Dell's Debacle -- Laptop Shipping Delays Could Cost Dell Big Time

News Type: Event — Tue Sep 4, 2007 10:57 AM EDT

technology, apple, economics, pc, laptop, dell, macintosh, painting, macbook, apple-computer, inspiron, dell-computer, jit, xps-m1330

Killfile

Thousands of Dell customers won't be seeing this any time soon.

Photo by Vox Efx. (License: Creative Commons Attribution)

Dell is on the ropes. The customizable PC giant's assembly lines have been brought to a veritable stand-still by massive delays relating to the manufacture of their popular XPS M1330 series laptops. Now, with shipping delays piling up, Dell's customers are seeing weeks stretch into months with little more than an apology to show for it.

The problems with the M1330 stem from manufacturing difficulties with its case. Dell, with pressure mounting from Apple Computer, responded with a new and dynamic case redesign for the M1330 featuring a new painting process and enhanced hardware specs, but inadequate process testing and supply shortages turned an ambitious product launch into an unmitigated failure. Dell explained the issue on August 3, 2007 in an entry on the "Direct2Dell" blog.

The finish on the XPS M1330 is similar to a custom paint job on a car, but with one additional complexity—on a car, typical viewing occurs from several feet away. With a notebook, the typical viewing range is much closer... sometimes a foot or less. This requires a different level of attention to detail.... There was no problem painting hundreds at a time. But as we increased the volume, otherwise manageable factors like dust contamination caused our successful yields to decrease. Adding to the complexity, the Crimson Red and the Pearl White colors require more coats of paint and more touches to create the finished product—that means there is more opportunity for dust contamination.

But as orders for the M1330 rolled in Dell's wait times shot up, and though the company responded openly about the issues with the XPS M1330, the scope of the problem proved much larger. Delays in the manufacture of the M1330 spilled over into Dell's Inspiron line and some customers report shipping issues with the entire series ofVostro notebooks in Dell's small business division. While Dell battled the issue throughout the month of August, including imposing a hefty surcharge on new M1330 orders with the more difficult colors, the shipping delays have gone rapidly from bad to worse.

In early August the administrators at Notebook Review witnessed a 200% spike in traffic to their Dell Forum, an increase they attributed to people visiting the forums to discussing their problems receiving Dell notebooks [they'd] ordered. In response to the Dell Debacle, the site and community posted the expected wait times for the various Inspiron models (1340, 1540, 1720) experiencing delays. For the mid-range 1520/21, shipments took between zero (for black or white cases) to eleven (for red, green, and pink cases) additional days to ship as of August 8, 2007.

As of this writing, however, the Inspiron 1521 orders that Dell received on July 30, 2007 have an expected shipment date of September 27, 2007 -- a nearly eight week wait time. Worse, the timing of the crunch aligns (and has aligned) with the height of the back-to-school rush. Dell supplies laptops to students and university faculty across the country and the delays put the deferred shipping dates past the mid-term mark for some students.

Despite all of this, Dell's response to the meltdown has been tepid at best and outright hostile at worst. The company has been extremely reluctant to offer anything more substantive than a complimentary upgrade to next-day shipping to irate customers - hardly an olive branch with up to four additional weeks to go until a twice deferred ship-date. Moreover, Dell offers no recourse for its inconvenienced customers short of cancellation of the order. Though the individual components responsible for the delay are easy to pin-point, Dell informs customers that substitutions will result in the order re-cycling through Dell's ever-growing order queue, placing it behind thousands of more recent orders and incurring additional delays.

Though Dell's assembly lines are struggling to churn sluggishly along, the same can not be said of the rest of the industry. Apple Inc's now legendary comeback from dismal lows in the 1990s has brought it back into the laptop market in spades. The Cupertino trendsetter's notebook market share rose to 17.6% in June and - with 1.76 Million Macs shipped in last quarter - accounts for as many as one in six laptop sales in the United States today.

With each passing day the computers languishing on Dell's slowed lines drop in value. The incredible speed and rate of development which has come to define the field of Computer Engineering is now set against Dell's halted assembly process. As the weeks turn to months what laptops Dell manages to ship will, by the time of their delivery, be less sophisticated and more expensive than what Dell's customers could - and very likely will - simply buy off of a store shelf at any one of thousands of consumer electronics shops around the country.

