Dell outlet shipping delays

All of the positive experiences with the Dell outlet lead me to order a Latitude from them today. I paid extra for next day shipping too. I get out of my afternoon meetings and find an email from them that the expected shipping date is Jan. 6, 2009. This will mess up our accounting by not getting this expense on our books in 2008, but Jan. 9 is 18 days from now! What happened to their "most orders ship within 24 hours" thing?

 

They estimated shipping date is taken usually out of the blue (like it was a new machine and required a build time) so I wouldn't trust it. Wait a day and the status should be shipped (well maybe more on the pre-x-mas craze).

 

I ordered a dell mini from the outlet with NBD on 12/18 and received it on 12/20.
My ESD was the next day(12/19) btw.

 

Basically they dont have any left in stock but they have already done a calculation as to how long it will be before someone elses break and thus fills there stock pile again.

 

Umm... no. That's not how the outlet works.

 

OK, here's the real story:

Lack was right- their website apparently has no clue as to when the real ship date will be.

I placed the order mid-afternoon Monday, took me quite awhile surfing their inventory before I decided which one to pick. I had to go into a meeting, I come out of the meeting in a couple of hours and I have an email from Dell stating the ship date is way in the future.
Tuesday morning I get to work and I have an email from Dell saying that it shipped Monday. I paid for 1 day shipping so expected delivery was Tuesday. It didn't show up Tuesday and checking the tracking information later that day I realied that when Dell said it shipped, they meant it was put in a box and a label put on it, but FedEx had not picked it up yet. Anyway
FedEx picked it up Tuesday and it arrived at my office today (Wednesday). I was at church this afternoon so I went back by the office after church to pick up the package. We're doing our family Christmas tonight so I won't get to open the box and mess with it until tomorrow, but at least it got here quickly and I'll have a long weekend to play with it.

 

Good for you