I had a bad experience with this company. I wanted a good system but I also wanted a quiet unit and I called their sales people prior to purchase to inquire about the noise level of their systems. I was told that with the water cooling option, I would not even need the acoustic dampening option because the system would be very "quiet". Of course no data was offered. I took the bait and ordered, but I added the acoustic dampening also anwyay (for $99). The system was very noisy when it arrived and probably more than 6dB louder than my 7 yr old Dell, which could not even be heard when the Alienware system was on. When I called to ask them about this, they said the fans could be slowed but the unit may overheat. I finally asked for an RMA to return the unit and was charged a 15% re-stocking fee! The Customer Service rep made the claim that "the system is quiet" and then admitted that he meant the quietest of *their* systems. But he had no data on other systems (even Dell, their parent company) and I really disagree that Alienware and "quiet" should be used together in any sentence. Either they should represent the systems accurately with noise figures in dBA or be honest that such large units with higher power graphics and processors are going to produce more noise and heat than a standard type desktop system, and stay away from the "quiet" claim. My restocking fee is on the order of $350 - as much as a low-end desktop system. I feel that Alienware was completely unfair in charging that. I would have considered them for a laptop or some other replacement, but after the customer service intransigence on the issue, I would not patronize the company further.  
 
Update: Oct 15, 2008: Unit returned 9/30. They acknowledged it. NO Refund was ever received. Company ignores emails! I had to dispute the charge for the returned system with my credit card company.  
 
My new Puget system: (see new review) is truly a quiet system!  
 
Update 11-05-2008: Alien finally issues a credit but makes mistake, then finally after about 10 days makes the correction I asked for which was another $109 in my favor. They called, I called back spent 5 minutes going through maze to reach the original cust service guy who told me the letter I wrote them was read by their President. He said "no way" on refunding the 15% re-stock fee! So there you have it: The President of Alienware believes it is fine for his sales people to misprepresent their products and then blames me the customer for complaining about it, charging me a $360 re-stock fee plus $73 shipping back to them for a unit that was not as described. Buyer Beware!  
Update: 12-1-2008: The $109 credit was applied by Alienware. No luck on disputing charge and filed complaint with state's attorney general. Alienware is now emailing/calling me to offer me $50 in "Amazon coupons" to somehow rectify this. They can't buy my satisfaction with coupons, and they remind me each time that they "cannot" refund the restock fee, which is the only right thing to do after a fraudulent sale. While they seem to have devoted a lot of energy to my sale, they have not done the right thing to solve the problem - complete refund and reprimand of the sales person/people giving out false information.

This review was modified by its author, jj.jarod, on 12/11/08 11:55 AM.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from this company...pay the extra and go to the 'other' company.  
I work for Dept. of Defense and Discovery channel so the box purchased due to the reviews I read on AW. I needed something dependable and high end for some large data processing. Original purchase was over $2800. I guess if the machine worked I would be ok but it didn't. Plus the issues showed NO pre-shipping testing was done. First boot up, video card failed. Called to get "at home" support and was instructed to open box. Thats when I found the sound card 'lock' tab was broken off and lying on bottom of box. Was told it had to happen in shipping. Explain that one to me please. At that point I requested to execute my "In Home" repair as I also (call me dumb) payed extra fee for 3 year warranty...boy am I dumb. Was told that "In home" service applied to different situations. When I asked the question (I know I am looking real stupid now) I was told that only pertained to specific fixes. So I asked what exactly qualified...got no reply other than my situation did not apply. Requested a manager and was told the same. Was instructed to send back machine and they would send me a FedEx label I could print. I explained that I had no access as the computer I bought was my only 'running' machine. They told me FedEx would come by w/ pre-printed label. FedEx arrived and stated clearly that their instructions where customer would supply. At this point I called concerned about my 30 day return policy was going to expire. I was instructed that I would get a extended date. Well they lied. My computer is who knows where right now. They are stating that I am not able to return unless I get charged a "restocking fee". This all started July 14th and now its Sept. 10 2008...no machine and a $2800 charge on my credit card. Right now I am working thru AmerEx. to see if they can recover any of it. Also turned in a report to FTC...but I am seeing the print on the wall: I am hosed.  
 
