"About 12 hours later Dell send me a notice that my order was canceled. I call and they tell me it's a problem with my credit card and I should straighten it up with my issuer. I call the credit card company and nothing's wrong. They actually give me the confirmation number they gave Dell for the authorization request."

I just wanted to add at this point, that DELL seems to act this way when they offer products they are not able to deliver in a given timeframe or at the offered price. Many years ago i wanted to buy a Core 2 Duo Extreme PC and i was quite surprised that DELL offered a C2D extreme System for a good price at a time when the CPU wasn't available on the market at all. I waited and waited for the confirmed delivery and after a while i called them asking "When do i get my PC ?" and they told me that they have problems with my credit card and that the neighborhood i live in is well known for credit card fraud ! Since those days i have no good word left for DELL !
Btw i live in a quite wealthy area