Who is Alienware's Agent for Service? A basic discourtesy.
May 31 - June 28, 2005
(Note: My gripe is with Alienware, not with any of its individual staff. To prevent this from reading like a personal attack on some of Alienware's staff, I am using obviously fictitious names instead of real names. I refer to the primary technician who worked with me as Larry, to Larry's boss as Mo, and to a third staff member as Curly.)
I wrote to Larry on May 31,
Here's what I got back for the name and address of the President of Alienware and of Alienware's Agent for Service:
No name or mailing address for the Agent for Service.
I suppose it is conceivable that Alienware's Tech Support manager doesn't know the contact information for the corporation's Agent. But I bet he knows how to find out who this is. And I really strongly suspect that he knows the name and mailing address of the President of Alienware.
What's the big deal about an Agent for Service?
Incorporation is a creation of the government--it gives a business most of the rights and privileges of a "person." The agent can buy and sell, sue and be sued. But it isn't a real person, so its only way to interact with the world is through its human representatives. A person who you authorize to do something on your behalf is your agent for that purpose.
As a matter of law (Florida's statute is typical), all corporations are required to publicly designate an agent who will receive legal correspondence of all kinds, including service of lawsuits.
If you want to file a Small Claims Court action against a company, you typically have to write a demand letter first, before you actually file the suit. If you send the letter to the wrong person, or if you serve notice of the suit on the wrong person, the lawsuit fails and you have to start all over. Many cases fail because the plaintiff (the person bringing the lawsuit) doesn't properly start the suit before the Statute of Limitations runs out.
If you are seriously grumpy at a company and want to write an effective letter that conveys the fact that you are serious, one of the very best ways is to send a concise, courteous complaint to the Agent for Service. The confident, courteous tone of your letter gets across the message that you are not a nut. The fact that the letter went to the Agent for Service says you are thinking of suing them and that you know something about the law. You don't have to mention "law" or "lawsuit" ever in the letter. You don't have to make any threats or lay down any ultimatums. The fact that your letter is properly addressed to the Agent for Service (in this case, it would be "Nelson Gonzalez, Agent for Service, Alienware Corporation, 12400 SW 134 Court, Suite 8, Miami, FL 33186") sends that message all by itself.
Given that the corporation is required by law to designate an agent, and to post the agent's name conspicuously on its premises (read the statute), I see it as a discourtesy when a reasonably senior person in the company refuses to provide it--or even to provide the name and address of the President (you can also properly serve a Corporation--give them legal notice of a lawsuit--by delivering the notice to the President). This is too often done as an amateurish way to avoid delivery of legal documents.
Few consumers know what an Agent for Service is or how to find out how to contact a company's Agent, so refusing to provide this information to a consumer can be an effective way of discouraging some people. But getting information like this is basic training for lawyers and paralegals.
I couldn't find the name of the President on Alienware's website. I got the names of the founders, Alex Aguila and Nelson Gonzalez, from a web search (Entrepreneur.com). On June 28, when I wrote President@alienware.com, I addressed the email to both of these, and opened the letter with:
(Note: My gripe is with Alienware, not with any of its individual staff. To prevent this from reading like a personal attack on some of Alienware's staff, I am using obviously fictitious names instead of real names. I refer to the primary technician who worked with me as Larry, to Larry's boss as Mo, and to a third staff member as Curly.)
I wrote to Larry on May 31,
What executive in your company should I write to requesting a refund? I need both the name of a negotiator in the company and of your company's "Agent for Service". This may be your corporate counsel.He gave me the name and email address of Mo, his direct supervisor. So I wrote Mo on June 1:
My first request of you is the name and address of the President of Alienware and of Alienware's Agent for Service.(I also explained the problems, asked for a refund -- he refused -- and for onsite support -- he refused.)
Here's what I got back for the name and address of the President of Alienware and of Alienware's Agent for Service:
In regards to your first request, the email address for the President of Alienware is President@alienware.com. As far as the person in charge of Alienware's Agent for Service, I am afraid that I do not have an email address for this person or a name that I may be able to give you for; however if you write to that email address I provided above, you will get to the right person.No name or mailing address for the President.
No name or mailing address for the Agent for Service.
I suppose it is conceivable that Alienware's Tech Support manager doesn't know the contact information for the corporation's Agent. But I bet he knows how to find out who this is. And I really strongly suspect that he knows the name and mailing address of the President of Alienware.
What's the big deal about an Agent for Service?
Incorporation is a creation of the government--it gives a business most of the rights and privileges of a "person." The agent can buy and sell, sue and be sued. But it isn't a real person, so its only way to interact with the world is through its human representatives. A person who you authorize to do something on your behalf is your agent for that purpose.
As a matter of law (Florida's statute is typical), all corporations are required to publicly designate an agent who will receive legal correspondence of all kinds, including service of lawsuits.
If you want to file a Small Claims Court action against a company, you typically have to write a demand letter first, before you actually file the suit. If you send the letter to the wrong person, or if you serve notice of the suit on the wrong person, the lawsuit fails and you have to start all over. Many cases fail because the plaintiff (the person bringing the lawsuit) doesn't properly start the suit before the Statute of Limitations runs out.
If you are seriously grumpy at a company and want to write an effective letter that conveys the fact that you are serious, one of the very best ways is to send a concise, courteous complaint to the Agent for Service. The confident, courteous tone of your letter gets across the message that you are not a nut. The fact that the letter went to the Agent for Service says you are thinking of suing them and that you know something about the law. You don't have to mention "law" or "lawsuit" ever in the letter. You don't have to make any threats or lay down any ultimatums. The fact that your letter is properly addressed to the Agent for Service (in this case, it would be "Nelson Gonzalez, Agent for Service, Alienware Corporation, 12400 SW 134 Court, Suite 8, Miami, FL 33186") sends that message all by itself.
Given that the corporation is required by law to designate an agent, and to post the agent's name conspicuously on its premises (read the statute), I see it as a discourtesy when a reasonably senior person in the company refuses to provide it--or even to provide the name and address of the President (you can also properly serve a Corporation--give them legal notice of a lawsuit--by delivering the notice to the President). This is too often done as an amateurish way to avoid delivery of legal documents.
Few consumers know what an Agent for Service is or how to find out how to contact a company's Agent, so refusing to provide this information to a consumer can be an effective way of discouraging some people. But getting information like this is basic training for lawyers and paralegals.
I couldn't find the name of the President on Alienware's website. I got the names of the founders, Alex Aguila and Nelson Gonzalez, from a web search (Entrepreneur.com). On June 28, when I wrote President@alienware.com, I addressed the email to both of these, and opened the letter with:
I asked [...Mo...], your technical support manager, for the name and address of the President of Alienware and of your agent for service. He provided no names, and an email address president@alienware.com. I trust that this is actually the appropriate way to contact you. I found your names online (in electronic magazines, not from your site or your staff) and don't know which of you this email will actually reach. This failure of your support staff to provide even basic contact information illustrates the problems I am having with a system that I purchased from your company and with your company's responses to those problems.To find out the contact information for Alienware's the Agent for Service, I went to the Florida Department of State's Division of Corporations. According to their listing, the Principal and Mailing Address for Alienware are the same:
12400 SW 134 Court, Suite 8And the Registered Agent is
Miami, FL 33186
Nelson GonzalesThese things change, so check the Florida Department of State's Division of Corporations listing before sending a letter to this address.
12400 SW 134 Court, Suite 8
Miami, FL 33186
posted by Cem Kaner @ 11:56 AM
28 Comments:
At 6:12 PM,
Cindy Hates said…
skipin...@gmail.com Sep 21, 3:01 pm show options
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems
From: skipin...@gmail.com - Find messages by this author
Date: 21 Sep 2005 15:01:34 -0700
Local: Wed, Sep 21 2005 3:01 pm
Subject: Alienware Acoustic Dampening Warning
Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse
Folks:
Alienware charged me $100 for the "acoustic dampening" that was
supposed to make my computer quiet.