Conclusion: In todays computer market customer service is the deciding factor as there are many companies out there making the same thing for about the same price. AW customer service is terrible and once they have your $ you are not much of a concern to them. As noted, I am no working w/ my CCard company to get a full return as AW will not due to their statement that I missed the 30 day return policy. My only hope is my CCard company...thank you Visa? One last note: if you do decide to go w/ AW make sure your Credit card company will back your full money return on situations like mine. Not all do and some requires a extra fee to support.  
Bottom line, if you purchase after reading this you have no reason to complain: you have been warned. Also, if you see my box on the "resale" list might want to not purchase: black AREA-51 7500-R5 but again, if you do go for the "deal of deals" realize a. it is junk. b. you end up w/ a high-tech paper weight...which it does make a very nice one if you don't mind the footprint (HUGE).

I placed the order on the 12th of May using ALienware's in-house credit. The order was confirmed a few days later. I kept checking the order status page, which only showed that this order was pending confirmation. In early June I contacted Alienware for an update and was told that the order shipped on the 30th of May 2008. I was also told that Alienware would not look in to any shipping problems until 8 weeks had gone by. The order status page still showed pending confirmation. The order arrived on the 14th of July 2008, however, it was not shipped until the 18th of June 2008 not 30 May as I was told. Prior to arrival, I received the first 2 of the monthly bills from their financing section even though I had no computer.  
 
When I first started the computer I had to reload the video drivers as I kept getting error messages stating that the drivers were not present. Since then I have had to re-load the drivers several times. The video cards have 2 processors each, but only 3 show up and only 1 card shows under ATI's video card control software.  
 
The first time I tried to use the Blu-Ray player I discovered that it was not recognized by the system. When I opened the case to troubleshoot this problem I found that the player was not connected. The player was fixed by simply plugging in the wires. Something that should have already been done.  
 
I expected much more from a 3K system from Alienware. By the way, the order status page still says that my computer is pending confirmation.

This review was modified by its author, dboggs, on 9/5/08 12:03 AM.

There's not enough space to write all of the terrible things this company has done to me. They shipped me a computer that would not connect to the internet. Over 4 hours with their technical support could not fix the problem (which I only got after being on hold for an hour). I had to reinstall everything three times. When I used their shipping company to send it back for repairs, they called me and told me it was damaged in transition. They wanted me to pay for the damage!! I was so tired of trying to work things out with them, that I asked to cancel the order. Similar to the gentleman who commented previously, they said they would charge me restocking fee. I found this to be terrible service. I even wrote the CEO. There's much more, but needless to say, I will never buy anything from them again. The techs are nice by the customer service is horrific!!!

This review was modified by its author, jcservant, on 8/28/08 12:20 AM.

I bought the Area-51 quick ship edition desktop that was currently priced at the time 2,699$. I buy it, everything goes smooth, they ship the computer within 2 days and I receive it 5 days after it was shipped.  
 
So RIGHT when I plug the computer in and load it up, it starts to configure and load up Windows Vista. Well while it was checking hardware it freezes. So I restart it, go to the desktop install some stuff, it locks up again. Tech support told me to re-install windows using the recovery disc. Doesn't fix problem. Called tech support again, on hold for almost TWO HOURS, YES TWO HOURS!!!! Finally, I get a guy that helps me, he was nice and walked me through some things to change. After being on the phone with him for 2 hours, so nearly 4 hours total, he tells me my problem should be fixed and I should have no problems again. The next day I'm playing a game, and it locks up again, hmm?!?!? It lasted for about 10-14 hours after I got off the phone w/ him.  
 
I call tech support again, and get the rudest idiot I've ever came across, he knows NOTHING and doesn't fix my computer. So I ship it back to them, asked them for a refund but they tell me that I can only get around 2300 out of the 2900 I spent? Why? You guys send me a MESSED UP OUT OF THE BOX computer and I cant get a full refund? Hm good service there Alienware.  
 
So I have them build me another one, and it is currently about to get built right now, so I will update when everything is done.  
 
So people, if you are thinking about purchasing from Alienware, be cautious and KNOW that you are taking a risk just like everybody else that is buying from this company. The support is 50/50, youll get a respectful nice person, or a complete IDIOT that has no respect for its customers.  
 
They also say that they inspect they're computers a couple times to insure its running correctly. Don't believe this like they say, if they make sure its running correctly mine wouldn't have locked up out of the box. But don't get me wrong, when the computer WAS working, it worked GREAT, and ran games ridiculously good! So in all reality they MAKE good computers, they just need to make sure they are running correctly before being shipped.  
 
I will update soon.  
 
