Dell's "Express Upgrade" to Vista not so "express"
Dell-using Vista hopefuls are expressing their frustration at Dell's continued delays and problems with their Vista upgrades. The fiasco started right when the Dell Vista Upgrade site opened for business, with the sudden flood of visitors being blamed for site crashes, delays and error messages, and downtimes lasting as long as 24 hours at a time. Even after Dell stabilized the website, reports were rampant of the site not recognizing certain service tag numbers, or informing users incorrectly that their system wasn't eligible for the upgrade. Phone support was little better, with one phone jockey telling a customer "Your machine's processor is only at 667 Mhz speed. You will have to upgrade it before you can get the Vista upgrade." Turns out Dell's guy was reading the RAM speed off the spec list. In the midst of all these problems, Dell has been slowly pushing back the ship date for the upgrade discs, with the latest official word being late February: "We expect to begin shipping upgrade kits to customers within the next couple of weeks." That might be well and good, but Dell is processing orders on a first-come first-served basis, and some users are being told to expect a 6-8 week wait for their discs. Dell blames these added delays on continued testing of driver compatibility, along with continued site kinks, but they do claim to have eligibility problems ironed out, so at least that's a start. If your experience with Dell's upgrade has been any different -- or just as hellish -- we'd love to hear it in the comments.
[Thanks, Roy B]
Read - Dell Vista Upgrade site
Read - Official word from Dell
Read - The story from a disgruntled forum member
