SharkJumping

We haven't bought PC's in a while, but since we're still a mostly Dell shop, and we have 2 new employees starting, I went to Dell.com to buy 2 very middle-of-the-road laptops (dell 520 Latitudes with a couple of modifications).  To my amazement, the amazing build-to-order machine called Dell indicated that it would take 10 DAYS to build the machines before shipping them.  Yes, that's right - apparently it's almost 2 weeks plus shipping to get a Dell laptop, even though our employees start in 9 days.

As a comparison, I went to Apple.com to look for a similar box since we had just ordered one there for a developer - it was 1-3 business days if we wanted simple modifications and 24 hrs if we wanted one off the shelf.  Then I went to HP.com to perform the same experiment (although I can just buy it at retail), and HP can actually ship a similar laptop in just 2 business days.

So we're done with Dell.  The quality has suffered for years, hard drives and printers in particular, the customer service isn't great (although we spend only $35K a year with them), and the prices aren't that much better anymore.  But what's finally killing me is that Dell simply can't run a build to order business as well as their competitors.   I realize Michael Dell is bringing in a new team, but this small ship just left port...