UPDATE (September 19th): As you see, my last review was August 22nd. Well, issues w/ Alienware BARELY got resolved! So last August I thought it was resolved, nope, its barely getting resolved almost a month later! They had told me that they had trouble transferring the funds from my old order to the new order. So that takes a whole month huh? And they did not bother to contact me about the situation for 2-3 weeks, yea okay. So finally on the order status page, my order is in Phase 3: Payment has been received and the order is now in queue for production. So hopefully my computer will be built around next week starting Monday the 22nd hopefully.  
 
UPDATE: (September 24th)  
So I receive an e-mail today stating that my new computer has been shipped via Fed Ex, finally! But I was ONCE again lied to! I was told by the agent in charge of my order that for all the trouble, they would send it back to me Fed Ex 2 Day Ground so I would receive it in 2 days! WRONG! Fed Ex tracking shows estimated delivery date is October 1st, which is 7 days away from now. Thanks for lying to me repeatedly Alienware.  
 
I will update when I receive.  
 
FINAL Update (October 3rd): I received my Alienware in perfect condition October 1st. After using the computer for a full day, I can definitely say that I am satisfied. It runs AWESOME, and plays games at high settings with high FPS. I am still highly unsatisfied with the customer service Alienware provided me, but I am happy with the computer!  
 
Overall I had a very unpleasant purchase with Alienware, but now that everything is settled and I have my computer, that is A LOT of weight off my shoulders!

This review was modified by its author, 36chamberz, on 10/3/08 6:04 AM.

I wish I could give a better review to Alienware for the laptop I ordered but their customer service in my case was pretty unreasonable.  
 
First off, the laptop itself is great so far. The quality leaves nothing to be desired. The problem was with the shipping and service afterward. Alienware used Fedex Ground (not the usual fedex most of us think of when we hear the name), who seriously mishandled my order.  
 
I ended up having to jump through several hoops to get my laptop shipment from the Fedex terminal, and, long story short, the manager of the terminal was 100% willing under the circumstances to refund the approx. $70 it cost to ship the system. He gave me his direct phone number and told me to call Alienware and have them call him to arrange for the refund (since Alienware is, in fact, the contracting party on the shipment).  
 
So I called Alienware, who refused to accept the refund for me. For no real reason - it's not like they would have had to do anything more than call and say "yes, we will take that money back, thanks." There was no unwillingness on the part of Fedex to return the money, they completely accepted responsibility for the shipping issue.  
 
But because Alienware decided to be a collective jerk about it and say they wouldn't do it, I was unable to get a refund.  
 
If they won't even help you out when there's no loss to them, what do you think would happen if there was a problem they might have to take a financial hit on?  
 
Therefore, I'd have to say that despite the product, I'd never purchase from Alienware again. There are other companies who do similar work in building systems and don't have the poor customer service reputation Alienware appears to have (and appears willing to let grow). If I'd checked into that aspect of the company earlier I probably wouldn't have bought from them in the first place, but I did, and now I'm stuck with it.  
 
I'd go with someone else, if I were you.

Actual purchase was 5/4/06. Delayed several months due to them failing to tell me a part was out of stock. Was not informed until 2 weeks after purchase there would be a delay. Did not receive computer until 7/10/06. 2 years later, battery at 50% or original capacity. With the computer not even 3 years old, the power jack melted to the power supply and the pin came out. They refuse to take any responsibility and want to charge $300 just for me to send it to them so they can tell me I need a new jack. Worst computer company ever. Worst sales, worst customer service, worst products. Save yourself the time and money and don't buy from them. It's not worth any of it. There's better stuff out there that won't take advantage of you like this. Way overpriced to be issuing faulty components like this. I'm lucky my house didn't catch on fire and burn up. Customer service is extremely rude. Stay away.

This review was modified by its author, tashtonb, on 8/7/08 12:37 PM.

Alienware made a poor choice in using Dealtree for their Trade In program. Dealtree has no customer service and only replies to your comments via email. Alienware is no help in contacting this subcontractor if you have problems. DO NOT USE ALIENWARE'S TRADE IN PROGRAM - YOU WILL ONLY GET HEADACHES.

the computer was not loaded and does not start windows system as was not loaded, called customer service and tech support nothing anyone could do. called back got supervisior and is overnighting disk to load and i am to call tech when get also got run around and hung up on. for 2500.00 it should have done at least that and a lot more. all they could do was send the disk!!!!operateions disk. do not buy from alienware....  
 