It arrived. It does have a very quiet CPU fan, and some foam inside.
However the computer is EXTREMELY noisy--most of which is coming from
the power supply fan. As far as I can tell, it is not a "low noise"
power supply fan.
I called their tech support and they said "Sorry! Those 650 watt power
supplies are noisy! You're stuck." All I wanted was my $100 back, and
they're unwilling to do that. I can return the system, but for a 15%
restocking fee--not worth it because I can get the PS replaced for less
money.
So I cannot recommend Alienware. They were dishonest about their
"acoustic dampening" option.
At 4:21 AM,
CptWalt said…
AlienWare is far and away the worst company I have ever dealt with. There are so many complaints I do not know where to start. Suffice it to say, they really suck.
I had my 4500$ laptop all of 20 minutes when the first game crashed and the second game crashed a few minutes later.
12 hours after delivery of the system, "tech support" was talking me thru the reformatting process. That didn't work and I had to mail the POS back.
I am in Iraq and it takes 2 months to mail things 2 ways, so to say the least, I was "irritated".
It is now back for repair and when I get it back, I am removing anything from the computer that says "AlienWare" on it and I will tell people it is a Dell or a Sony if they ask.
They screwed me out of 4500$ and it is my mission in life to screw them back. I have already convinced 2 people not to buy from them. Thats about 10K damage to them, I will be happy when I convince 100 people to buy elsewhere.
Do yourself a favor, if you are thinking of buying from AlienWare, have someone run over your head with a dump truck, it will be much less painful.
At 4:22 AM,
CptWalt said…
AlienWare is far and away the worst company I have ever dealt with. There are so many complaints I do not know where to start. Suffice it to say, they really suck.
I had my 4500$ laptop all of 20 minutes when the first game crashed and the second game crashed a few minutes later.
12 hours after delivery of the system, "tech support" was talking me thru the reformatting process. That didn't work and I had to mail the POS back.
I am in Iraq and it takes 2 months to mail things 2 ways, so to say the least, I was "irritated".
It is now back for repair and when I get it back, I am removing anything from the computer that says "AlienWare" on it and I will tell people it is a Dell or a Sony if they ask.
They screwed me out of 4500$ and it is my mission in life to screw them back. I have already convinced 2 people not to buy from them. Thats about 10K damage to them, I will be happy when I convince 100 people to buy elsewhere.
Do yourself a favor, if you are thinking of buying from AlienWare, have someone run over your head with a dump truck, it will be much less painful.
At 7:32 PM,
Greg said…
Alienware is way overrated! They just look nice but run like crap!
I will never purchase another computer from Alienware again. I have had countless problems with both of my Alienware Area-51 laptops and it has cost me valuable business hours. Here's a list of the numerous problems I have had:
1. Replaced hard drives on both laptops.
2. I've had to replace the graphics card 3 times on one laptop and twice on the other.
3. Service has been extremely slow in sending me replacement parts.
4. Recently, Alienware sent me my THIRD graphics card replacement, it too was faulty and I had to send it back.
5. On my initial order a year and a half ago Alienware sent me the wrong color laptop from what I had ordered online.
6. When I opened up the laptop cover underneath to replace my graphics card on one computer, I discovered it was missing several screws to fasten the card to the motherboard. They still have yet to send me the right screws for this.
7. When I ordered my second laptop last year, it took over 2.5 months before I received it.
8. Just recently, graphics card #4 is now no longer functioning and I have possible lost a client as a result.
This week drew the last straw for me. After replacing my 4th graphics card on one of my Alienware laptops, the card went out on me again during an onsite presentation with my client. I had to excuse myself and drive 30 miles back home to pick up a backup laptop I had from my office. I have lost many hours of precious business time AND I am still paying for the two laptops I have purchased from Alienware (nearly $6000). The two computers have been junk. I have purchased Dell and Gateway laptops and BOTH have been excellent computers with minimal or no problems at all.
At 4:42 PM,
JONAS9900 said…
This has been the worst purchase experience of my life and I have yet to receive the computer (or a ship date) 10 weeks after my credit card was charged $3824.59.
I ordered my system online on December 9, 2005 to be a Christmas present. The website sited delays on some components so I carefully chose to avoid delays. Once my system was configured, I was given an estimated ship date of Dec 19.
Since the site did not update, I called on Dec 13 and was told the server was down and to call the next day. I called Dec 14 and they said the same and to call back next day. On the 15th I called back and was put on hold for 40 mins. The CSA said that the black case was out of stock and they had no idea when my system would ship but to call back in a week. I called back and was told that my system should ship around the 1st week of January. My credit card was charged on Dec 12. After the 1st week of Jan came and went and I had no news I called back. They said my system had not entered production yet so I made a couple of changes since my "new" computer was getting dated before it shipped. I was assured by CSA that this would delay my order no more than 48 hours. Alienware charged my card again for $184 for the changes.
I sent a few emails over the next few weeks and most were not answered. When I would call in they told me that they could give me a ship date if I called in next week.
On Feb 7 (57 days since my card had been charged), I called Discover and told them I wanted to dispute the charge because Alienware would not provide a ship date. I told them as soon as I received a ship date, I was happy to reinstate the charges. I called Alienware to get a ship date and was told by a nasty man named Dennis that I had committed fraud and that I had stopped payment on 12/12/05. I assured him that he was incorrect that the charge was not reversed until Feb 06. He told me that according to his supervisor I had committed fraud. I asked to speak to her. I spoke to her and she stated she would do nothing for me until I unblocked the account. She told me if I called back the next day after removing the block she would give me a ship date. I called back as instructed and was told that she was busy. I remained on hold and finally was able to speak to her. She told me I would have to call back tomorrow and that I had really messed myself up by blocking the charge and that there was nothing more she could do. It was all my fault.
On Feb 15 I called back to check status. The CSA said she would have to check with headquarters and to call back the next day. She gave me her extension and assured me that she would handle the information personally the next day. I called back as instructed on Feb 16 and was told that she was busy but the person answering the phone could help me. This lady tells me the account has been unblocked and when I pressed her for a ship date, she told me systems normally take 5-6 business days to build and that it should be shipped next week.
Well, today is the 20th of Feb and I am told I owe $99.41 and that is the reason my order has not moved....oh, and by the way, my system has gone from stage 3 back to stage one. (the reason I called today).
At this point, I asked for a full detail of what I had ordered and the price I was paying.
I will update you if I ever get a system.
1552/21Feb06 Called 800 number and was on hold for about 10 minutes. When a person picked up, they said I needed to talk to customer service and was put on hold again. I spoke to Henry (emp number 16338). He stated that my system should be ready to ship in 5 or 6 business days and that all parts were in stock and in production queue. I have been told this before and have not received a shipping date yet.
I made a complaint to the South Florida Better Business Bureau of which Alienware is a member. Alienware answered the complaint by saying that they showed no order from anyone by my name despite the fact that I have an order number and charge on my Discover card. They never acknowledged that I was ever a customer but my computer finally started moving through the production stages.
Finally….80 days after my order and 77 days after my credit card was charged, I received my computer.
It is a nice computer and is working well. It is not worth the hassle and the premium I paid. The company will never admit any wrong doing and will not do anything but say “we are sorry, call back tomorrow (or next week) for update”.
I ordered the computer with AlienAdrenaline (graphics tweaking program) but the software was left out. When I inquired about it they finally answered me 2 weeks later (on my 3rd email). The answer was, “sorry, but once an order is shipped, no changes are allowed.”
To summarize, I went through hell to get the computer. I like it very much but would not recommend this company for purchasing a computer. There are too many complaints and the company makes so much money they do not care about your satisfaction and will never admit they did anything wrong. In my case, they accused me of fraud for asking the credit card company to get involved so that they might be pressed to provide me with a ship date.
