I remember when I was in phase 12.
The price dropped for the 7700 around $150 sometime toward the end of last week. So I called in about it and was told the following things:
1) Alienware would honor the price change.
2) Because my laptop was about to be shipped, they weren't certain it could be refunded to me now. If not, then I could call in after the weekend and get it credited.
3) It was too late to put that money toward upgrading the laptop. I couldn't even add anything to the order like a car adapter.
4) The order would go on as scheduled.
The weekend passes and these are the things as they actually happened:
1) Alienware credited the money back to my credit card (Hooray!)
2) The laptop was sent back to phase 9 because they considered this an order change.
3) Now it was too late to amend the order, even though I could have before (or, in other words, "we don't know what those other people were telling you because it wasn't true")
4) They claim that the return to phase nine is purely a paperwork issue. So I suppose, by some logic beyond my comprehension, this explains why it's been in phase nine for the entire week until today.
But whatever. Waiting another week to get my laptop so I could save $150 is a good deal. Also note that this is not a complaint aganst Alienware; simply a commentary on the fact that it seems to take them a week (by their own admission) just to print out paperwork.
I'm assuming that their office printer must consist of several dozen tiny gnomes with letters imprinted on the soles of their feet. They dance in a pad of ink then jump across the paper in turn.