Dell's inability to meet its shipping goals puts it behind its competitors in terms of timeliness and behind the industry in terms of price and performance. With other companies investing heavily into the service and warranty aspects of the built-to-order PC business, there is simply no good reason to say "Dude, you're getting a Dell."

28 Votes
Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.

Published to:

Killfile's Column, All of Newsvine
Groups: Edit Me, GeekVine, Newsvine Community, Old viners
Regions: none

What's this?

Who's leading the conversation?

This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user has on the current conversation. The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera). Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the left, in their corresponding group. Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.

7.6

2.1

{"commentId":997778,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

This article was inspired by recent shipping issues with my wife's Inspiron 1521. Though I've researched the issue outside of the scope of her specific troubles, her complaints are in keeping with what other Dell customers are seeing.

Massive delays on the XPS M1330 have contributed to delays across Dell's product line and the problem is rapidly going from bad to worse. Dell continues to take orders on the Inspiron series and provides preliminary ship-dates to potential customers which are in fact earlier than the estimated ship-dates for products ordered more than a month ago.

With little effort to mend ties with angry customers, Dell's fumble on the M1330 could cost the PC giant massively in the laptop market. At this point I doubt my family will ever buy another Dell.

{"commentId":997778,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"killfile"}

7 votes

#1 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 11:04 AM EDT

{"commentId":998180,"authorDomain":"SVForbes"}

ShaunV

Definitely poor planning on Dell's part.

{"commentId":998180,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"SVForbes"}

2 votes

#1.1 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 1:34 PM EDT

{"commentId":997823,"authorDomain":"damiankd"}

DamianKD

I've had much experience in dealing with Dell, internally while working for them, and externally as a customer. Over the years they have cut corners on every side -- sales, marketing, engineering, testing, development, and it is continuing to show with every passing year.

I will never buy a Dell again, and I hope to never work with Dell hardware again. They lost their focus years ago -- instead of focusing on a quality product and pleasing customers, they focus on the ways to make the most money which hurts their quality and reputation and is not a valid long-term strategy.

{"commentId":997823,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"damiankd"}

6 votes

#2 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 11:21 AM EDT

{"commentId":997827,"authorDomain":"damiankd"}

DamianKD

externally as a customer

I should've clarified this: I have been a customer of theirs, and I've worked for a vendor that provided services to Dell.

{"commentId":997827,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"damiankd"}

1 vote

#2.1 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 11:22 AM EDT

{"commentId":998084,"authorDomain":"chasing"}

Chasing

My sister ordered an Inspiron, received a delay notice, and then was told to contact Dell if she didn't want the order cancelled. She did contact them. Her next notice was one saying the order was nevertheless cancelled. She called and was basically told "tough luck". Luckily, she kept calling, wrote an angry email or two, and eventually got her computer (still delayed), but only after agreeing to a different screen size and configuration. They did throw in some extras, however. After all this, her computer, not the one she originally ordered, showed up a month late, and would have been even later had she stuck with the original configuration. When she asked "what gives?" she was told "we had no idea the new Inspirons would prove to be so popular".

{"commentId":998084,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"chasing"}

4 votes

#3 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 1:05 PM EDT

{"commentId":998268,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

I think Dell's customers are sick of excuses. The smart thing to do would be to first make sure that the Inspirons roll off the line independent of whatever problems are vexing the M1330s and cut back ordering of the M1330s with the hard-to-paint covers by any means necessary.

Then they need to do smooth things over with their customers. Free warranty upgrades would be the least expensive thing they could do - though most people would be glad for some extra hard disk space or ram.

Finally - Dell needs to take serious steps to repair its ailing reputation. Apple's support is entirely US based. Dell used to sell its service -- today even that is lagging behind.

{"commentId":998268,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"killfile"}

3 votes

#3.1 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 2:12 PM EDT

{"commentId":998927,"authorDomain":"jmack"}

jmack02

Kill, this reminds me quite a bit of Apple's blunder back in the early 90's with the highly popular Quadra systems. These became more popular than Apple had anticipated and as a result suffered from huge product shortages and long delays. It has often been pointed to as one of the events that pushed Apple into the dirt in the mid-90's. The only thing Dell has going for it is its pure size. They have certainly dug themselves into a hole, and it may be years before they recover (if they recover) from it. Still, Gateway is still around and I thought they died years ago.

{"commentId":998927,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"jmack"}

1 vote

#3.2 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 6:03 PM EDT

{"commentId":1000147,"authorDomain":"cpg"}

cpg

Gateway is still around

well, sort of. Their stock is worth about 2-3% of what it was in its heyday and they were just bought up by Acer.

