It may be the frustration speaking, but I give up

well its a clean msg i didnt see any swearing or whatnot so it shouldnt be deleted ..

usually the wait time is the same as new 3-4 weeks i know when i had my M17X R1 took 2 weeks to get then the replacement R2 was great till a 5870 went bad and the tech bricked my machine the replacement for that arrived  in 11 days which was damaged BEFORE it was packaged and shipped then last replacement R2 took just over 2 weeks and was a brand new not a useless slapped together refurb and i sold it off for more then the original purchase price of my R1 LOL thanks Dell then i bought my wife a inspiron 17R .... nice machine for normal use in any regards (with extenda warranty lol ) and sound is 3times better then my M17X ever was.

Look at it this way. you were offered as it sounds a new system instead of fixing the current .. count yourself lucky usually its a fight and arguement for that .. second if you set everything up on current you can use windows transfer and it will take all settings and config from old one over wired or wireless or even bluetooth and setup new system just like the old one installing all programs and whatnot .. works great  did it with the wifes when i switched wifes win7 acer lappy to the dell 17 inch ... anyway enough rambling

HKing9733,

Have you opened it up and reseated the speaker cable to see if it fixes the issue?
* Go here
* Right of Service Manual click View
* Click Speakers

I have been thinking of buying an alienware computer for the first time and after reading your post as well as  89fordprobee I am now a bit unsure of that.  Why wouldn't Dell check out the system before shipping to make sure everything is put together and works well?  I would think that for this kind of comptuer they would have high quality control.  I had a bad experience with customer service before and decided I would not buy another Dell but I heard that is it improving, which made me think about reconsidering this.  It is good that they are offering a new replacement.  I was looking at HP and have heard that thier customer service may be less than it used to be.

this is in regards to Jhnn  .. dont let my problems stop you  or others this is only a 0.01% of the actual sales alienware/dell makes i have  at this time a old dell C600 a D600 a inspiron 6100 and now a inspiron 17R(new)  and they are awsome machines used for regular with the oldest being like 10 years old and running strong only thing these have in common is mainstream normal use systems. NOW Gaming systems if you look up my nick you will see only a fraction of the problems i actually had partially due to the techs not the original construction of the system . i know the M17X was built for gaming but honestly the amount of time i actually used mine work and gaming it just out right could not handle it as machine was rarelly ever off or ever left my desk so i had to replace it with a desktop for gaming and got a cheap 11 inch netbook for work  and even after all the problems i had with dell recently i still bought another dell being the 17R about 3 weeks ago i recieved it .. its great  has awsome sound  and so fourth also got 3 year in home warranty :)

on the Note for HP ... customer service? they actually have it .. dell is 300000000% better i know i work part time for  HP tech support and they are the cheapest company in the world and getting anyhting fixed is a lottery  and i leave it as that .. i get discounts on HP and i still rather buy dell even after all my issues.. whats that tell you .

My computer also arrived broken..2 months later and countless hours on the phone and its still broken.. So I just gave up and fixed it out of my pocket. The warranty and quality is a joke and useless to me now. I bought Dell computers for many years and I have a 8 year old XPS that runs fine and I never had one problem. The stuff Dell puts out now though is junk.  The customer service is terrible (call centers in other countries, unqualified part swappers, etc.). I recommend not buying Alienware.

I agree with 89Ford. You'll scare yourself into not buying an Alienware by reading the messages on this board. There is very very little positive information here, as this is a technical support and rant forum and as such all you will find virtually all posts are problems and issues by unhappy, frustrated people. Probably not the norm.

Consider too that due to the high technical competence of many of the people on this discussion board, we are constantly messing with our systems and so more problems and technical situations arise than for those who just open the box, boot it up, and use it as delivered without tinkering.

I personally have had great luck with Dell and Alienware over the years. I had an XPS, and now and Aurora, and I dont have any complaints at all. In fact, I have had a very good experience with Sales and Customer Support particuarly with the Alienware Aurora I have. I called them many times when delivery was delayed, and got a good response and useful information. Then, when a side panel was messing up a bit, I called and got through within 5 minutes. They did send the wrong part (shiny black vrs matt black) and they responded quickly to my emails - apologized - and sent the right part the next day. Can't ask for anything better than that, aside from not having to call them at all (which would be nice of course).

Anyway, if you think about the sheer volume of Alienware systems out there worldwide,  if there really were a chronic and widespread case of poor quality and poor customer support with Alienware, this message board would be so flooded that it would be overwhelmed. I lurk here almost every day, and there are not that many new posts.

