E6400 Long Order Delays

I ordered an E6400 in August. It kept getting delayed and delayed. Calling Dell support was not helpful. They told me they put an expedite on the order (which another rep later told me was meaningless for laptops). They also upgraded me to next day shipping.

At first they told me battery delays were causing the backorder (which I though was BS since people on this board had gottent theirs). Finally they told me it was the Verizon wirless card I had included that was delaying. They kept saying "it will ship soon" and every week it would get further delayed. I tried getting them to just remove the card from the order since I don't even need it. Finally they told me they could only cancel the order and I could reorder. So I did this on Oct 3. I tried to strip out every option that I couldn't add later (extra battery, case, etc).

Its in production now and scheduled to be complete today but I fear another delay.

UPDATED (***11:00AM***)
Questions:
1. Is it BS that they can't remove items from an order once its in production? (***answered by Steve Jones, its not BS, just the way it is***)
2. Anyone have any ideas what might cause this order to delay, and if it does delay should I just cancel my order completely and go for another vendor? My current laptop works, but I was excitied for this upgrade. (***this order shipped, so all these parts are currently available ***)

1 223-9336 Latitude E6400, Intel Core 2 Duo P9500, 2.53GHz, 1066MHz 6M L2 Cache, Dual Core
1 311-8825 2.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMM for Latitude
1 330-0841 Internal Backlit English Keyboard for Latitude E
1 330-1652 Documentation (English) Latitude E-Family/Mobile Precision
1 320-6776 NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M, 256MB With PC-Card, Latitude E6400
1 341-6983 64GB Dell Ultra Performance Drive, 2.5MM for Latitude
1 311-8819 No Fingerprint Reader for Latitude E6X00
1 320-6941 Brushed Metal Black Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD for Latitude E6500
1 467-5770 Vista Business Service Pack 1 with media, English, Latitude
1 430-3090 Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth 2.1 Minicard for Latitude E/Mobile Precision
1 330-0876 90W 3-Pin, AC Adapter for Latitude E-Family
1 330-0879 US - 3-FT, 3-Pin Flat E-FamilyPower Cord for Latitude E-Family
1 313-6513 8X DVD+/-RW for Latitude E-Family
1 420-8010 Roxio Creator Dell Edition,9.0Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
1 420-8667 Cyberlink Power DVD 8.0 Playback Software WITH Media Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
1 313-6710 Integrated VGA webcam with single digital microphone Latitude E6400/MPWS M2400
1 430-3086 Dell WLAN 1510 (802.11a/b/g/n 2X3) 1/2 MiniCard for LatitudeE/Mobile Precision
1 330-0884 No Intel vPro Technologys advanced management features for Latitude, Mobile Precision
1 330-0895 Resource DVD with Diagnostics and Drivers for Latitude E6400Notebook
1 312-0729 6-Cell/54-WHr Battery for Latitude E/Mobile Precision
1 991-3058 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus Return To Depot, Extended Year(s)
1 989-1472 Contract - Mail-In Service, 24x7 Technical Support, 2 Year Extended
1 989-4430 Contract - Mail-In Service, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year
1 991-3057 Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus Return To Depot, Initial Year
1 991-2878 Dell ProSupport Service Offering Declined
1 900-9987 Standard On-Site Installation Declined
1 989-1872 CompleteCare Accidental Damage Protection, 3 Year
1 988-7689 Info, Complete Care
1 313-6736 Latitude E6400 Color - BrushedMetal Black
1 313-6527 Black Finish for LED BacklightLatitude E6400
1 313-6714 Integrated 0.3 megapixel VGA webcam with single digital mic for WXGA+ LCD, Latitude E6400

 

Dells policy is not to alter orders - you have to cancel and reorder. Just the way it is.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. I didn't trust the rep. Guess you should always put through the minimum order since you never know when an extar power cord could delay your shipment.

BTW, I just checked and it shipped! yay. Guess that was a good configuration.

 

That's what I've been doing for accessories I believe will be an issue (like the 5530 WWAN cards that are seemingly impossible to get at the moment). It's easier to get parts replaced when you purchase them separately as well. The only problem is that if you buy everything separately then they are not covered under the system's warranty.

 

Sometimes even the standard parts cause delays as well. The E6400 with the Intel GPU was facing backorders early on...

I usually upgrade anything that I want in a PC, that would cost more to upgrade later.