With all the problems of Alienware, I'm scare of my order

I live in Texas. Hopefully you're right about cancelling when it' s still in "In Production." That's great that you've had good experience with Dell! This is my first time buying from Dell, and I'm just being self-conscious about whether cancelling it or not. I might just ride this one out...

It is up to you, I do not know what country you are in but even "IN PRODUCTION" I think you can still cancel an order.  I have an M14x and have had between my wife and I something around 5 other Dell products in 8 or so years.  None had any issues.  I would guess a vast majority of people have no issues, and don't post because of it.  I know I spend a lot of time on message boards for tech products and typically 9 out of 10 posts are people who have problems.  It is the way it is.  Happy customers use the product and go about their lives, unhappy customers are vocal about their unhappiness.

I am not saying do or don't cancel, and you should have a 30 day no questions return window once it arrives anyway. It is up to you, I have personally had good experiences and never needed support.  Several people on hear have had multiple bad experiences and they can tell you about that.

That's something to hear...@ C Ronic: Did you end up fixing your Alienware?

I will say I was a loyal Dell buyer for many years. I bought the first XPS they ever made. It was top notch and the support was wonderful. Once Dell bought Alienware I thought I could not go wrong. So I got one. It was broken from the first day, and trying to get it fixed was like pulling teeth. I have seen many ways Dell has cut corners in the support department. Based on how it is now versus the support a received in the past. I will never buy Dell again. Thats just my story. I hope you make an informed decision. Best of luck.

to jaaytx

Without prejudice

I have had my Aurora for 14 months, I love it, my first Dell was purchased in 1996, I loved my new Pentium 2. I upgraded the hardware to a 450meg CPU, no problems.The company I worked for was using Dell Laptops, hundreds of them, now it's thousands; and the most issues encountered were from User error. Hardware issues were few and far between. Hardware issues are now common-place; I think because PRICE is the selling factor, not quality. We all look at the price before clicking buy , so until we stop that; things will only get worse.We all have to tell Dell " build a BETTER mousetrap and we will buy it ( they will come ) " or take the consequences. I feel sorry for the troubled posters here and I hope their issues are resolved, the only advice I can give is that they spread the bad word and maybe Dell will eventually listen. The CEO and his cronies will get their millions regardless of whether the product is good or bad, lower sales numbers are the only thing that will change things. I like my machine but it seems to be a rare and unusual comment here.

I've purchased 9 or 10 dell systems over the years, a combination of desktops and laptops.  The only item I ever had to return was a monitor with a single dead pixel.  They replaced it with no questions.  I have an Aurora R1.  It has run 24/7 since I received it in Feb. 2010.  The sole call I made to support was resolved in about 10 minutes  (left side panel lights, bad connection). 

I will likely be upgrading this year and am giving serious consideration to the R4.  Bear in mind that most folks who post on these boards are those that encounter problems, typically a very small percentage of all the Alienware products purchased.  That said, it's your money, do what you want and what makes you comfortable.  Good luck.

jaaytx,

I have owned quite a few of alienwares the past few years as I am typically buying and selling them to always get a better one and have not had any big issues.  It's been minor stuff about drivers and stuff like that but all issues have been fixed quickly.   This forum helped me every time.  Right now I have three alienwares: M11X R1, M14X R1 and Aurora R3.  They are all running smoothly.  None have given me any major issues.  The only thing I struggled with at first was the video driver for the M11X.  But I got it to work with the help of this forum.  

Many people in this forum complain on issues that to me, seem very minor.  They don't seem to understand every company that sells computers, or anything for that matter, has issues with their products.   So keep this in mind.  

@jaaytx Yes I got it working. I do computers and IT for a living. But I ended up doing it out of my pocket even though it was under warranty. I had a tech come that fried my SSD trying to replace the motherboard. He didn't do anything to prevent static buildup. Thats when I decided to fix it myself. Instead of letting another "part swapper" that doesnt even know how to reach the BIOS touch my PC. Even before that they missed appointments and made me spend hours on the phone transferring me around. Every time I called back I had to explain the problem over again as if they dont take notes.  But as you can see some people love them. So make the best decision with what you got.

