Although Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) likes to trumpet that it carries a whole selection of non-Dell products -- from digital cameras to GPS devices to projectors -- does it sell a lot of those items? Hard to say really, and it's hard for me to think that customers go to Dell when considering an electronic item purchase. Well, unless they are assembling a PC at Dell's website all all the upsells of these items are presented up front as available to the millions of customers who build and order PCs from Dell's website every quarter.Does Dell have these items in stock in warehouses all over the U.S.? If a recent order for a digital camera is any indication, that's hard to imagine. I ordered a Canon TX1 Monday of this week from www.dell.com, expecting some kind of status on if the item was in stock before the order was placed. Since I could not find that information, I placed the order. After then determining (again, after the order) that the camera was constrained to Dell -- with an expected ship date at the end of this month -- well, I was a tad miffed.
I turned to Buy.com the same day and ordered the same unit. Buy.com did indicate inventory levels, with an expected ship date of 1-2 days. The unit showed up on Wednesday afternoon. Dell's order page (on an order which I will be canceling), still indicates a status of "In Production," which strikes me as odd since Dell is not "producing" anything -- simply shipping a ready-built, non-Dell product. Now, if Dell's system would have indicated stock levels before the order was placed -- or used better language to describe inventory levels -- that would have been fine. But attaching an order status that is meant for a custom-built PC instead of a non-Dell electronics item (where it has no meaning at all) leaves me feeling that Dell's carrying of other items is not a priority for the company -- or its customer-facing system would be quite a bit more clear. Moral of the story: it's hard to imagine ordering anything but a PC from Dell after such a non-communicative experience here.
Google's plan for netbook PCs moves higher into the clouds
Closing Bell: Stock bulls and dollar death (DDRX,GMCR, PEET, SBUX, EBAY, CI, TECD)
So long peak oil, here comes peak uranium
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-17-2007 @ 7:24PM
Tomeraider said...
Dell has a "just in time" inventory business model. This used to result in lower prices due to market conditions that persisted in the 90s. Now, it more often results in delays. Dell drop ships almost everything they don't assemble themselves; they would certainly not keep it in inventory.
8-17-2007 @ 9:04PM
Tracy said...
I'm sure Dell doesn't keep anything stocked and while the Dell computers are fine the customer service is so bad it's not worth purchasing anything from them.
8-18-2007 @ 3:54AM
RB said...
My experience has been, that even ordering a Dell product from Dell, isn't such a great idea. Has anyone else noticed when you call Dell Tech Support, just like every other company these days, you get someone in India, who has a western name like Bill, Joe, Bob, or Cindy. Anyway, prior to the day when we told Dell and others to ship our jobs overseas, we then could understand the person on the other end of the line.
8-20-2007 @ 8:35AM
Deana said...
I ordered a Canon S3 IS earlier this year and received it in about 36 hours and found the best price at Dell by checking xpbargains and earned a 50.00 coupon which I used later that Spring for an MP3 player for my son which was also on sale at the time I purchased. Win Win for me.