Opinions - $500 rebate on select systems - Page 3

Here, here

You know if you don't want that extra few hundred dollars then I'll gladly take it off your hands even if I have to wait for it and my system

The plain simple fact is that AW prides its self on superior customer service.
http://www.alienware.com/standalone_...ifference.aspx

In that light, MJDart has valid points. Regardless of weather you think his demands are unreasonable or not, AW should have kept him on the phone until he was satisfied, and shipped his system as soon as it was packed. He isn't quibbling about a few hundred dollars, but rather that he's getting used car lot service from the self proclaimed leader of CS in the computer world. He could have gone to Sager for the computer and gotten the same power, he went to AW for the service, the Alienware differance. Saddly, the only differance they made was to annoy and piss him off.

No matter how anyone else on the boards rationalizes this, only a representative of the party who aggrevated you can repair the damage. You can tell someone all day that they weren't intentionally slighted, but that doesn't change how they feel.

this thread still amazes me. I'm the first one to criticize AW for overpriced machines , etc, but dealing with over-demanding customers who claim "customer service" every time you try to explain normal business practices, is a nightmare that even AW doesn't deserve.

There are customers you try to help that simply will not listen to anything you have to say, unless you are in total agreement with them. This is one such case. I've turned away customers like this in the past, and will continue to do so - simply because even if they do come back, every single transaction is a nightmare one, and every transaction takes 10x longer than everyone else.

If mjdart really was concerned about customer service and was unhappy to this point, the order would've been cancelled. Instead (typical of the nightmare customer), you get lots of hot air, threats and complaints with nothing to back them up.

So either cancel the order or don't. Stop complaining about retro-rebates and their lack of a bartering system.

Why can't you go into this notebook purchase being happy? You decided to pull the plug on the purchase, and was obviously content with the price at the time you gave the credit card info. You can't really expect AW to bend over backward to accomodate you, when this is truly something they don't even have to do. I suppose the most ironic outcome would be if you opted for the rebate, then somehow manage to lose it before redemption.

Now that would be funny!

The bottom line is that a reasonably rational customer went away unhappy. In that regard, the sales rep failed. You can make excuses for sales reps till you turn blue in the face, you can accuse MJ of being irrational, and making outragous demands, but from his arguments, I'm fairly certain that he could have been made to feel that he made the right decision going AW, if AW had the right rep on the job. I understand that there are guide lines that a sales rep is required to follow, and that AW sets its policies for good reasons. Unfortunately, some of those policies interfere with expediting orders. I know for a fact that I can process a credit card in a matter of minutes, and find it odd that it takes AW several days to accomplish the same thing. If they simply said we have to charge you the differance on your card, and we'll mail you the rebate seperately and get you your system without delay, MJ might not have been jubilant, but probrably wouldn't have felt a need to post on these boards about it either.

PS: he ordered a desk top, not a notebook as was already noted

Going through all these posts, I believe AW gave you the best CS that was possible.

To be honest, you could've gotten someone who'd refuse to give you the $500.00 rebate and told you that your system had shipped already.

When I bought my system, there was only ONE price adjustment for $46.00

Forgive me, if I don't cry you a river.

I'm cool!

You're right. They really aren't that bad...Dell on the other hand...CHRIST!!!!!

i think this is really what it comes down to: mechanics of the rebate aside, AW spectacularly fails in how they handle this stuff... it's much better customer service to say "sorry, you're not eligible for the rebate since you placed your order a month ago" than to say "we'll give you the rebate but first we're going to charge your credit card an extra 225.00 and then we're going to delay your order and during this we'll do whatever it takes to confuse the hell out of you."

AW has terrible customer service *not* because they don't want to do the right thing -- i think they really *do* want to do the right thing and most of the reps try very hard -- but it's because they're horribly inefficient with order processing and haven't improved over the last 2 years from what i can tell, they have terrible customer process skills and fundamentally don't understand what makes a good customer experience. this is why AW's ratings on resellerratings.com are so much lower than the average -- their customer interaction is totally broken and always has been.

a good start would be completely eliminating the asinine phases -- right there is a microcosm of everything that's wrong with AW's service... you don't present tracking information to a customer if it has no bearing on reality.

honestly -- it wouldn't take much to tighten up their business model. the first step to healing is moving out of denial.

Agreed.

Sounds like angry, dillusional Safeway customers when I used to work at that godforsaken place before.

Granted their not an "enthusiastic boutique PC maker" but at least back in Canada I used to get people who sound EXACTLY like you for things totally unreasonable. They ask for totally unreasonable things like "BUT THIS MEAT ISNT LOW IN FAT, I DEMAND A DISCOUNT AND IF I DONT GET IT IM GONNA TAKE THIS TO SAFEWAY HEADQUARTERS IN QUEBEC, AND I’LL TAKE THIS TO THE TOP! I SWEAR!” I am NOT joking that I had a customer like this. It just makes me sick.

Safeway employees are actually trained to try to meet customers expectations, and we did to an extent or we didn’t get the hours we wanted (Cant be fired because of Union), but when we got middle aged customers (much like you, no offence) who bring in a coupon that isn’t valid and we have to politely refuse them, they start throwing a fit because they cant get things their way it made me and all of my co workers want to spontaniously combust or get some rabid Canadian beaver to maul their faces off.

This isn’t about Safeway “not being a Boutique PC maker”. I'm not trying to make any discernable connection between the two so you saying that Safeway isn’t a "Boutique PC maker" is a point that is totally moot. What people here are saying is that when you bought a freaking computer from them AT THAT TIME, it was essentially a BUISNESS CONTRACT between the two of you. You’re quite the pretentious little customer when you try to hint to the fact that you know something about business. In fact I believe many of the people reading this thread would actually point to contrary. THEY ARE LOSING MONEY BY DOING THIS. You complain about their customer service but ESSENTIALLY they are helping YOU out, THEY ARE NOT GAINING MONEY OUT OF THIS, THEY ARE LOSING MONEY TO PLEASE YOUR SORRY, SORRY ASS. Name me more computer stores like Alienware that would give you a discount after a similar ordeal and I, and many others would post 20 more that do the opposite. As one poster already pointed out, you seem like a child.

Question, are you a father? I'm a teacher at an Eikawa in Japan and if ever at any time I see a child who has the same attitude in which oozes out of your posts, it makes me sad thinking that they have such incompetent parents. Sorry.

Oh by the way. About that little crack with food stamps… In Canada we don’t have food stamps, we have Food Banks where homeless come to collect food. We don’t want homeless people to sell their food stamps for drugs and what not. Just another thing to add to your list of things that are wrong, you ignorant, childish middle aged man.

Sorry for the insults, it just pisses me off/shocks me to think that there are people like you in the world. I'll pray for a comet to hit our planet to remedy us of this.