Thank you for your order for the system XPS 1340. Unfortunately we’ve exhausted the supply for this item and can no longer fulfill your order. This message is to advise you that your order has been cancelled.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We truly value our relationship and reputation with our customers. Please be assured that we are working hard to avoid similar issues.

As you may have noticed, Dell specifically indicates on our web pages, catalogs, advertising and order-confirmation that offers are subject to change and that Dell reserves the right to cancel orders arising from pricing or other errors.

Evidently it takes Dell nearly two months to discover they actually don’t have an item that is still listed for sale on their website!

Unbelievable.

Update:

I’ve checked and the Studio XPS 13′s with Ubuntu which Dell are selling now are different. Among the differences between the laptop I ordered and the choices available today are the following:

• Slower processors available and fewer to choose from.
• No Bluetooth option

There are probably others. Ok, so I can’t re-order the laptop I had ordered originally even if I wanted to. Fine. It is interesting to note, however, that these limitations are only for the Ubuntu version of the XPS 13. the Windows versions enjoy more processor choices including faster processors, the bluetooth module, more RAM, more colors and finishes, and so on…. In other words, Dell is pawning their junk off on customers who want to order a laptop with Linux.

This is not only unbelievable, it is also unacceptable.

Well, I called up Dell and asked them about it and got the response: ummm… we don’t know.

Excuse me? Not knowing is not an option in this day and age. Companies track parts down to the individual screws, so saying that you have no idea where an entire laptop is, or why the order has not been delivered yet is impossible to believe. They’re either lying, hiding something, incompetent, or all three.

Here’s what my order status page currently says:

My Dell order status on 2009-09-30

See the “Data Temporarily Unavailable” bit in the “Estimated Delivery Date” section? It’s been that way for well over a week now. Their definition of “temporary” must be different than mine.

Case in point:

My Two Dell Orders

Last month I ordered a laptop from Dell (a Studio XPS 13 with Ubuntu) and some accessories to go along with it. The accessories were shipped immediately and arrived a few days after the order. I have not been so lucky with the main point of the purchase: the laptop itself.

It has now been almost a month since I ordered it and the laptop is still listed as “Pre Production”. If the Estimated Delivery Date is to be believed, I’ll get the laptop more than a full month after I ordered it.

First the laptop was set to be delivered on the 10th of September, which was OK. Then Dell silently pushed the date back to the 15th which was not OK, but I could live with it. Then last week they emailed me to see if it was alright if they pushed the date back to the 29th (and if I didn’t respond with an OK they said they would cancel the order).

In the email they said if I had any questions I should send them an email and ask them, so I did (I asked them why) and this was the response I got back:

Thank you for your response. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused. We, Dell‘s Delayed Order Notification Team, are solely responsible for informing our customer(s) about potential delays to the delivery of their order(s). If you would like more specific order information you may contact one of our customer care representatives at 1-800-456-3355 (Small Business) or 1-800-624-9897 (Consumer). You may also check the status of your order at www.dellcustomercare.com.

Thank you,

Dell Inc. Notification Team

So first they say if I have questions to contact them, and then when I do they say that they actually don’t know anything and to contact some other team at Dell. Classy, Dell. Real classy. They could, you know, have just forwarded my questions to the appropriate group.

It’s bad enough that Dell’s Ubuntu offerings are second-class citizens on their site (there was a promotion on when I ordered where you could get an Ubuntu-powered Dell Mini 10 for $99 if you ordered the Windows version of the Studio XPS laptop with no such deal for the Ubuntu version of the same hardware), now Dell is having trouble even shipping things on time.

I’m seriously considering a personal boycott of Dell products. It’s a shame too, they build nice servers….

Dell comes back and says the bios needs to be updated on it and they give us a LiveCD to use when performing the bios upgrade.

After booting the LiveCD and logging in as root, we get the following message:

Ummm . . . it’s funny, yeah, but it sure doesn’t inspire confidence.

Hey Dell, how about some official tools? Thanks.