I have owned privately Dell Machines and used them in business since the late 90's.

After the engineering company I used to work for had such amazing support and used literally 1000s of Dell Optiplex units I think they was as workstations. So when I went into business for myself, I needed a server, I bought a Dell PowerEdge 1400SC with Dual Tualatin Processors, a Raid 0 OS on 2 x SCSI 18gb Cheetah Drives, and 2 x 36gb Barracuda SCSI Drives on Raid 1 for Data, had the works on it. Cost more than some Cars. I was working on this work station directly until I could afford the work station/lattop.

I had amazing support, parts replaced overnight, same day parts on simple things, when things went wrong I was comped or given random upgrades.

When I later bought a Latitude Laptop, CPx or CPt or something like that, with a fearsome 233 or so mhz processor, I think it was 233 or 266mhz. It ended up having a problem with the power button, a dry joint solder problem, which they replaced the unit rather than fix it. Again no problems at all with the support or service.

I sold out my business and after a while went to work for my previous employer, they was still using Dell equipment and I was given a Latitude D600 as company laptop, big chunky thing as I recall corners on it like a Volvo. Various other Latitudes followed, until 2005/6 when I wanted an XPS, but redundancies was flying around after an engine project in India went belly up and I was made redundant with this company in 2007ish.

In the previous decade, I'd never had any issues at all at all beyond the odd wrong part being sent out, or the odd late delivery, Hell when I sold my business I kept the 1400SC and I have it here at home with me Still, and used it as a personal web server until about 3 months ago. It's had almost 24/7 use since the late 1990s, and still going strong.

Now in 2007, I picked up an Inspiron 6400 an nvidia go 7300 graphics and this was the first Dell issue which was a disaster, it was shipped with the wrong graphics card. An engineer came out to fix it, and cracked the casing and it wouldn't fit together properly the parts just kept clicking out. Another one messed up they keyboard and this carried on until I was up to the 3rd laptop which Dell upgraded to a bigger hard drive, more ram, gave me free printer and some other stuff to apologise for the hassle. This was set aside as my back up laptop.

Several more computers later, no major issues, just the odd failed part dvd writer/battery/ram/realport all user service stuff, so no part monkeys. Never any issues getting the parts or repairs sorted, most was done online via chat and where they take over your machine etc.

In the last decade and a half I've contacted dell both business and private around 50x, and other than the issue in 2007, an the other minor stuff mentioned, everything was peachy.

However this last Alienware M18x order has a been catastrophic!

I've been passed around, fobbed off, lied too and general unhappy with the whole situation.

I'm hoping this is a one off, but when your on the end of a week long mission to explain you didn't do something which is impossible to do, but told repeated you did it, it gets old real quick.

On a side note, my Dell Steak 5 inch, started to error and reformat and restart a week or so ago, so I emailed support once, they emailed back 4 days later (xmas for ya) asking for the best time to call. 2nd Email to support, and the following day, they phoned me up, 20-25 minutes on the phone at most going over the issues, and basic trouble shooting and the tech said he would replace the unit+memory card. I'm getting the part delivered and the following day the old one collected so I'm not left without a streak.

This is the kinda service I've always had from Dell, this is the same experience as my Sister had who I recommended Dell to, when her AC Supply failed a few days after delivery, a replacement was shipped and delivered 36 hours later.

So I'm kinda thinking, when it goes wrong it goes REALLY wrong, which is why all the stories are disastrous, as everything else is peachy.  

I had the same concerns when I bought my R3 about two months ago. The R3 is the 5th computer I have bought from DELL and all are still working great. Buying a computer from ANYONE is a risk or gamble. I constantly monitor this forum and look for problems that may arise in the future.

