There's been a delay: The Federal Trade Commission requires us to obtain your consent to continue with this order

What??? This was a text message (only) from Dell. No email or phone call.

I had ordered a nice new Alienware 13" laptop, plus the added external video card adapter that allows plugging desktop video cards into the laptop - 452-BCFE Dell Alienware Graphics Amplifier. The laptop arrived yesterday. Today, I received a this strange text message:

"There's been a delay: The Federal Trade Commission requires us to obtain your consent to continue with this order."

I did not receive an email or a phone call about this issue. I have been buying a lot of consumer and business products from Dell since the 1990s.

The link was only a form consenting to the delay, and any future delays, no explanation as to why the delays, with only the option to consent to the delay or cancel the order.

"This order has been delayed.

We’re very sorry, but we’ve encountered another unexpected delay with your order . The new estimated delivery date is on or before 7/4/2016.

We will be forced to cancel your order automatically to comply with Federal Trade Commission requirements if you do not give your consent to continue with the order process within 24 hours."

Contacted Dell support and they were not very helpful...

Sirisha_Durgam - William, I see that there is no delay in the order.

5:02:04 PM Agent Sirisha_Durgam - There is a specialized department who will help you in further assistance regarding the issue.

5:02:09 PM Agent Sirisha_Durgam - I would request you to call the order modification department at 1-800-247-2076, option 4. The timings for order modification department is 7 am to 7 pm CST Monday to Friday."

Note the time (Pacific)...

So, it turns out this is related to a ruling/law passed in 2014, that states online sellers must cancel orders if they are going to be delayed if they do not get permission from the recipient.

The Dell support folk took 4 support tiers to be able to understand this. They agreed the wording made it look like the FTC intercepted/delayed the shipment, and they have put in a request to the developers to fix the message to be more accurate.