8400 ship issues

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hey all:

I ordered my 8400 on June 24th, and the Customer Service rep I just called
assured me that the ship date they gave me of July 19th (!) is a worst-case
scenario and most systrems ship "way faster than that." Is it this group's
experience that such a late ship date should even be given? I've built
machines before just for fun, and the ship dates they've given on those are
usually much sooner than that interval, or so I recall.

The rep pretty much told me it's standard procedure, and further told me
that my machine was being "built at this point"; yet I see no evidence of a
building process on the Order Status Tracking webpage. The email rep I
contacted last night had told me that my 8400 "has not been released for
production" but that he didn't know why because he didn't have access to
Sales files. After this morning, I'm not really sure what to think or who to
believe.

And just to get this out of the way before somebody asks, I did not put any
component in my build to order that had any kind of notice on it saying
"This option may delay your ship date."

Any help provided will be appreciated.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

First, delays are not uncommon with new units, particularly with something
as major as a new chipset. so, don't be surprised if your computer is
shipping later than the salesman's "worst-case scenario"

Secondly, the Dell Order Status tracking web page is rarely correct and
frankly totally useless. As one other poster to this group put it, it is a
joke.

"oodler" <whowhere@oopsie.poo> wrote in message
news:zyWDc.10571$x9.3236@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...
> Hey all:
>
> I ordered my 8400 on June 24th, and the Customer Service rep I just called
> assured me that the ship date they gave me of July 19th (!) is a
worst-case
> scenario and most systrems ship "way faster than that." Is it this group's
> experience that such a late ship date should even be given? I've built
> machines before just for fun, and the ship dates they've given on those
are
> usually much sooner than that interval, or so I recall.
>
> The rep pretty much told me it's standard procedure, and further told me
> that my machine was being "built at this point"; yet I see no evidence of
a
> building process on the Order Status Tracking webpage. The email rep I
> contacted last night had told me that my 8400 "has not been released for
> production" but that he didn't know why because he didn't have access to
> Sales files. After this morning, I'm not really sure what to think or who
to
> believe.
>
> And just to get this out of the way before somebody asks, I did not put
any
> component in my build to order that had any kind of notice on it saying
> "This option may delay your ship date."
>
> Any help provided will be appreciated.
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"oodler" <whowhere@oopsie.poo> wrote in message
news:zyWDc.10571$x9.3236@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...
> Hey all:
>
> I ordered my 8400 on June 24th, and the Customer Service rep I just called
> assured me that the ship date they gave me of July 19th (!) is a
> worst-case
> scenario and most systrems ship "way faster than that." Is it this group's
> experience that such a late ship date should even be given? I've built
> machines before just for fun, and the ship dates they've given on those
> are
> usually much sooner than that interval, or so I recall.
>
> The rep pretty much told me it's standard procedure, and further told me
> that my machine was being "built at this point"; yet I see no evidence of
> a
> building process on the Order Status Tracking webpage. The email rep I
> contacted last night had told me that my 8400 "has not been released for
> production" but that he didn't know why because he didn't have access to
> Sales files. After this morning, I'm not really sure what to think or who
> to
> believe.
>
> And just to get this out of the way before somebody asks, I did not put
> any
> component in my build to order that had any kind of notice on it saying
> "This option may delay your ship date."
>
> Any help provided will be appreciated.
>
>

I dunno, oodles. Brand new platform with a brand new system board and CPU.
I believe that Intel had to recall some 915 and 925chipset boards due to
flaky controllers.

This board and chip represent a pretty significant change of design and I'd
expect at least some problems and delays in getting it ironed out.

Also, I personally would put little or no faith in what most any salesperson
told me about anything. That information should be taken with a grain of
salt.

Expect delays and hiccups. If you're wrong you'll be pleasantly surprised.


