Area-51m, 8.5lb paperweight

Greetings forum, I'm here to share with you all my experience with Dell, specifically the Alienware Area 51m. Going to be thorough for everyone whom is considering purchasing from Dell.

A bit of useful background knowledge: Purchased my first ever gaming laptop in 2011, was an Alienware m14x. Still have it and is working well to this date, zero repairs needed. In 2015, purchased a fully loaded Razer Blade Pro. Lasted up until this year, had some overheating and fans issues otherwise performed well. Decided to order an Alienware 51m to replace the Razer because of the ease of access to hardware for upgrades and the desktop class processor. Also, I liked that my previous Alienware had no issues whatsoever. Did multiple hours of research on various high-power laptops and reading many reviews; good, bad, and neutral. Currently am studying Software Engineering at Georgetown University and grew up using computers frequently so I'm certainly no novice to the hardware and software capabilities.

9/27/2019

Placed order as laptop was on sale. Ordered one with the lowest settings as I planned on upgrading the components. Told the building and delivery would take approximately two weeks. I needed a laptop immediately for work purposes although I do own a desktop, don't have the luxury of exclusively working from home. Decided to wait because the wait seemed reasonable if they needed to build one.

10/10/2019

Alienware Area 51m is delivered. From reading the forums and support, I understood there maybe initial issues due to necessary updates, BIOS firmware, etc. I spend nearly the entire day installing various updates, driver,s (https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/alienware-17-area51m-laptop/drivers), graphics card updates, and more. Made sure everything was properly installed and running, no conflicts or problems at all so far. Downloaded and used Google Chrome to test the internet connection, speakers, headphone jacks, Bluetooth connectivity for wireless headphones, and plugged some peripherals in such as speakers, microphones, and mouses into the ports to test as thoroughly as possible. Everything running smoothly aside from some issues with Alienware Command Center, which from the forums I discovered is somewhat common.

10/11/2019

Start up the laptop for more testing, not one problem. I install Steam with 3 different games as well as Adobe Photoshop and Premiere to test the graphics, processor, RAM, fans, heat levels, and display. I installed 3 games based on required performance (Don't Starve, Bioshock Infinite, and GTA V) for testing. Don't starve ran flawlessly. Bioshock Infinite ran for approximately 35 minutes then closed abruptly, ran it again for 17 min before it unexpectedly closed a second time. From this point, I had no idea what could've been causing it to close so abruptly as it ran flawlessly too on high graphics settings. I then proceeded to test GTA V. First time ran for 8 minutes before closing unexpectedly (Single player only was tested, no online). Opened it again and ran it for 35 minutes a second time before another forced close. At this point, I'm realizing the issue has to do with either the processor, graphics card, or motherboard. I also discover that whilst running GTA V, on high graphics (no ultra graphics), the laptop's main GPU is getting hot (up to 96 Celsius), CPU also around the same temperature. I know this temperature will certainly cause long term damage to the components, I give up on testing games any further as I could already tell this laptop was going to give me some major issues. I test rendering and editing some video shot on a DSLR for a couple hours, am able to conclude from this that the problems were not with the graphics card or drivers. Some overheating experienced while rendering footage. Frustrated, I leave it to deal with tomorrow.

10/12/2019

I go to turn on the laptop and it turns itself off once. Takes approximately 15 minutes to turn on from boot up with about 12 minutes on the BIOS screen. For what reason, I couldn't tell you. I'm now coming to terms that what had been promised by Alienware has not been delivered upon in the slightest. This laptop could not perform to a fraction of the computing power I expected. Previously, I mentioned spending hours going through forums to find this wasn't super uncommon, perhaps 10-25% of the total reviews from forums across Dell, Reddit, and Facebook where others had a similar experience to mine. Mind you I am trying to be as bipartisan as possible when speaking about this experience, it is a bit concerning for any company, especially one with the size and reputation of Dell, to allow such a large amount of it's serious purchasers (people purchasing Dell's most expensive tier of computers; you can assume that most of them are pretty knowledgeable about what exactly to expect from the hardware) is quite concerning as this point. I plan on calling customer support the next day to see what my options are.

