2/5

posted Jan-13-2005

"Poor Company. I bought an area-51 2.5 years ago and was very satisfied with that purchase. Recently ordered a $6000 aurora alx - worked fine for 3 weeks until the video card started to malfunction (multiple lines in screen, then locks up with no video input message). Sent the computer in 26 days after receiving it in the hopes of getting a new video card. All they do at support (per their notes) is re-install everything. Three weeks later I get it back and immediately the same problem -only worse.
Tech support now tells me I need to send the computer back in even though I just got it back from them that day. At this point I just want my money back - but they tell me the 30 day window for returns is up, regardless of the fact I sent it in for repairs before I had it for 30 days. I am battling them right now for my money back and will probably turn them in to the better business bureau.
This probably has been the most disappointing purchase I have ever made. This is also the first company that has ever prompted me to submit an internet review. I say purchase at your own risk. This company does not back up their shoddy work.


Update on 1/25/05 - believe it or not Alienware has approved a full refund for my computer. Surprisingly they even waved the 15% restocking fee.

In addition, I had a friend look at the computer - he somehow got it to work properly and now have had no problems for approx. 2 weeks (a message came up that asked - do you want to reset the computer to the settings when it last worked properly? - clicked yes, and since no problems).

I think the problem lies with their tech support - I do not think this computer was shipped back to me setup properly - and they were unable to guide me over the phone. This should not happen as I know very little about computer internals. Hope this helps.



"

This review was modified by dokj on January 25 2005 06:22:49 AM

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1/5

posted Oct-16-2003

"So my wife decided to buy me a laptop for my birthday. She knew that I have been drooling over the Alienware Area 51-m. She went to check out the site and noticed that they were offering financing, so she applied.

One week later, she had not heard a peep from Alienware, so she called. The person she spoke with told her she was accepted and gave her the number to use to place an order.

My wife ordered me a very nice $3200 laptop in Saucer Silver. At this point, I had no idea any of this was going on. That is until I got home the night she ordered it and listened to the message on our answering machine from Alienware confirming the order, which completely ruined the entire experience for my wife.

Anyway, after a week of sitting on edge watching the Alienware order status page not move an inch, I asked my wife to call.

The person she talked to said that they had to send some paperwork to her to sign before the order would be processed. Basically they needed to send us the credit application and get her to sign it and return it. None of this is documented on their site. She asked if they could fax the document, the response was they were not set up to do that.

So our only choice was to wait for this form to be snail mailed to us. Now I would like to point out, this is three weeks after my wife filled out their form online. You know the fastest way to obtain financing!

Anyway, we finally get the form about a week later. My wife signs it and we spend the $20 to have it overnighted to Florida. Two days later the step on the order status page changes to step 4, where it promptly stops.

A few days later we get a email form Alienware letting us know the notebook we ordered was out of stock and would not be back in stock for two weeks. I wonder if it would have been fine if we didn't have to waist several weeks on Alienware's idiotic financing scheme.

A few days later I was poking around on their site and saw that they had started offing laptops in Cyborg Green, the color I had originally wanted. I let my wife know and she called to modify our order to get the cooler color.

Alienware said the color was only offered in the larger screen which was a $400 upgrade. I asked her to make sure they have it in stock first and change the order. The sales person said the item was in stock and was more than happy to take more of our money. He said the laptop should be here with in three weeks.

My wife got an email a couple days later notifying us that the ALIENWARE AREA-51M 766 CYBORG GREEN 16.1" NOTEBOOK is out of stock. The expected date the item will be back in stock is 10/30/2003.

I then became very frustrated and posted this original review on alienware. I also sent an email to the Director of Marketing. The Director forwarded my message to their Critical Care team. A representative contacted me on 10/20/03 and told me the green color laptop was not in stock but the silver was. If I wanted to change my order she would put it through and personally take it to the floor.

The laptop finally arrived on Oct 29.

I was very pleased with the laptop. I installed my linksys 802.11b card and hit windows update. The machine did not even have SP1 on it? I spent the next couple hours installing all the windows updates, which I find odd for a $4k laptop.

