Build Times Question

Hi, everyone. I ordered an Inspiron 1420 as a holiday gift for my wife. I placed the order on December 3, it went into production on December 4, and I currently have an estimated shipping date of December 27. When I configured the system, Dell's website indicated that the build time for an Inspiron 1420 is 15 days. I also know, though, that other Inspiron models have significantly shorter build times (as few as 5 days). Does anyone know why the 1420's build time is so much longer? Also, if I'm looking at a 15-day build time, why is the estimated shipping date a full 24 days past the date my system went into production? By the way, I configured this system with no option delays, so 15 days is (currently) the baseline build time for a 1420. Thanks for your help!

 

I am not sure about the delay in the 1420, but looking around this forum, there seem to be delays for most of the Dell notebooks.

I am seeing that the estimated shipment date is 7 or 8 days longer than the preliminary shipment date that you see when building one online for most of the products. I am sensing that they did this because of anticipation of Christmas delays.

However, a few people reported notices of shipment a week or 2 faster than the revised delayed estimated shipment date.

I would say contact customer service and have them expedite your order or perhaps upgrade your shipment method to next business day.

 

Customer Service won't be of much help. The most they'll do is send an order to expedite your order. From my own previous experience, I can tell you that I recently placed an order for a 1520, and it was estimated to ship December 27th, however it shipped out yesterday, overnight, since DHL doesn't deliver on weekends, it'll arrive monday.

To build a system I was first told it took from 7 to 8 days by a CS rep, and another told me 10 to 15 days. I would go with the first though, it's rare for systems to take longer than a week in development, unless there is a lead time for one of the parts.

You could contact a CS rep and ask them exactly that, if there would be any lead time on any of the parts, that would cause your order to be delayed.
I hope this helps, and hey, most of us have, if not are in the same situation as you, we know what it's like.

Keep us posted, it certainly makes time go by faster

 

I think the 1420 is a very popular laptop

I ordered a 1420 for my mom and it was built and shipped withing a week (this was mid-end of november).

 

typically, build times will be longer as demand tends to rise before Christmas. When I got my 1420 back over during September (the days of Hell for shipping) mine actually shipped out a week earlier than the Estimated shipping date. I thankfully didn't get caught in the Shipping delay shuffle then.

For good reasons. Being 2 lbs lighter has it's advantages.

 

How do you know that shaving 20 days off your order time was not due to customer service expediting your order. I am assuming that customer service did expedite your order.

An overnight upgrade definitely should help. My original shipment method was 3-5 days with estimated delivery date of 12/24 - 12-27, now it is 12/21.

A customer service rep also told me should would personally handle my order status and will be updating me on a regular interval.

So far they seem helpful to me.

 

Well, we won't ever know for sure now will we?
They are very helpful when giving out available information, no question there, but I strongly doubt they would have much impact on actual order productions. The way I see it, we are not the only ones impatient to receive our orders, and don't get me wrong I am no trying to diss them or anything of the sort, but think about it. How easy it is to expedite an order, we are not the only ones who asked for that, and they gave us that, that means it's the same for countless others who are also impatient. They can always make one order a priority but, by making so many orders priorities, you're right back where you started.

I am very greatful for the agents that helped me, but I do not think they have a direct influence or control over how long it will take the manufacturing department to actually make a system. It's not like they take coffee breaks every 2 minutes unless you ask them to hurry it up. I'm sure they work as fast as they can to meet up with costumer demands. The systems they are making for us 3 for example, are not the only systems they are building.

What would be the point in expediting an order, if the parts for the system are not available? That's why I thought it'd be a start to ask if there are any parts that would delay your order at this time. Earlier this month hey had a lead on webcams, then on colored lids, and so on, and again I'm not saying don't do it..

As a matter of fact you can get all this done in one phone call or chat session for that matter. I just learned to not trust the shipping date, and I agree, upgrading to overnight will definately help, as you'll shave off a week for sure.

 

I think I understand you better now, thanks for the explanation.

I am not saying all 20 days saved were because of the CS agents expediting the order. If it was one day saved by them, that will be good enough for me.

One has the option of doing nothing or contacting them. I am already saving at least 2 days because of the shipment upgrade.

I doubt that most of Dell's customers will be calling them to expedite their orders. We are the selected few impatient customers.

Have fun with your lappy. It is almost there and keeps us updated.

 

I do agree with you, one day less is one day less, it's a whole 24 hours shaved off. Nontheless, don't trust the shipping date. I'm pretty sure you'll be getting your system pretty soon, we're going on the 10th, give it a couple of more days and you should have it shipped.

