Hello all,
This is my first post, but I've been reading the forums here for awhile and have gotten alot of good insight about my m9750.
I don't normally post on any forums, but I felt I had to share this experience.
I bought a m9750 a little over a year ago. It did take awhile to get, but it was worth the wait. It's a great machine. It only has 2GB RAM, a single 7950gtx and is running vista, but it performs well enough for most of what I do.
I recently(9/22/08) decided to splurge a little and upgrade the RAM, HD and add another 7950gtx. The cost wasn't too bad ($500) and I got the parts within a few days. After installing everything, there were a few problems. One stick of RAM wouldn't let the machine start and the new 7950gtx was acting "funny."
I called tech support and spoke with someone really helpful. She walked me through reseating my card (a few times) and running diagnostics. She agreed the video card and RAM were bad and I needed a replacement. She also said since the heatsink was reseated so many times she'd send out a replacement heatsink with the RAM and video card.
Since I use my laptop daily for work (and play), I opted to keep my equipment until the replacement gear arrived (I needed to keep my heatsink for obvious reasons). In order to do this, they needed to put a pre-authorization on my credit card for about $500. Basically, they wouldn't actually charge me unless i didn't send the bad stuff back to them. (which makes sense)
For a few weeks I would call Monday or Tuesday to their customer support line to check on when I'd be getting my replacement parts and every week I get a response of, "the heatsink is out of stock, we should have it early next week." A few weeks of this is fine, I totally understand.
Well after about 6 weeks, I took a look at my credit card statement and saw another charge from Alienware for ~$500. This was the pre-authorization charging me because I hadn't sent the bad videocard, bad RAM and old heatsink back to them. At this point I have over $1000 charged to my credit card for one stick of RAM and a 160GB hard-drive.
I called and explained the situation to an AW rep and he gave me the same response of "we don't have this item in stock, but we should be getting it on Monday." I asked him if he could credit me back for the second charge and simply run another pre-authorization. He said he couldn't or that it would take too long or some other excuse. I was frustrated and told him I'd call back next week and I knew he was going to tell me they'd still be out of stock.
Regardless, I called today and talked to the same rep I've talked to multiple times ("Johnny") and he informed me they were out of stock and he wasn't sure if/when they'd get more heatsinks. He said he was emailing inventory and seeing what they could do. He said to call back in 24-48 hours. (Usually isn't customer service supposed to be doing the work? I feel like they put the work on me, when they already have my money (and $500 extra of my money))
Nothing really I can do but wait the two more days. I guess after two days if they still don't have it, the best I can do is try to get them to refund me for the entire order or call my credit card company to get a stop payment on ~all~ the funds (the $500 order and the $500 pre-authorization that ended up getting charged).
I also tried sending an email to feedback@alienware.com, but it's been a week with no response. (I didn't use any bad words or anything in case anyone was wondering)
Thanks if anyone took the time to read through all this. I really just needed a place to vent =) If anyone had a similar experience, I'd like to know how it turned out or if anyone has any advice.
In the meantime I'll still be working and playing on my m9750 with a single vid card =P
This is my first post, but I've been reading the forums here for awhile and have gotten alot of good insight about my m9750.
I don't normally post on any forums, but I felt I had to share this experience.
I bought a m9750 a little over a year ago. It did take awhile to get, but it was worth the wait. It's a great machine. It only has 2GB RAM, a single 7950gtx and is running vista, but it performs well enough for most of what I do.
I recently(9/22/08) decided to splurge a little and upgrade the RAM, HD and add another 7950gtx. The cost wasn't too bad ($500) and I got the parts within a few days. After installing everything, there were a few problems. One stick of RAM wouldn't let the machine start and the new 7950gtx was acting "funny."
I called tech support and spoke with someone really helpful. She walked me through reseating my card (a few times) and running diagnostics. She agreed the video card and RAM were bad and I needed a replacement. She also said since the heatsink was reseated so many times she'd send out a replacement heatsink with the RAM and video card.
Since I use my laptop daily for work (and play), I opted to keep my equipment until the replacement gear arrived (I needed to keep my heatsink for obvious reasons). In order to do this, they needed to put a pre-authorization on my credit card for about $500. Basically, they wouldn't actually charge me unless i didn't send the bad stuff back to them. (which makes sense)
For a few weeks I would call Monday or Tuesday to their customer support line to check on when I'd be getting my replacement parts and every week I get a response of, "the heatsink is out of stock, we should have it early next week." A few weeks of this is fine, I totally understand.
Well after about 6 weeks, I took a look at my credit card statement and saw another charge from Alienware for ~$500. This was the pre-authorization charging me because I hadn't sent the bad videocard, bad RAM and old heatsink back to them. At this point I have over $1000 charged to my credit card for one stick of RAM and a 160GB hard-drive.
I called and explained the situation to an AW rep and he gave me the same response of "we don't have this item in stock, but we should be getting it on Monday." I asked him if he could credit me back for the second charge and simply run another pre-authorization. He said he couldn't or that it would take too long or some other excuse. I was frustrated and told him I'd call back next week and I knew he was going to tell me they'd still be out of stock.
Regardless, I called today and talked to the same rep I've talked to multiple times ("Johnny") and he informed me they were out of stock and he wasn't sure if/when they'd get more heatsinks. He said he was emailing inventory and seeing what they could do. He said to call back in 24-48 hours. (Usually isn't customer service supposed to be doing the work? I feel like they put the work on me, when they already have my money (and $500 extra of my money))
Nothing really I can do but wait the two more days. I guess after two days if they still don't have it, the best I can do is try to get them to refund me for the entire order or call my credit card company to get a stop payment on ~all~ the funds (the $500 order and the $500 pre-authorization that ended up getting charged).
I also tried sending an email to feedback@alienware.com, but it's been a week with no response. (I didn't use any bad words or anything in case anyone was wondering)
Thanks if anyone took the time to read through all this. I really just needed a place to vent =) If anyone had a similar experience, I'd like to know how it turned out or if anyone has any advice.
In the meantime I'll still be working and playing on my m9750 with a single vid card =P
