week ago when I didn't know if my laptop would be delayed for another week or many months I was pulling my hair out in an anxiety spiral. I'm an animator and I ordered my laptop for work... the stress was killing me.
UPS's last update was last night, when my order left China and landed in Alaska. It's in the states! Woo! I'm in SoCal, so it's got a ways to go before it reaches me... but UPS still estimates it will be here by 9pm tonight. Fingers crossed.
DanielDellIcious
19 Posts
0
January 21st, 2021 18:00
It is not arriving tonight it just left alaska a few hours ago. UPS says it should arrive tomorrow...
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
25.3K Posts
0
January 25th, 2021 11:00
That first shipping notification means the system has left the assembly facility. For notebooks and most Alienware desktops, that is in China -- for some desktops, Mexico.
You won't see a tracking number until the system until the system arrives at a Dell facility in Canada.
Emilim
13 Posts
0
January 25th, 2021 11:00
Just want to provide an update. As of today, my order status updated and skipped right over production and now shows my order as shipped on January 24th. There is no tracking information yet but it's supposedly through Purolator so it could be coming from within Canada where I live. The order status has also now finally crossed out the original promised delivery date (January 26th, tomorrow) and now simply says "Arriving Soon".
I did not receive any notifications despite my requests through the website and the CS agents but whatever.
I'll update again if/when my tracking information becomes available and if I ever receive this thing.
Emilim
13 Posts
0
January 25th, 2021 13:00
So you're saying there's a chance I'll see it before Christmas 2021? I'll take it.
Emilim
13 Posts
0
January 26th, 2021 13:00
Update: More than 24 hours have passed since my order status indicated that it has shipped on January 24th and the tracking number is still not working on Purolator's website. This is normally understandable for international shipments where the local carrier sometimes does not start tracking until the shipment has arrived in the country (it's rarer these days but whatever I'll give them a pass).
Having said that, the Dell e-mail notification (which did arrive a few hours after my earlier update post) indicated that there would be a wait of up to 24 hours for the carrier to update its tracking. This has now passed.
In the order status page, however, it says it may take "2-4 days" for the tracking information to become available. So again there's some conflicting information here.
I will give them 4 days and update later in the week if the tracking begins working or not.
FL-able
1 Message
0
January 26th, 2021 20:00
.
DELL-Cares
Moderator
Moderator
•
25.9K Posts
0
January 27th, 2021 18:00
Thank you for confirming the delivery.
Yes, I understand the difficulties you have been through and I'm sorry for the inconvenienced caused.
-Susanna
DanielDellIcious
19 Posts
2
January 27th, 2021 18:00
My laptop finally arrived two days ago. UPS delayed the ETA multiple times. It seems to be in good working condition! I am exhausted.
I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Emilim
13 Posts
0
January 28th, 2021 16:00
Daniel good for you man hope all goes well for your new machine.
My update: As of today (January 28th), the shipping tracker is working and showing my shipment has been picked up in Calgary and is being sorted (I'm in Vancouver). No ETA on delivery yet but I imagine it would be sometime next week if this was a normal delivery. Will update again if issues arise or if I actually receive the thing.