I know it's not the same for all systems, but as far as I know, Inspirons 1x20/1x21 lines are the newest so the delay for them are understandble but for older models such as the Vostro, I don't think there would be any delays.

 

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts. My system's still in production as of December 9, but I'm optimistic it'll ship ahead of the ESD. I'm still confused, though, as to why a 1420 would have an estimated build time of 15 days while, at the same time, a different Inspiron model would have an estimated build time of 5 days. Maybe it has to do with higher demand for one model or another. I don't know. I guess I shouldn't have waited until December to order a Dell as a Christmas gift!

 

An update: The order moved into the boxing stage on December 9. My understanding is that the boxing stage includes the time it takes Dell to ship the computer from Malaysia to the U.S. for carrier pick-up and final delivery, but it looks like it'll arrive well ahead of the December 27 ESD. Good news for me and anyone else waiting for systems ordered as Christmas gifts. Thanks again, everyone, for your replies.

 

A little off topic here...

I'm having a similar experience with my vostro 1500's order. I ordered 12/3..waited until yesterday for a status update, nothing changed, so I called. apparently it was never fully received..now my ship date is 1/03/07. I really hope that isn't accurate. Has anyone had this happen to them?

Apparently, phone ordering is the way to go according to them and I see why.

 

A final update: The system shipped today (December 12), a full fifteen days ahead of the ESD. A Dell Chat CSR was even able to provide me with a tracking number even though the Order Status Tool still indicates that information is "temporarily unavailable." I've read a lot of Dell customer-service horror stories in this forum, but I've had a good experience at every stage in the process so far.

 

That's great to hear man. Take some pictures of it and post it when you get it!

 

No harm in asking.. they are always willing to upgrade to next business day for free just for asking.. it must cost dell next to nothing since they do it so readily...

I think the expedite process does help.. hard to quantify it but the last time I called the order status changed within a few hours of my call.. could have been coincidence but I think they actually do send some kind of note to the team building it...

 

I am thrilled to hear that the EDD is not necessarily how long I'll have to wait. I placed an order for an Inpiron 1520 on 12/19/07 and it went into production yesterday 12/20/07. And the EDD is 1/17/08! I sure hope its major overkill. I cannot afford to wait that long. Besides the rep said it would 2 weeks. I am praying it will come before EDD. If not I'll have to quick run to Best Buy or something before the Business Show starts and grab something. ughh!

 

Whats with dell and expediting orders, I tried to get mine expedited but they said they can only do it if I requested it after 7days of ordering it, is this true? Also how much faster will it get shipped out even if I did get it expedited?

 

it won't help to expedite right now. i just tried this past week and it doesn't even show that i am getting NBD shipping on order status as promised. you can just wait 7-8 days and then call to expedite or threaten to cancel.

 

What would they do if I did threaten to cancel?

 

they would give you a coupon, $25 - $200. i settled for $25 because i got another $800 off for other reasons.

btw, turns out my laptop shipped today a full week ahead of schedule. looks like i will be getting it monday.

 

I ordered my Vostro 1500 on Tuesday night, checked and on Wed. it was in the building stage. Today it was shipped and I will have it Monday, crossing fingers...

 

does ur EDD say monday? mine was shipped today with next business day and it says the 27,

 

On one page it does, but if you check your email and click track package...mine shows 12-24-07. I hate that DHL does not work on Saturdays. LOL.

 

i didnt even get an email

it says shipping on the order page with no tracking info....
i called the automated thing and it been sent to the carrier; but i have to wait til it gets there until I'm sent the info

 

You have to sign up to receive the emails from Dell and DHL...free of course...you can even have it with DHL to send you a text msg on your phone when there is an update.

 

Probably do exactly just that, cancel it. It certainly won't expedite it. They don't fight nearly as hard to keep an individual order from being cancelled as if you were someone ordering multiple units. Losing one order for under lets say $2k doesn't really make much of a difference. The most they would probably offer is to expedite shipping or offer a coupon.

 

I'm NONAME, this would be like my 7th time talking to time about this, first time I said I might cancel, and first time I got a REAL DATE of when I should get it.
_______________________________________
My OTHER Est. Ship Time till I got a new one from the chat <- I thought they were not allowed to give me any other dates, LOL, I guess the cancel thing worked.
_______________________________________

Shipping Method: Next Business Day
Est. Ship Date: 1/4/2008
Est. Delivery Date: 1/7/2008
Carrier: Not Shipped
Tracking Number: Not Shipped

_______________________________________

23mins

 

lol "NONAME" that's hillarious.