At 11:18 AM,
junglegeorge45 said…
11/15/2005: Ordered for AW Area-51 m7700 with top of the line everything for a whopping $5075 and applied for 6 months/0 per cent financing through AW (American General Finance). Received an e-mail credit approval within a few hours but no account number, so no way to place an order.
11/15/2005: Anxious to order sent an e-mail to both the customer service & finance departments asking for a l& line number so I could call the finance department & get the account number so I could place the order.
11/16/2005: Woke up like a kid at Christmas ready for a flurry of AW e-mails in my inbox. Nothing! Sent follow-up batch of e-mails to customer service & finance departments. Decided to google for company’s head office information & came across resellerratings. Found the company information & from Taiwan on my dime, called the main office. After a seemingly endless delay at $1.75/minute international long-distance, spoke to someone who gave me my account number. Placed order for system. Finally, Phase 1 with an ETA of 12/7/2005.
**NOTE TO AW** Think globally! Put your head office l& line number somewhere easy to find on the website so those of us who travel for a living can contact you without wasting time & money.
11/16/2005: Received order confirmation e-mail & another e-mail telling me to expect a letter from AW (American General Finance) which I would need to sign & return with a copy of my driver's license.
11/16/2005: Called head offices finance department to ask if I could fax or e-mail them a copy of my driver’s license while I was in Taiwan to avoid any delay in building my system. Was informed that it couldn’t be done. Asked why, & was told some waffle about the credit application having to be sent out by mail. Puh-LEASE!
**NOTE TO AW** Get on the stick boys. I’m an IT Network Operations Manager, & it’s almost 2006! Hire a contractor to scan the credit application to pdf format. That way you can e-mail it to me, I can fill it out & sign it, & I can e-mail the whole thing with a copy of my driver’s license back to you.
11/21/2005: Got back to the USA…massively jetlagged. Spent rest of day & night in travel coma.
11/22/2005: Sent out credit application & copy of my driver’s license via FedEx Standard Overnight, (Tracking number 792444497770 $17.95..OUCH!), to ensure there would be no further delay my order.
11/23/2005: Verified receipt of package with FedEx online, delivered at 0932 11/23/2005 signed for by A.Gaitano. Immediately called finance department to verify they had the documents & could move the order from Phase 1. Spoke to someone else who waffled a bit more & told me to call back at 1100 to have the order nudged forward.
11/23/2005: 1100 Called back & got voicemail. Went through the main menu & got someone else in finance who told me the status would automatically be updated by tomorrow. Since I’m not American I didn’t realize there was a public holiday on the 24th.
11/24/2005: Decided that drinking would be more fun than calling AW again especially since they were closed. Spent day imbibing & eat curry.
11/25/2005 & 11/28/2005: Spent in a blur of various phone calls to finance & customer service trying to find out what the hell is going on with my order. Answers mostly consisting of, “Your order will be going to Phase 3 within 24-48 hours, check back tomorrow”, or, “Finance has your paperwork the status hasn’t changed since we had a holiday & corporate was closed”. Well, if the corporate offices are closed then where the hell am I calling? Has AW outsourced their call centre to Mexico or some other South American country??
11/29/2005: Called the finance department & spoke to another minion who could do nothing so asked to speak to a supervisor. Told her I need to get this order moved forward since I need the laptop for a presentation on 12/12/2005 in Taiwan. Told her to call a supervisor or someone who had the authority to move my order forward to Phase 3 & beyond. After 25 minutes on hold, FINALLY my order is at Phase 3. Also told her to push customer service to expedite. Upgraded to FedEx 2-Day at no extra charge with ETA of 12/5/2005.
11/30/2005: Whoever said the squeaky wheel gets the grease was absolutely right. My order has jumped from Phase 3 to Phase 9 overnight!!
12/01/2005: 0842 Received an e-mail from AW’s Reseller Ratings Division apologizing for the delay etc. 1429 & 1640 received notification from FedEx that my system & accessories have shipped. Sadly I’ll be in Florida when the package arrives so I now have to deal with pain of holding the shipment until I return on the 12th.
12/12/2005: Received the package from FedEx bright and early. Will post more once I’ve benchmarked & tested it.
01/08/2006: It’s been just over a month since I got the laptop. Performance good, peripherals bad. Card reader is unusable as it erases all data from SD or MemoryStick Pro cards, and USB keeps giving me errors. BSODs, card reader is unusable as it erases all data from SD or MemoryStick Pro cards, on-board microphone doesn’t work, and USB ports error out due to faulty hardware. Colour from plastic bezel around screen is rubbing away. $5075 laptop is a giant paperweight. Left country for 2 months on business.
03/23/2006 Spoke to technical support who agreed with my assessment that the unit has a defective motherboard (and probably other defective HW components). Advised RMA process would take 15 – 20 BUSINESS days to complete. Told him that was a pile and demanded to speak to customer service.
1208 Spoke to someone obnoxious in customer service who, when I asked to speak to a manager, told me that none exist. Yelled at him long enough for him to mysteriously find me a “supervisor”, and, after waiting 25 minutes on hold, was told they agreed to upgrade this repair to “VIP” status with guarantee of 5 day turn around until the unit is back in my hands. We’ll see…
Unit now shipped back via FedEx on tracking number 7908 5917 5745.
March 31, 2006 Filed complaints with BBB and Attorney General's Office for the State of Florida.
Absolutely the worst experience with customer service and technical support of my entire life. I have regretted buying this laptop since day one and would throughly recommend that NO ONE consider making a purchase from this company.
At 3:58 PM,
Heem said…
By Far as United States Marine who is shipping out in less then 2 weeks has waited over a month now for a his laptop which has a backordered item, as if they are forcing me to upgrade constantly, I already upgraded once and now they are trying to do it again. This is the worst company ever. Dell is going to ruin constantly ruin things. I hope there company bankrupts, and Alienware will fail.
At 9:04 AM,
Zwan said…
Nothing but problems. I ordered an Area-51 desktop system which cost me $4,187.
It crashed to blue screen the first time I turned it on. Upon contacting support, I was told I dont have a warranty (which I paid for).
Second time I call, they find my warranty info, but inform me that Alienware computors run hot and crashing is not unusual. I'm starting to get worried.
Third call, I am told to try swapping my video cards in and out to see if one is defective. I refuse and request that on-site service handle the matter so that I am not held liable for possible damge. Alienware refused, and so I go ahead and swap the cards against my better judgement. Keep in mind, I am doing this with the tech support personal walking me through it on the phone. Eventually, we determine one of the video cards is bad (a 750 dollar supposedly brand new card) and that I am to ship back the video card at my cost.
4th call, a bit worried, I call Alienware to confirm my previous discussion and inform them I am ready to ship the card. At this point I am told that my warranty and further support are voided because I opened the case.
I find it hard to believe they can get away with this type of behavior. I was forced into opening my case by being refused on site service(shich I paid extra for) and under direct order of technical support.
I also have issues with the copy of windowsXP that was on my machine so in total, Im out $750
for the faulty card, $150 for the tech/on-site service warranty I paid EXTRA for, and whatever the current price of WindowsXP is, roughly $100. I am out-of-pocket
$1000 due to these issues raising the grand total spent to $5,187.
I have done my best to discourage other from Alienware, and have lost them at least two sales. And I will continue to do so till the day I die.
At 10:53 AM,
orannis said…
After I read all of the comments on this page, I want to said this is the exact same experiencing that I went throught last year when I bought alienware m7700. At first, when I check online for things (ratings) on alienware, all the website that I googled with is all good news and phraise alienware for being a topline computer company. Well, I guess I trusted all these computer magazines and thought that I should buy my first work computer with alienware.