update  
we receieved the operating disk 2 days in stead of next day. i spent an hour and a half on tech support to get the disk loaded and then download drivers.  
i wasnt paid to do thier job nor was i really compensated for the problems on my 2500.00 dollar beginning paperweight.  
thier offer of compensatiion was 100.00 to spend at alienware . next day shipping on the operating disk. i dont consider that compensation! also yesterday when i returned home i had a message from virgil castinella wanting me to update my posting here so they do read it. and here is my new post to what took place. they have not made me happy and yes my system does now work after 2500.00 and 3 hrs of tech and waiting 3 days for it to work after reciept. If i am not compensated for the problems of the crap they put me thru they will lose me as a customer forever and i will make sure others know how they do .  
this is my second computer from them and the first one i bought had no drivers loaded . so i'm feeling pretty much like a fool the second time around. i am not satified but am glad the system finally works....for now.  
 
i have read aleinware's answer and it is very funny they say here they want to make it up to me and understand my time is valuable also and yet they have all my phone numbers and have yet to call and work out teh details of the satifaction. nor have i received email to reflect thier answer.  
i am not sure at this time if that is just to look good.  
i await thier phone call. if they have need of the numbers again they certainly may email me at either this email or my other one, this is the screen name and aol.com. thank for allowing me to tell about teh company and the dealings i have had. agian i await thier call or email communications.

This review was modified by its author, sherryscoobydoo, on 6/23/08 1:05 PM.

I ordered a desktop from Alienware with a GeForce 9600 GT video card. It was shipped on time but FedEx took 5 days to ship what should have only taken 3.  
 
It was 2 days later before I was able to set the system up but when I did I started seeing problems.  
 
The video driver keeps having an error and that eventually leads to the "blue screen of death". Called tech support and they think I have a bad video card so I am waiting on the new one now. The big question here is, why was the computer shipped out when it isn't working right? I started getting this error within 5 minutes of me turning on the computer. I am sure if it did it to me that soon, it had to have done it to them as well.  
 
Also, there were some customizations that I asked for (downloading Firefox for one) that were not done. Why ask people for that if you aren't going to actually do it?  
 
Overall, my Alienware experience is not good. Hope it works right when the new video card arrives. Which should be within 1 to 3 more days depending on SlowEx.  
 
 
UPDATE:  
 
About 3 days after I made this review my new video card arrived. I installed it (good thing I know what I am doing) and sent back the old card. Once the new video card was installed and drivers loaded everything is working great. But my original question still stands; Why was this not checked at the factory? They even claim to put the computers through quality assurance before they are shipped.  
 
Also, I received an email stating that since I had the problems I had, they restarted my warranty to that date (about 2 weeks later than original purchase). They also told me that I would receive an Alienware backpack for free. Not that I really wanted a backpack but it has never arrived so I can only guess that they fed me even more B.S.  
 
Even though my problems were corrected, I do not feel confident in this company any longer.

This review was modified by its author, Sincee, on 6/30/08 10:24 AM.

This is by far worst laptop I have ever purchased. The customer service is a joke. My M9750 died after 6mo's, and just getting a return label has been a farce. If you are thinking of buying an Alienware product DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. All you will get for your trouble is the run around from customer service. STAY AWAY FROM ALIENWARE.

This review was modified by its author, urbangorilla, on 10/28/08 12:14 PM.