{"commentId":1000147,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"cpg"}

#3.3 - Wed Sep 5, 2007 8:26 AM EDT

{"commentId":998092,"authorDomain":"cpg"}

cpg

Dell delays aren't limited to laptops. My company recently ordered a Dell desktop system. There was a shortage of LCD monitors and Dell refused to send the rest of the hardware because that would have been an "incomplete order". We could have easily used a spare monitor here and waited on the new LCD. Instead, after weeks of delay, we canceled the order outright and purchased another system. Looks like Dell is heading in the wrong direction.

{"commentId":998092,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"cpg"}

3 votes

#4 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 1:07 PM EDT

{"commentId":998228,"authorDomain":"katrixx"}

katrix

It's a shame that they're letting these delays roll over to the Inspiron series, which are probably much more popular than the XPS series with college students and home users. My first PC was a PC's Limited (the first Dell) and I used to think really highly of them. They've lost a lot of market share to HP and are probably trying to catch up, but they left the quality step out. Luckily this has not rolled over to their enterprise models (Latitude and Optiplex) yet. It will be interesting to see if it does.

{"commentId":998228,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"katrixx"}

2 votes

#5 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 1:53 PM EDT

{"commentId":998470,"authorDomain":"cvillejosh"}

wanago

I order my dell about 30 day with today being the shipping date. I just received an email telling me I been delayed till the end of the month. Now if I go on line and spec the same computer it will cost more but it's ship date is the same as my 30 day old order.

I call dell and they say it's unforeseen delay?..I point out that these delays have been going on for over a month and how could the been unforeseen. When I mention that I could reoder the computer today and get the same shipping date- he assured my would be made before the one I could order today. So they basically admit to lying to the customers even today
.
How can these company not ended up being sued for consumer fraud?

{"commentId":998470,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"cvillejosh"}

2 votes

#6 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 3:25 PM EDT

{"commentId":998936,"authorDomain":"jmack"}

jmack02

In the end, they might be. A situation like this is ripe for class-action cases. We'll just have to wait and see though.

{"commentId":998936,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"jmack"}

1 vote

#6.1 - Tue Sep 4, 2007 6:05 PM EDT

{"commentId":999866,"authorDomain":"adventurebooks"}

Robert Blevins - AB of Seattle

I want one of those laptops like the U.S. Army gets...you can drop-kick those suckers across the room and they just keep on going.

That was a joke.

I get the Dell catalog, which lately has been so slick and inviting that I was tempted to order another computer. I think I will just wait and see what happens with Dell for now.

Great article, Killfile. You really hit the nail on the head this time.

{"commentId":999866,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"adventurebooks"}

#7 - Wed Sep 5, 2007 2:30 AM EDT

{"commentId":1000247,"authorDomain":"courts"}

Courts

That's sort of the problem. I'm one of those people getting tired of waiting for their Dell.

I owned a Dell laptop that was virtually indestructible. It was solid and reliable and in three years needed maintenance only once (and when it did need a repair a guy picked it up at my office at 9 am Tuesday and had it back in my hands by noon Wednesday).

But when I needed a replacement system, Dell didn't offer the best warranty package in the business and I wanted to have a tablet PC for my thesis research. So I bought a Gateway.

To be fair, I have loved my tablet PC. But it just isn't worth the hassle. This system has been in for repairs that took almost two weeks each THREE times in just two years. It has two repeating problems---the connection between the power cable and the motherboard breaks and the laptop will no longer charge and the hinge that connects the monitor to the screen breaks preventing the laptop from closing and often causing the screen itself to crack and break. Gateway has, with only slightly more than the expected amount of arm twisting, fix the systems but the hassle of shipping it out, finding a replacement for two weeks while it's gone, and having to pay for the shipping to boot was more than I wanted to deal with this time around. So I decided to go back to Dell.

Now I'm thinking that the time may have come for a new direction entirely. There has to be an easier way.

{"commentId":1000247,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"courts"}

#7.1 - Wed Sep 5, 2007 9:25 AM EDT

{"commentId":1000416,"authorDomain":"bvalone"}

bvalone

I'm so glad I found this article! We are ready to buy a new computer and we've always been very happy with Dell, at home and work. So if not Dell, then what? (outside of a Mac, I have no time to learn something new!)

