Preview Review

Next Review

Alienware Consumer Reviews - Page 2

Most Popular | Newest | More Options >
More filter options:
Alienware Area 51m 7700 Laptop Is a Faulty Product, Alienware Will Not Acknowledge This
By -

In May 2006, I ordered and received an Alienware Area 51m 7700 notebook computer from www.alienware.com for a total of $3,912.00. The computer ran incredibly hot from the beginning, which eventually led to a failure of the motherboard in November 2006. I was frustrated at the time, because I've never had this problem in any (not to mention much less expensive) computer I've ever owned. "These things happen" I told myself, and fortunately the system was still covered under warranty, so I sent it in for repair.

When I got the computer back, it was at least operational, but the overheating issues continued. This eventually led to the failure of the motherboard from overheating again in June of 2007. The only difference now is that the warranty was up, and boy did Alienware like to hide behind the "your warranty has expired" angle. Yes, I understand that my warranty is one month out, but the same issue has occurred again.

This clearly points out to me that they did not properly diagnose and repair the issue the first time around. I was told that they would gladly look at the computer as long as I paid for all shipping/labor/parts, which all totaled could end up costing me a quarter of the computers worth, and this thing is barely a year old.

I did some research online and found an alarming amount of Alienware customers have had the same issues with the model Area 51m 7700. I brought this up to their customer support but they denied it, even though I found talk of a class-action lawsuit due to the failure rate of this model.

This company knows nothing of customer retention, customer loyalty (this was my second Alienware computer), customer satisfaction, and only seems to care about their profits. Please do yourself a favor and avoid them at all costs. It will save you so much frustration and anguish in the end. From now on, I will do my homework more thoroughly and make sure a company has some pride and accountability in their product before making such an expensive purchase. For now, all I have is a $4,000, year old paperweight.

Replies
Alien to Support - What I'm doing
By -

I purchased an M17x in 2009 - after Dell had acquired Alienware. This purchase followed two other negative experiences. Why did I buy a third, you may ask? Because I was promised that Dell's influence had changed the juvenile Customer, Technical, & Warranty Support previously provided by Alienware.

Guess what - it seems they have actually gotten worse. The M17x has experienced all kinds of problems. It seems that there was a period where it was experiencing power issues and needed a new BIOS update. Unfortunately, the BIOS update hadn't been developed and it took "them" 3 months to develop it. All the while, my purchased warranty ticking away.

When I made requests for my warranty to be extended during the down periods, the company laughed at me. Further problems ensued. There have been too many problems with this system to reasonably document. So, I made the request that the company buy back the machine - to which they also laughed at.

I made a call back to the Florida Division of Consumer Protection, and it seems that my case on the past two machines was "just closed". I was not notified… no calls… etc. Since, I have sent letters to the Governor, and the State Attorney General asking why the Division of Consumer Protection is not supporting Florida residents.

Also, I have been in contact with a supervisor from the Division. My complaints are: Dell/Alienware advertised an In-Home/On-site Service for which it is not possible to get; Dell/Alienware did not provide the warranty support for which I paid; Dell/Alienware has denied me periods of Customer Service/Tech/Warranty Support for which I paid.

There's much more, but the key is that I did not get what was advertised; what I paid for; and I'm tired of feeling ripped off. This lemon and the related experience has soured me to the point that there will never be another Dell product in my home. My opinion, from reading other reviews... in this forum and others… is that it is great to vent about your experiences. By doing so, you make other consumers aware that they are not alone.

However, my time and money is important to me. I don't like being jacked around by Dell Alienware Customer Support after paying a premium for their product. And the bottom line, if all of the complaints listed in this forum and others, found their way to the State Division of Consumer Protection - I think a lot of Alienware's foolishness would stop. But, it will take consumers organizing and not just complaining. I wish you the best, but stop throwing away your money, and just taking the ensuing proverbial butt raping. Make it stop!

Replies
Alienware: Blows
By -

SOUTH CAROLINA -- My name is **. My communication is to inform all of the troubles I have encountered while dealing with the company Alienware. I purchased an ALX computer for the sole purpose of owning a top of the line gaming computer for over $7,600. What I received was a faulty and malfunctioning device. We started having problems from the moment I removed it from the box. I then contacted the Alienware support staff to solve these problems. The issues were hardware. They sent me several new pieces of hardware. I even purchased more memory from Alienware in attempt to solve the issues.

