Done with Dell (Alienware) - my tale of terrible quality and worse support

I Have also had terrible experiences with dell(alienware). I can verify this with my own experience. I try to post my negative experiences on this forum and others as much as possible to sway possible buyers. BUYER BEWARE.

I posted this on the main Dell laptop forum as well.     Below find a copy of an email I sent to Dell and Felice regarding my recent experience.  I've received no reply.  I've posted this to a number of outside forums as well.  My next steps are to forward this to the press and analysts that cover Dell.  I know this isn't an isolated experience and given that I have had no response, I have to assume that they really don't care what their customers think.  To other customers or potential buyers...caveat emptor.           Gentlemen,   If this email reaches one or both of you, I would like to bring to your attention the experience that I’ve had with your company.    Let me start by saying I have been a Dell customer both personally as well as professionally for years.   Unless something is done, this will no longer be the case.   First, I purchased an XPS laptop for my wife a little over two years ago.  That laptop, after being replaced within the first 30 days because of a bad motherboard, is now on at least it’s second motherboard and we have no expectation that we won’t need another. We have replaced the keyboard once and the touchpad twice. The diagnostics are now coming up with a bad hard drive. It is a complete lemon and I have been instructed by her to never provide such assistance to a laptop purchase again.   Second, I purchased a fully loaded Alienware M17X around the same time.  I also purchased all the service and warranty that I could.  When it arrived, it had a defective fan.  It took three service calls and two techs to fix that.  After they replaced the fan, the speakers no longer worked properly.  Clearly the local service techs were not adequately trained to work on this machine and the follow up from the support desk was very bad.   More recently, the M17X crashed.  I called into support and they instructed me to take the machine apart and change the hard disks around.  I did this because I was desperate to get the box back up.   For what I paid for the machine and next day support, I shouldn’t have had to do that.  The tech diagnosed the problem as a failed hard disk and sent me another one.  I told him that this machine was my work computer and that the data and programs were important to me and also that I needed the box back up immediately.  He told me that he would send the drive next day air.  It arrived 4 days later and when it did, replacing the drive did not solve the problem.  Further, replacing the drive lost all possibility of recovering the data.  My next call to support was to a supervisor to find out why the part was delayed and what I could expect next.  The supervisor informed me that the support tech had no ability to next day air and told me that he could incorrectly.  She sent me two more hard disks and also ordered a motherboard for the machine.  I replaced the hard disks and that helped, but there were still issues with the box.  A tech arrived a week later to replace the motherboard.  After an hour or so, he informed me that something else in the machine was broken and the box was no longer bootable even with the old motherboard.  Later he called and informed me that I needed to send the laptop back in box to Dell and that it would take 7-10 business days to fix.   The net of this experience is that a $5000+ laptop with next day business service and extended warranties has now been unavailable for me to work on for what looks like a month.  Further, I lost key data and programs that potentially I didn’t need to.  I’ve spent 10+ hours on the phone with your support team who have collectively not solved a single problem that I’ve had.  I have no confidence in your support tech team to fix this box as every time they touch it, they seem to break it.  My wife’s machine that she uses for work is so unreliable that we will be replacing it within the month.   As an executive of a small business I know that I want my customers to give me this kind of feedback so that I can improve.  I hope you take this feedback in the spirit it was intended and look for process improvements in your support and manufacturing quality areas.    If you are interested in winning me back as a customer, it will take some heroic effort.  I would be happy with a faster resolution to getting my m17x put back together, but that won’t win me back as a customer.  Something more significant that shows that you understand the inconvenience that your products have caused would be required to convince me to buy Dell again.

The smart thing here to do is to get the Laptop fixed and NEVER purchase a system from Alienware again. I have never been a Dell customer but I was a 10 year Alienware owner before they were bought out. I was able to get a large amount of financial compensation from them for all of the frustration that they put me through (see thread Area 51 Nvidia GTX 580 System?). Problem was they would only give me that money if purchased yet another Dellienware. When it came down to it even if they gave me a max specs Area 51 ALX for $3000 it is still a waste of money. Do yourself a favor and don't let them talk you into another Alienware no matter how cheap they offer it to you for. I can not speak personally for their lap tops, but Origin PC makes some of the best Desktops that are out there. If you are ever in the market for a new Desktop head on over to Origin PC

Best Regards

Bobby

I can't believe that you wasted all that time typing that letter to dell that will never be read by anyone of importance,  instead of filing a compaint with the BBB.

The really sad part is that Dell is listed on the front of the Radian6 web site as a customer.  Radian6 is a social mining tool that is supposed to give them updates when they have this kind of negative feedback so that they can respond to it.  Either its not working or they are intentionally ignoring it.  Either way, this is the stuff that financial analysts like to know because it clearly shows indications of a company that is not healthy.

i guess i better file a complaint against Chrysler since my SUV transmission is still problomatic after 23 months with them refusing to do nothing about it

LoL,, thats your fault, crysler has been the dell of automobiles for 40 years.

@ austinh2o

I feel for you mate because I'm going through precisely the same. I've had my M17x R2 for 2 months now and still cannot use it. I bought the most expensive configuration with a 4 year next da on site warranty. That's a joke though because Dell only want to provide phone support with the customer acting as the technician.

Like you, I bought this machine for business use only. I never play games. When you spend as much as this you expect it to be reliable however, that's just a fantasy!

My problem now is that Dell support have abandoned me. The last contact I had with their technician was to run a diagnostics test and then mail him back the results. I have sent him 4 mails since, over a period of 2 weeks, and he has not replied to any of them.

This morning I mailed his manager although previous experience with his manager has been poor to say the least. He justs passes my mails down to one of the techs and someone eventually contacts me. If I ask to speak to a manager when calling, they won't let me. It seems to be their policy in Europe that managers time is better spent NOT dealing with discontent customers.

Sorry to hear your troubles. Hit up the Dell and Alienware Facebook pages and post there too. Also, request information on how to contact the CEO/President of the company, they have to provide that info to you upon request. They will be interested in your dilemma.

Tech support was pretty much useless for me as they suggested that I return my machine and re-order it. << That was their solution!! How cost effective is that? Great, thats why we are paying more for our machines 1. the insane amount of wasted money shipping  broken computers back and forth, 2. the sellout Alienware brandname. Plus, you have to go without a system for about a month. Thankfully, the users in this forum were able to help me and (fingers crossed) mine works fine now. It all comes down to QC. If they would test or configure the products coming off of their line, they would see the problems that they are shipping out to customers.

I'll preface this next part with the statement that l I'm forced to have this assumption, and it is of course just my conjecture and opinion. Customers are paying thousands of dollars for defective and/or malfunctioning products. When these are assembled, they are just stuffing parts into cases, blipping some data from a disc into  the system through bios, and sending them out the door as fast as they can. How can there be any quality assurance? There isnt. Unless a machine doesnt boot into bios or wont power up, it goes out the door. They have no idea if it works or not. Someone looking to get a new high end system is better off building their own or going to Origin (aka Alienware before dell). /rant

Best of luck austinh2o, talk to the head honcho and dont back down!

What is the BBB?

Better Bussines Bureau.

After reading this, I am not getting a good feeling about the order I placed 5 days ago.

After reading this, I am not getting a good feeling about the order I placed 5 days ago.

Don't start worrying yet

Every machine is built with a different set of parts ... sorta like cars. Name one make where every car works perfectly.

I think a certain percentage of failures is also due to shipping damage. In general, computers are fairly complicated and delicate machines.

austinh2o

Has your problem been fixed ?

If not I can understand your frustration.

I don't think any US based or otherwise company is delivering good service / esp by phone anymore. Partly because of cost cutting and overseas phone centers.

I have owned and or used computers by DELL, Hewlet Packard, Gateway, compaq, Apple, IBM  and a bunch of others since I was kid in the 70'S. All of them have had some problem or other including the  three I built , even the one from the 1980's- ( heathkit -I think ) were talking old skool w/ a tape drive and green lettering on the screen.

I have some problems w/ my PC right now , but if you " troll " the forums for the other boutique pc assemblers , well they got problems too.

Part of the problem is stuff is rushed to market b4 good testing because no one wants a competitor to get there first, the other part of it is in my opinion that some things tech wise are farther ahead than some of the accessories or support items that go along with it.

A good example is the new chipset by Intel, look @ all the probs they are having w/ it. That in my opinion is because they want to get their b4 the competition and got $$$ signs in thier eyes.

I know your upset about your problems with your laptops and the hassles that go along with it . Think about it this way none of the name brands make anything, they all use the same factories in Asia for all of it, the factory making the laptop you get from Dell is also making laptops for HP, Maingear, Digital storm, Falcon Northwest, Leveno ect.  A lemon can hit any of them because their all made in sweatshops with high production as the goal.

There is my rant for the day  

I am having a similar experience. 6 days since I have received my machine, dell has so far ignored my return request and support keeps promising TOMORROW the tech will call. That's right, I cant even get the tech to call me for my issues. Dell should be ashamed.

I am starting to have an uneasy feeling about the order I placed 1 month ago! Just got a "order status update" saying delivery has changed from 25th Feb to 14 March!!! I am very skeptical about receiving this update 2 days before my new laptop was due to be in my possesion.

What is going on!?