Like 89ford says, other manufacturers are worse. If you build it yourself, you have to be tech savvy, and you'll be supporting yourself anyway.

IMO, Alienware is great and I am happy. I recommend Alienware.

Having said that, I sympathize with the issues and frustrations people experience here and can totally understand why they would not recommend Alienware. If I had to go through what they have had to go through (and some of it is pretty bad and downright awful in some cases) I probably wouldnt recommend Alienware either. Maybe I've just been lucky :-)

The over riding theme of this thread is "you have to be lucky" when buying a Dell/Alienware system.  All is fine if you get a good system out of the gate, but you are out of luck if there is a problem.

Let me take a moment and describe my order.

1. I ordered my system when the website was R2 and priced about $400 more than the new R3's that we are talking about this evening. The very next day, They took the R2's off the website and a few days later, offered up the R3's. Needless to say, the R3 spec's were far and again better and cheaper. It took me 3 phone calls to get the order cancelled. They told me, I would have to refused the order when it arrived at my house, and get credit for it when it was returned to Dell. That would take about 25 days total. I would also be out the shipping (about $115, by Dell's estimate). It was idiocy at it's finest. I had to call back 3 times to finally talk to a senior rep, who could cancel the order.  (Note: call back 3 times and you get a senior rep)

2.  But that is not the end of it. I paid for it with my AMEX card and it took 10 days before they cleared the reserve hold and I could order the newer version. During that time, I got several calls from Dell saying the reserve would be cleared in 24 to 48 hours. I would order the new one, only to have my card declined (very embarassing to say the least). Finally the Reserve cleared and I could order the laptop.

3. The estimated delivery date was 29 March. The Friday before, I check the status of the order, only to see, it has been delayed for 14 more days. I call order support to find out why; I get no less than 3 different reasone, all of which turn out to be pure speculation. The front line CSR's are given very little information and when pressed, will simple make up an excuse. My favorite was "the chasis was back ordered." So I figure at this point, I've had enough. I call to just cancel the order and be done with it.  But I can't cancel; the laptop had shipped and I get a tracking number.

4.  It arrives on the EDD, contrary to what the CSR's told me, but I can get around to it. I'm in the middle of a system revision on a new UAV and it is sucking out 20 hours a day of my time. I final get some down time, and I get to open the box. Right off, I see a problem. The name on the name plate is all messed up. I count this as small potatos, but I look a bit closer. I ordered a spare battery, and they have sent the wrong one, it must have been made for the older system. Then I boot up and configure the laptop and the left speaker is blown.  So I call in the problems.

5. After a few hours on the phone, DELL DECIDED to send me a new system. I would have settled for just the speaker, but they want to "capture" this laptop for quality control reasons ( So I assume). I can use the laptop with a headset, or with the sound off for now. (I'm an audiophile of monumental porportions and this is killing me).

6. They send a new battery with a pickup tag to send back the other one: low and behold, they sent the same wrong battery. The CSR starts fumbling and about, then make an excuse, " they are backordered." I assume they are speculating again. After 30 minute or so, I give up and just cancel the battery. They email me a pickup tage, (one is going UPS, the other is going FEDEX).  Dell has now given me chores to do on there behalf. I get them sent off, when I get a call, in the middle of a meeting no less, asking for the tracking numbers. Dell seems to have lost track of what is going on with the orders. I have to call them back later, 40 minutes of my life trying to get someone at an extention.

7. About 2 weeks into the wait, I get a call, again in the middle of a meeting. I recognize the number as being a Dell call, and send it to voice mail. Does the CSR leave a message; no, he calls me back no less than 3 times in the space of 10 minutes. It was embarassing as all get out. I finally turn off my phone just to get him to stop, No message was left. Later that evening, the CSR calls me and says he wants to schedule a tech to come to my home and replace the speaker, rather than waiting "weeks and weeks'.  I tell him fine. He suddenly can't schedule a service call and says he will call me back the following Monday.

8. I never get that call. Fine., maybe he figures he's humilated me enough.

9. Now I can't seem to get a delivery date of the replacement system. I call and they figure another 2 weeks maybe.

So the problem is not just some isolated issue, but a series of problems ranging from quality control, order support, poor service, a failing , faceless bureaucracy and just "Bad Luck". I'm not sending it back for any one of these issues, but all of them as a whole.

I'm sure Dell has many satisfied customers, they not how to deal with a happy customer; it is how they handle the problems I'm looking at.