{"commentId":1000416,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"bvalone"}

#8 - Wed Sep 5, 2007 10:25 AM EDT

{"commentId":1000460,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

If you don't need customization I'll check out HP or Sony. With any laptop what you're really looking at are three things: Price/power, durability, and service.

Everyone is pretty much on the same level field as far as the first goes and service is something that's starting to catch up for a lot of the new players in the game. Courts (comment 7.1) above seems to have had some problems with Gateways as far as durability, though that might just be their tablet series.

I'd look at HP. They're good people and make good stuff.

{"commentId":1000460,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"killfile"}

#8.1 - Wed Sep 5, 2007 10:36 AM EDT

{"commentId":1000507,"authorDomain":"katrixx"}

katrix

And don't forget battery life and the warranty. It's a good idea to upgrade the warranty from the standard one year to three years, and to purchase an extended-life battery if you plan to use it while traveling.

{"commentId":1000507,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"katrixx"}

#8.2 - Wed Sep 5, 2007 10:51 AM EDT

{"commentId":1004220,"authorDomain":"JoulesBeef"}

JoulesBeef

have you dellt with their tech support? It's like they randomly pull people off the streets to answer questions. SOrt of like when jay leno goes out and asks people common knowledge. I really dont think most of dells support staff even knows what email is. Seriously they may be cheap but they arent even worth that. The first time your laptop breaks, you will wish you had gone with someone else.
Dell is seriously a joke, I'd rather get a fisher price. No honestly just about every single brand is better. Toshiba, ibm, acer, sony, hp, apple, and i'd even get a panasonic over a dell. dont take my word for it, google some reviews and complaints.
Dude dont be a dope, dont get a dell.

{"commentId":1004220,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"JoulesBeef"}

1 vote

#8.3 - Thu Sep 6, 2007 3:24 PM EDT

{"commentId":1000509,"authorDomain":"bvalone"}

bvalone

Thanks much!

{"commentId":1000509,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"bvalone"}

#9 - Wed Sep 5, 2007 10:51 AM EDT

{"commentId":1002088,"authorDomain":"katrixx"}

katrix

I'm one huge skeptic of extending warranties, but I evaluate laptops as part of my job. It doesn't cost much to extend those on consumer models (enterprise models already have 3 year warranties, for a reason).

{"commentId":1002088,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"katrixx"}

#9.1 - Wed Sep 5, 2007 8:53 PM EDT

{"commentId":1005289,"authorDomain":"scott-martin"}

scott martin-181739

This problem is bigger than Dell is letting on. I order a laptop in july and dell delayed the order twice and now over the labor day weekend they decieded to canceal my order for me. They do not even care about the kids waiting on these computers. As for my daughter she might get hers in October. I had to order it again and get back into the waiting line.

{"commentId":1005289,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"scott-martin"}

#10 - Fri Sep 7, 2007 12:33 AM EDT

{"commentId":1005810,"authorDomain":"girlchris"}

Girl Chris

I have to say, even though everyone who knows me knows that I'm a devout (but not cultish) Apple user, I had heard good things about Dell until now. I love my apple and will never switch willingly, and I can't help but wonder what this will do to Apple sales now.

{"commentId":1005810,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"girlchris"}

#11 - Fri Sep 7, 2007 9:48 AM EDT

{"commentId":1008713,"authorDomain":"courts"}

Courts

I was one of the Dell customers who was waiting for a delayed order. My order, which was first set to ship on August 21 and was ultimately delayed to September 27, arrived yesterday and I figured that Dell deserved credit for their service over the last week.

I talked to Dell customer service every day this week. My longest wait time was 3 minutes (that was today, Saturday, during what I assume are peak call volumes) and each representative I spoke with was polite, competent, and genuinely apologetic for the delay in the order. Despite my frustrations they were honest with me about the status of my order and eager to help me resolve the issue even if that meant cancelling the order.

I come to you today from the keyboard of a new Dell laptop and I love it. From its pretty green cover to its widescreen and extremely fast hard drive, I'm very happy. I'm hoping my experiences of the last week indicate good things to come.

{"commentId":1008713,"threadId":"146318","contentId":"940340","authorDomain":"courts"}

#12 - Sat Sep 8, 2007 2:12 PM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"146318","isPrivate":false}

KILLFILE

Backyard

Dell's Debacle -- Laptop Shipping Delays Could Cost Dell Big Time

Published to:

FUN STUFF:

COMPANY STUFF:

LEGAL STUFF: