This company is horrible do not buy from them unless you want your computer outdated by the time you get it. I order a computer 12 days ago and after excuse after excuse they only thing they have managed to do it take my money, and have not even bothered to start to build it. Notice how their customer service satisfaction has dropped dramatically in the past year!!! Obviously their is a reason for this!!!

I hope you avoid my experience. I can only say buy anything but Alienware! For the record, I bought the top of the line Aurora 7900 model, with almost all available upgrades, about $3800.  
 
ORDER: First, my order was never processed because a $20 external USB card reader was out of stock. Customer service repeatedly told me it was an internal part and the computer could not be built and shipped without it. I was also told a restocking fee might apply if I cancelled (even though the computer wasn’t built?!) It took hours to reach someone who knew anything about the part. I had to cancel the order and reorder the computer without the part. Instead of having my computer in 1 week as advertised, it took a month.  
SCREEN: I spent extra for the upgraded screen. It’s extremely reflective like a mirror… I’m watching people down the block out my window in the screen… and that’s with the computer on! It’s very bad for the eyes.  
IMAGE: The factory setting was extremely bright. Even correcting that, the contrast is terrible and the clarity of the pixels is terrible. Photos and videos are fine but it’s painful to read text. I can’t use the computer for long without eye problems (and I use computers all day every day for work without problem).  
RESOLUTION: Why have a wide screen without wide screen resolution? It justs stretches a “normal” screen wider, makes everything look funny. The only widescreen resolution was at 1920x1200, which makes everything so small on the screen, it only compounds the image problems above.  
TOUCHPAD: The sticky surface makes it tough to move the cursor precisely; it’s slow and often registers a “click” when not intended.  
POWER: The computer only boots up about every other time I power it on. Other times I have to power down and power it on again. It’s a little annoyance and waste of time.  
VIDEO: Switching between my gaming app and another app and back causes flickering and image problems in the game. I have to exit the game and reload it. This occurs despite nVidia dual SLI cards and 2Gb of memory.  
TECH SUPPORT: It’s typical, I’m sure. They don’t know a thing.  
CUSTOMER SUPPORT: It’s a waste of time.  
REFUND POLICY: Beware of this! When purchasing, they state a restocking fee MAY apply. But customer service will say the restocking fee WILL apply. No matter what problems you have or time wasted with tech support, there is no refund of the restocking fee, no matter what.  
 
In short, I’ve learned if you’re buying a high end computer, avoid Alienware. More generally, spend a little more and buy from a reputable store that will handle repairs on site. I’ve had good experience with RCS and Sony stores. My effort to save money ordering online has cost me $700 in S&H and restocking fees, and 2 months of my time.  

I bought the computer in August 11, 2006 with an expected ship date of August 24, 2006. It is now 9/19/06 and no computer. I was told the major delay was the case to arrive 9/15 but I called earlier that week and they came in early. I thought my computer would be worked on immediately since I ordered early. Still nothing. Deeply upset about the delay and the lack of immediate contact about delays.

Well much like the rest of you, all I have been getting from alienware is lies and disatisfaction. I ordered my Area-51 7500 series computer late July with an expect shipping date of course already past. After waiting a week and wondering why my order was not proceding i phoned to see what was goign on. Since i am in Canada this is an international order and they had to verity my credit card account over the phone. Really nice of them to phone and tell me this is the process. After confirming with the service rep, he assured me the system was still on. A couple weeks later after my order hadn't moved from phase 3 in a while. I (stupidly) wanted to change my order and add liquid cooling to the system. After confirming with two different customer service reps (one who sounded like he had been smoking weed all day) that my order would not go to the back of the queue i went ahead and did that. A couple more weeks past, my account was still sitting in phase 3. After seeing that the lighting/cooling systems were on back order yet again (been apparently 30 days ETA for the last 2 weeks), i got concerened and rightfully so. I received an e-mail offering free shipping with lighting/cooling after waiting yet another month or to forget the lighting/cooling and have my system built then. I immediately bitched them out in an e-mail telling them my situation after having confirmed my ship date many times and that i wouldn't get pushed back in the queue. The next day they sent me an e-mail saying my system is in phase 5 (being built - hurray!!). After realizing it probalby shouldn't take more than a 2-3 days to build the thing i got worried. Those worries disapeared when i saw my syste progress to phase 6 (i know you're jealous now). To my dismay the next day it reverted back to phase 5...... I phoned alienware yet again (sept 12). Wow was i pissed. No one had informed me (like the rest of you) that he P2 chassi was not even in stock (apparently still backordered for Sept 15)! After complaining to the service rep for 15 minutes who obvoiiusly isn't in control of anything, i demanded to speak to his supervisor. On hold for another 5 minutes, only to come back and hear the supervisor is "very busy". In the end of the conversation i tried to get free shipping out of it like they originally offered, all i got was put in a 'priority queue', which i image might speed up the process by a day or so. They refused to give me free shipping.  
 