OMG, this was a hell!! If i would have read this website page I would have NEVER NEVER buy from alienware. I regreted so much :'(
First, when I ordered alienware things were pretty much okay. After my computer arrived I discover my first problem; I bought a extra battery to come with the computer and it arrives with out the extra battery. About a week after I received my computer, the following problem occured: the computer graphic card start to overheat, my mouse starts to disfunction, my video card gone wack (I don't know have to describe it,I was on the phone for the whole week with the no-english speaking natives, if I actually counted the hours I spend onphone it would be equivelance to how many hours I spend on my full class days), after so many many phone class and hours of time trying to understand the tech support, they finally allow me to send my computer to then for a repair. At last, when my computer was shipped back to me a new problem arises, the noise on the computer is even louder than before and the mouse (Intellimouse Explorer 4.0 XXX was replaced) but after 4 month of using the mouse it died(literaly, showed no signs of light) and my warrent run out and I'm stuck with a computer that still have video drive problem. I never get my chance to test the video cards and if I do, i don't think I want to see the result. The Alienware Respawn Kit was a junk, my computer could'nt be restore even with those disks, and since my warrenty have expired I can't even get a replacment on the Respawn Kit. Another problem is the alienwares mailin rebate, they promised me 99+500 dollars in mail-in rebate, I still haven't receive any rebates yet and its already a year since I received my computer. I understand that all post must be clean but I must said this: YOu F__+ing aliwnare u suck I like to*^*^ uR ass_((*OU(U(( di)_)+$*^%&^%&. TO THE READERS WHO ARE CONSIDERING BUYING A NEW COMPUTER "DON'T BUY FROM ALIENWARE OR YOU'LL END UP LIKE US, having nowhere to take the blame to execept for us for making the bad decision. Don't buy from Alienware!!!!
At 7:12 PM,
Max said…
History of this customer: I purchased a system from you 6/16/05 at a price of $4276.00 before rebates. It arrived as expected with no difficulties. Sometime a few months later I ordered a PCI TV tuner card for the same machine. I expected that it would be handy considering I travel so much in my job as a Control Systems Engineer, configuring and programming computer systems to start up power plants for GE. The tuner card failed to arrive in time to take it with me to my next project in Ireland.
Shortly after arriving in Ireland I began to have trouble with my computer. It would shut down and then restart. I suspected it was temperature related as it did run hot. Finally it failed and never restarted. It appeared that a power chip had melted off the board. At this point I contacted the office in Athlone, Ireland to see about repairs. I was finally able to take it in for repair after three weeks of screwing around, primarily due to their inability to get information on my account from the US office. They requested that I send the computer in with power supply to be checked and repaired. Since I was living only about 45 mins away, I took it to them in person.
Meanwhile, the TV tuner arrived in Tynagh Ireland, where I was working. As it turned out is was not a tuner. They had sent me a wireless network card. Unfortunately I had paid to have it shipped to Ireland before I was aware of the mistake. When I called to have it straightened out, he asked me to ship it back. At this point it made more sense to keep it considering the hassles already. He offered me a 5% discount. That covered about a quarter of the cost of sending the thing to Ireland. I reordered the TV tuner and got an additional 2 years put on my warranty.
Now the computer is repaired and they shipped it back to me. It arrived without the power supply, the hard drive ribbon, and the case it was delivered in. And on top of everything else, the finish on my $4000 computer looked as if they had played frizzbee with it in the shop. I drove to Athlone to pickup the stuff to save time.
Now I have my PCI tuner card, also shipped from the US, and it doesn’t work. All I get is static. Finally I get it sent back to Athlone to be replaced. But because they still cannot access the US account, even though I told them I had XP, they send me a card that requires Windows Media Center. I returned it. Buy now the project in Ireland is over with and I am returning to the US.
When I get here, I called to see about a refund, but “NO”. Instead of just confirming with the EU office that the tuner was returned, you guys want proof I sent it back. Good thing I kept the receipts and the old email! At this point I have sent this stuff off four times. I have been back in the States now for five months and am no closer to getting the money back then I was when I got here.
I COULD REALY CARE LESS ABOUT THE MONEY. It’s the principle otherwise this is not worth my time. I make that much in an hour. It is a real shame that I sent Alienware some business, because at this point I am just looking for people not to buy their product.
I can’t imagine some kid saving up his hard earned dollars to buy one of these machines then having the kind of trouble I have read about.
It makes more sense to build a mini-ATX and buy a 17 in LCD, saving $2500 and still having machine portable enough to travel with. Plus it is upgradeable.
At 2:00 PM,
Nina said…
This is my complaint letter to Alienware:
To Whom It May Concern:
I want to make a formal complaint about the experience I have had with Alienware. Having now read about Alienware on the Internet, I find that the experience I have had has been had by many others and I plan to make sure others know about Alienwares policies so that people don't make the same mistake I did; buying an Alienware pc!
It seems that Alienwares policy is to completely drop customers who have problems. I have never had so many problems with buying a computer, nor with the level of customer service. I am shocked that you will not allow me to return my computer for a full refund since forcing me to stay an Alienware customer is only going to harm your reputation. I do not want to be an Alienware customer, it would be far better for you to set me free so that you only have happy Alienware customers; why keep the unhappy ones?
I wanted to return my pc the day it arrived. It is nothing like I expected and I was seriously disappointed. I paid extra to have the liquid cooling, which I read made the pc quieter. I was shocked to receive the noisiest pc ever!! The pc was also too large to lift and stated on the case that it only had a Pentium 4 processor in, when I had ordered a Core 2 Duo.
I contacted Alienware and told them how unhappy I was. I received a call back from a customer representative who told me that there was a problem with my pc, and it should not be so noisy and that it could be fixed if I called technical support. When I called technical support they told me there was nothing I could do.
I complained about the sticker and was told that I should check to see if it even had the right processor in it, as they told me it may not! They told me that would send me the right sticker (after telling me it was impossible to send me the right sticker and that you do not have stickers at all!!) and about 3 weeks later I receive the wrong sticker again.
This was only the beginning of my problems. I have spent hours and hours trying to fix the FAULTY machine that was sent to me; and I am still unsure if it is working. After reformatting and spending the majority of two days on the phone with Alienware…. May I just go into how terrible the phone situation was… I waited in line for about 40 minutes each time, I was cut off 4 or 5 times for no apparent reason, and of course company policy is not to call people back… so I had to wait in line over and over again. All this time wasted and the final result, you decide that you have given me a faulty graphics card! I thought that the machine was supposed be have been tested before it came to me?
Throughout my experiences I have requested that I return the machine over and over again, but was told it was not possible.
Finally I speak to someone who tells me it is possible to return the machine, but tell me I have to pay to ship this faulty machine back to you and pay a 15% restocking fee!! I could not be more insulted!! You do not send me the machine I ordered, you also send me a faulty machine, I wasted hours and hours of my time, and now you want to charge me to return the faulty machine?? WOW!!
Just as I read – you completely drop any customer who has a problem! Any other company would have been happy to take back the machine on day one, since it is not the machine I ordered and I was unhappy with it from the beginning. No other company would want unhappy customers!!
I am now being forced to keep a computer I do not want and I could not be much more unhappy. What amazes me is that Alienware just does not care. A supervisor called me back to confirm that you could not help me anymore, you would not take the machine back for a full refund, end of story. Obviously Alienware has gone seriously downhill since the good review I read a number of years ago. I am devastated about my experience and am horrified by the way I have been treated.
When I asked for an address where I could send a formal complaint, they would not give me one! There seems to be no way of getting someone higher up to see what is happening!
My experience has completely shocked me; I did not expect this kind of treatment from Alienware. I will pass my bad experiences on to as many people that I can, so as to warn people about the bad decisions that Alienware choose to make.
I want someone in management to read what is happening as this kind of behavior, the greed of taking someone’s money and then not helping when you should…. I suppose you already know about this problem, but I can’t believe that you are not helping me.
I will ask one more time, please please let me return this machine that I do not want for a full refund. It has been nothing but problems since day one, and I do not want to be an Alienware customer any more. Please just let me be free of my problem, so that I can go on, and never have to think about Alienware again. PLEASE.
At 8:07 PM,
BryceT said…
I want to destroy Alienware! They are a horrible, dishonest company that I am convinced is owned and operated by complete idiots.
