back to article Dell order status website suffers second server meltdown

Dell has once again apologised, after its servers buckled under the strain of requests from customers hoping to check the status of their orders on the company's website. As we reported in February, Dell assured its customers that it was putting processes in place to prevent its order status website from ingloriously dying on …

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  1. Ihre Papiere Bitte!!
    IT Angle

    Root Cause Analysis

    It's because hundreds of Reg readers are checking their orders to see if they can get a refund on their bundled-in Windows OS...

    (*pre-emptive snarky comment: yes, I know hundreds of Reg readers will lambast me for daring to suggest that they would order from Dell**)

    (**pre-emptive snarky comment note: I think I spend too much time on Raymond Chen's blog!)

    IT Angle? Can't see one. It is Dell after all.....!

  2. Harry
    Unhappy

    "it was putting processes in place"

    Probably loosely translated as ...

    "We have ordered a backup server, but they're on backorder at the moment".

    And conveniently forget to mention that maybe they ought to have thought about getting a backup server long before the problem arose.

  3. Kurgan
    Gates Horns

    Who said that it's an hadware issue?

    Quite surely they use Windows, since they say that they have to "restart services" to make servers work again.

  4. Bilgepipe
    FAIL

    Fail

    You are docked ten points for the pretentious use of the word "iron" to describe a computer. This is IT, not open-cast mining.

    Besides, it sounds as if this is firmly a crap software problem, nothing to do with hardware.

  5. Alan W. Rateliff, II
    Paris Hilton

    It could very well be scrap metal behind the "iron."

    Re Bilgepipe.

    But on a serious note, based upon my experience with Dell lately -- and thank you, Dell, for enabling me to sell a good number of servers while you flail -- I would wager that the server buckled under the strain of aggravated customers wanting to know where the fsck their servers are which were promised for delivery sometime last month.

    I amusingly envision Dell Selling off one or more servers from within its infrastructure just to keep some customers happy.

    Colleagues and I have opined that this may be the beginning of a uncontrollable tail-spin for Dell as it retools to do things just like every other second-rate, crappy vendor on the market. The small- to mid-level arena is suffering as Dell joins the ranks of other vendors who provide fantastic enterprise-quality (and expensive) massive servers or complete shit. Those are your only two choices. Yeah, I am so happy to see that Dell is now in pretty much every store you visit. How is that quantity making up for quality doing for you, Michael?

    Eh, not to be disingenuous, I know Dell has had a habit of dressing up a $5 hooker to look like a $50 whore, that is, workstation class equipment dressed up like a server for the low-end. But at least their mid-tier stuff was made of better parts, you know, a $500 call-girl slumming for $100 because business is slow and she needs the money. Of course, if you also caught on that business should never be slow for a call-girl, then you also catch the crux of my argument -- obviously, something is rotten in Round Rock.

    And at the same time Dell has made itself known amongst many of my customers and colleagues as a rock-solid provider, with the exception of certain support types. At least, that was the norm, now seemingly the exception. I would recount recent conversations with Dell's gold server team, one of which was about the prospect of fitting a customer-owned DLT drive into a new server, only to be told that it would not work as Dell now only sells rail kits at the time of purchase with associated hardware. Bunk? Perhaps, but direct from the horse's mouth and an ultimate obstruction to the purchase.

    Paris, something rotten this way comes.

  6. Jeff F.
    Thumb Down

    Why, Oh, why would you order from them?

    I'm certain you saw the news from earlier this fall or so about how fouled up the orders were?

    One of my clients told me (with an extreme sense of rectitude) that his computer was broken and he ordered a new Dell which wouldnt be delivered for several weeks.

    I, in the mean time was able to obtain a very nice computer for less than $350 and my client still can't answer an email!

    That must be some nice computing Dell..

  7. James Woods

    im happy with dell

    Their website runs windows so im sure everything else probably does. Maybe if the internet tax proposed by Microsoft gets passed Dell can sleep a little easier at night knowing that fewer people and businesses will be buying computers only to be taxed on top of being taxed and taxed again.

    I haven't purchased a new computer sine I spent 4k on a Gateway in 2003. I lost my restore CD and gateway refused to send me a new one. Rather then spend $400 on a new windows xp pro cd I opted to sell the gateway and get a used dell. I spent about $300 on the dell and it runs like a champ.

    I will never consider dell for a new purchase since everythings outsourced but as far as used goes A+.

    Keep running windows servers and see how your status page goes.

  8. Even Jelical
    Alert

    dell kit????

    One of the best kept secrets in the industry is that Dell's Supply chain solution was so important to them that they did not run it on their own kit, they used Himalaya from Tandem, who were aquired by Compaq and then swallowed by HP, which is where they started, surely they will have removed it by now..............

  9. Jay 2
    FAIL

    Dell = useless

    Ordered two identical servers a few weeks back. One arrived pretty sharpish, and after the expected delivery window we enquired where the other one was. We got the reply that for some reason it hadn't been built yet!

    Given the grief we had when we ordered some storage last year (a similar problem of things not being built), I'm not looking forward to our next purchase. Unfortunately it's company policy that we buy Dell...

  10. Frank Bitterlich
    FAIL

    "Serves" them right...

    ... should have run that site on a couple of proper Xserves. Duh.

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