Now, before anything else is said, this is not intended to be a bash at Alienware, or serve as a WARNING not to do this or that as some people are fond of posting. This is just the story of my experience of an RMA where my system was returned to the depot for a repair.
And I must again emphasise that I'm not angry or mad, just disappointed. And the reason for my disappointment is simple. Alienware set the level of my expectation. They set the bar. I expect everything they do to be of a superlatively high standard, because that is the standard they set themselves and it's what previous experience has led me to accept as the norm.
Basically, the story begins with the failure of my chipset fan on the Asus motherboard. A few calls and some minor investigative surgery on my part with the help of a very knowledgeable tech in Tech-supp soon revealed that there was no choice but to send the machine back in for a repair.
So I hastily packed it up and it was fetched same day by DHL to be taken to the AW facility in Ireland. And then I remembered....in my rush to get the system out I FORGOT TO BACKUP MY FILES. A call to my friendly tech resulted in notes being placed in my account that on no account would files be deleted or the hard-drive formatted or any reintegration be done to the drive. Also if there was no choice but to lose the data, I would be consulted so that we could see what could be saved.
Now at this point we must be clear on a few things. I was told the following:
1. Replacement of chipset-fan or if not possible, motherboard. Installation of new AlienIce power-inverter.
2. No deleting of ANY files on the My Documents folder.
3. If any deleting was to be done, I would be consulted as to what could be saved and what would have to be lost.
Now before I go on, I must say in AW's defense that they clearly state that before a system is sent back to depot, all necessary backups MUST be made.
I didn't backup because I forgot and I was in a rush to get it fixed. So basically, the fact that my files were lost is my fault....mea culpa.
He called me the next day to advise me that the machine had arrived and he had gone over to personally tell them about my system and the "do not delete" message.
About 7days later, I'm happy to see the DHL truck pull up outside with my system.
After Mr DHL has left I unpack and here follow my notes of my first impression:
Machine dirty and dusty.
AlienIce not repaired.
HDD formatted.
Bare Windows install, not activated, some system drivers not installed.
System SLI not activated.
System prone to freezes and lockups.
Message popping up stating SLI needs to be enabled.
Benchmarks txt-file. Upon examination it's clear the benchmarks were run with SLI not enabled. 3dMark05 score of 4000 some odd proves this.
Enable SLI.
Reboot.
Machinelocks up on Windows Welcome screen consistently.
Booting to Safe Mode sometimes results in return to desktop.
Shutdown.
Open case to find one CardKeeper on floor of case and the other barely screwed into place.
One SATA drive cable looks funny, closer examination shows it is cracked and broken and barely in place.
The other pictures are over-exposed and blurred - yeah, ask me how I did THAT with a pointand-shoot canon digicam!
Anyway...I replace the SATA cable and the power-inverter with one of my own and the machine reboots successfully.
So I decide to call AW tech-supp to find out what the hell happened. My friendly tech is astounded. He checks his notes and find two notes, one he made and one somebody else has made, plus he had told me earlier he had gone over to make sure they followed his instructions. He assured me that an investigation is underway to find out what went wrong and how to ensure it won't happen again. I have no issues with that and agree. And it comes back to something DB and NassauMike and others have said, Alienware need to improve inter-dept communication and get some consistency in their procedures.
So we decide to do a complete reinstall and format of the system, which is where I am now...waiting for HL2 and Counter-strike to finish their updates.
Funnily enough, the whole experience has not soured me on Alienware and the products or after-sales service, strange as it may seem, I would still highly recommend them to anyone who asks.
WTF? I hear some say....DUDE they totally screwed up your sytem and it's the story from hell, why didn't you nuke the tech/Alienware etc etc.
Simple...as pc users you live with the constant threat of dataloss. It happens, we deal with it. It'll happen to anybody sometime in their pc experience. Also, as a ex tech-support guy, I know shit can happen that is outside your control, a missing email, calls not answered, messages not picked up, mail not sent/read/misread/misunderstood...and just plain carelessness on somebody's part can land you as the tech-support guy neck-high in the doo-doo. At that point, screaming at the tech is only going to make you feel good, and how good do you really feel? As a tech, all you can do is try to ensure it doesn't happen again. I know and trust that the 2 technicians that helped me did theoir best to ensure my instructions were followed and I know I'll get an email telling me what went wrong. I don't want to get anybody fired now, but I do want to know what the hell happened. Like i said in the beginning and I must stress this point...Alienware set the level of my expectation. They set the bar. I expect everything they do to be of a superlatively high standard, because that is the standard they set themselves and it's what previous experience has led me to accept as the norm. that's why I'm disappointed.