The R4 is new technology and may have some hiccups when they first go out. Personally I would wait for others to be the test subjects and see what issues are being seen.  Good luck and the R4 looks like a beast.

For me it has been hit and miss with Alienware.

I have owned 4 Dell XPS Machines a XPS 410, XPS 630i and XPS 730, XPS 730X. All were excellent machines and did not give me any major trouble. On the occasions I called XPS tech support the service was generally top notch.

Likewise my E1405 and studio 15 laptops were completely trouble free and required no calls to Dell for support.

My first Alienware Machine - Area 51 had trouble out of the gate with the fans running at 100% between 70-100% of the time no matter what the temperature of the machine was. This resulted in hours on the phone with tech support uninstalling and reinstalling Command Center and two trips out to replace the MIO board, one of which resulting in the front panel of my machine being damaged by the tech which required another visit to replace. The end result was me selling the machine out of frustration six months later since the issue was never resolved and I could no longer sit next to the tower with the fans wailing away at 100% all the time.

My second machine Alienware – M15X was a solid machine and gave me very little trouble other than it would occasionally boot up and run the fans at 100% LOL. Usually a shutdown and battery pull would resolve it and yes I uninstalled and reinstalled command center, updated the bios etc…  I sold this machine because it was like hauling a boat anchor around ;-)

My third machine was an Aurora R3. This machine like the Area 51 had problems right out of the gate. However the Aurora suffered from random total lockups requiring a forced shut down with the power button. On day 21 afters hours of phone time and remote diagnostics I returned it for a refund due to tech support having no clue what the cause was.

I then purchased a second Aurora R3(I did not want a refurbished replacement) and it also suffered  from the same random lockups and after 21 days more hours with tech support and remote diagnostics I also returned it for a refund for the same reason.

I purchased an M14x six months ago and it has been a Bullitt proof little machine so far and I could not be happier with it. I also have since purchased a refurbished (warranty replacement) Aurora ALX from it’s original owner  which after a weird motherboard gremlin (would only identify 1 stick of ram) has been an excellent machine.

Good to hear all these different stories! Thanks! I guess I'll give Dell a try. DaDaWg you're right, R4 is a new rig, and it might have some issues, so I'm expecting it to have a couple of hiccups. I shouldn't read all these posts from Alienware forum how things are, but it was good knowing heads up.

to jaaytx   Without prejudice   I have had my Aurora for 14 months, I love it, my first Dell was purchased in 1996, I loved my new Pentium 2. I upgraded the hardware to a 450meg CPU, no problems.The company I worked for was using Dell Laptops, hundreds of them, now it's thousands; and the most issues encountered were from User error. Hardware issues were few and far between. Hardware issues are now common-place; I think because PRICE is the selling factor, not quality. We all look at the price before clicking buy , so until we stop that; things will only get worse.We all have to tell Dell " build a BETTER mousetrap and we will buy it ( they will come ) " or take the consequences. I feel sorry for the troubled posters here and I hope their issues are resolved, the only advice I can give is that they spread the bad word and maybe Dell will eventually listen. The CEO and his cronies will get their millions regardless of whether the product is good or bad, lower sales numbers are the only thing that will change things. I like my machine but it seems to be a rare and unusual comment here.

I'v been on both sides. Maybe it's rare now.There are other things in this world, much greater then a computer. Buy it and thank the lord you are givin the time on this earth to enjoy it or whatever you decide to do.

If it's broke..it can be fixed. If not then no matter. Ether way it's not something to dwell on.

@ morblore- well of course I feel you on that =). nobody likes money going down the drain nowadays...

Quite frankly, on forums, you're always going to see people with problems. And why not? Forums are a great place to get help with any issues you could be experiencing. A year and 3 months ago, I bought an Alienware M15x. It's discontinued now, but I can confirm it's a solidly build machine. Never really had any serious problems with it, and the minor ones have been fixed with Google searches. Dell are a bit slack on customer support, but other than that, I've had no regrets with the laptop I've purchased.