Well my wife bought an Alienware area 51 7500 Desktop and I am shocked at the mess they sent out.  
The ordering process went fine and the machine arrived in good time, alas this was about all that went well, on first boot I noticed my storage drive was missing, they had not plugged it in, the image made of my pc for the respawn dvd was made with it like this, as I now had to re-arrange drive letters after a re-install. The Alienware fx did not work, and the contacts were broken for it where it connects to the side panel, and their were screw driver marks around the media card reader and in the plastic of the chassis next to it, also there was a scuffs in the left side panel.  
The pc was sent back to Alienware and had to have a new sata drive fitted as well, as one had a broken connection, the machine returned about two weeks later, it arrived fixed, well so I thought, the new left hand side panel had so much plastic wrapped around it you had to remove the panel to get the stuff off and still it left sticky residue from what looked like masking tape, the machine rattled as well, on opening, two screws fell out! One from the top left hand part of the motherboard, one from the FX controller, the hard drive cooling fan was fouled and rubbing on a power cable and the left panel had a scuff in the silver plastic around the front vents.  
I spoke to Alienware and said at this point I was unwilling to send it back again after it came back in such a mess, and having a pc tool kit and electrostatic wrist band had put the screws back in, they kindly ordered me a new fan and left hand side panel, a week later a right hand one turned up, so on the phone again they were very sorry and ordered me a new left panel which turned up within days, the metal at the back was bent so the panel could not be fitted. This was sent back, a new panel was to be sent out, this has not appeared yet.  
Yesterday the machine blue screened and said it had the wrong bios, the one on the Alienware site is not the latest to support the E8500 CPU which I have, the computer also froze during boot with a loud buzzing and had to be forcibly shut down. On boot it could not recover from the recovery partion but I did manage to boot into windows, did a disc check and all was OK, called tech support and they basically said if it happens again take the side panel off and listen! I checked the connections inside to be sure and noticed something odd about the Ram, yes that was mis-configured, it was not in dual channel configuration but rather just ran with two 1gig sticks in slot 1 and 2 and the two 512 sticks in 3 and 4, I had asked why my ram score of 4.8 was so low and was told it was because I had only had 3gigs of ram, I called support back and sure enough this configuration was wrong and now its in dual channel mode the ram score is 5.9, a bit of a change the tech support agen said I should do a mem test, but sadly I did not have the dvd with the recovery software or drivers on it.  
All in all I do not trust this machine and wanted a new one built, not with the same mobo and one that I know supports my cpu, I was told I was outside the 14 days return period but I could send it back again, I do not trust them to fix any issue and am now waiting for a reply to my email.  
All in all the worst built machine I have ever had and at a cost of £1800, I would not recommend this company to anyone.  
 
Since contacting Alienware by email I have had a new system built for me which should be on its way with upgraded specs, the help has been fantastic and I am very happy with the outcome and the kind help given by a member of the support staff, which has changed my view of the company completely.  
 
Sadly things have got worse, my new system has arrived, a flagship area 51 with 4GB of DDR3, it blue screened more times in 5 days than any pc I have had in my entire life put together, if you try using Alienware respawn it bluescreens as you cannot load windows onto the Nvidia 790sli with 4GB ram without corruption! So I'm meant to remove 2gb ram each time just to recover? I have had vista telling me my ready boost failed when I was not using it, I have had the pc crash when browsing the net crash and these crashes are almost 400mb each, today it told me I could not logon as windows could not find some dll. £2300 for a pc with Nero essentials so out of date it needs a 398mb download which then damages the registry and you end up with red X's on the vista help pages so you have to patch that, X-FI sound card card drivers out of date they are not meant for Vista as you ned to run the audio console in compatability mode, even adobe reader was out of date yet the latest version is in on the support DVD! If the tech heads at Alienware looked at the Net they would see that the 790i is an appalling board, I wish I had! Sadly I can't update the bios as Alienware use a locked one of their own so all the fixes that come out are no good for me. Oh and they have this new "command centre" that wants to launch a window at boot over your start button icon on your desktop when it should not. Looks to me like Alienware and myself are about to part company, I am disabled and need a pc that works, not one that favours the BSOD as a screensaver, this has been the worst experience with a pc in my entire life!

This review was modified by its author, Killhippie, on 6/16/08 1:41 AM.

I've had my Alienware desktop for a month now. It was shipped with no mouse. I called tech support and a week later I had a mouse.  
 
The machine worked fine for a week or so, and then, poof!, the motherboard went out. Ten days later I had another motherboard. It's been sitting here for the better part of a week and I'm still sending emails and making phone calls to try to get a tech out to install it.  
 
Most of the customer service and tech support people I've spoken with have been nice and have tried to be helpful, although emails are sometimes ignored.  
 
I get the impression that Alienware is a company that really could be outstanding, but they would need the kind of leadership that is genuinely committed to customer satisfaction. Right now, the emphasis seems to be on profitability.  
 
Right now, the company seems to be so inundated with problems and complaints that they've become largely indifferent to their customers.  
 

Ordered a computer on Feb 19, 2008 with an expected ship date of March 6, 2008. They charged my credit card right away, but a month later still hadn't started assembly. Stories of the delay changed every call, they failed to call back multiple times, and finally told me to expect the computer 1 1/2 months late at the earliest. Canceled the order at that point.

Alienware delayed my computer, when I threatened to cancel, they shipped me a broken computer. At least they admitted the computer was broken, it has now been shipped back 3 times. At least they pay for the FedEx, that's about the only good thing I can say for them. I would strongly beware of Alienware.  
 
They will also not give you a refund. Even if they haven't given you a working computer 6 months after ordering, as in my case.