JakeRich

Y’know, I’ve been reading lots of posts about the shipping dates, order dates and the various status messages on the Dell website and the Dell telephone response line. I think most of us don’t understand the Dell model and how it applies to the Axim.

When you order from Dell they use a just-in-time approach to parts and manufacture. That means that they depend on daily, sometimes hourly, deliveries of parts to assemble. Don’t think of a vast warehouse of parts from which your beauty is built, think an empty room where just as the technician gets ready to install the hard drive the drive arrives for him to install, not sooner, not later. It’s tricky, but that’s how Dell does it.

Now imagine that for some reason you and a buddy call in at the exact same moment and order the exact same machine, but you want a DVD drive and he orders a CDROM drive. The software in the factory keeps track and notices that it has a CDROM drive, but no DVD drives, so your buddy goes first because they can fulfill his requirement and get paid for the parts in his machine. That getting paid cuts down on their expenses so he goes first. You wait. Now assume that another buddy calls the following day and orders a machine just like yours, but again with a CDROM. Again, the software sees that CDROMs are available, but no DVD drives, so your other buddy goes in front of you because, again, they can sell those parts NOW and not keep parts on the floor not making money. It’s a bummer that the later order went first, but neither of you will know and even if you do, you’ll assume that it was because of the parts, which it is.

Ok, now move that model to the Axim. No parts to assemble, just stuff to put in a box. Now Dell’s motivation is to reduce shipping to a minimum, so they pre-position stuff in locations all around the country. They save on shipping by having the manufacturer in Taiwan direct ship to these distribution points. Then Dell limits the service area for each of these warehouses to keep shipping costs down. So, your buddy in Walla Walla, WA and you in Altoona, PA both order the same thing on the same day at exactly the same time. Dell has tried to anticipate demand, but for some reason, like the record snowfall we are having today, got it wrong and the warehouse in Harrisburg, PA has no stock, but the warehouse in Tacoma, WA, does. In Texas, at the website, the information is that “on average” it’s taking a week to fulfill, so the web site says shipping is today + 7.

However, because stock is not on the floor in Harrisburg, you wait, but your buddy in Walla Walla gets his Ax in 3 days because there is stock in Tacoma. Now somebody else in Walla Walla ordered the day after you and your buddy did and because stock is available, he gets his delivered in the same 3 days, which is before you.

Normally nobody would notice this activity, but because we all haunt the web and because we all post our order/deliver dates, we DO notice, and we get unhappy because we believe that it ought to be first in, first out. But to Dell, the object is to minimize costs, so they do first in, first out of the nearest warehouse to you not worldwide.

From Dell’s perspective, they offered a date, and as long as they get it to you by that date, they have met the goal. We, as much as we might not like it, should not complain because Dell got somebody else a machine sooner, but only if they don’t get ours to us by the day they offered. And if they have a reasonable reason for a delay, we should probably not complain even if it is late. It's their model, and we bought into that model when we ordered.

Finally, the web site is geared to the manufacture process. The various stages mean nothing to an Axim. There is no manufacture, only a shipping process. But there is no motivation on their part to spend money on what is a small part of their total revenue stream, so they leave it as it is and force fit the Axim process. The only thing on that site that is of any value is the estimated ship date. All else is bogus, worthless and of no meaning. Even the estimated ship date is only an ESTIMATE, not a guarantee, so you can’t bank on it. The same goes for the telephone update and even calling a Dell sales rep.

Basically, order it and forget it. It will arrive when it arrives, not sooner, not later.