Sorry, Looks Like Dell Upgrades Are Delayed Again

[Brad Adrian]

I haven't personally heard from Dell directly, but one of our readers says he received this disheartening e-mail from them about the Windows Mobile 2003 upgrade CD:<br /><br /><i>"We have reviewed your order. Although we had anticipated being able to ship your order sooner, we are experiencing an unexpected delay and will not be able to ship this order and any associated orders until on or before 10/1/2003. If you do not wish to wait, you may cancel your order and receive a prompt refund. Please be aware that unless you tell us that you want us to continue with the order despite the delay, your order will be automatically canceled on 08/22/03. To give your consent to continue your order, please contact Dell at 877-868-3355 or email us at [email protected]. Please include your customer number or order number with any correspondence. We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause you."</i><br /><br />Wow. Not only does it seem like the delivery date will NEVER arrive, but now you have to notify them within the next two days if you DO want them to ship the upgrade after all. Major Bummer.

[heliod]

I haven't received any notification from Dell yet. Still waiting for 9/8.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

I just received the same e-mail from Dell......no shipment at end of this week....looks like another 6 week delay.....

Although I can appreciate their situation and their communication, I have to say I'm more than a little disappointed that they can't resolve a firmware type internal issue in a reasonable time frame.....in the end I'd prefer to have a top notch upgrade, so I'll bite the bullet and wait again. :duh:

One issue I have, however: I have to respond to Dell within 48 hours or my order is automatically cancelled! :evil:
That's a little unreasonable considering I've given them 8 weeks to fill my order! Are they just trying to "weed out" some orders to buy more time for distribution???

It will be interesting if they somehow compensate for this with a discount on the original price or a coupon for a percentage off of some accessory....

KCT

[ctmagnus]

...will not be able to ship this order and any associated orders until on or before 10/1/2003.

So October 1 is the latest it can ship. IIRC some people were waiting six months or more after the release of Pocket PC 2002 before they received their upgrade CDs.

[Foo Fighter]

I received the same Dear John letter several hours ago. I've been quite patient so far, but this is bull****. Hell, Christmas is just around the corner, why not wait until then? :roll:

[AKBishop]

Maybe they're waiting to release it with Gateway's Pocket PC.

[dh]

This is BS. people in the UK have been receiving upgrade CDs for a couple of weeks.

Does anyone have an unofficial upgrade or a link to one that they can share? If I can get one, I'll be happy to share it with anyone that wants it.

[Fzara]

I received the same Dear John letter several hours ago. I've been quite patient so far, but this is ********. Hell, Christmas is just around the corner, why not wait until then? :roll:

This IS BS. Why does it have to take them THIS long to ship this? They had it availble earlier, until the "hackers" stole the copy and put it on their warez sites. Now we have to wait until October 1st!?

Dell has dissapointed me, yet again. Why don't they wait until Valentines Day; no wait, I forgot-that would be too early for Dell to ship this. :treadmill:

[marlof]

I'm in The Netherlands, and have received my upgrade about two weeks ago. Who knows what causes the delay in the delivery in the US or other parts of the world? My experience with Dell is a very pleasant one, so I think they must have valid reasons.

[laner]

I got from my sales rep today that it would be first week of September before it will ship. Haven't seen the dear John letter yet.

[heliod]

Just checked my email. Nothing from Dell yet... maybe they are kind of "distributing" the orders through the dates according to the number of units they can ship every week?

I also know that people in Europe (UK, Germany) have been receiving their upgrades for two weeks now.

My order was in the US, though.

[edramsey]

>> ...or email us at [email protected].

I received the notice also, but my reply email to that address bounced. So.... I tried it again today, and might have to call them if my second email bounces. What a pain...... :(

-Ed

[Bill Gunn]

I think that Dell and HP are deliberately delaying the upgrades in order to drive new unit sales. How many people have talked themselves into getting a new PPC while waiting for the upgrades to ship? Especially when several of the new devices are sub $200.

It is hard to imagine that there can be any valid technical delays when many of the the new hardware units are virtually identical to existing ones.

[PPCRules]

I think that Dell and HP are deliberately delaying the upgrades in order to drive new unit sales. How many people have talked themselves into getting a new PPC while waiting for the upgrades to ship?
Most of the people who would give up and buy a new unit probably wouldn't buy a Dell (I wouldn't; there are better units for the money now), so they'd only be hurting themselves if they were thinking this way. I'm thinking they are still fixing things, and there are a lot fewer OUS customers to go back to later with yet another change.

As for the automatic canceling, I think there is some backorder laws where they have to do that at a certain point of delay, although they are not serving their interests very well by not communicating this better and waiting for the last minute to send the notice.

In short, they probably don't like the way things are going either, but are not devoting enough resources to be able to handle it better. In direct numbers, this upgrade proposition is not a money maker for them.

[Sven Johannsen]

As for the automatic canceling, I think there is some backorder laws where they have to do that at a certain point of delay,

I'm sure you are right about that, but I don't think the rules require the vendor to get a confirmation of desire. I think they just have to notify of delay and provide the opportunity to cancel.

I too got the notice and my reply bounced. I'll be hacked if I call them and they have canceled it because I 'didn't respond'.

[racerx]

It is my understanding that there was nothing wrong with the release they put on-line a few weeks ago and then pulled. My buddy downloaded his before they pulled it and his X5 is working fine.

So unless there is another problem that Dell isn't telling anyone about, there really is no reason why they can't press a few thousand CDs and get them out the door already.

[tccox]

Interesting that I got the e-mail yesterday announcing the delay until October 1. Today I checked the Dell order status page and saw the deliver had been changed from August 22 to August 28, not October 1. Go figure.....

[Yogyakarta]

I replied and gave my consent to have Dell continue the order. They sent me this reply today:

"Thank you for your consent. We apologize for any incontinence this may have caused.

Thank you

Dell Notification Dept."

I'm glad I was wearing my Depends when I got the original message from Dell. :lol:

Paul