Beware Alienware customer service and tech support

[njwtech]

My son is on active duty in the Persian Gulf, and he ordered a brand new Alienware Area-51m "gaming laptop" on line from his duty station overseas. He wants to be a game designer when he gets out of the military. It arrived on Sep 21, 2004 at our home. My son came home on leave from Iraq on Oct 19 - about 30 days later, eager to play the games that were included in the package - something he has not been able to do in the combat zone. He unpacked the machine like a kid at Christmas, pulled out the first game and installed it - the machine crashed after 15 minutes of play!! We thought it might be because of Windows XP Service Pack 2 so we formatted and started over with only Service Pack 1. Same thing. We tried other games. It crashes EVERY TIME you play a game. Pretty sad for a "gaming computer". We called Alienware and asked if we could send it back for repair. They said "No", and insisted on stepping through a bunch of tests on the phone. After wasting several hours with tech support on the phone, they sent us a new video card. That took a few days. By now the 30 day return period was up. The new video card did nothing. It still crashed. We called and asked if we could send the unit back for repair. They said "No", and wasted several more hours diagnosing on the phone - running the same tests as they had the first time. In the end they sent us RAM. By now the 30 day return period was long gone. Of course when the RAM arrived several days later it was still the same. The machine crashes every time you play a game - any game...

By this time my son's leave was gone and he had to return to Iraq - and never was able to use his bigshot "gaming notebook". On the last day before he went back we called Alienware and asked if we could send the machine back if we paid the 15% restocking charge. They said "No", because the 30 day return period had expired. When we argued that the problems were occurring straight out of the box, and that when we first called for tech support it was still within the 30 days, they said that there was no one who could authorize the return. We asked to escalate it to a higher level, and they said they would call us back within 24-48 hours. They never called back. They can't or won't fix it, and they won't let us return it - even though we offered to pay the ridiculous restocking fee of over $500.

So this bigshot piece of crap "gaming notebook" is for sale on Ebay. Used for less than 6 hours. It crashes every time you try to play a game, and Alienware tech support won't fix it, and Alienware customer service won't let us return it and now won't return our calls - despite the extra warranty coverage my son paid for. All we are hoping to sell it on Ebay for enough to buy a Dell XPS gaming notebook for him. At least we know from past experience that their customer support cares and their tech support will solve problems.

[Scrotius]

Hmmmm . . . sounds like an overheating issue to me. That is one reason why, among many, I will never buy a laptop peroid. With all due respect, if your son is into gaming he should have known to have gone with a desktop model for extreme applications, upgradeability, etc. As far as service from Alienware, have you talked to Lisa yet? She monitors this site and is a wonderful person and will try to help the situation if it is at all possible. Remember, our experience with a company is a realtionship that goes 2 ways. If you are calm and patient and try to work together with Alienware for a solution you are much more likely to have a positive outcome to your situation.

[Djmario30]

Originally posted by Scrotius
Hmmmm . . . sounds like an overheating issue to me. That is one reason why, among many, I will never buy a laptop peroid. With all due respect, if your son is into gaming he should have known to have gone with a desktop model for extreme applications, upgradeability, etc. As far as service from Alienware, have you talked to Lisa yet? She monitors this site and is a wonderful person and will try to help the situation if it is at all possible. Remember, our experience with a company is a realtionship that goes 2 ways. If you are calm and patient and try to work together with Alienware for a solution you are much more likely to have a positive outcome to your situation.

Yes very true he should of got a desktop pc a notebooks stinks in gaming and heat issues sorry to hear about your problem and god bless your son.

[Scrotius]

yeah . . . thats why I call them "craptops" instead of laptops.



oooops . . . did I say that?

Also njwtech: You should go under stores and create a review of Alienware to get Lisa's attention, she may not see your post here. I noticed you have no reviews in your profile. I currently have an order with them and I am extremely pleased with how everything has gone so far and with the professionalism of the entire Alienware team. My review will post shortly, go read it for yourself when it does.

[njwtech]

Thanks. I am trying to remain calm, and indeed Alienware finally returned my call (amazingly it was after this was posted) and they have agreed to at least take the machine back to repair it finally. The problem as I see it is that Alienware has absolutely ridgid rules for tech support and customer service, and the people you talk to on the phone have absolutely no autonomy. They have a script, and it doesn't matter what the situation is, you have to step through these same tests over and over and over - even when logic tells you that it needs to be sent in. If they had taken the machine back for repair when it first became apparent that the problem was serious (the first day), and not wasted 6-8 hours of our time on the phone with tech support over a two week period, and not sent US the parts they thought we should try (billed to my credit card of course until the old parts are returned) I would have been fine with it. Certainly a machine from any manufacturer could have a failure, but after the failure it was like we just kept getting beat up more and more until finally we asked to return the machine - and that was when they stopped returning calls. The people who can make a decision about stuff are not accessible - you have to wait until they decide to get back to you - and if they don't like what you want (like returning the machine for credit), they just don't bother getting back to you.

My son probably should not have gotten a laptop, but frankly his intention I think was to take it to Iraq with him, since there are limited things to do in the desert, and Alienware advertises the crap out of their Area-51M as a "gaming notebook".

