Sony DRX500UL - Dell now Says Unavailable.

[RichardHeaton]

I ordered a Sony DRX 500UL from Dell on November 16, 2202. (External Firewire/USB-2) Dell sent an order confrimation and then announced two one month delays in shipment of the item, December 15th and December 31st. On January 28, 2003 I recieved an email that Dell regreted to announce that the External Sony DVD drive, DRX-500UL, is no longer available.

When calling Dell sales, I was only told that the units part number is no longer in the system. I have not recieved a response from Dell inquiring why the unit is now not available.

Sony still has the unit on their web site. Does anyone know what the issue is here?

Is the NEC ND-1300 likely to be available in the external firewire/USB-2 configuration?

Thanks in advance.

RichardHeaton

[bobmitchell]

Richard...

I got my DRU-500a here in the Dallas / Fort Worth area when NOONE had them...at Office Depot. They charge $30 more for the unit...but make sure they price match CompUSA or Best Buy and you're fine. Try that as a possible option. I have also seen them in stock at CompUSA.

Bob

[PaulDiston]

Dabs.com also have the external unit in a few days.

[Dartman]

If you have a Frys near you they had a bunch of them last saturday when I picked up my internal 500. I'd say around 10 or so per type on the shelf and no returned ones yet.
Mine was a Jan 03 build with firmware e on it and seems to be OK so far.
The price was retail.

[RichardHeaton]

bobmitchell, PaulDiston and Dartman:

Thank you-all for your responses and input. I have found the DRX-500UL listed at several on-line houses as well. I was curious as to why Dell had dropped the unit from its offerings. I wondered if that might indicate that the unit was having problems of some kind.

If anyone has information that might explain why Dell has dropped the unit, I would be interested in hearing why.

Thanks to all.

Richard Heaton

[Justin42]

My guess would be Dell is so horribly backordered that they are taking MONTHS to crawl out from it-- the short story is back in early October, someone came up with a deal to get nearly $100 off the drives. I ended up getting 2 of the DRU500a's ordered for $245. (EARLY October). One finally arrived at the end of November, the other just came at the very end of January.

I've heard talk of 30,000 backorders for these drives... they finally got smart and quit selling them when they knew they have no chance of catching up at the rate they're going.

[RichardHeaton]

My guess would be Dell is so horribly backordered that they are taking MONTHS to crawl out from it-- the short story is back in early October, someone came up with a deal to get nearly $100 off the drives. I ended up getting 2 of the DRU500a's ordered for $245. (EARLY October). One finally arrived at the end of November, the other just came at the very end of January.

I've heard talk of 30,000 backorders for these drives... they finally got smart and quit selling them when they knew they have no chance of catching up at the rate they're going.

Justin42,

Your explanation makes sense. I'll just look else where to purchase the unit.

MY oh my, looks like sony has a delightful problem on thier hands. Congratulations on ordering at such an attractive price. Buy.com has the DRX-500ULX on back order as well at $398.00 plus about $18.00 in shipping charges. They are saying that the units were due in iDecember and that date has not been updated since.

Richard Heaton