10/13/2019

At this point, the laptop is useless to me. I call customer support to have a similar experience as to what most of the forums mentioned it would be like (looks like the forums are a pretty credible benchmark for Dell's experience). The support had a horrible headset where I could barely hear him through a Bose headset and he could hardly hear me too. I provide all the necessary information and he pulls up my order with no issue. I am not looking for a refund but rather to see what my options are, as I am two weeks behind schedule on some video projects which I was planning to use the laptop for and am in dire need of a replacement. He tells me my options are that they can issue a refund if I return the laptop or they can replace it with another one. I plan on replacing it, as I need a laptop desperately. I asked if the return warranty period of 30 days could be extended if I were to have it replaced to which he tells me they cannot extend the warranty. According to the forums, multiple people had ask for replacements of the Area 51m to only be sent another faulty one and due to warranty expiration, being ultimately messed in terms of compensation. Considering they could have just as easily given me another faulty laptop, I opt for the refund. He proceeds to tell me the 30 day return warranty is expired and I cannot return it. I'm a nice guy and not going to take out my anger and frustration with Dell on this customer service rep. I do firmly tell him he's wrong as the purchase date was exactly 16 days ago, which he confirms. He then apologizes and proceeds to set up the return for me. Lets me know it will take approximately 1-2 weeks once received and inspected to issue a return. What an experience, at this point I'm feeling very betrayed by Dell and that my experience not just with Dell but with online shopping for laptops is forever tarnished at this point.

10/14/2019

First thing in the morning I pack up the glorious paperweight (because it's useless to me at this point) and it's cords to pay $34 to send it through UPS just for the cardboard box and to pack it up (yes, the return postage was paid for). At this point, I'm mad as I am now losing money returning this laptop not because of UPS's shipping prices but because Alienware couldn't reasonably replace my laptop (although replacement was offered, I would have to assume full liability for the cost of the laptop if the replacement was also faulty). Now I am at a major loss and still behind on the video projects. Furthermore, I'm essentially loaning my money to Dell at this point, and all I got for it was a greatly under-performing laptop. No follow up from Dell on my experience. I can't even bring myself to look for laptops from other companies as my available funds are tied up with Dell. Playing the waiting game now.

10/22/2019

Laptop is received by Dells returns. No contact with Dells returns regarding the process of my return until I reach out via email four days after this date.

10/26/2019

My debit card used to purchase the laptop ended up expiring. I immediately get a new one and message Dell's return support via email. I let them know my situation and ask what my options for receiving the return is.

10/28/2019

I get a response back from their support. The message stated that they had received my returned laptop on 10/22/2019 and I should expect the return within 9-14 days. The said the only thing they could do is credit my old debit card (really?) and I'd have to go talk to my bank to sort it out. Again, no follow-up or condolences or attempts to reconcile on my experience. Basically just more time I have to spend hunting down my return from Dell. The forums stated that quite a few others had similar return experiences with returns, some not receiving their returns for months and having to contact Dell multiple times to hunt it down. The fact that such a large corporation cannot find any other way to process returns shows that Dell wants their customers to be liable for their faulty products and waste our time and resources to get returns or replacements. I have truly been let down by Dell at this point and see the deception in their business practices. To think they couldn't even offer an apology, much less a discount on any future purchases shows that they couldn't care less if I did business with them again or not; and at this point I certainly won't be.

10/30/2019

The day I am writing this forum. Spent a decent amount of time at the bank yesterday making sure they can credit my account. Still no follow ups from Dell. They are still within the timeline to refund me and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to spend more time contacting them and hunting this down. Can't afford a replacement laptop until they do.

Conclusion: I went into this purchase with many hours of research and was hoping for another incredible experience with Dell. Instead, the worst of the forums became relevant to my situation and I'm effectively getting the bad end of Dell's lacking customer retention. I'm appalled with the amount of similar experience that Dell has given to their other customers and I believe this company is not acting in best interest of it's customers, much less the shareholders and investors of the company. Thanks to Dell wasting lots of my time, I thought what is a couple more hours of my time to send a thorough report directly to Michael Dell and the 4 largest shareholders of Dell (Dodge & Cox, Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, Elliot Management Corp, and The Vanguard Group, Inc) comprised of my experience and other's similar experiences whom I reached out to via the forums to get their input as well. I also am in contact with an anonymous whistle-blower within Dell (person is a repair technician for them, part of their in-home service and has evidence of Dell reusing used parts or ones that would have to soon be replaced (Not surprised Dell has 24/7 customer service and in-home repairs if this is the case)).

I'm doing this to bring attention to those whom have the most liability within Dell to reconsider their investments with Dell and to deeply scrutinize their customer service process as I believe this is the core of what is hurting Dell's reputation and their customer lifetime value. Expecting to send out the report by October 8th, 2019. I apologize if this is a lengthy forum, however I felt it was entirely necessary to share my complete experience with Dell and am hoping my report is given serious consideration on behalf of the shareholders.

Sincerely,

A deeply disappointed customer