Bad Service from Dell

Ordered the Dell Alpha on November 16.  When ordering the description makes it seem like you get free expedited 2 day shipping!.  After the order is placed you learn that the production time takes 2 weeks … at least.  The scheduled delivery date for my order was December 2nd.  On December 2nd the date magically changed to December 4 - but no email from Dell - I had to check the website.  On December 3rd my order was inexplicably cancelled   As I am writing this, I’ve been on hold for 20 minutes trying to reach customer service.   The machine may or may not be a good product but BEWARE of DELL SERVICE.

I had a nearly identical experience.  Ordered an alpha on 11/17 with 2 day shipping for 12/1 delivery.  Delayed until 12/4, then to 12/7, then again to 12/17.  I contacted Dell support on December 6 to find out why, and explore other options (One should be aware that although Dell is a US company, their customer support is “off shore”).  I spent 3 hours holding for “live chat” support and was bounced to several operators without any help.  I spent another 2 hours on the phone that evening, and spoke with several other representatives with the same result.  Frustrated, I cancelled my order with Dell and ordered one from Amazon that night, it has shipped already and I’ll have it in a couple days. 

Dell “customer support” is the worst I’ve ever experienced.  Although the Alpha may be an outstanding system for Zwift, getting one directly from Dell is a lesson in futility and frustration.  Look for another source! 

Bottom line I’ll never order anything from Dell directly, EVER! They don’t care about their customers, period.  As with Thomas’ post…YOU’VE BEEN WORNED!

Order a proper PC from one of the many PC builders, much better value.

I order my PC’s from SCAN where they can be indivually specified and the customer service has always been second to none.

Good feedback on Dell.  Thanks.

The original poster is correct. Good luck dealing with Dell. I placed an order for an Alienware Alpha 2 weeks ago. Today (December 10th) my original order, scheduled to be delivered on December 17th, was canceled and a new order was automatically created and scheduled for January 4th. That’s 5 weeks after the original order date. I expect my next order will get canceled also.

Zwift is recommending we purchase these machines, but actually getting them is nearly impossible. Every week that goes by where I don’t have this machine is subscription money that Zwift is losing.

 But what does this have to do with Zwift? This sounds like a Dell Fulfillment problem. Have you contacted them? I’m confident Dell is not looking here for support requests. 

Directly or indirectly, Zwift recommends the Alienware Alpha to run the app.  I just wanted to warn people of potential pitfalls.  

As for contacting Dell, I’ve spent over 5 hours on phone support, and other time sending and replying to emails.  Of course Dell wouldn’t check here, they don’t care about their customers when contacted directly. 

my post is a consumer warning.

I originally ordered one through Dell at the beginning of December, when my build date got moved out to the middle of January I cancelled the dell order (Which took about 5 hours on their chat line) and bought it on amazon for a lower price and got it in 2 days.  Dell really is terrible to deal with for regular consumers.