Ah well, shit happens................let's do some benching and get my mind off this.
And I must again emphasise that I'm not angry or mad, just disappointed. And the reason for my disappointment is simple. Alienware set the level of my expectation. They set the bar. I expect everything they do to be of a superlatively high standard, because that is the standard they set themselves and it's what previous experience has led me to accept as the norm.
Basically, the story begins with the failure of my chipset fan on the Asus motherboard. A few calls and some minor investigative surgery on my part with the help of a very knowledgeable tech in Tech-supp soon revealed that there was no choice but to send the machine back in for a repair.
So I hastily packed it up and it was fetched same day by DHL to be taken to the AW facility in Ireland. And then I remembered....in my rush to get the system out I FORGOT TO BACKUP MY FILES. A call to my friendly tech resulted in notes being placed in my account that on no account would files be deleted or the hard-drive formatted or any reintegration be done to the drive. Also if there was no choice but to lose the data, I would be consulted so that we could see what could be saved.
Now at this point we must be clear on a few things. I was told the following:
1. Replacement of chipset-fan or if not possible, motherboard. Installation of new AlienIce power-inverter.
2. No deleting of ANY files on the My Documents folder.
3. If any deleting was to be done, I would be consulted as to what could be saved and what would have to be lost.
Now before I go on, I must say in AW's defense that they clearly state that before a system is sent back to depot, all necessary backups MUST be made.
I didn't backup because I forgot and I was in a rush to get it fixed. So basically, the fact that my files were lost is my fault....mea culpa.
He called me the next day to advise me that the machine had arrived and he had gone over to personally tell them about my system and the "do not delete" message.
About 7days later, I'm happy to see the DHL truck pull up outside with my system.
After Mr DHL has left I unpack and here follow my notes of my first impression:
Machine dirty and dusty.
AlienIce not repaired.
HDD formatted.
Bare Windows install, not activated, some system drivers not installed.
System SLI not activated.
System prone to freezes and lockups.
Message popping up stating SLI needs to be enabled.
Benchmarks txt-file. Upon examination it's clear the benchmarks were run with SLI not enabled. 3dMark05 score of 4000 some odd proves this.
Enable SLI.
Reboot.
Machinelocks up on Windows Welcome screen consistently.
Booting to Safe Mode sometimes results in return to desktop.
Shutdown.
Open case to find one CardKeeper on floor of case and the other barely screwed into place.
One SATA drive cable looks funny, closer examination shows it is cracked and broken and barely in place.
The other pictures are over-exposed and blurred - yeah, ask me how I did THAT with a pointand-shoot canon digicam!
Anyway...I replace the SATA cable and the power-inverter with one of my own and the machine reboots successfully.
So I decide to call AW tech-supp to find out what the hell happened. My friendly tech is astounded. He checks his notes and find two notes, one he made and one somebody else has made, plus he had told me earlier he had gone over to make sure they followed his instructions. He assured me that an investigation is underway to find out what went wrong and how to ensure it won't happen again. I have no issues with that and agree. And it comes back to something DB and NassauMike and others have said, Alienware need to improve inter-dept communication and get some consistency in their procedures.
So we decide to do a complete reinstall and format of the system, which is where I am now...waiting for HL2 and Counter-strike to finish their updates.
Funnily enough, the whole experience has not soured me on Alienware and the products or after-sales service, strange as it may seem, I would still highly recommend them to anyone who asks.
WTF? I hear some say....DUDE they totally screwed up your sytem and it's the story from hell, why didn't you nuke the tech/Alienware etc etc.
Simple...as pc users you live with the constant threat of dataloss. It happens, we deal with it. It'll happen to anybody sometime in their pc experience. Also, as a ex tech-support guy, I know shit can happen that is outside your control, a missing email, calls not answered, messages not picked up, mail not sent/read/misread/misunderstood...and just plain carelessness on somebody's part can land you as the tech-support guy neck-high in the doo-doo. At that point, screaming at the tech is only going to make you feel good, and how good do you really feel? As a tech, all you can do is try to ensure it doesn't happen again. I know and trust that the 2 technicians that helped me did theoir best to ensure my instructions were followed and I know I'll get an email telling me what went wrong. I don't want to get anybody fired now, but I do want to know what the hell happened. Like i said in the beginning and I must stress this point...Alienware set the level of my expectation. They set the bar. I expect everything they do to be of a superlatively high standard, because that is the standard they set themselves and it's what previous experience has led me to accept as the norm. that's why I'm disappointed.
Ah well, shit happens................let's do some benching and get my mind off this.
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