Dell use to make you exact or very approximate ship dates but that got them in trouble. It became a legal issue. Now, if the rep you're talking to is doing his job right, he won't use any wording that may be understood as a guarantee of your ship date. That is another reason why their EDD are stretched so far out. It gives them a lot more room if something goes wrong.

 

Update...Like I said I ordered mine on Tuesday night, was processed on Wed. Friday it was shipped and to my belief, today on Saturday it is here. I take back what I say about DHL not working on Saturday....

Woohoo...Now that is quick....

 

Yea I know that :O

 

damn thats awesome... I finally got an email. The email says dates of 26-28 for delivery. I can't find any date on my DHL tracking info.. Hopefully I get it monday.

 

Hey I am using it right now...this thing rocks...I got the intel wireless lan card and very easy to set up. On the email that you received, there should be something that says track package. Once you click that, it should bring up the DHL site. If not, does it at least give you a tracking #. If so, then go to dhl.com and put in that tracking # and sign up for email notifications and/or text msg notifications. I was really surprised that it came today. I went out this morning to do my Christmas shopping done for my wife and she tried to call me, but she also called me 3x already so I just ignored it cause she was asking me where I was and all of this. Then when I get home, she said there is a present under the tree that you can go ahead and open . I looked and there it was. I said what...she said they came like 10 min ago and she heard the door and they handed her the package. Lucky we decided to not go out at the same time.


But it's shipping from Tennessee and then to Ohio. I live in TX and depending on where you are, that might explain why I got mine as soon as I did. When you first get it, make sure you plug in your wired connection first. That way you can get through all the windows registering and fun stuff. Then after that if you have wireless set up, it will try and detect it. This freaking rocks. I know we have a pc at home, but there is nothing like a new pc and it having XP and having fun customizing it all over again.

All I can say is that I have read some of the threads on these forums and read about Dell. Some were great and others not so much. Some said it took a month and still nothing. All I can say is that less then a wee and before Christmas to receive it is this about Dell...

 

Thats when I talked to them last night.

 

There could be a couple of things that maybe causing a delay...I know they stated that there are no back ordered parts...but what exactly did you order with specs? Also, when did you place the order?

 

Order Date: 12/15/2007

 

Man I don't know what to say. I know when I contacted Dell it was through the chat. Are you saying that you still have not received an email with any updated info? Worse case this is what I would do. I would call. Be nice. Don't be angry at first. Have fun with them in a fun type way of things happen. After you find out what is going on, say you are thinking about canceling, but you shouldn't have to have waited from the 15th....they should feel your pain. All I know is I was nice when I did the online chat. Mine was an expected date to receive by next weekend. I said this was supposed to be a gift and if there was anyway you could do something. He said he would see what they could do. I said thank you. But I had fun with it...

 

I have also noticed that is comes with a 256 8600m gt...but when I do a system requirement to see what games will run...it tells me I have a 512 8600m gt....Who knows. LOL...

 

Cancel.

 

cancel what....

 

The order, what else?

 

I still feel cancelling the order isn't and was not the smart decision, you were probably 3/4 of the way there.

 

I agree. There may have been a back order on parts

 

You people don't know none of it, it was coming in a few days, I didn't cancel it 'cause of it coming late, I canceled it 'cause dell f-ed it out of that laptop 'cause I found a better deal, canceled that order, & was going to order the better laptop from dell, then I found out that I couldn't order the better one, thats how dell ****ed me over.

 

Hey All!

Just a quick question, I've ordered and paid for a 1520 Yellow Notebook, I've herd how the notebook must go from Maylasia to the US for delivery... but does this happen if its being delivered to me in New Zealand? will it just go straight from Maylasia to New Zealand for delivery?

(I'm also talking about the 'boxing' period)

Cheers,

Matt

 

I ordered my M1730 on 12/20, it went from kitting to testing on the 21st, and now its been in testing since then! The estimated ship date is the 7th, so i'm not really mad or anything. But i've heard of people getting them in a very short period of time. I guess I'll just keep waiting since a weekend and christmas where in the middle my order placement date and now. I hope i don't run into any delays. Jeeees this waiting sucks! Can't wait to get my 1730!

 

I hope that is still the case. My laptop was shipped today via DHL. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will deliver tomorrow (Saturday). But I can handle getting it on Monday if they don't. I was afraid they'd ship it Monday and it be delivered on Wednesday because I'm going to be out of town for work. Now I don't have to worry about it.

But I'm really hoping they deliver tomorrow ...