Dell is driving me nuts.

I ordered Dell's 8400 desktop a week ago and it's schedule to be shipped on 27th of this month.  I didn't want to spend that much so I got a moderate CPU (3.2GHz P4), so so storage (250G), non-gamer's video card (ATI X300SE), and 2G of speedy memory.  X300SE was intended to be just a placeholder for a better graphics card later.  Audio card?  Whatever came with the motherboard.

Just now I checked the price and found that I could get faster CPU (3.4GHz), moderate gamer's graphics card (ATI X800 SE), and top of the line audio card (Audigy2?) for the same price!  I have bought countless computers before and I have learned to live with price drops.  But seeing such drastic price drops even before the box ships is too much to bear.

So I cancelled the order and came over to my blog to vent some frustration.  At this rate, I'll keep on cancelling my orders until there is a severe component shortage.  If there are more people like me, I think companies like Dell will have to offer price adjustements at the time of shipment.  Heck, it's not the money.  It's the ol' feeling of getting shafted loyally in real time.

Update:

I went ahead with the new order and got free 2nd shipping as well which means it will arrive about the same time as my previous order would have arrived.  Nice.

I am starting to understand a little more of how my wife feels when she hounds local mall clerks into making up differences whenever there is a sale.  I couldn't believe it when I first heard of it.  She buys something for X and, if store lowers the price to Y sometime later, then she somehow talk them into coughing up X-Y.  What I don't understand is why US economy doesn't collapse with shoppers like her around.

Update 2:

Aha!  I found the culprit behind the sudden price drop.  Intel cut the price of its CPUs by as much as 35% on August 23rd.  Since Dell had a fairly large number of customers waiting to receive 8400 desktops, I think many of them will cancel their orders to take advantage of the price drop.