Dell hits all the wrong keys – again

Dell isn’t having much luck with keyboards this summer. The computer giant admitted Friday that some of its XPS One machines have been wrongly shipped to the UK with US keyboards.

We were alerted to Dell’s latest embarrassing keyboard blunder after El Reg reader Chris told us about a friend who recently bought a Dell XPS One computer from PC World.

Chris’s chum discovered that Dell had mistakenly shipped a US rather than UK keyboard with his new “stunning, all-in-one” machine, so he took the unit back to PC World to get a replacement.

However, the computer retailer couldn't help and told him to contact Dell direct about the cock-up. Dell advised that he sit tight because UK keyboards were not available for that model yet. In the meantime PC World coughed up a Logitech keyboard for Chris's mate.

Dell admitted Friday that this less-than-stunning customer experience wasn’t an isolated incident. It told us in a statement:

“A small number of XPS One units in the UK were shipped with US keyboards in error for a short period of time. Dell has since rectified this issue, and all XPS One units are now shipping with UK keyboards.”

Unsurprisingly, the company hasn’t revealed how many XPS One units were shipped with the wrong keyboard. Dell said replacement keyboards were now available for any customers getting into the annoying habit of typing " when they mean @. And vice versa.

The firm’s latest shipment gaffe follows an embarrassing fiasco with an unspecified number of its Vostro 1310 and 1510 laptops in Europe being sent out with the wrong keyboard layout in May this year. ®