Reader Steven wrote in to let us know that his Dell Mini’s ship date keeps getting pushed back and he’s starting to become annoyed.

Steven says:

I’d like to let you know about some extreme shipment delays with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. My order, which was originally placed on 9-11, has been delayed something like six times — generally for about a week at a time, so it appears they were merely stringing me along so I wouldn’t cancel — and now for another month until 11-20.

Do you have any suggestions? I haven’t been able to talk to anyone who is knowledgeable or able to help, whether by calling their support or emailing through their “escalation service.” My order has been escalated and was supposed to be expedited several weeks ago, but obviously that never happened.

I can provide more details, including exact order dates and customer service representative names — but more than anything, I really want to know if there’s any advice you might have. It was originally supposed to be delivered on 9-26, in time for my girlfriend’s birthday, and I’m incredibly upset at Dell for appearing to string me along week-by-week when I would have just canceled if they could have made a realistic delay/delivery estimate in the first case.

Would this be something worthy of filing a BBB report? Or, is my only option really just to cancel — Dell does seem to have been rather deceptive in their dealings with customers throughout this fiasco, I’m certainly not the only one with a delayed order.

Systemic shipping delays are always tough to deal with — because the problem is likely larger than just your order. Filing a complaint with the BBB is certainly an option, and it may help escalate your case to the next level and make it stand out from the crowd.

You do, of course, have the option to cancel and receive and immediate refund, because of the FTC’s mail order rule. If you feel that Dell is violating this rule, you might want to report them to the FTC.

You can also contact Dell’s executives with an EECB (executive email carpet bomb). For more information about launching an EECB, click here. Here’s some Dell contact info.

Is anyone else having this issue? How did you deal with it?

(Photo: Ben Popken )

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