All in all, the customer service reps are just doing their job, and its an easy job at that, so not much to complain about there. As for their customer service policy - its worse than trash. They dont seem to give a damn about the lack of organization. Whoever is running that joint needs to go back to school and learn the economics of supply and demand.  
 
I would cancel my order now if it weren't for me loosing money on exchange rates and credit cards obviously using an extra premium on the conversion.  
 
I will never purchase from alienware again, nor will i purchase a dell (you guys better know they own alienware). This is one of the worst customer experiences i've had, and they dont seem to do much about it but lie and give excuses and sound appologetic.  
 
I want my (working) system, not an appology.

This review was modified by its author, DryCube, on 9/15/06 10:39 AM.

I really don't know were to begin...I was really looking forward to purchasing an Alienware notebook. I took weeks to decide on them as a vendor I wanted to do business with. The unfortunate thing was that I concentrated my research on features and looks and not enough on customer service. I have worked for three major computer resellers for the past 6 years so I do have some insight into what good customer service is. I need to tell anybody that will listen or plan to buy from Alienware that they do not provide good customer service, not even close. I feel their customer service dept. has intentionally misled and even lied to me on multiple occasions. I do have to admit they are very friendly when I call in to check on the status of my notebook but that is all they do well. I ordered my notebook on 8-22-06. At the time nothing was on back order and the ship date was 8-28-06. Well I wont bore you with all the details but it has gone from Phase 1 to phase 6 and back to Phase 3 since that time and still no laptop and its now 9-12-06. Not once did I get an update by email that any part of my laptop was on back order. I have been told it must be a clitch in the system and that is the reason I have not been informed of any delays or back orders. I did call maybe 5 times so far for updates on my laptop and every time I call I get a different answer as to why my laptop is delayed and why I have not been informed by email of such delays. On one call I was told that the memory was on back order but after I asked some difficult questions and was put on hold many times I was suddenly told the customer service rep had made a mistake because "they have three different systems to check status on" and suddenly the memory was magically in stock after all. Another time I called because I had gone from phase 5 to 3 and I was told not to trust the website because it was a pain in the you know what and never correct. I was actually told this by an employee of Alienware!!! If their own employees are saying these things about their service then how could I feel comfortable buying one of their computers? In case you are thinking I am exaggerating I have the names of every employee I have spoken to and everything they have told me well documented in case I have to take this to the BBB. I do have to say I am a bit more informed than the average customer they may deal with because of my customer service back ground in the industry but I could not believe the amount of misinformation I am given every time I call. I know they string their customers along and they have many ways of doing it but I honestly could not believe the amount of tricks they use to get me off the phone. I asked to speak to a supervisor just as many others have done, because I felt I was not getting any correct information. I was told none was available but after reading these forums I now know that’s what they tell most people. Anyway to sum it up I wanted this to be a great experience but it has honestly been the worst buying experience of my life. I have one more call to make to them tomorrow and if I don’t get any satisfaction on this call or at the very least the TRUTH regarding what is going on with my order I will cancel and go with a Toshiba or a Fujitsu. I have only put up with this for so long because I really wanted an Alienware but they have really let me down. I do not recommend them to anyone.

Order placed july 31 2006 told me ship date September 4,2006 was contacted September 5,2006 told there would be a month delay, lighting and case on back order.  
Lets face it I got tired of lies and deception and cancelled. I had ordered a new system from them in December 2004 and it took over a three months to receive wait. Was not going through that CRAP again!!!!!!!  