Next I installed AVG antivirus, and it caught the Nachi virus as soon as I installed it. Now I can't say that Alienware shipped me a laptop with a virus as I had it connected to the net to download all the updates, so it is possible that I got it while I was updating. What I can say is Alienware sent me a laptop that was venerable to a very old virus that has had a patch available for months. I am tempted to say it shipped that was due to the fact I had to turn off system restore to get rid of the thing completely.

My laptop and I lived happily until Nov 10th. I had the thing for 11 days. I discovered the LCD backlight was not working correctly. I did a quick search on their support message boards and found 15 other people with this issue.

I contacted Alienware support. They sent me a FedEx ground shipping label. The box went back to them on November 10th. It arrived to them on November 17th. Why they would choose to use FedEx ground for this is beyond me.

The laptop was sent back to me a full month after I had sent it in. Within a week the backlight switch began malfunctioning again. The issue was not as dramatic this time, and could be resolved by pressing firmly on the backlight switch housing. At this point I have decided the machine is usable and I will only send it back to Alienware if the switched completely fails again.

After all I have experienced with this company I cannot recommend you purchase anything thing from them.

This post has been edited to remove names and email address at resellerratings request.
"

This review was modified by Str8Dog on June 08 2004 01:18:28 PM

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1/5

posted Mar-03-2005

"I would like to say that I will never buy any product from Alienware nor will I condone anyone or anything that does. This company has done nothing in any way to show that they care about their clients. I recently graduated high school and for my present, I received an Alienware Laptop 51m 766 model. Of course, like all the people that have had problems with this company's products, the computer works fine for a little while. I first started having problems with this laptop around the beginning of October of 2004. The system would freeze up and have to be rebooted. After calling tech support, apparently my system, because of Nero 5.0, does not work well with Windows SP2. So I uninstall SP 2 and everything is fine. Later on, Half -life 2 had just been released and seeing as how I have a hardcore gaming laptop, why shouldn't it work? Apparently it's my fault that the video card inside my laptop overheated and melted without myself knowing this. This caused my laptop to not "power up" as they said. However, upon calling tech support and going through their grueling and annoying checklist of everything, we determined to take the battery out and then reinstall the battery. Bingo, it started to power up again. However, I started playing Window’s pinball and it froze and then didn't power up at all. I knew right then that it was the video card. Windows pinball is not going to stress out an aftermarket gaming video card. We, my father and I, call tech support again. At this point, we have contacted Alienware many times because they had not been returning our calls/ e-mails for quite some time. It was close to a month, month and a half before we got any evidence that they still knew we had a problem. Even then, they didn't return our calls until they realized a thing called binding arbitration. This time they tell us to manually take out the video card and examine it. Sure enough it had melted on one side. Alienware then proceeds to ship us a new video card (couple days late). Then once again, we install the new video card. Ok, now I'm hoping to put everything aside and not hold any biased opinions towards Alienware. I'm hoping that this is the end of the problems and no more. Wrong. I recently had another problem with this great, advanced, gaming hunk of junk. This time I was getting the "Blue screen of Death." It had been happening for a couple of weeks before I called them. Upon getting in touch with them after being on hold for 45 minutes, I once again had to go through the same checklists that we had to go through with the video card, SP 2, and now the Blue screen. After being told to do a Windows memory diagnostic test with blank discs that I had to waist because of copying materials from the Alienware website, the test determined that the memory was A-ok. Then I call them upon completion of the test and am on hold again. Next on the checklist, they instruct me to somehow hold the phone against my ear and take off the keyboard. Unhook the keyboard. Then I was lucky enough to have a screw driver small enough to open the part concealing the memory. The tech support person at this time is now a Coach telling me to take my time and be patient. I would be patient if I could understand their tech support person that could barely speak any credible English. Once I get the cover off, I am coached to take out each 512 stick of memory and do another Windows Diagnostic test on each stick. Once again, they pass. Imagine that. Next on the checklist was, "Well sir, what version BIOS do you have?" I had the 1.19 version. Oh, that's the problem. I need the 1.20 version. Once again I am instructed to go to the Alienware website and waist another blank disc to copy materials onto it to install the BIOS versions 1.20. Of course, the tech support person is now talking in a manner where oh of course. The reason for your system not properly is because of your BIOS. Whatever. I install the BIOS and it works fine for 1 day. The very next day all of the symptoms are back. I spent close to 7-8 hours on the phone trying to resolve my problems. I will not call back and go through this again. I will not buy a product from them every again. If I am ever asked to give any insight about this company, I will simply say that they don't care about the common consumer trying to buy a good. I loathe this company and will never speak to a person working for them. I am sick, tired, and furious with this company. Never buy anything from them. I still to this day have never received a simple e-mail asking them about the 7700 model. Seeing as how they falsely advertised my laptop as "upgradeable" I asked if since the 7700 is out, will they come out with a new video card for my model. The last note beside that certain e-mail on my contact history says disregard as spam. I don't think you would want a company that you buy something from to think of your e-mails as spam. I know I certainly would not."

