Alienware..Why you should buy.

[JQO]

they look so sweet...

[xartus]

They are sweet Machines

[CryoMax]

I bought an Alienware m7700 mobile desktop last Marchish -- it took them a month to actually deliver the system, and I had to actually bug customer service to give me an estimated arrival date, because I hadn't heard anything after the order, and the estimated ship date came and went with no updates.

Two days before Thanksgiving, the backlight stopped working. This meant the laptop was all but unusable. I also found that I could not apparently switch over to the DVI port in the back, to try to use it on my monitor. I filed a ticket with customer service, and didn't get a response for 48 hours. The initial response did not give me anything useful; the suggestions didn't work, so another 48-hour turnaround for more suggestions that, though very creative, didn't work. So I get on the phone the next Monday (the 28th). They say that it sounds like an LCD inverter board problem, and they'll ship me a new one, and arrange for on-site service. This is great, I thought, on-site service, I don't have to send the laptop back and wait for it and worry about it getting damaged in the process.

December 8th rolls around, the local technicians have called me *twice* to schedule the appointment, but I haven't received the part yet. I call Alienware, and find out that they shipped the part USPS, with no tracking number. I tell them, it's been a week and a half, shouldn't it have arrived by now? Yes, of course, but all they can do is ship me another replacement part. I ask, "Do you use FedEx?" and I'm told they do. I ask that they make sure they ship it FedEx, even if it's FedEx Ground, so that I can get a tracking number. I ask for the tracking number during the call, I'm told to call back the next day, because they won't have the number until they ship the part.

I call back the next Monday (the 12th), and find out they shipped the part by USPS *again* with no tracking number *again*. It's now December 16th, I *still* do not have the replacement part. Next Tuesday, it will be FOUR WEEKS since I've last been able to use the computer.

What good is paying a premium for onsite service, if they can't pony up the $20 to overnight a replacement part after the first one fails to arrive (by the way, the first one they shipped ALSO hasn't arrived).

I'm seriously considering contacting someone "in charge" over there and seeing if I can't return all their junk and get some of my money back, go off and buy a laptop from someone else. VoodooPC looks great, and when I search Google for "Voodoo Sucks" I don't get the same kind of horrible customer service stories that I get when I search for "Alienware Sucks"... Or maybe I'll just go with the Dell gaming laptop; it's supposed to kick butt, and I know Dell has great customer support...

It's a realy shame, because I *love* the laptop. As far as performance and feature go, it's awesome. I even like the light-up alien eyes on the back. But their handling of this crippling hardware problem has been horrendous, and I have no interest in ever having to rely on them support again.

...Paul, Extremely Disgruntled Alienware Owner.

[SoloCamo]

Well I if you want some constructive crticism....

Yes, alienware does make pretty good machines. But why pay rediculous prices for them?

I have built enough computers in my life to know what's good and bad, and what to do and what not to do.

Any person that has been working on computers long enough should know by now that Alienware is overpriced for what they offer. Even a company like ibuypower.com or cyberpowerpc.com offer's better price vs performance than alienware, and you it's just like building your own without the hassle for people who are new to it.

Why pay for a name?

[xartus]

CryoMax,
Sorry to hear about your alienware experience, I personally have never had a problem with either of my computers , my area 51m 5500 or my aurora 5500. The way customer service handled the situtation was in excusable, but i hope you do understand that parts will break and things do come defectivie from the factory, they are like car parts. But that still doesn't excuse the service you got. Now for the "Alienware Sucks" searches. I have found there are a great deal of alienware hater fan boys who post bunk posts about alienware, these are the "my friend who had a friend who had an alienware had a problem with it so I hate them" types of people, they are not all people who have Genuine problems such as yourself. Now VOODOO PC is a great PC designer, but a bit overpriced, if you were really unhappy with alienware I would take a look at Falcon Northwest, because they are a little better priced that VOODOO and just as good.

