We fully acknowledge and understand your frustration with the delay of the XPS 700. We understand that you expected your orders to have shipped by now. For this frustration, we are sincerely sorry. We did not anticipate this delay when we first launched the product. However, we saw some issues in the final stages of pre-production testing that caused us to stop and make some changes. Couple these issues with the introduction of several cutting edge technologies, such as a 1KW Power Supply, Quad SLI Graphics and Physics Accelerators, and the result is the delay that you have been experiencing.

We are serious about product quality at Dell. We all understand how complicated each component of a computer system is, especially a system like the XPS 700. We have to test them all to ensure that the system meets our reliability expectations. We test exhaustively – with the intention of delivering a system with unmatched quality to our customers.

While this delay is not what we desire, we will not compromise on the quality of this box. We are very close to resolving the issues. We expect to have systems shipping within the next few weeks, and then we will ramp production to fulfill existing orders. We will not ramp faster than our quality processes will allow – there is no compromise on quality – so we need your patience.

Please accept our apologies for the delay, and please understand that we are working as quickly as we can to resolve the issues to bring you the level of excellence and quality you expect from Dell.

Nicely put...

To summarize-
Dell screwed up by introducing a product that wasn't ready after some further testing showed problems. They have a lot of customers money already for orders. The XPS 700 will be ready at some point, but can't pin down a date. If you want some freebies or something for the inconvenience, you'll have to complain or beg first. But hey...they offered a really nice apology for the delay.

Hopefully they'll get it right.

I believe Dell 200%. And this whole "they have the customers money" comment is irrelevent...they aren't a 10 dollar a year company pinching pennies and doing jumping jacks holding peoples money. Dell has delivered EVERY system I own (all 8 of them) within 4 days of order and thats with STANDARD GROUND SHIPPING. Please, this is the most efficient PC company in the world (and the most powerful). If there's a delay, then its legit.

I understand everyone being upset over it, but the thing with DELL is that you WILL recieve your computer in working order, with all parts ordered, undamaged, and fully overnight air warrantied with copies of invoice, customer ID number, and peace of mind. On top of that, how many peolple actually paid full price for the XPS 700? Judging by the number of EPP 30% +12% discount threads, I'd assume not many. And after watching the new Dell blog site, with the VIDEO explanation of the XPS 700, I have to say you are waiting on a real quality machine. The metal case, and the redesigned interoior with retail version components is awesome...not to mention a 1,000 watt powersupply. with the XPS 700 dell has FULLY erased all the rumors that they don't build real gaming systems...they are now on par with almost every gaming computer company there is. If you say the XPS 700 isn't legit, then you're making yourself feel better. Dell did it this time.

Bottom line...have confidence, Dell will deliver, they aren't the biggest, richest, strongest computer company in the entire world for nothing.

And from what I see Dell has no problem cancelling an XPS 700 order should you decide you don't want it. I will patiently wait until all known issues are resolved. I really just wonder if Conroe is released quite a bit before the XPS 700 orders ship if Dell will upgrade the processors from Pentium D. I'm certainly not expecting it but Apple does it and it would be great PR for Dell should they decide to do it too.

I honestly do not know why those who ordered their XPS700s and still haven't got them don't just cancel their orders since Core 2 Duo release is in days and Dell will be shipping immediately.

People will be receiving their XPS700s at the same time as those with Core 2 Duos. :scratch:
Link

While you are right that the Conroe CPU is going to be released prior to the XPS 700 shipping, I highly doubt that 30% coupon will come around again.

So people who already ordered have to ask themselves is "Conroe" performance really worth another $1,000 bucks? I can honestly answer that "NO!"..LOL.

With that being said, I do believe the delay is real. My biggest problem is that I had to get the truth from my corporate sales rep., since the retail customer care guys don't have a clue as to what is really going on.

I also didn't appreciate the fact that the retail customer care guy tried to talk me into "cancelling" my order just so that he doesn't have to deal with it anymore.

I just received a call from the Dell representative that I spoke to last week. She apologized for the delay and offered me another $50 coupon! She said my system is scheduled to ship Aug 10th, funny thing is the video card I ordered is not even available to order for the XPS now (1GB Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2).
Maybe I'll be able to collect a few more $50 coupons by the time my system ships!

Nobody knows exactly how great or poor Conroe will be, but if the rumours, that it’s over 30% faster on average than the Pentium D, are true I would imagine some people would pay 30% more for 30%+ performance increase with no extra wait time.

But the point is that Dell should really be offering people who've been waiting for over a month something more than a $50 coupon. :$

I agree. Supposedly they are going to send me a $100 coupon, but that is yet to be seen. I didn't ask for anything (other than my system to ship), but the rep. offered the coupon.

Dell makes 15% or less of its yearly income on home customers...they can easily afford to give everyone a $50 dollar coupon....enjoy!

actually ATC7, there are alot of comparisons between conroes and amd fx's and dual cores. Because people like tomshardware, pc mag, etc. get the conroes so they can write articles and mini reviews. Just google conroe test or conroe review and you'll get alot of stuff. Also, how you said we don't know if its good or bad, its very good. A 300 $ processor (E6600) is overclocking to 4.0 ghz on air and stable at 3.87 ghz. Thats on AIR. So all you have to do overclock and you have a processor that is way faster then a 1000 $ processor (FX-62)

Oh, I couldn't agree with you more. The only reason I have reservation about those benchmarks is because they're done under strict control and supervision by Intel; hardly an unbiased and objective method.

Having said that, the NDAs expire midnight tonight and I am very excited and optimistic about Core 2 Duo. How can all those preliminary benchmarks be wrong, even if they were conducted in such manner as mentioned above?

I don't have any problem with Dell as a legit company that makes good products. I have had delays in shipping with them, but nothing that I have raised a stink over with them. I'm on my second Dell system and have been pretty happy with each product. I have to commend them on a fairly open architecture construction. This is my first "store bought" desktop. I've built my own systems in the past. I will not have a problem purchasing from Dell again as long as the quality stays good.

My only problem is this...
Dell has marketed a product for public release. There are delays and problems that keep them from delivering the product. Consumers have already paid for the product. It is unfortunate that issues come up that keep Dell from delivering a stable product and very frustrating for those that have orders placed. Dell is a very large company and it's no surprise to me that there is lack of internal communication. That is a challenge for any large organization.

If a product is truly not stable and ready, please don't take orders for the machine. Market a product for future sales, tease us with it and give us peaks... but don't take money, give a ship date and then tell us sorry it's not ready. That's very frustrating. At least they are giving coupons to customers. It's a nice gesture on their behalf. I'm sure customers will be satisfied once the product is finally delivered, Conroe or not.

Those are just my observations and not trying to be offensive or flame. Sorry if my previous post was misunderstood.