The computer I bought from them is not worth the $4800 they think I'm going to pay them for it. I even sent it back to them to be repaired and they didn't do anything to it. They say they replaced the graphics card, which is a 7950GX Nvidia, but it sure doesn't perform any better than it did before i sent it in, and they had it for 2 weeks! This computer falls way short of all The machines that have been tested and posted on 3DMark06. They didn't even use 3DMark06 to test my brand new, 2006 machine.
They are very cheap and everyone should stay away from this company.
The good news is that the Attorney General's office in Florida told me that they can help me get my money back. Surprisingly, not that many people have contacted them about alienware (only 61 on record). I would suggest that anyone who wishes to get their money back from these jerks contact them at 1 305 375 1250. Good luck!
At 12:37 AM,
unhappy mom said…
I didn't realize the extent of the damage ALIENWARE is causing people. When compared to some of the stories told by other victims, I think I am rather fortunate. However, let me tell my story. My son, who is only 14 years old, spent several months researching before he made the decision that Area-51 m5750 was what he wanted. He ordered it on 9/22/06. My credit card was charged for the full 100% price on 9/26/06. The order confirmation I received inidated an estimated ship date of 10/02/06. My son was so excited he checked the AW website to see the progress of his computer being assembled every chance he had. Although a week late the information regarding hits order on the AW website said that it was shipped on 10/09/06. My son would ask me everyday if the computer had arrived. He also checked the website for any updates as to delivery date. On 10/12/06 I decided that the computer was "too expensive" an item to fool around with so I requested AW to provide me with the FEDEX Tracking #. I have an email from AW on 10/13/06 confirming that it was shipped out on 10/09/06 but that the tracking # was not available until the Customer Service Dept.
I wait patiently for a few days and it is now 10/17/06. I first speak to a Customer Service agent who informs me that they cannot talk to the Shipping Dept. I request to speak to a Supervisor.
I now speak to a Supervisor named Jake, who puts me on hold and speaks with the Shipping Dept. He said that there was a problem with the Shipping Dept. and that they could not find a tracking # for our order, and informs me that he will get back to me after further investigation. In the meantime I call FEDEX and find out that there has never been any shipment out of Alienware's address to my address. The FEDEX agent was kind enough to go back 10 days before the actual shipping date, but said that there was no record of anything ever being shipped out. I get back on the phone to AW and dial Jake's extension # and let the phone ring for 35 minutes. In the meantime I use another phone to call the Order Desk, where I am on hold for 34 minutes and when I finally have a person on the line I request that they connect me to Jake. I am told that Jake is busy but Victor, another Customer Service Supervisor can help me. Someone picks up the phone and then proceeds to hang up. It almost seems like it is AW policy to put customers on HOLD to see if they would get tired of holding and go away, or if they do patiently HOLD, to accidently disconnect the line.
I persevere and once again call the Order Desk and tell them calmly that I would like to CANCEL my order. This generated some action on AW's part and was connected to a Customer Service Supervisor. Guess who? Jake the man I was trying to contact. He tells me he does not have the FEDEX Tracking # but he has found the shipment. He found it in the AW Shipping Dept. He offers me a FREE 128MB Thumb Drive. (what an $10 item for all the aggrevation and time lost?). I tell him I'll let him know whether I want to accept such an offer or not after conferring with my son.
I called back and asked to be transferred to the CANCELLATION DEPARTMENT. I told the agent I wanted 100% of my money refunded and her first response without checking was “Oh, no we must charge you 15% restocking charge as the order has already left”. I calmly advised her that the Order was still sitting in AW SHIPPING DEPARTMENT. After being put on HOLD she came back and told me that since the item has not shipped yet I could have my 100% REFUND. She gave me a Cancellation
#963280C and told me that the information was put into the system and this order should process between 24 to 48 hours, and then another 7 business days before it gets credited back onto my VISA.
It is now 10/31/06 and the waiting period is over. I checked with my credit card and there has been no REFUND credited back to my card. I call AW and again spend easy 2 hours repeating myself with every agent I get passed along to. In the process I was cut off once, put on numerous hold for anywhere from 3 minutes to 20 minutes at a time and this is the result.
The Finance Dept. needs to see a CREDIT NOTE from the RETURN Dept. in order to process the Credit Card Refund. The Return Dept. (RN) haven't issued the CREDIT NOTE because the computer first needs to be unpacked and disassembled. As of today, 14 days after I receive a Cancellation Confirmation #, the RN has not seen this computer. Likelihood is the computer probably is still sitting in the Shipping Dept. There is no good reason, when they know that they have both their computer and my money, for the Finance Dept. not to be able to put a CREDIT through to my credit card. They can sure process charging my credit card when they want my money!!!
I wish that there was something all of us can do as a group to totally DISCREDIT this company. Do you ever get the feeling that the agents you are speaking with on the phone is not even in the United States, that they are sitting in a call center in Puerto Rico, Mexico or some thrid world country?
Whatever you do if you are SMART enough to find this website/blog, DO NOT I repeat DO NOT buy ALIENWARE.
At 4:26 PM,
KarpeDiem said…
Discussing my experience in detail would only duplicate the horrors listed in the above posts, but I do want to emphasize how much the customer service department lied to me.
After my hard drive failed (after owning my sentia m3200 for only 3 months!) I spent a total of 10 HOURS on the phone until I was told that they would send me a "free" replacement. After receiving the drive, I shipped back the old drive, but they claimed they never received it and I was charged $300 for it anyway. After an hour on the phone with customer service, "Orrain" assured me it was a mistake, that they had found the part, and that I would be credited back the $300 within 7 business days.
10 business days later, I had not been credited back the money. I called again, and "James" told me that I had been mistaken, and that I had not been told that I would be credited back the money. Shocked, I demanded to speak to a supervisor, "Eddie Ramos," who told me repeatedly that I was wrong and that I would not receive my money back.
This is outrageous. I implore everyone to do 2 things:
1. Never purchase anything from Alienware ever again.
2. Make sure that everyone you know never purchases anything from Alienware.
Horrible.
At 5:10 PM,
Tempting Thoughts said…
Here is a copy of my last two feedbacks left for Alienware.
Customer (JONATHAN Z) 01/05/2007 04:26 PM
Unfortunately for me, my first exeriences with Alienware will not be
forgotten. As of this feedback, I don't plan to purchase from
Alienware in the future, or offer encouragement to others in making
purchases from your company.
I'll try to stay to the facts, but it's difficult when one feels this
frustration.
Here is my info:
Prod. Order No.: 447981A
Customer Name: J Z
Customer Account. No.: xxxxxx
Let's start with the time between ordering this system, and receiving shipment.
My total was $5238.86. This is a major purchase to me, which should
include a greater attention to detail.
On 11/24/2006, I made the order for the system. My credit card was
charged the full amount on 12/01/2006. A short time later, I received
a notice from the credit card company saying that if I didn't make my
first payment by 12/26/2006, they would charge me a finance charge of
21.90% of $1222.40.
Please keep in mind that I received this notice about 2 or 3 days
before Christmas, leaving very little time for this to be resolved
since many places including credit card companies have people off for
the holidays.
I called Alienware to explain that I wasn't supposed to be charged or
billed until 30 days after receipt of shipment. The system was still
in production!! So after several phone calls, scanning and emailing
the credit card company notice someone assured me it would be taken
care of.
All the time I spent trying to iron this out added to the already
building frustration.
I waited about 1.5 days, then called the credit card company who was
financing this deal with Alienware, and they told me that I should
file a dispute against the charges with Alienware since they said that
Alienware had not contacted them to fix anything and I had not even
received the product. Or, I could call Alienware back again & give
them another chance to remedy the situation.
So then I called Alienware back once again, and this time I was
promised once again that it would be all taken care of, and that it
would be at least another 24 hours until the information was refreshed
in the credit card company's system.
