I posted a review for Alienware in the Store Ratings section under the ExpectQuality username. The 5000 char posting limit prevented me from showing this letter.
what follows is the full letter that I sent to Alienware to return my system ($5600, quad core 3.2 GHz, twin 8800 GTXs, 4 GB, etc.) without suffering the 15% restocking fee. so far, the company stance is that they NEVER waive that fee. No matter what the problem, or how many problems, or how severe the problems, the restocking fee is NEVER EVER waived.
(btw, the website says that you MAY be subject to a restocking fee if you try to return a unit. I can understand that companies have to protect themselves from the trivial returns like "I didn't like the color", or "I changed my mind." But word to the wise, what they mean is that you will ALWAYS be subject to the restocking fee.)
important updates since the letter was written:
- the 8800 GTXs can now work in SLI mode under Windows Vista. there are new drivers available within the last few days. In no way does this negate the fact that at the time they sold it to me, there was nothing available to make the 2nd 8800 GTX do anything other than just sit there.
- I spent about a hour with tech support to verify that nothing had come loose during shipping, so all cooling was working for me just as it had at the factory. Which means that a proper burn-in test should have caught the problem before it shipped.
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Name: xxxxx xxxxxxxx
Customer ID: nnnnnn
P.O. Number: nnnnnn
Sales Order Number: nnnnnn
Email address:
xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.net
Work Email address:
xxxxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com
To whom it may concern,
I'm writing this letter to describe my bad customer experience with the purchase of my latest Alienware computer, and to obtain an RMA # to send it back. I received my system on May 30, so I am well within the 30 day period.
There are 3 major points I'd like to discuss, the supporting data will follow to avoid clouding the issue:
1) My fondness for the Alienware products/company
2) My extreme dissatisfaction with this particular experience of buying a system
3) My desire to straighten this out and work together to get a well-built, quality Alienware desktop computer that Alienware is famous for
The Alienware company and products:
I like the Alienware products and have much respect for the company philosophy. I've owned my original Area-51 desktop for several years, and I am still very happy with it. There were a couple of small problems right at the beginning, but these were quickly resolved. I expect that system to give me good service for several more years. The decision to "build each computer as if it were your own" and to keep the support division within the company is admirable.
The experience with buying this current system:
The Area-51 7500 that I recently purchased has many problems. The largest problems are: lack of burn-in testing, the overheating problem, and the numerous mistakes made by the salesman. There are many problems – a complete list is provided below. The last system I ordered from Alienware came with a detailed (5 pages) report of the burn-in process. The burn-in report included stress testing of the sound card, network, disk drive, video card, etc. This current system included NO such report. I cannot conclude whether a burn-in was performed or not, but if one was performed it did not catch the most fundamental problem – WHEN RUNNING 3D APPLICATIONS, OR JUST RUNNING FOR OVER 3 HOURS, THE COMPUTER OVERHEATS AND SHUTS ITSELF OFF. On a call with Alienware support, I was told I could see the temperatures by starting back up once it had shut itself off, and use the BIOS option. I witnessed temperatures of 178 degrees Farenheit (the temperature at shut-off would have been even higher). Because of this problem, ALL of the components in my system have been subjected to extreme heat. I will not keep a brand new system with this kind of issue. There is no way to tell what damage was caused by this problem, and the problem should have been caught at the factory before it was shipped.
Working together to move forward:
Even if a company has a 99.999% record of delivering problem-free systems, somebody has to get a bad one once in awhile. I understand this. This computer is one that was shipped even though it had problems. Here is what should happen in this situation:
1) issue an RMA # so that I can return the Area-51 7500 with no restocking penalty.
2) once the system has been returned, assign a salesperson familiar with my case, who can work with me to configure and deliver a quality Alienware desktop.
There is more to say than I can put in this letter and still keep it short. I would like to discuss this with a knowledgeable representative ASAP. I’m available in the evenings at nnn-nnn-nnnn after 6:30 PM, or at work from 9AM to 6PM at nnn-nnn-nnnn.
