Delivery delays and Customer 'service' lying

I am really getting to the end of my tether with dell, their constant lying and their appalling level of customer service.

We ordered a Studio 17 on the 10th, both me and my husband spoke to the sales rep who promised delivery within 10 working days. We checked this with him again and again as I urgently needed the laptop this monday just gone for the start of a course I am doing. We said that if he could not guarentee delivery within that time that we would order elsewhere. He assured us 2 or 3 times that it would absolutely be with us within that time and to disregard the EDD on paperwork of the 4th Nov.

I rang up a couple of times earlier in the week, and after being transferred 7 or 8 times, hung up on 3 times, and generally treated like carp the only thing I was able to establish was that no one there seems to have a clue whats going on.
Apparently they have no way of seeing whereabouts in production the machine is ubtil such time as it leaves with the courier. I was also told that there was no way it would ever have got here within the promised 10 days and I must have 'misunderstood' the sales rep.

Anyway, early wednesday morning it moved to Delivery, courier as Walsh Western. Hooray I thought, and waited for the call to arrange delivery.

I checked WW website this morning which showed a blank page for my tracking, so I rang them. They were very helpful, said they had not yet collected this from Dell Poland , that they had not been asked to as yet and that they would update their website as soon as they did They said it will take approx 2 days for it to get from Poland to them in the UK.

So... back on the phone to Dell. This is where I get really .
They told me that the Laptop left them on weds morning, that WW do not courier it from Poland to the UK, that it would arrive in the UK next Weds and would show on WW tracking then.
When I quieried why this contradicted what WW had said, I was told they must now also be 'mistaken'. When I asked how it takes 6 days to travel from Poland to the UK, I was told that it travels by road, and that is just how long it takes
When I asked who did courier it to the UK, I was told they do not have access to this information.

Anyway, fast forward to this afternoon and WW is showing:

Date Time Location Activity
24/10/08 14:00 LODZ DEPARTED EMF.
24/10/08 12:42 CALL LOCK OUT.

So.. it seems WW were not mistaken after all and have indeed picked it up from the manufacturing plant in Poland this afternoon.

If there is one thing I hate more than carp customer service, it is being lied to. I dont know whether this call centre is just 'mistakenly' stupid or whether they are deceiving people on purpose.
The reason we ordered with Dell in the first place is because I had such great service from their business call centre. Looks like they invest their money where the big money is.

Does anyone know how long it normally takes for delivery once WW pick up in Poland, im thinking maybe Tues??

Thanks for listening to me rant, hope this laptop is worth the hassle!!