Alien Nightmare - Page 4

wow, mabey one of you mods can help me too.

I spoke with alienware customer service the 1st day i recieved my laptop to tell them that i had 2 broken latches. I had to go through a pretty big hassle to get these guys to say that it was damaged in shipping and that they would replace it. They told me that it was normal ware or some crap. Anyways after 2 days of fighting with customer service, i was redirected to a supervisor who i think was Albert Raygada and told em that this was my second laptop from alienware, and ive never had this kind of problem before. He told me that they would replace them, and that i would have a tech at my house to put them in for me with 4 to 6 weeks. that was at the end of december, and its now almost mid march. They said that they are waiting for the parts, but come on its been 3 months. PLease Help!!!

sorry if i wrote this kinda of sloppy, im really tired....

please don't try to generalize the actual AW owners, I've been on the forums a long time...I've had several DIY's, ownerd a few Dells, and I just recently purchased an AW. Some of the most useful informations that I have found have been on the AW forums and it's members. The majority of us are very welcoming, supportive, and open w/ other people's opinions. The mods have always been helpful and do their best to help other AW members or future AW members w/ their issues.

just my .02

I've been traveling all week and just now got back to this thread. I see that I've been invited to contact somebody from AW via this forum, which I will do. The only update I have at the moment is that on the 8th, I got an email saying my computer had been received for repairs and was awaiting the next available technician. Nothing further has taken place.

Yea but in the long run the 7700 is the better machine....

I ordered from Alienware austrailia, i am in New Zealand...

I decided to pull the plug on AW. Call it a vote of no confidence. They charged me $500 to walk away (which I intend to dispute), but I based my decision on the $3000 still on the table. Frankly, their short-sighted customer service policies have me shaking my head. They insisted that I take all the risk that they would perform as promised, as all the while they underperformed. Apparently they think I'm irrational. I know some people have been very happy with their AW experiences, but with me they were all talk, and talk is cheap. So now I and the 50 or so future purchases I represent will go find another vendor. This company must be covered in litigation.

wow sorry to hear about your experience...best of luck in your future purchases, and keep us updated

I have ordered an AW laptop and am a bit disconcerted at some of what I have read of the support people recieve from AW and some of their policies too. However looking at the time-frame of this forum being only 11 days old that doesn't seem like alot of time has been granted to fix these issues. When did you order, have your problems with your machines, and first notify AW about them? While I can understand the desire for immediate problem resolving sometimes that just isnt feasible. All in all from what I see looks like AW has a decent product at a lower price then other people are offering the same thing for (EUROCOM, SAGER) minus the cool alienware light up eyes... Granted it is expensive still but even compared to the Dell XPS I found the AW 7700 system to be cheaper. This isn't a DELL bashing either because I currently own a DELL laptop and support DELL machines where I work. DELL certainly has great service and support from what I have seen. This is my first order with AW however and I am hoping it goes well.

i believe entrance details the timeline in his initial post. while this post may only be 11 days old, his ordeal w/ aw seems to be a few months in the making.

So banbab "pulled the plug" only two weeks after he received his "lemon", and only 6 working days from the email stating the laptop had been received for repair. Pretty quick on the pull.

i thought he was referring to entrance who had to wait 3 months for his machine that was broken out of the box and then another 3 wks to get a replacement fan that didn't work.... my mistake.

I really feel for Entrance... I mean from a tech standpoint I would think of replacing parts first such as the fan... although having to work on something that had a warranty on it would void it (I would think) and really should be sent in in the firstplace... when the was sent in what happened then... 3 months total waiting. I think I would be a bit upset too if thats 3 months total including the 3 weeks for the fan and then shipping the system back and having someone diagnose it or even rebuild it I would think that would take some time. Although it looks more like a 4-6 week issue from actually sending it back compared to the initial problem which dates back. You'd think from the customer satisfaction stand point that should be bumped to the top of the prioity list. Having a problem is just going to happen from time to time... how it's dealt is what becomes important once the issue arises and I would think spending 3 grand on anything warrants good customer service.

Just as a note my DELL 8200 had a problem with the mouse pad after I recieved it. I walked through diagnostics over the phone with the service folks there (that I had already tried) and then they had me send it back in to re-attach a cable. Although it was something I could have easily done I wanted to handle it through the proper channels before opening up the case to void the warranty. Mailed it to DELL at their expense, and had it back soon thereafter 1-2 weeks tops. I barely even noticed it was gone considering shipping time.

I had to decide whether to let the repair proceed, letting my 30-day return window expire in the process, or to cancel the order. Based on the facts of my interactions with AW over the previous two months, I perceived a significant risk of getting stuck with a malfunctioning, poorly-supported system. I asked AW to relieve the risk by extending my return date to provide me a reasonable opportunity to judge the quality of the repaired system, but they refused. Can you say red flag? I deliberated thoroughly, and was very conflicted because I really wanted the system, but in the end, AW's pattern of making promises only to break them later was too clear and convincing to ignore, so I decided to cancel. Fool me once, shame on me....

Their refusal to extend my return deadline was just the last of a series of disappointments, which included: (i) getting a computer that didn't work, (ii) getting it several weeks late, (iii) having paid in full on day one, (iv) being lied to by a customer service rep, (v) watching AW pull that shady fake $500 rebate stunt, and (vi) seeing an uncomfortably high number of stories like Entrance's about the pains of dealing with AW when you're unlucky enough to get a faulty machine.

Oh yeah, I never even got the free tee shirt.

You think I'm capricious, which is ironic, because you jumped to a conclusion about me with virtually no facts. I would call you an apologist, but I don't have any of the facts about you, and I'm not sure what the point would be. My final take is that DTRs are a hit-or-miss proposition, and I missed. If you hit, count yourself lucky. I wish I were you.

Post script: Given my new take on DTRs, I've decided to build a desktop. It's been a few years since I've ordered parts, so if anyone can recommend a good source I would appreciate it. Mail order would be fine, but a local shop in Manhattan would be my preference.

www.newegg.com
www.zipzoomfly.com
www.gameve.com

I've ordered from all three and I love them.

Huh?

All I did was restate the information you posted, and opine that it seems like you pulled out pretty quickly. That's not calling you capricious, nor is it jumping to a conclusion.

i think you should reread the 1st paragraph of his response again.

And I think you should reread my last post again, and show where I did what he accused.