Heya all
First and for most thanks for your help and thoughts in this issue that has been plaguing me for 3 months now.
History:
Dec. 27th, 2010 (received Jan 2nd, 2011) Dell/Alienware shipped my brand new M17x R2; I7 740QM, 8gb 1333 Ram, 5870 X-fire, 1920 x 1200 RGB LED, 1tb RAID 0, Blu-ray, Bluetooth, Intel WiFi, 3yr Advanced Care NBD Warranty
Jan. 13th 2011 Total system failure. No screen, no post, 1/2 Alienware FX lights and that was it. Requested system replacement as it was less then 2 weeks old.
Was told I had to go through repair process first then I could request a replacement if I was still not satisfied. I was asked to ship my brand new system to the Flextronics repair depot in Mississauga Ontario, Canada (certainly not happy about that but did it anyway)
Due to admin error, Tech rep inputted my Service Tag wrong, mixing up the middle 4 digits WX-YZ he coded YZ-WX my system was lost at repair depot until Feb. 24th 2011. 6 weeks!!!!
When I received it I re-installed the hard drives, booted up and NOTHING. Still didn't work properly. Received error codes indicating among other things HD failure and GPU fan failures.
Contacted Dell/Alienware tech support immediately and was authorized a system exchange. Ok great I though this is what I wanted anyway...
April 8th 2011, 12 weeks after system failure I finally receive details of my system exchange, just beginning production ship date unknown. System specs are for a M17X R3, while decent
are not what I would consider on par with the M17x R2. While it does have the Sandy Bridge chip-set the R3 does not support SLI or X-Fire and does not have the same 1920 x 1200 RGB screen.
I guess my biggest gripe is the fact that I have paid 70% more for my M17X R2 then the listed price for an identically configured R3 that was authorized for my exchange. If I had been told in January that I would receive a R3 instead of a R2 I would have returned everything and asked for a full refund then. Now 90 + days later Dell is not willing to give me a refund AT ALL. I still do not have a working system and in all likely-hood it will be mid May before I can expect any resolution to this.
So far my choices are this:
M17x R3 brand new but cost "significantly" less then what I have already paid for my M17x R2
Refurbished M17x R2 spec'd same as original configuration.
Am I being foolish in thinking that I am being screwed over here... I had asked for a "new" replacement system during the initial failure certainly not out of the question for a laptop that is less then 2 weeks old. I was told no...had to go through warranty repairs first. Due to human error my system was "lost" until so much time had pasted that I could no longer receive a refund on my purchase. After 3 months I am at my wits end with this mess. What would you do? Try to push for a newer better spec'd system, Force a refund or price modification, or hold out for maybe the up and coming M18X?
First and for most thanks for your help and thoughts in this issue that has been plaguing me for 3 months now.
History:
Dec. 27th, 2010 (received Jan 2nd, 2011) Dell/Alienware shipped my brand new M17x R2; I7 740QM, 8gb 1333 Ram, 5870 X-fire, 1920 x 1200 RGB LED, 1tb RAID 0, Blu-ray, Bluetooth, Intel WiFi, 3yr Advanced Care NBD Warranty
Jan. 13th 2011 Total system failure. No screen, no post, 1/2 Alienware FX lights and that was it. Requested system replacement as it was less then 2 weeks old.
Was told I had to go through repair process first then I could request a replacement if I was still not satisfied. I was asked to ship my brand new system to the Flextronics repair depot in Mississauga Ontario, Canada (certainly not happy about that but did it anyway)
Due to admin error, Tech rep inputted my Service Tag wrong, mixing up the middle 4 digits WX-YZ he coded YZ-WX my system was lost at repair depot until Feb. 24th 2011. 6 weeks!!!!
When I received it I re-installed the hard drives, booted up and NOTHING. Still didn't work properly. Received error codes indicating among other things HD failure and GPU fan failures.
Contacted Dell/Alienware tech support immediately and was authorized a system exchange. Ok great I though this is what I wanted anyway...
April 8th 2011, 12 weeks after system failure I finally receive details of my system exchange, just beginning production ship date unknown. System specs are for a M17X R3, while decent
are not what I would consider on par with the M17x R2. While it does have the Sandy Bridge chip-set the R3 does not support SLI or X-Fire and does not have the same 1920 x 1200 RGB screen.
I guess my biggest gripe is the fact that I have paid 70% more for my M17X R2 then the listed price for an identically configured R3 that was authorized for my exchange. If I had been told in January that I would receive a R3 instead of a R2 I would have returned everything and asked for a full refund then. Now 90 + days later Dell is not willing to give me a refund AT ALL. I still do not have a working system and in all likely-hood it will be mid May before I can expect any resolution to this.
So far my choices are this:
M17x R3 brand new but cost "significantly" less then what I have already paid for my M17x R2
Refurbished M17x R2 spec'd same as original configuration.
Am I being foolish in thinking that I am being screwed over here... I had asked for a "new" replacement system during the initial failure certainly not out of the question for a laptop that is less then 2 weeks old. I was told no...had to go through warranty repairs first. Due to human error my system was "lost" until so much time had pasted that I could no longer receive a refund on my purchase. After 3 months I am at my wits end with this mess. What would you do? Try to push for a newer better spec'd system, Force a refund or price modification, or hold out for maybe the up and coming M18X?