On 12/26/2006 I received pre-delivery notification that my package was shipped.
I received the packages a day later. Upon receipt of the packages, I
noticed that the monitor box had been retaped, and the serial number
label had been noticeably scribbled over with ball-point pen, and a
permanent marker. At the time, I didn't think anything of it, as long
as things were new.
As I was unpacking the desktop system and noticed a "rattling" sound
while taking it out of the packaging. Upon further inspection, I
noticed after removing the cover that a screw the same size as the
motherboard screws was laying there loosely. No big deal. But then I
noticed damage on a plastic component as if an electric screwdriver or
drill had missed and left turn scratch marks where the screw goes into
the card. An electric screwdriver to components on a motherboard or
inner parts of a computer will get you fired in my shop because the
torque isn't controlled.
This caused me concern about how the rest of my system was assembled.
Further inspection of the system showed signs of damage by circular
scratch marks on the plastic card protector over the video card where
the screw goes in.
My next concern was that the coolant tubes coming off of the processor
are in direct contact (with noticeable pressure) with more than one
area of the system board memory. I asked the Alienware support if this
was acceptable, because memory does get super hot (enough to burn your
fingers).
After speaking with his coworkers, he told me that my only option at
that point would be to send my computer in for repair, and that I
would get it back within 30 days. I told him that this was not
acceptable, and that by that time, I'll have been billed and money due
to that same credit card company that has already cleared the same
matter up to begin with.
We got disconnected, which really frustrated me more.
I called back again, and this next person had me send in pictures of
exactly what I was talking about so that they could research the
issue. Upon further review of the pictures and more of my time, he
concluded that it would be okay about the water coolant tubes touching
the memory for my system because he claimed that he himself went to
their lab and saw for himself another system of the same type with
water-cooling, and it too had it's tubes in direct contact with the
memory, and that it had been running fine for 8 hours a day for a year
with no problems. I said, "ok, no problem, but just so I'm protected
can you please state that in an email or post it on the alienware
support website?" The tech told me no problem, I'll send you an email
instead.
I never received this email. Nor did I see it posted in your online
knowledge base, or my personal support area. This leads me to believe
that I'm in poops creek if something does happen, because word of
mouth means nothing, and an electronic or paper trail means much more.
Not only did this technician assure me it was fine, but he even went
so far as to order the damaged card protector for me. This brought
back some confidence knowing these things were taken care of.
A day later after booting up the system, the alienware lights all went
red. When I tried to start the utility to change the lightscheme, it
gave me an error message stating that certain files were missing. I
went to the directory where this was supposedly installed, and there
was only a directory, with no files. No big deal. I went to the
Alienware website, downloaded the controller drivers, and reinstalled
the software...this worked! But it also showed Alienware's lack of
testing to ensure that the utility worked before shipping the product.
In fact, it not only should include the software tester, but the
person who is responsible for pushing the images to the machines
because of the files being missing. Maybe this is the same person??
It's stated that when the machine leaves the alienware for shipping,
the machine is updated up to the date of shipment. This seems to be
another untruth.
After I finally turned on the system, and when going to the windows
update site, I received no less than 52 critical updates. This is
quite a long time without updating, which shows that the statement you
people make about it leaving fully updated to the time of shipping is
not true.
A short few days later, the monitor power button (LM760) would not
power up the monitor. Not even a yellow light or anything. I tried
different outlets (known good), but no power was happening. As a test,
I tried a different borrowed monitor, and the borrowed monitor worked
fine without a problem. I then called Alienware again to report that
this monitor was dead, and to also inform them that when I originally
received shipment of the monitor that the box had been retaped
repacked and had the serial number scribbled out and darkened. This
now lead me to believe that the monitor had not been new at all. So I
explained to him that I'm very dissatisfied about apparently receiving
a bum monitor. He told me that his manager authorized him to replace
it with a brand new one exactly the same (LM760), since this one was
dead, and did not arrive new, apparently. He then took my credit card
information to put a hold on the amount that the new monitor (LM760)
costs in case I do not return the monitor. I agreed, and waited two
days.
The replacement monitor arrived today, 01/05/2006. The box was
different, and the model number was different also. My original
monitor was an (LM760), and the replacement sent out was (LM742) In
addition, once again the box looked retaped. Opening the box revealed
broken packing material around the monitor, torn plastic bags, no
instruction booklet, no A/C adapter. However, there was a cable to
attach to the a/c adapter which was missing. Upon further inspection,
this monitor didn't even have any thick plastic cover taped over it's
screen as new montors do. Now I'm extremely frustrated.
All I desire for my money is for someone to get it right without
having to spend so much of my time giving feedback or calling and
waiting on phones.
The amount of my time on phones, explaining these problems, writing
this feedback, hoping for a solution seems to be for nothing.
It's a shame that Alienware is about to lose a customer over it's
continued lack of attention to detail.
A simple public posting in the support knowledge base or email stating
that it was acceptable for the coolant tubing to be touching the
memory during operation & a new unused monitor to go with my $5k+
order would have made me satisfied.
This last person I spoke with over the phone asked me to call back in
2 hours. I informed him that I was going to do a full return of the
entire system.
I've spent enough of my own time and missed work and business time on
this Alienware deal to receive a much better monitor & computer
experience than I've been given.
Who is going to compensate me for my time & frustration?
A simple gesture of customer satisfaction by making things right isn't
difficult.
Now I believe much of these negative experiences I've read so much
about but ignored thinking that they were isolated cases.
Where is the quality assurance & service?
Soon to be returning my Alienware system & completely unsatisfied,
Jonathan Z
Customer (JONATHAN Z) 01/05/2007 05:56 PM
My attempts with trying to resolve my monitor issue are finished now.
Here is my info:
Prod. Order No.: 447981A
Customer Name: JONATHAN Z
Customer Account. No.: xxxxxx
I just got off the phone with customer service from Alienware. I spoke
with Awyers.
All I requested was that I finally receive a new monitor with my new
system after still not yet receiving a new one. (2 used repacked
monitors in a row)
He only informed me that the best he could do was a replacement but
could not guarantee a new one. When I presented him with the option of
me sending the system back for full replacement or giving me what I
paid for (a truly new monitor), he told me that he would process my
cancellation, it I wanted.
I proceeded to cancel my $5238.86 order because a $225 monitor (for
which my credit card has already been put on hold for a new monitor).
I asked him to kindly speak with his supervisor to ensure that they
also knew that a customer was about to cancel his order because he
still has not yet received a new monitor with his new order. I thought
that maybe someone would wake up and just say, "ok, here is a new
monitor," but that isn't the case.
How does Alienware figure that it's customers should not receive new
equipment for a new order?
Why was alienware attempting to replace my used repacked monitor with
another used monitor of a different model missing parts (a/c adapter)?
Alienware has now lost a customer over it's inability to supply the
customer with new goods, and it's inability to pay attention to
details.
My entire experience was very dissapointing.
I was hoping that someone, somewhere along the way would actually
understand me and address my issues.
A new monitor & reassurances of what the technician spoke with me
about were all I needed to stay satisfied.
Unfortunately, this seems impossible for alienware.
Very disappointed,
Jonathan Z
At 10:03 AM,
Smokehouse said…
Don’t ever buy a computer from Alienware.
When I decided to purchase a PC going into college I went with Alienware based on their reputation, which I'm here to tell you is completely false. It has been nothing but a headache and now, several months later, I still do not have a working computer.
The problems started with some glitches in the shipping process. I was told my computer was being built after being informed that there was a delay several times based on back-ordered parts. After it was listed as being in the building phase for about three weeks, I suddenly get an e-mail telling me that they are gathering the parts to build it, some four or five steps back from where it was towards being completed. I complained about this, and their customer service basically told me to shut up and go away. Eventually, though, several weeks later I receive notice that my computer is being shipped. I figured the delay would be worth it for the computer at that point, but I was wrong.
