I dunno.... Best of luck with Dell, you will definately need it.
I ordered an 8600 on 9-2-03. It moved from stage to stage rather quickly, and made it to the boxing sate in a week. According to the website, all that needs to be done is to have the system (which is already physically built) placed into a box with all the paper work and crap, and then get shipped.
4 days later and it was still in the boxing stage. I called up Dell and asked them if nothing was wrong, and was assured nothing was. A week later I called again and and questioned further, as something was definately wrong. I was told the system would ship by the estimated ship date, or dell would "work something out. I was assured it would ship by then. I called back the day of the ship date, and the tech guy that I spoke with, get this, actually said that "the factory might have run out of boxes." I kid you not. That got me good.
I called the rep that sold me the system (school discount) and said i want to know what is going on. She called me back the next day and said it would ship to me by the end of the week. I was absolutely correct- dell has morons working for them and my system had been built and boxed FOR THE PAST 3 WEEKS!!!
I called up my rep the next day and said cancel my order (this is after it should have shipped)- she offered me no deal and didnt try to get me to keep the system. She said she would cancel it.
And it continues.
She calls me back the next day and it had shipped today ( wy didnt she cancel it when i asked her to???no, she goes and "waits" a day to cancel it). I spoke with the returns department and the first person that had actually been knowledgeable and nice and he told me that once i recieved it in the mail, to call and cancel it and dell would send me a box so as to not pay for shipping. I was ASSURED i would pay nothing at all.
I get the system, call up and return it, and am told that i must pay to ship it back to dell.
No good.
I let that guy have it on the phone.
Dell ships me a box, eventually, and i return it, call to make sure everything is ok and i owe nothing, and it is.
yay.
I told the returns guy that was nice to me, who offer me 300 cash back if I kept my system, which i declined, that I may buy a dell again when the ATI 9600 comes out.
so it continues....
last week a guy calls me from dell financial saying I have a $41 balance on my account. I ask him why, and he says it is for shipping the system back to dell.
I never let someone have it so bad after he told me that.
I ripped him a new one sooooo bad.
Dell shipped me an emtpy box so i would not have to pay to ship it, and then they charge me shipping. morons.
he kept saying there was nothing he could do, that it was dell's policy.
I yelled at him so bad, and told him he had to do whatever he had to, to talk to whoever he had to, and that i did not want to talk to him ever again. he hung up on me.
I call dell a week later, and speek to a very nice woman, who, within 2 minutes, says "ok, you are refunded your money."
Dell policy, huh?
Dell has without a doubt the stupidest people working for them that I have ever delt with. Half the people I spoke to barely spoke any english at all.
I will never buy a dell, ever.
Good luck with yours though.
