Dell Struggles With Shipment Delays

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) â€” Dell Computer Corp. customers who recently placed orders for computer systems may not get delivery before Christmas. <br><br>Dell was backed up in getting its top systems â€” the

Wednesday, December 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) â€” Dell Computer Corp. customers who recently placed orders for computer systems may not get delivery before Christmas.

Dell was backed up in getting its top systems â€” the Dimension 8100 personal computer and Inspiron 8000 notebook â€” to customers.

Dell spokesman Tom Kehoe said Monday that about 5 percent of orders taken on the Dimension 8100 were affected. He would not say how many customers that included.

Kehoe said he did not know how many customers had been affected by the delay of the Inspiron 8000 notebook either, but he added that the problem has been fixed.

``This is obviously mis-execution by Dell, and frankly it's quite dangerous,'' said Gartner analyst Kevin Knox. ``People went to Dell all the way back in November, and if they can't deliver product before Christmas, this is going to leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.''

Kehoe said the causes of the twin delays were unrelated.

The problem in getting the Dimension 8100 to customers stems from a glitch on the Dell ordering Web page that allowed customers to order a keyboard and a mouse that are incompatible. Kehoe said Dell has fixed the problem by sending customers an upgraded version of the mouse that will work with the keyboard they ordered.

Inspiron 8000 orders were slowed down by supply problems with 8X CD-RW drives and 32MB graphics cards, causing Dell to tell customers that their computer would not be shipped within four days, as normally quoted to customers.

Kehoe said the problem has been straightened out and that customers who place orders on Tuesday will get their computer on time.

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