The computer did not work from day one. It would crash at random times, and hardly ever even made it into Windows. I used what little knowledge in computers that I had to try and fix the problem - reinstalled Windows, checked the drivers, etc., but couldn't solve the problem. I called their customer support to try and get the problem resolved.
I had seen online that several other people that had ordered the Area 51 7500 in the same time period as myself had required motherboard replacements. This seemed to fit with the problems I was having and I informed customer support about this. They would not, however, listen to me.
They ran me through many tests that were designed to, according to them, "save me time," but really just cost me a lot of time I didn't have and a lot of money. If I had actually needed this computer for a business I couldn't say how much Alienware would have cost me. I didn't have the largest amount of free time in between classes and extracurricular activities, but what I did have I spent on the phone with Alienware. I tested the hard drive, tested the memory cards together and individually, reinstalled Windows numerous times, reinstalled drivers numerous times, flashed the Bios (as requested by their customer support people) and more. None of it worked. I finally switched from calling tech support to calling customer support and after a long conversation they finally agreed to replace my video card (again, at their behest). I knew this wasn't the problem, but agreed to do it because at least there was progress being made.
After a long time they finally got the video card to me, and it was the wrong video card. Still, I put it in, but the problem persisted. I tried several more calls, finally realizing that I was getting no where with these inept technicians, I took the computer into a local computer store to have it checked out. They confirmed what I had guessed months ago, that it was the motherboard. Keep in mind that the computer store I took it to did not even open the computer, just ran tests from Windows. This was a Dell authorized repair place with a strong reputation in our community. My thought process was that with professional confirmation of the problem, Alienware would be more apt to agree and replace the motherboard.
Their confirmation that the motherboard was bad meant that I knew the problem and could finally get it resolved, right? Wrong. Apparently part of the warranty contract means that I can't take the computer in for professionals to look it over, something I never saw online. That they would actually want someone who knows only a little about a computer working on it rather than a trained professional is probably the most asinine thing I'd ever heard.
I wrote and requested the URL for the specific page on their website that voids the warranty if someone uses Windows to try and determine the problem. I received an automated notice that I would get a reply within 72 hours. I did not. When I clicked on the link provided in the email for further information, I received a message that "Customer Address is Denied."
Now I'm stuck with a three thousand dollar paper weight that has not functioned for even a second. This is the worst experience with a customer service line I've ever experienced in my life, and I have the distinct impression that their policies involve doing whatever it takes to save money, even at the expense of the customer. I will certainly never be purchasing a computer from Alienware again, will urge everyone I know never to buy from them, and will post this story on as many consumer reports as possible to let as many people know that this is a horrible, underhanded company.
Additionally, I intend to report them to as many consumer fraud agencies as possible, and I hope to pursue a consumer fraud lawsuit within my state. All anyone has to do is google the phrase "alienware sucks," and they can see just how many other people have been mistreated by this company.
At 9:35 AM,
Bis said…
Every story is basically similar. I lost $600 in a rebate that they did not want to pay, quickly saying that their rebates department never received it. I googled and found people who had similar problems with the $600 rebate promotion. Then a power adapter for car that I bought along with the computer was not capable of powering it as they recommended. Could not get my money back. Their tactics for avoiding the customer are astute and I will dare say very intentional. This is almost as low as it gets.
If it was just me, but noooo. Its hundreds or indeed - thousands of people who fall somewhere between very dissatisfied to very ANGRY.
I am interested in being part of a "class action" lawsuit but I am not sure how to go about it.
If you have any information please get in touch: djbis @ yahoo dot com
At 9:08 PM,
Kathryn Kariotis del La Femina said…
3/7/07 kathryn: i bought my 15 year old son the alienware notebook he so badly wanted nearly 3 years ago. It has never worked right and has been back for repair 6 times: overheated, bad graphics cards, lcd screen died, mother board replaced twice, pcmcia slot replaced, battery clip replaced, keyboard replaced. AND still not working correctly and will now go back for a 7th time. I fortunately bought a 3 year warranty but it will be up next month. I speak I have been spoken to rudely and told that I AM UNRREASONABLE. when i told them they provided the WORST customer service I had EVER received- I was told that was INCORRECT BECAUSE THEY HAD WON AWARDS [for what i wonder? being ignorant, arrogant, non-english speaking a-holes! THAT i would believe!]. I am stuck with this 2-ton blue behemoth but rest assured I tell this story whenever I can and my son will be going to college in September with a NEW Gateway or Mac- never ever ever again will I or anyone my voice can reach- and I work at a very large publically held corporation IN THE IS DEPARTMENT- BUY THE MOST HORRIBLE COMPUTER ON THE MARKET SUPPORTED BY THE RUDEST MOST IGNORANT CSR'S ON EARTH.
At 2:38 AM,
Travis said…
I read this and just wanted to take a minute to post my own horror story. I recently purchased the new area 51m 5550 with the core 2 duo chip.
First the machine started shutting off randomly due to heat issues. I called tech support and they guided me through updating the bios. That fixed the problem (after a week).
Next my video card went out. Tech support guided me through removing the card when upon doing so, the thermal pad was melted against the old video card. He told me no problem - he would ship me a new thermal pad. I got the video card but 'surprise' no thermal pad. Without that the machine overheats in about 3 minutes. I went back and forth with tech support and customer service for 5 weeks. I was told repeatedly that they'd shipped it 2-day fed ex. I never received anything. Then a couple days ago I got some thermal grease. I called customer service again to tell them this isn't what I need.
They responded with an email apologizing and saying they are out of that part. The customer service rep suggested I ‘try to find it at a computer store’ and for my trouble they would send me a gift certificate for Amazon. I feel inclined here to quote their tech support package I requested, ‘Rest assured knowing that an experienced support team and a premium warranty are guarding your system. Protect the time, money, and effort invested into your personal dream machine. Choose 2-Year or 3-Year coverage and guarantee your machine for years to come.’
You have got to be kidding me. This machine’s been sitting useless in my apartment for 10 weeks. After telling me they had shipped the proper part for 5 weeks they came back to say they don’t have it and I should try to find something that would work. I’m appalled and offended. Also – in my mind – this is a stock piece that goes in every 5550. They have a production facility. They’re assembling these machines every day. If that’s the case then either 1) they have it or 2) they’ve stopped shipping machines.
Either way this has been ridiculous. I will never buy another AW machine and I highly recommend that any potential buyer steer far away. I hate them.
At 6:35 PM,
notyour said…
I have to agree to an extent. My initial sales contact with Alienware was outstanding. However several of the components I asked for were altered without my consent or knowledge and the company was unwilling to discuss correcting the errors. My rebate vanished, making my $2500 machine a $3100 machine, and even with the meager 2.8 ghz processor it runs so hot that my case has burn marks. I will say that I have had the machine for nearly 2 years and am only now starting to have any technical issues with it. However finding replacement drivers has been a challenge and the removable video card was a total waste of time and money, as the bios will not accept a better card and the company admitted to me that they will not be upgrading it ever. All in all I am happy with the purchase as I wanted a "mobile desktop" and the area-51 has handled every application I have thrown at it without a hiccup but in the future I will go back to building my own and advise anyone I speak with to not buy from Alienware.
At 3:30 PM,
Condre said…
I bought an Alienware M7700 MJ12 (apparently this model has a design flaw that causes over heating, but NO RECALL!) for school. It cost $4500 roughly. Then, after 2.5 years of nothing but issues with the computer(video card replaced 5x MoBo replaced 3x Ram replaced 3x HD re-imaged once constantly oerheating while truggin along running the massively intesive MS WORD!), and 2.5 years of bitching to the staff and support techs, they agreed to replace my system. They told me that they dont have a policy for replacing systems, but that since I had a considerable amount of problems, they would replace it. So my new order took place April 21st, the estimated ship date on the site said May14th. June rolls around still no computer, and haven't heard crap about my Aurora m9700. June 11th, I get an email saying "Sorry, were waiting for an SLI Video Card, it will be here June 15th." I called in and whined and complained. They told me that my system would be to me on June 21st. I call June 22nd after I didn't get it, and they told me June 25th. It is now June 28th, and they tell me it will be to me by July 6th.