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4/5

posted Jan-12-2005

"I placed my order with Alienware, for an Area 51-5500 PC, on December 14th. I was notified at the time of order that choosing the "Plasma Purple" case would delay my order, which is ok, and that the order would Ship on January 5th. The next day, I received an e-mail that stated they needed to verify some security information and would be calling me to do so. Well that day past, and I was concerned, so I called in to @ the time one of their very helpful staff members. Security info verified, order placed and my card was charged on December 16th. I am thinking all is well, the order will ship on January 5th, as expected. It did not. That day, I received an e-mail stating that my order was in Phase 2, payment processing. Well on that day, they successfully charged my order, so it should have moved on to @ least PHASE 3 (PAYMENT RECEIVED) by now, right? Well as of January 10th, almost a full MONTH later, it was still stuck in Phase 2. On December 29th I called into their customer service department and spoke with Brian. I called in because this order was still in PHASE 2 and I was concerned that it would not ship on January 5th. All in all, I contacted Alienware several times and was told the hold up was a problem with the Plasma Purple case not being in stock. As it turns out that was not the situation at all. Long story short, I paid for the PC with a gift card, due to some sort of hang up on their end, the PC did not ship out on time. After posting a review (you are now reading a rewrite) here on Reseller Ratings, Lisa and James contacted me. They both were very helpful. After 2 or so days of research, James was able to tell me that the problem was with their gift card processing system which is now resolved and on January 18, the system FINALLY moved out of Phase 2 and Lisa and James ensured that the order process from that point forward went very quicky, the PC shipped on January 21. The support and assistance provided by Lisa and James was EXCELLENT. My only complaint at this point is that they weren't the ones handling this from the beginning. The only thing I wanted out of Alienware (other than the PC) was honesty. I was worried, VERY worried before I was contacted by Lisa. However, she and James were completely honest with me (as opposed to those who I talked with before) and supposedly have rectified the situation with the others I spoke with. Overall, after dealing with Lisa, and receiving my PC saturday delivered (for no extra charge) on January 22 and all they have done to make up for my problems with Alienware, including $100 in Amazon gift cards, as well as the absolute quality of this unit, I am going to have to say that I am now completely satisfied. The PC is working great! I am a corporate Network Administrator and we order many PCs in a month for Dell and I have to say the quality of this unit greatly outshines them. I am even considering a change in vendors as long as I can be assured they will be timely in theh order processing. Overall with the whole situation behind me, the PC is excellent. When Alienware says they build the PC as if it were your own, they mean it. I have been building PCs for 15 years and they live up to the quality of a highly skilled tech. to the letter. "

This review was modified by ghost__rider on February 02 2005 10:28:14 AM

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1/5

posted Jan-27-2004

"I ordered a system in December. After 7 weeks of delays, excuses, and broken promises the order was cancelled after it had not been put into production."

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1/5

posted Jan-30-2004

" I am so glad I cancelled my order. I waited 43 days. Wish I could have come to my senses earlier. Customer service lies to you about special rush orders and when you purchase will ship. I actually got scared that one of theese days they would actually ship, and then I would be screwed. Could you imagine trying to get the broken pc you recieve repaired by theese guys!"

