Can Dell's Order Status tool be trusted?

Hi all, merry Christmas, happy new year and all that.

As I've previously posted, my M1730 developed a problem with it's pair of 8800M GTXs back in September. After weeks and weeks of no service call happening, Dell finally agreed to refund me the full price of the laptop. When the money was received, I turned around and handed it right back for a M17x that I received a good quote for. When I ordered in earlier this month, I was told that there was a delay on a component and the estimated delivery date given was the 13th of January. Since I'd had no gaming laptop since September, I didn't really mind. I was checked the Order Status tool every day, but there was no change in the EDD.

On Friday December 11th I receive an email from Dell/UPS stating that they planned to deliver my laptop on Friday December 18th between 09:00 and 18:00. I checked the Order Status tool and it showed my laptop status as changed to 'Shipped.' Excellent! The email contained a UPS tracking code which was recognised on their website. The status was 'Billing Information Received' which means that they know there's a package to go somewhere, but they don't have it yet. Or so I've since been told.

Can you guess where this is heading? Friday 18th comes and goes and I've not received a laptop. I stayed in all day, most hermit-like, so there's no way they missed me. No card. Finally called UPS and they say that they haven't received the laptop yet.

So I checked the Dell Order Status page again and it definitely states that it shipped on the 11th. So where did it go? I don't mind waiting. I do mind waiting indoors for something that's not coming. Dell have also changed their 'Contact Customer Care' policy and there are no longer any phone numbers listed for them. It's now email only with a 24 hour response time.

Anyone else seen anything similar happening recently?

Cheers dude, that makes sense. It's not a Christmas present, it's a replacement and I can wait another week or two if necessary.

I've still not received anything and the UPS status hasn't changed. After a couple of phone calls, Dell have today acknowledged that the laptop is lost and that it will have to be reordered.

Who knows? Maybe I'll end up with two and I'll have to send one back. I just hope that when they reorder it, all the parts that I want are available. Looking at the website, the Bluray drive and SLI 260Ms are not available.

If I worked for UPS and was going to liberate a laptop, that's probably how I'd do it.

I have a new order number now. No idea what's in the order, so I still need to check that. The EDD is 16/02, which is quite a way from September 09 when my problems with the M1730 started.

The new order is the same as the old order, except that I now have two 280Ms in SLI rather than 260Ms. Happy enough with that. Now if only they could get this built and to me before 16/02/10. I've been without a gaming laptop since the middle of September.

I'll need it. My order status is stuck in "Work in Progress" since Friday. Must be a part on backorder somewhere.