Wow... I'm a Business Major attending the University of Phoenix, and I haven't had a laptop in about 3 months. I study business trends and businesses, maybe Alienware should hire me to fix their company, because as it stands... I'll never buy from them again.
Too bad both of my brothers also spent over $3k on their POS laptops, and also have issues... or i'd for sure redirect them to a better company.
I hope the MF'ers at Alienware read these posts. YOU SUCK! GO SELL OUT TO DELL OR SOME S***! Oops, too late, they already bought ya. Well after a year of owning A.W. they still suck!
At 2:27 PM,
Meghan said…
I have never felt actual hatred for a company in my life until now.
I plan to post that every single available corner of the internet.
I had a sentia for 1.5 yrs, nothing but trouble. Sent it to service 3 times but they kept sending it back with little or nothing fixed.
The 3rd time they shipped it to my old address at my ex boyfriends house in Boston. I now live in NC and both called and emailed that several times.
I asked for a new machine, they quoted me prices that were HIGHER than what I was building online at their site, they were rude and non responsive, it was absolutely mind boggling. Finally they gave me a "deal" and told my I'd have the new one the FOLLOWING week. Over a month later, I still don't have it, and GET THIS, it's on it's way to BOSTON AGAIN! I am so enraged. They have been terrible at following the situation and responding to me. Clearly they don't care one bit about their customers. I wish I could warn anyone and everyone against dealing with these incompetent weasels. I've never dealt with a company that will not even give you a manager. They lie, they're incapable of handling simple tasks (like address changes), they waste people's time and money and they are rude and useless when you do get someone on the phone.
I don't even want this laptop, I wish I could send it back and buy something else, however I need to RECEIVE it first.
Any decent company would have a manager apologizing and personally handling this case.
There is so much more to this story, too much to even post, this is only the gist of it. I could never fully explain my dissatisfaction and anger for what I've dealt with for a year and a half now.
At 2:08 PM,
F1LT3R said…
Alienware Systems are badly designed.
So far they have sent me 2 replacement graphics cards, 1 replacement heat-sink and it still overheated and crashed. So they sent me a replacement machine... which has the same problems.
Buying an Alienware Machine is like stealing candy from a witch. It looks like heaven with sparkles on top but leaves the taste of shit in your mouth for a thousand years.
At 7:46 AM,
F1LT3R said…
Alienware just gave me a FULL refund. Including my 2 year service warranty. I have to say, their 5550m laptops may be junk, but I feel like they "manned-up" and finally did what I asked them to over a year ago. REFUND!
They originally said I could not have a refund as I had gone past the 20 days checking time. Unfortunately I did not wise up to the design flaw until after the 20 days period as the system degraded steadily with every little over-heat, crash and restart.
Unfortunately I don't think Alienware did this out of the kindness of their own heart; rather I think that Alienware finally realized the cost of sending me another year 1/2 replacements was a greater expense than my original purchase.
Thank God for capitalism. :P
I have since bought an Acer from Tesco which costs a third of the price and has even better specs than my Alienware. I've had it for 2 days, and not one single overheat. Admittedly it looks kinda cheesy, but what the hell... now I can spend that spare money on marrying the girl of my dreams.
And they lived happily ever after.
THE END
At 2:02 PM,
erasor01 said…
I am currently in a fight with Alienware with fix the LEOMN computer they sent me a year and a half ago. I spent over $7,600 on the best ALX computer they had. It was broken from day 1 and has not worked properly since then. I have had to send it back to Alienware twice to try and fix the thing. The first time I sent it there and a week later it was sent back worse then when I had sent it. I then sent it back to them the day after it came back from being repaired. It has been 3 - 4 weeks since I sent it back to them. Every time I talk to someone there, the only response I have gotten from them is that the computer will be repaired. I asked to either have a comparable PC sent to me or have the full price of the original PC refunded to me. I will be taking every action I can in order to resolve the matter to be sure that justice is served.
At 2:03 PM,
erasor01 said…
I am currently in a fight with Alienware with fix the LEOMN computer they sent me a year and a half ago. I spent over $7,600 on the best ALX computer they had. It was broken from day 1 and has not worked properly since then. I have had to send it back to Alienware twice to try and fix the thing. The first time I sent it there and a week later it was sent back worse then when I had sent it. I then sent it back to them the day after it came back from being repaired. It has been 3 - 4 weeks since I sent it back to them. Every time I talk to someone there, the only response I have gotten from them is that the computer will be repaired. I asked to either have a comparable PC sent to me or have the full price of the original PC refunded to me. I will be taking every action I can in order to resolve the matter to be sure that justice is served.
At 10:48 PM,
spider23ma said…
Hello all, I have spent close to $4,500 on a tricked out M17x laptop that has not funtioned propely since the day I recieved it. I have spent numerous (propably hundreds) of hours on the phone with support to no avail. They have sent on site techs and I have lost my laptop (I mean paper weight) for 2 week for service. When it came back this last time, the very first time I pushed the power button (with nothing plugged in) I recieved several error messages. When I called my personal tech advisor, I was told my OS was corrupted. I have not even done anything yet. Long, long story short they are refusing to send me a computer that actually works! When I ask how long this will continue, I was told unlimited, until its fixed, meaning it could go on and on and on, and I am out $4500 with a paper weight. So far, its had (2) backlit keyboards replaced, (4) Nvidia graphics cards, LED panel, Case, RAM, hard drive, and motherboard replaced as well as the OS professional installed on (3) occassions. What more could go wrong with this computer. Again, its been 8 months and I have been the definition of patient, now I am pissed and seeking legal action. I truely thought a Dell owned company would be at the least reasonable. Meaning, in every industry there are lemons, not matter the product or QAQC. To say that a system will never be replaced and only sent back and fourth and back and fourth is nuts.
At 10:31 AM,
Nickname unavailable said…
I bought my son an Alienware laptop last year. Other than a bit noisy, no problems for the first few months. Then both blue lines across the screen and a blue tint to the display. We called and they ran all sorts of tests on the phone to see if they could isolate the problem, which they could not. We sent the laptop back on the expectation that they would live up to the 2 week turnaround time that they promised. After 3 weeks we called service, who said it was being checked, with no other available information. At 4 weeks I spoke to a supervisor who assured me that it was being examined as we spoke and they would call me back within 24 hours. After 2 more days I spoke to another supervisor who saidthey were waiting for parts, but could not tell me what parts, why they didn't have them in stock, or when they would arrive. After 2 hours on the phone the next day, they said the unit was fixed and would be shipped back. When it arrived, the invoice indicated that they had changed out roughly 60% of the unit. However it still had the blue lines and tint, which was worse than when we shipped it out. We sent it back after a long call to service and again we were told it would have a priority turnaround time of less than 2 weeks. After the 1st week I called and was told that it was being examined by a specialist. After another few days I was told that it was under investigation. As they could/would not tell me what the 'investigation' was about, I spent an hour on the phone with a supervisor until I was told that the laptop looked like it had been damaged by water and they were deciding how much to change to repair it. I stated that their was no water damage to the unit that occurred at our end and they said they would call back in 24 hours. I called them again the next day, and they said parts had been ordered but no resolution on the water damage had been made. As I was talking to them, my wife called me and said that the laptop had been delivered to our house! I mentioned this to the supervisor and after another 20 minute hold, he said that they had the wrong laptop and there was no water damage to ours. So the full time from initial ship to actual return (repaired correctly) was over two months. I spent many hours on the phone speaking with people who had little or no information about the unit, who were positioned to keep me from asking speciific questions about the unit. I have never faced a more incompetent staff or poorly run service operation in my 25 years using PCs. It was a new low and Dell should be ashamed to have such an organization under its wing.
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