This review was modified by Fedup23 on January 29 2004 02:45:12 PM

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1/5

posted Jan-30-2005

"I had ordered my Aurora City 17 on December 13th with a ship date of January 13, 2005. One of the promotions at the time was a free copy of Half-Life 2 if you ordered a City 17 and an ATI Radeon X800 video card. When I didn't see the game on my invoice, I asked about it and was told that only applied for the first 150 customers. That same promotion remained on the website for the next month, even after I advised them to remove it if it was no longer valid.

January 10: I called to find out if the Jan 13th ship date was in jeopardy and if so if there was a revised ship date. Phase 9. No new info.

January 20: Sent the following email:
"Hello?

You send me this marketing material, but where's my computer?

It has been a week since my order moved to Phase 9. I've been building and using personal computers since 1976 and worked in the computer engineering field for 26 years. I know how long it takes to procure parts, install them, install software, test the system, burn it in, and ship it.

Over the past five years, I have purchased seven Dell computers for various family members. Those computers were configured on-line, ordered, assembled & tested, and shipped to arrive well within a month's timeframe. I wanted to break from the mold this time and place my trust and confidence in Alienware.

Even granting a two week hiatus for Christmas break for your technicians, that would afford them four weeks to get the system together that I ordered. At the current pace, I wouldn't expect to see an Alienware box on my porch before March. And that would NOT be good.

Is there someone in the corporate hierarchy who could offer a better rationale for the delay I'm seeing? Are you really working through an incredible holiday backlog or is there some other problem with my system?"

January 24: Phase 13. I was overjoyed!
January 24: Phase 14. System shipping. Yahoo!!
January 28: Fed-Ex arrived with everything. Alright!

January 28: Hooked up speakers. Unpacked everything and turned on my magnificent machine. It sent out a beeping, later joined by a siren sound. Arghhhh!!

January 28: Placed a call to Customer Support which was picked up in 20 minutes. Their solution after 2.5 hours is to replace the cpu fan & heatsink.

Here is the email I sent today. My apologies for the length, but I wanted everyone to know the depth of the troubles at Alienware. This is a company with multiple layers of catastrophe. How many ways can you shoot yourself in the foot?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To be continued..."

This review was modified by lucideyes on February 20 2005 11:39:44 AM

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1/5

posted Jan-10-2005

"(please read through as I've updated as things moved along--2/4/05 NOW RESOLVED)

PROFESSIONAL USERS BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!
I have purchased a Roswell X2 for a total cost of $4,709.00.

I bought the computer for video editing. Alienware offered a MATROX suite which included ADOBE video editing and authoring software. After waiting 4 weeks, I recieved delivery of 2 boxes. One was the PC and the other was the MATROX suite. As I opened the PC box I found the Adobe Premier software that was supposed to be in the MATROX box logded in the shipping foam and another piece of software, MATROX xTolls, lodged between the shipping foam and the cardboard box. Clearly, both softwares were in very poor condition, the xTools wasn't even in a J-Box.

After working with customer service, I finally was able to get the 2 peices of software replaced.

A BIGGER PROBLEM arised when I opened up the MATROX suite and found manuals and cables but NO SOFTWARE!!!!!!!!

I have been trying to recieve Adobe Audition and Adobe Encore for the last 2 MONTHS.

I have PAID and NOT RECIEVED what I paid for.

Now, I'm being told from a Customer Service manager that a Critical Issues department is on the case. I'm also being told that a Middle Management officer is stating that I need to send EVERYTHING back so that I can recieve the 2 softwares that I paid for. CIT is expecting me to disconnect the capture card of which was installed and tested by ALIENWARE (NOTE:This installation and test is the reason why I purchased it from them. I could have saved a few hundred dollars if I would have bought it elsewhere.) I'm expected to suspend MY WORK because Alienware's shipping and quality assurance department and MIDDLE MANAGEMENT is incompetent!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is in my opinion that Alienware's management has no interest in customer satisfaction. In fact, I believe I am being treated like a criminal--I suspect they believe I'm trying to STEAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I paid for a product and that product was defective. I paid for a product and never recieved it. I paid over $4,700.00 and I am supsected of stealing a few hundred dollars worth of software.