Update: 10/04/2006  
Finally received full refund October 2nd. What a nightmare buying experience.  
Update: 9/28/06  
It has been two weeks since I returned my laptop to Alienware and I still have not recieved a refund that I was promised. I called after a week and they told me it would be 4-5 days more for the refund. This was on 9/23/06. Then I recieved a e-mail from one of the Alienware support people saying that I was refunded on 9/20/06. Why would I be contacting Alienware for my refund if I recieved it already? I tried contacting the sales support person but she has not contacted me back. I have sent her three e-mails over the last three days and still no reply. This company is made up of people who lie and drag their feet. I urge everyone who has a problem with Alienware in Florida to contact the Attorney General. I am so tired of dealing with this company. I wanted my refund before 9/30/06 because Vigorgaming computers was offering a deal for buying their desktop but I guess that is out of the question. Give update if I get my refund. Good luck to anyone who buys an Alienware System  
 
We ordered a notebook computer August 15, 2006. The estimated ship date was August 24th. When the computer had not moved any further than the production qeue than level three on the 24th, we called Alienware. The barely understandable customer service agent told us it was scheduled to be shipped August 28th. The parts weren't even pulled for the build until the 28th and they began building it the 29th. It still showed they were building it the morning of August 31. Somehow they managed to go through all the other steps in one day, including their so-called 200 point inspection, and we received the comupter September 2nd. Great, let's start this puppy up and get to gaming. Wrong! As soon as we turned it on we got an error message. Does their 200 point inspection not include turning it on?  
 
We called customer service and they told us to use the Respawn disk. The Respawn just gave us a different error. After working on the computer all Labor Day weekend, making numerous calls to customer service, when things finally seemed to be working. We bought Norton Sytemworks so we could keep the new computer clean. As soon as it started reading the disk, the whole thing crashed, wiping out everything execpt the bios. That was the last straw.  
 
We called Alienware Tuesday, September 5th and told them we wanted to send the computer back and get a refund. Alienware told us it would cost us about $600 in a restocking fee to send it back. $600 to send back a machine that never worked! They said we could send it back for repair, but it could take up to 25 business days for them to repair it. That's five more weeks!  
 
We called the Florida Attorney General's Office to file a complaint. They told us they've received several complaints about Alienware and they were taking the complaints very seriously.  
 
I urge anyone who has had a problem with Alienware to call the Florida Attorney General's office. You don't have to be from Florida to file a complaint. The toll free Florida number is 1-866-966-7226. If you're out of state, call 1-850-414-3300. I don't think that number is toll free. Or, you can go to myfloridalegal.com to file a complaint online.  
 
UPDATE 9/13/2006: After sending an email to president@alienware.com containing my review here, we received an email from Alienware expressing remorse over our buying experience. We received a return authorization and a pre-paid shipping label through Fed Ex. We shipped the computer back to Alienware today. They should receive it in the next couple of days. I'll post an update when the refund is credited back to my credit card.

This review was modified by its author, Stuttgart, on 10/4/06 2:14 PM.

I placed an order early August for a Area-51® 7500 machine, the estimated shipping date was August 28th and after asking a customer service agent about the accuracy of that date I was told that it is "very accurate". Today's August 28th and after 20 days of my order being stuck on "phase 3- payment received", I was notified today that some parts were back ordered and they don't expect them until September 15th ! After doing some internet lookup (which I should have done before) and reading horror stories about them I decided to cancel my order. Surprisingly the cancellation part went smoothly and I got a full refund (actually the refund is yet to show up on my account, but I take their word for it).

Was given an intial ship date of a week. That was pushed back to two weeks. Now I was told the new chassis will not be arriving at Alienware until mid-September - then add build time.  
 
Why the deceit?

Ordered my m9700 laptop, the site estimated shipping to 7 days, but after it was stuck on Phase 3 for 6 days, I called them and found that the memory was on back order. No one made contact with me to tell me that they wouldn't be able to build the machine until the 23rd which is 2 weeks late. I asked for upgraded shipping, but they attested that the ship date was an estimate and not something I could hold them to.  
 
The order was in Phase 9 after 2 weeks and an order change, the price of the laptop dropped $100 during this process called and they honored the new price.  
 
After posting this review a customer service rep contacted me and upgraded my shipping to 2 day, which I greatly appreciated and went a long way towards satisfaction as the 3rd day would have fallen on a weekend.  
 
However :( . When I recieved the laptop, It had the wrong screen. I called support and they made me jump through several hoops to prove to them that they made a mistake, when after looking at their logs they had noted the installation of the wrong display (1 hour on the phone at this point). Finally I recieved approval to send the laptop back to them or they would refund the difference in the 2 displays. I want the better display so of course I'm gonna send it back. On top of it all, the person on the other end was having just as much trouble with the language barrier as I making communication very difficult. According to this person it is going to be at least 2 weeks before I have this thing in hand.  
 