Stew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"S.Lewis" <stew1960@mail.com> wrote:

> I dunno, oodles. Brand new platform with a brand new system board and
CPU.
> I believe that Intel had to recall some 915 and 925chipset boards due to
> flaky controllers. This board and chip represent a pretty significant
change of design and I'd
> expect at least some problems and delays in getting it ironed out.
> Also, I personally would put little or no faith in what most any
salesperson
> told me about anything. That information should be taken with a grain of
> salt. Expect delays and hiccups. If you're wrong you'll be pleasantly
surprised.

Stew:

I would've waited six more months for the chipsets to become standardized
and go down in price, but practical problems-- namely, the death of my
eight-year-old monitor-- created an 'emergency' situation. It changed my
thinking to the extent that if I was going to bother to get a new
(flat-panel) monitor at all, I might as well get it along with an entirely
new system, since I've desperately needed one for almost three straight
years now. My current machine's a 1999 Dell XPS-T, and now it's running on a
borrowed 15" NEC CRT. I can't keep things like this even one full month
more, let alone six or twelve.

That said, I decked out the new 8400 (Pentium 530) with everything I've been
wanting all along anyway: 17 in E172FP Flat Panel Display; 1GB Dual Channel
DDR2 SDRAM; Keyboard and Optical Mouse; 256MB PCI Express ATI Radeon video
card; 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive; 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 12x DVD+RW/+R
double-layer-write-capable DVD burner. System price: $2,097.00.

I paid more than that for *this* machine, which of course has no DVD burner,
flat panel monitor, or otherwise, but also shipped with no monitor, no
speakers, etc. System price back then, according to invoice: $2,447.00.

Weird, huh? Guess the slave labor in India and China is really paying off in
terms of cheapening hardware for the U.S. consumer-- and fattening the
pockets of the Dell moguls!

oodles

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"oodler" <whowhere@oopsie.poo> wrote in message
news:e1%Dc.14262$x9.14084@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
> "S.Lewis" <stew1960@mail.com> wrote:
>
>> I dunno, oodles. Brand new platform with a brand new system board and
> CPU.
>> I believe that Intel had to recall some 915 and 925chipset boards due to
>> flaky controllers. This board and chip represent a pretty significant
> change of design and I'd
>> expect at least some problems and delays in getting it ironed out.
>> Also, I personally would put little or no faith in what most any
> salesperson
>> told me about anything. That information should be taken with a grain of
>> salt. Expect delays and hiccups. If you're wrong you'll be pleasantly
> surprised.
>
> Stew:
>
> I would've waited six more months for the chipsets to become standardized
> and go down in price, but practical problems-- namely, the death of my
> eight-year-old monitor-- created an 'emergency' situation. It changed my
> thinking to the extent that if I was going to bother to get a new
> (flat-panel) monitor at all, I might as well get it along with an entirely
> new system, since I've desperately needed one for almost three straight
> years now. My current machine's a 1999 Dell XPS-T, and now it's running on
> a
> borrowed 15" NEC CRT. I can't keep things like this even one full month
> more, let alone six or twelve.
>
> That said, I decked out the new 8400 (Pentium 530) with everything I've
> been
> wanting all along anyway: 17 in E172FP Flat Panel Display; 1GB Dual
> Channel
> DDR2 SDRAM; Keyboard and Optical Mouse; 256MB PCI Express ATI Radeon video
> card; 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive; 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 12x DVD+RW/+R
> double-layer-write-capable DVD burner. System price: $2,097.00.
>
> I paid more than that for *this* machine, which of course has no DVD
> burner,
> flat panel monitor, or otherwise, but also shipped with no monitor, no
> speakers, etc. System price back then, according to invoice: $2,447.00.
>
> Weird, huh? Guess the slave labor in India and China is really paying off
> in
> terms of cheapening hardware for the U.S. consumer-- and fattening the
> pockets of the Dell moguls!
>
> oodles
>
>

With respect to prices, I suspect it's more a matter of mass-production and
market saturation than just overseas labor. Heck, we all bought $2-3,000
Pentium systems in the mid-to-late '90s.

Now, many people have multiple systems in their homes. Add to that new
markets worldwide and you have OEM makers grinding out millions of systems
per year.

Your new 8400 sounds very nice. Post back when you receive it.


Stew