So Much for Dell!!!! (IMHO)

Anxiously waiting delivery of my new Dell 9100 Notebook which was to be shipped today. I have been checking my account and order status daily (several times)and according to Dell everything was on schedule, and it was ready for boxing and shipment yesterday until......Went through the routine. Pre Production, Production-parts basket-building-and testing. According to Dell's format, all that was left was to box the thing and ship it which normally was within 24 hours unless it was a complex order of some kind (One standard notebook). This fit all projections according to the purchase agreement as a ship date of today, 4/23/04. Got an email from them today as "1st delay" saying it would be another week before they would consider shipping it (even though it was a finished product according to their production release). Also don't know what "1st delay" meant. "First" implies to me that it could be the first of many if it fit Dell's interest, not the customer's. I strongly suspect that they got a nice big order which made little me insignificant to Dell, and my 9100 notebook shipped today alright, but not to me.Anybody have any feelings for an alternate notebook computer, prefererably off the shelf for fast delivery. Any experiences which are favorable (or unfavorable) with Sony, IBM, Acer, or anybody else would be greatly appreciated.Thanks:RTH