Solocamo,
Thank you for the constructive critisism.
yes Alienware is a bit Pricey for what you buy, but they are nowhere near as expensive as thier competitors Falcon Northwest and VOODOO Pc, Alienwares two top competitors, charge grossly more for their product than alienware. As for IbuyPower, that company is garbage. you are paying for poor workmanship and incompatible parts. "not all the time but in a similar case I dealt with that was the case"

When you buy Alienware, Falcon Northwest, or even Voodoo PC you are not just buying the parts, you are buying the garuntee that your system will work or they will fix it, youy are also paying for onsite support and replacement of broken parts, Techsupport and access to their software databases. I personally build computers. My first two computers were home built, and yes they were cheap and ran just as well, but when My wife burned up my processor by leaving it in a hot space where dust collected in it and it over heated, I had no warranty to fall back on or anything so I lost my processor my power supply and my motherboard, so the grand total to replace all that was around 800 dollars, something you can avoid by "BUYING THE NAME". It all boils down to how much time and money you are willing to sacrifice, and some people will find their money more valuable and build one, other will find their time of more value and buy a big name computer for the warranty.

I hope this helps..

-Matt

[xartus]

Sorry for the long delay and answering the posts I have been on holiday and without a computer

[SoloCamo]

Originally posted by xartus
As for IbuyPower, that company is garbage. you are paying for poor workmanship and incompatible parts. "not all the time but in a similar case I dealt with that was the case"

-Matt

See, I find that quite odd that you would say such a thing...

I have used their site on many occasions and their sister site "cyberpowerpc.com" aswell. Most of them for family members that didn't want to spend big bucks but still have a great and upgradable system.

With all my dealings with them, only one of the pc's that was ordered had a problem, and that was a simple cold cathode problem. It died within the first week of use, so I called them up and explained the situation.. they gave no hassle and shipped out a replacement the same day. Got to me 2 days later and it worked like a charm.

While of course some people have worse luck than others, I have never experienced anything that would make me not want to use them if I needed again.

What was the problem when you ordered from there?

[xartus]

well the reason I made the garbage comment was, because a friend of mine owned a laptop from IbuyPower, it was the first laptop we had both seen that sported the athlon 64fx chipset. he and I were both going to buy one, well I went with the Alienware Area51m 5500 with the pentium 32bit architecture and he with the Ibuypower notebook with the athlon 64fx. Now he got a great deal on the price, and yes he payed about 500 dollars less than I did for my Alienware laptop. i received mine about a month later and my buddy had to wait on his case because he bought the shiney blue finished case, they were out of stock, now i know this happens so we both didnt really take too much into consideration, so he waited about another month to get his new rig, well he got the rig and he turned it on, and unfortuantely it kept dumping all his memory on boot up, this kept going on and on, he called it in and they told him it may be bad memory. So he and I opened up the back for the memory and we unseated it and checked to see if it wasn't seated all the way, because things dont always survive shipping. Well I noticed that the ram that was in the system was crucial ram 2x 512 dimms. Well my other buddy Ben and I had just got done fixing his Desktop which he built on the same architecture, he also bought crucial ram. so I had learned from a previous problem from ben that crucial ram was not compatible with that specific k-bit motherboard. So my buddy called the company and asked them why they put in incompatible ram, their answer was they were unaware taht it was not compatible.

It wasn't a serious issue, I would just hope that someone building a computer for me would have had that kind of knowledge. I may have went a little far with the garbage comment and I retract that last statement, I just couldn't believe that happened. So that was what my buddy and I experienced from IBuyPower, now after we switched the ram the computer was fine, and everything checked out.

[wanderingrose]

I haven't had much experience with Alienware, but the stories I have read have certainly scared me off. I need to know that the company will support me after I purchase. I chose WidowPC for that reason. They make mostly gaming computers, although I'm not a big gamer, I wanted a very high quality computer with exceptional customer support. That was about six months ago and I've been very impressed with WidowPC. You can read about them at http://www.widowpc.com .

[maxcalvino]

I LOVE alienware I have a green Area 51m 5500 and is the best, I thinkinig of sell it so I can get the aurora m7700. my overall experience with alienware has been great, I had some minors problems with the PC, but you can expect that with every computer, I also have to admit it alienware is not cheap but it worth every penny.love the way that they look extremely original

the only thing that I don't like is that if you need to send your computer to them, they errase everything, that SUCKS !!!! I have an Acer and that the last thing that they try to do.

I recommend alienware to everybody they are great and if any of you are interested of buying my alienware please contact me for more info ok
maxcalvino@hotmail.com

peace