If you are considering purchasing from this company, bring your considerations elsewhere.

May I add that I have never received a phone call from anyone at Alienware. I'm always having to call. I've been waiting for CIT to call me for last 2 weeks!!!!!!

This is the poorest, the WORST service that I have recieved or heard of.
This purchase was an acutall test for future purchases. I have sinced taken my business elsewhere and purchased in the last month over 11 thousand dollars of pc equipment at another major computer company.

PROFESSIONAL USERS BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!
but you don't have to be professional to realize when a company is not treating their customers right.
_______

1/22 I've sent numerous emails to PRESIDENT@Alienware.com and to customer service and still no response. CIT has yet to call. I still don't have what I've paid for and NO ONE at Alienware cares--they got their money.
________A more positive note:
1/25 I had to make numerous calls ( I was being transfered to voice mail most of the time) but I finaly got through to someone who would account for alienware and sent it to me in writing with an email. I am to be recieving my software "shortly". No details on dates; alienware is supposedly investigating my case issue. Never-the-less, this has been the most positive response I've received in months. I hope it gets resovled. Stay tune for further updates.
--------2/5/05
Over the past week I've recieved emails regarding my issue stating that the two pieces of software have been ordered and shipped. I recieved them today. It was a long battle to get to this end but it's finally over.

Conclusion: customer service is very poor-from shipping to management. After calling the corporate office is when my problem was being looked into. Quality of machine is still being reviewed--other then fans being REAL loud, pc is working fine (knock on wood). OVERALL, I've had a terrible experience with this company. If I didn't get through to corporate, I would be lost with no options. "

This review was modified by lppaskalides on February 04 2005 12:04:00 PM

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1/5

posted Mar-17-2005

"My experience begins like this.

I am a U.S. Marine and was overseas all last year.I decided to purchase a comp.(5500 laptop) I heard about alienware and thought it was a great computer. Upon researching it I found many bad reviews, but being stubborn I decided that these were people that had no patience. I figured that no computer at this price would be so problematic, especially the way alienware claims to ensure quality. This is where the fun begins. I received the computer ahead of time. I was already seing the reviews were wrong. Well as soon as i opened my computer and tried to get it started noticed the screen would not come on. I kept turning it on and off untill I finally got the thing to start( I figured this was just a first time computer problem, that it just needed to warm up or something). I waited for the whole week to try and see if this top of the line laptop would prove all the reviews wrong.....not a chance.For the past three months I have been patient and tried to work with their tech support. I have done everything I was asked and i still have this problem. It has finally come down to them telling me that its a bad video card. Please remember that upon receiving this machine, the thing would not start. How could it be that a very expensive top of the line computer wasnt at least turned on to get checked. ( My opinion is that it was, but they figured after the 30 day money back warranty , then you are stuck with it. So of course they prolong the process by giving you minor troubleshooting techniques) I have recently looked at other reviews in other web sites and seen this same problem with their computers. If this problem is so common why is it they make everyone go thru the same process that didnt fix someone elses computer(wasting time). I finally ran out of patience and asked the tech support if I could just return this computer(I am even willing to pay the 15% restocking fee, that is how frustrated I am) I was told NO. My thirty days have long passed and I no longer have that option. I then asked how is that so if the problem has been going on since the date of purchase, I am getting penalized for trying to give their tech support a chance to fix the same problem. Should I have just returned it the minute i noticed it not operating properly? I then asked to talk to their customer service rep on 3/15/05 and asked him if I could just return this computer. He of course told me No, and that the problem has already been solved(its the video card supposably) I then asked what if the video card doesnt fix the problem?
REP: Well we will have to troubleshoot the problem and if we cant fix it we will have to get the computer sent in.
Me: Like I said , I am in the military and if I send this computer in, I probably wont be home to receive it once its done(they said about 1 month to troubleshoot). Thats why I would like to return it.
Rep:that is not an option. We stand behind our products, thats why we give you the 1 year warranty.
Me: so what if you cant fix it in a year.
Rep. Thats why we offer the extended 3 year warranty.
I could keep going with this, but the thought of talking to these people( I understand its not them, its the company rules)frustrates the hell out of me. So to let you know were I stand, I am now waiting for the new video card to arrive while I figure out if there are any legal ways to fight this company and get my money back, or at least my moneys worth. Sorry if this story is too long ( I have never written a review of anything, but this is just something that is worth wasting my time on) If just one person takes all this into acount and decides to purchase anything other than an alienware laptop,
then I feel that this time was well spent. If you are still unsure, please keep researching in here as well as in other reviews(personal, not magazine. Im sure they get a working model) and make a smart decision. Stay away from these laptops unless you are extremely more patient than me, and have the time to keep sending your parts and computer in.