I recieved more coorispondance from the customer service rep saying that I would recieve VIP treatment on this replacement. Not sure what that means, but I don't think I will be as satisfied as I will be content once I get it back.  
 
I am sending the laptop back today, this time I was told that the replacement is going to take 1 Month!  
 
I wish I would have bought the Dell XPS, it would be here by the time I have my Alienware back.

This review was modified by its author, bootsu, on 9/5/06 10:29 AM.

Alienware is the worst company to buy a computer from. The amount of time and energy wasted dealing with their incompetent techs and customer service is beyond a reasonable limit. The Area 51M 7700 that my company bought never worked right and when I would call them, everytime was a different person with a completely different story. The technicians do not know very much and they don't write reports of what I told them so I was always telling my story over and over again.  
 
Alienware does not want to help you and once they take your money you are screwed.  
 
Please do not buy from them. Unless you are one of the lucky few who gets a working machine, I promise you will hate yourself for throwing your hard earned money at them.

This has been a horrible nightmare with alienware that continues to get worse. I bought computer on apr 2006. since purchase alienware has had to replace the hard drive, and the video card twice. I have to again send by laptop back to miami because they now say they need to replace the motherboard. This the 4th problem I have had with this laptop. I would really like to return the product for a full refund but alienware refuses. Since I have never had a working computer for more than 2 weeks in 3 months. I think I deserve a refund. I paid 3500.00 for this laptop. They took my money and they say they are trying to fix the problem but I don't have any confidence in them. If they can"t build a working computer in 5 tries why should I trust them now. I would advise anyone to stay very far away from alienware unless you just want to give your money away.

I bought a computer from them. It didnt work when i got it. Sent it back to them after weeks of techs support phone calls. Cost me 2300 dollar. The did not fix it, mailed it back broken and before i could get it "fixed" agin the warrenty was up. They wont fix it now unless i pay for labor and parts. 2300 dollars for a paper weight that they wouldnt fix.

Although Alienware's notebooks are true powerhouses, I've had numerous problems with the last two I purchased from them. On top of that, thier support is hit and miss and their company policies for on-site repair, shipping, and especially depot repair leave a lot to be desired.

I ordered a top-of-the-line ALX desktop. Cost a little over $6K. I'd heard great things about Alienware, and I wanted a computer that would be able to stand the test of time. Also, I wanted an awesome computer.  
 
I've had the machine about 3 months when my wife calls me at work, telling me that the machine is smoking. Not good. We call technical support (excellent people; everytime I've called them, I've enjoyed the interactions. The tech support people understand that when you pay the $$$ for a high-end machine, it had better be perfect) diagnose a burned-out power supply. Machine is still under warrenty, so they order the part and arrange an on-site technician visit to replace the part. That was Tuesday night.  
 
Now this is the bad part. My wife and I are using the machine for business, so we wanted to set up the technician visit for the same day we get the part. Customer service absolutely refuses to contact the technician to have them call me early. They won't even ship the power supply overnight. Brick wall. I have to wait until the technician calls ME 24-48 hours after I get the part. To make the experience even better, when I told the customer service rep that I used the machine for business, and that every day it was down cost me $$, he explained that the machine was built for gaming, and that they weren't able to accomodate any business needs. Then, he told me that I could always remove the hard drive and transfer the data. Last I checked, I payed the money upfront to PREVENT having to do surgery on the computer  
 
Now here comes the icing. I call Alienware this morning to find out the tracking number for the part. Turns out that the item has been sitting on the loading dock for the last two days because the shipping department hasn't bothered to ship it! And then, they offer up the excuses that  
1. Shipping is busy because they have to ship out so many items and don't always get around to sending out tracking numbers, and  
2. They understand that I payed $6K for a computer, but that hopefully it SHOULD go out tomorrow.  
 
So here is my Alienware experience: meaningless delivery deadlines (the original system was a week late), customer service focused around Alienware's convenience, and a shipping department too incompetent to actually ship out items in a timely manner (and at last check, I thought FedEx did all the delivery work? At my company, my shipping/receiving guy slaps on the FedEx form, and away it goes). I seriously wonder how a company that can't even efienciently ship its products is able to stay in business.

This review was modified by its author, biomike, on 10/6/06 11:36 AM.