How was your Compaq/HP Order?

[sandyshorts]

I placed an order for a compaq completely decked out for about 1530. 17" view, 512 ram, 60gb 7200 HD, 256MB ATI, Intel at 3Ghz, etc.

Order was placed on the 5th and Im still waiting on this puppy. The only thing I can find out is that its still expected by the 24th. Has anyone else expierenced such a long delivery from Compaq/HP orders?

A coworker ordered a Dell and got the bloody thing in a week. Its nearly 3 weeks for me now...getting tempted now to cancel the order and change over to a dell, but im saving about 250 compared to the Dell.

[ua549]

All the business grade stuff I've ordered from HP arrives within 1 or 2 days. If you system was custom configured, it takes longer. They have to build it.

[SkyDog]

Originally posted by ua549
If you system was custom configured, it takes longer. They have to build it.

And system manufacturers generally don't keep more than a day's worth of parts in stock. Those parts depreciate while sitting on shelves. If they sit on a part for just a couple of weeks, they could depreciate to the point where the manufacturer has to sell the finished product for less than it costs them to make it.

Dell pioneered this just-in-time type of inventory system, and it's one of the things that reduced their costs and allowed them to undercut their competitors' prices. Now those competitors are doing it, too. Otherwise, they lose their customers to their cheaper rivals.

The problem with that strategy is that if a single part in a system gets delayed or back-ordered, it's going to take longer to build your system.