Update:Oct 30 05

Well congratulations Alienware you have sold me a piece of @#4T.For anyone that is interested in the long term quality....My overpriced top of the line junk has again broke down. The system shuts down everytime I try to run anything other than the internet(antivirus, screensaver,and dont even think of trying a game) It also dies if I leave it on for an extended period of time. The only thing that I am happy about is that my roomate is having the same kind of problems with his, the good thing is that being in the military many of us need computers to pass time and stay intouch with ourlove ones, so many people are here in Iraq ordering their computers from the states, many even wanted Alienwares but thanks to them seing for themselves what kind of products Alienware sells and from my roomate and I telling them our horror stories, they have gone with other companies. I truly hope this company gets what they deserve...maybe not today or tom. but as they say "what goes around, comes around" "

This review was modified by madmar on October 30 2005 02:36:50 PM

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1/5

posted Jan-28-2005

"My husband was lured into Alienware by the glossy ad's in Gamer magazines. He's a die hard PC gamer and usually needs 'Top of the Line' machines to play the games he wants to. So after 3 years without much upgrades to his Franken-computer, I told him to go ahead and order from Alienware if he really wanted to. After a few weeks of poking around on their website, he finally ordered. Custom desktop machine, black case, red lights, 7.1 THX surround sound.

We decided to finance, applied on line and were approved. BUT...they had to DHL paperwork to us to sign. That was my first red flag. How can a 'high end' computer company not do all of it's financing online or at LEAST via fax?! Needless to say, I wanted to call it off right there, my husband who is much more laid back then I am about spending $2700, didn't see the problem. *sigh* So we get the paperwork, DHL it back..blah blah. So the order was actually placed (and we DID get the credit card number via a phone call so we could place the order) the order on 12/2/2004. The rep on the phone said that if we ordered by Saturday, we'd get 10% off and it would ship by 12/29.

Order placed....2 weeks go by and according to the Alienware 14 step program, we're still in phase 2. Emails get sent to customer service and the order desk with ZERO response. A phone call is made where we are told that the black case isn't in stock and that is what is holding things up. But why weren't we notified of this delay to begin with? Isn't that one of the phases? Why were we told that everything appeared to be 'in shop' when we called before the order was placed? Stupid phase system apparently doesn't work in the least. I don't think it's meant to do anything but give you hope.

Slowly we work through the phases, more emails requesting status with no response at all. We're now past the delivery date and according to the AW webpage, the thing has been being tested for 4 days.

Finally, on 1/8 we're told the machine will be delivered on 1/15/2005 via FedEx. Almost 3 weeks after the 'promised' delivery date on line when we ordered. So, my normally mild mannered husband, has sent at least 10 emails to AW expressing his disgust with their customer service and the lack of answers he had about the machine he ordered...and TO THIS DAY we have not seen ONE SINGLE email response. He finally gave up.

The machine DID show up on the day it was supposed to. I cracked the box open expecting the worst, but everything was there and intact. It booted up with a minor problem that my husband quickly figured out. It still seems to be working alright 2 weeks in.

I have never come across such disorganizing in a company or such awful customer service practices. We will not go back to AW for anything, ever. We could have ordered the SAME machine from a local company (Soyata) for less and we would have had it...get this...The SAME DAY we ordered it! What a concept. But because all these PC magazines give Alienware such high ratings (for the DESKTOP machines...not the laptops or customer service!) people are sucked it. I suggest poking around your local city to find a business that builds custom PC's on site. I'm sure they're all over the place.



"

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