Sincerely,
Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx
The complete list of known problems (from the limited time I had to test):
Just to be clear, I ordered my system from a salesman on the phone, in order to make sure there was no advice or suggestions that I was missing. I do this to be absolutely certain that I am going to get what I order, and that my assumptions are accurate. I don’t order through the website because I want somebody that is knowledgeable to guide me during the ordering process. In this case, the salesman let me down in several key areas.
- MAJOR: Chassis overheats and turns off after several hours non-3D use, or sooner with 3D applications like 3DMark06 or MMORPGs. I specifically explored this area with the salesman while ordering my system. I was trying to understand the difference between the 7500 and the ALX. The difference seemed mainly in the cooling, upgraded chassis, separate support line, and some extras. I asked if Alienware had experienced any cooling issues with the current configuration of the 7500 that I should be worried about. The salesman assured me that there were no issues to be concerned about and that the unit would run within an acceptable operating range.
- Major: Vista does not use more than 2.25 GB of RAM. Again, I specifically asked the salesman if this system would make use of the 4 GB. I knew that XP would not support the complete range. My salesman assured me that my system would use the full 4 GB. Only after receiving my system and talking with support did I find out that Vista 64 would support the 4 GB, but Vista 32 does not. Because of that advice I spent a lot of extra money for an extra 2 GB of RAM that only made 0.25 GB RAM difference.
- Major: Vista and DirectX 10.0 do not support (make use of) 2 8800 GTXs. Again, I specifically asked my salesman about this. I told the salesman that I wanted the best gaming rig I could configure. For the video, I wanted the very fastest framerate I could get. I discussed this with my salesman, and ordered 2 8800 GTXs. After receiving my system and running 3DMark06, I posted my results to the 3DMark06 website several times. Each time, my system got the following rating: Out of 28 similar systems, yours is the SLOWEST (scores like 10019, 9971, 9982). After much investigation and a call to the support line, I discovered that my system COULD NEVER make use of the 2nd 8800 GTX installed. DirectX 10.0 doesn’t support it. I cannot roll back to DirectX 9 because Vista needs DirectX 10. I spent a lot of money for a 2nd 8800 GTX that does nothing.
- Concern: a number of times the mouse was not recognized when Windows finished booting up. Moving the mouse to a different USB would cause Windows to recognize it again. It wasn’t the port itself, because it worked in both ports I used. It just did not always get recognized at Windows startup.
- Concern: Windows Media Center crashes. Straight out of the box, I launched Media Center. Attempting to view the privacy statement produced the following error:
- Active Movie Window ehexthost.exe – Unable to Locate Component
- this application has failed to start because MFC71.DLL was not found
- re-installing the application may fix this problem
Concern: there seems to be some configuration or component problem with the CD and Hard drive. Doing a simple copy of all information from a data CD to the hard drive was slow. 588 MB copied in 3:31 (mins:secs), and 173 MB copied in 2:10. For comparison, I performed the same exact simple copy on my old Area-51, and the 588 MB copied in 2:36 and the 173 MB copied in 1:03. My old system has much higher throughput.
- ANNOYANCE: the shipping notification for my system. My system shipped on Friday morning, May 25. Alienware emailed me on Saturday evening May 26th at 9:58 PM with my FedEx tracking number. By the time I took the tracking number to the FedEx website, FedEx had attempted to drop off the package Saturday afternoon and I had missed them. Due to FedEx policies and the holiday weekend, the next delivery attempt was not until May 30, when I actually received my system. This type of mix-up is completely unexpected from a company like Alienware. Why wasn’t my email with the tracking number sent when the system was being shipped? 1.5 days later is unacceptable.
Annoyance: AlienAdrenaline was not shipped with the computer. During a Support Line call, I had to download and install it.
Annoyance: AlienAdrenaline will not work with Vista. The salesman had, again, sold me something that could never work.
Annoyance: the Motherboard Manual & Driver Disk was not shipped. However, it was checked off on the Final Inventory Checklist. This is just another example that appears to show that my particular system was rushed through the process, and not carefully checked.
Linear Mode
