Two new E5570 deliveries. Two opened boxes. Anyone else?

Two new E5570s were shipped to me recently. Separate order and delivery dates. Both boxes had been opened prior to delivery I've considered all the possibilities I can think of (even the paranoid ones), and the most plausible one is that Dell shipped boxes that it had opened for some reason. If that is the case, some of you may have seen this too. Have you?

In my case, both orders were for ready-to-ship, low-end, Windows 7 E5570s. Placed via Dell agents. Both shipped the same day as ordered (from Hawthorne, CA) and were delivered to me on the east coast the next day via Fedex.

The first box was sloppily cut open across the seal and tab. Then taped shut with some ripped tape. The second box was neatly sliced open across the seal and tab, tab severed and missing, and the box wasn't even taped shut again. Neither box appeared to have been through the mail system before.

Neither of the bags wrapping the notebooks appeared to have been opened. Unfortunately, the bags and tape aren't tamper-evident

Both notebooks appeared new. First one booting to Windows 7 setup screeen. Second one not powered on yet.

Both packing slips lack details about the system that was shipped. They both list just two items:

998-BWLD Fixed Hardware Configuration
452-BBDB Dell Docking Spacer for Latitude

I don't know what "fixed hardware configuration" means. Do you? A docking spacer was in each box. Maybe one or both explain why the boxes were opened?

 

It's plausible that they could be "open box" but unused. Put the service tag into the Dell support system to check the hardware configuration, shipping date and warranty period. Production of the E5570 will have stopped several months ago when the E5580 was launched. The warranty clock normally starts ticking then the notebook is shipped from Dell so my biggest concern would be that the computers have lost a significant chunk of the warranty period.

John

 

The Service Tag information looks OK. Is Dell known to fulfill new orders with open box items? Shouldn't they go to the outlet? I saw better prices there but didn't want to gamble on those.

 

I'm not positive, but "Fixed Hardware Configuration" sounds to me like a reference to the fact you ordered a ready-to-ship (fixed) configuration.

 

That makes the most sense, and I found a couple of other things that support your interpretation. When I read it I thought it meant corrected

I looked at the E5570s that are still available. One of the three configurations has the Dell Docking Spacer unchecked by default (it can be added for $0.00). Which implies that the spacer might not be included in all boxes. What I ordered isn't available now, and I don't know whether the Dell agents had to add it to my orders. But the spacer may still be a possible explanation for why the boxes were opened: An accessory was added, it was small enough to fit in the box, they opened the box and put the accessory in it, but didn't seal the boxes properly.