Last, there was a matter of timing. It was unfortunate that Mike didn't get home until just before the 30 day return period was up. By the time we were fed up with Alienware's tech support, they had an excuse not to return the machine for credit, because 30 days had passed. The fact that it was JUST over 30 days from when we received the machine didn't matter, their policy is 30 days from the day they put the warranty into effect, which is before they even ship the machine. Even if you found out the first day when it arrived (we didn't because Mike didn't get leave until 3 weeks after that) you still would not have 30 days, since the clock was running before it even shipped from Alienware.

My biggest disappointment with Alienware has been their lack of compassion and their attitude. It is typical of manufacturers and distributors who have something that is a "hot" item at the time. They play it like you should be grateful to buy their product, cause everyone in the world is talking about how great it is. Some day they will wish they had treated everyone with some measure of respect and appreciation, cause some day they may not be the hottest ticket on the block, and they won't have a customer base to draw on. Sooner or later they will want repeat buyers, and if their only repeat buyers are the ones who never needed tech support, sooner or later the market share will go down the toilet. I know we would never buy another product from them - even if they were the fastest, most stable machines on the planet, because there is that one chance in a thousand that we might have to deal with their tech support again...

[Ken6PPC]

Well, I am sorry to hear of your problems with Alienware. I haven't bought anything from Alienware yet, but I was considering it. NOT NOW! Reading that made my blood boil! I will NEVER buy anything from this company, and I intend to tell everyone I know about this disgrace.

If I had owned that company, I would have done anything that it took to solve the problems for a serviceman who was home on leave and had to shortly return into harm's way. Some things simply are worth more than money!

Please tell yor son that SOME citizens appreciate his bravery and devotion to duty.

Shame on you, Alienware! I hope you go out of business.

[njwtech]

Thanks for your wishes. I know he appreciates it. For what it's worth, we pulled the laptop off Ebay after Alienware agreed to take it back for repair. It hadn't had any bids yet, and we figured that if nothing else we certainly would get more for it in full working order than as it is.

I guess if I am being honest about it, the thing that most upset me was that we were unable to get the thing in working order before Mike had to go back overseas. He only had two weeks and we screwed around and wasted all the time sending parts back and forth because they didn't want us to send the machine to them. The tech support people couldn't do anything except what was on their "script". In any case with all the messing around Mike had to leave and the machine still wasn't working, so he couldn't take it with him and its too late now. Since you can't ship something like that to Baghdad and expect it to be in one piece or not get stolen on the way, it means he went back over for the next 8 months without the machine he paid so much money for (I think he spent his extra combat pay for the year on it). It is just sitting in a box in his bedroom. When he gets back it will probably be somewhat obsolete if we don't sell it when it gets back from repair.

[Scrotius]

OK, everyone take a deep breath and relax a sec. 1st of all I too appreciate the work your son is doing in the armed forces. 2nd of all, I have heard a lot more good stories than bad about Alienware's technical service, you can't throw the whole company out for one bad experience. Let me give you an example. I work for Lexus, have for 8 years. I had a customer order a $65,000.00 new SC430 hard top convertible. It was coming from Japan so we knew the wait would be 6 to 8 weeks at least. Well, it turns out that in shipping an $18.00 peice, yes only $18.00 dollars, was missing and Lexus would not ship us the vehicle from the port of Portland until the peice was replaced and the car was perfect. That is their system, their rules in their quest to be the best of the best. This delay was several weeks long because the part did not exist in any inventories and actually had to be manufacured. Now, my customer was really angry, still bought the car, even said the delay was not my fault, but flamed me on the survey anyway and said they would never buy another Lexus ever again. Now, stop and think a sec, doesn't that seem just a little over the top? Companies are still staffed by humans folks and even when you are supposed to be the best of the best things can still go wrong sometimes and big companies do have systems in place, which can be frustrating by their very nature to deal with. So if my customer wants to deny herself a future experience with the best product and service in the industry that is her business, but I would take a step back, meditate a while, and think before I made that kind of decision.

[Ken6PPC]

Scrotius, I understand what you are saying, but you are comparing apples to oranges. Your customer had to wait a little to receive a perfect car, which she will no doubt enjoy for years to come. In this case, Mike was only home from Iraq for a short while, and Alienware should have busted their chops to make it right.

In my opinion, someone putting their life on the line for the rest of us DESERVES to go to the front of the line. If it had been up to me, I would have sent him my personal machine if that was the only option. Fixing it now is moot.

(Of course, all of this is ASSUMING that Mike's situation was explained to Alienware.)

[Scrotius]

Yes, she will enjoy the car long after the initial displeasure has gone. However, there are stories too when the car has not been perfect as well, maybe I chose a bad example but I think you get my point. You are right, it would be interesting to know if Alienware knew of the situation, however, another customer who does not share your same feelings might be quite upset at having someone else put in front of them. I know this may sound weird but believe me, I've been in retail a long time, and you meet all kinds of people with all kinds of different beliefs and priorities, some of which can be hard to fathom at times.