After I had made over 40 support calls, the company finally agreed to have the computer sent back to Alienware to have it repaired. They took a week to repair the computer and sent it back to me. However, the PC was not fixed. I experienced the same problems as before. More support calls and again the company asked me send to the computer back in to have it repaired a second time. I told the company that fixing this computer was pointless. It was a lemon.

We requested from Alienware either provide a new computer of equal value or a full refund of the $7,600 I spent to buy the computer. The company has sense refused to provide me with a either request and has been very uncooperative, rude, and unprofessional. The first contact person I spoke to was a ** at the phone number 1-305-251-9797 ext. **. ** superior'€™s number is ** at 1-305-251-9797 ext. **. I tried to file a complaint with the company but, was directed back to **. His superior allegedly is the CEO of the company who can only be reached by E-Mail (CEO@alienware.com).

If there is anyone out there looking to get a high-end gaming computer, I would suggest to go anywhere but Alienware. BEWARE OF ALIENWARE. May I suggest you do an internet search of problems with Alienware BEFORE you purchase any products from this vendor. Now, I am left out to dry after spending over $7,600, days of time with their technical support/staff and have no computer.

Replies
Don't Ever Buy Alienware From Anyone
By -

CALIFORNIA -- A few years back, I had gotten a high end Alienware laptop from a friend. Used it as my home computer, with no problems. Three weeks ago, I went to turn it on and the screen got funky and the system would not get to the user log on screen. Well things happen, so I called the Alienware Tech support and explained the problem. Tech's immediate question was to ask for my Account number. I explained that I hadn't purchased it, I got from a friend, however was more than willing to pay to have it repaired. I was told that Alienware could not touch it since I did not have a registered Account with them (read: I hadn't sacrificed any money directly to them).

OK, Mr. Tech dude, tell me where your authorized dealers are, I'll take it there. The response? They cannot work on it either. Seems the authorized dealers are not authorized to work on a system that does not have an Alienware account. I asked repeatedly how this was customer support and was told over and over again, in order for them to answer anything, I had to have an Account. I asked several times to have him explain what happens to people who do not buy their product direct. Each time his only answer was: I'm trying to explain.

Finally, I asked to speak to a stupidvisor, oops, supervisor, who might make it more clear. I was told that although he had just spent the last 6 minutes explaining the company policy, he'd look for someone. I spent the next 5 minutes listening to canned music before I lost the connection. Although I was impressed with the capabilities and capacity of this laptop (and was willing to recommend it), I am now extremely disenchanted with Alienware and am finding every site or blog I can to vent. These guys are a rip-off.

Replies
Advertisement
Alienware Sucks
By -

CHEYENNE, WYOMING -- Last Oct purchased a 3000 dollar system from them. Waited over a month to receive the system. When I finally received it, I was so excited took it out of the box set it up and received 15 error messages having to do with the video card. Called them that night. Spent 3 hours on the phone with them trying to get it to work. We found out the XP disks they sent me were corrupt. So had to put in an RMA number for new XP disks.

Finally, got them two weeks later. Put them in and somehow they corrupted my whole system. Got it to load fine and dandy, then the next morning went to start putting my games on it and both my disk drives were messed up. (They had worked the first night ) Called them again telling them I was done and wanted a full refund. They told me they needed to make every effort possible to fix it. And if they couldn't, a full refund would be issued. So I got another RMA number and sent my system off to them.

A month later received it back. Worked fine for a few months. Then just recently went to start up the system and windows would not load. So I did a reinstall of windows. Worked for a day then had the same problem. So I called them wanting a full refund. The guy told me it was passed their 30 day refund date. I told them that the last guy I talked to said they would make every effort possible to fix it and if they couldn't, a refund would be issued.

Well, they tried and did not succeed. The guy in fact hung up on me. So I called tech support, they obviously couldn't fix it over the phone. So now, I have to send it back again. I have had it less than a year and had to send it back 2 times and couldn't even use it the first month. Talk about a crappy company.

Replies
Don't Waste Your Money
By -

This computer was the worst purchase I have ever made, I wanted an Alienware laptop for several years after seeing them on display when Best Buy used to sale them. I started DJing my sophomore year of college and needed a computer that was powerful enough to run the software that my mixer uses. I took out a 3000 dollar loan to buy what I thought would be a very nice laptop. I read reviews about Alienware which were mostly negative and but figured like anything else, the people that have bad experiences are the ones that write reviews so I chose to ignore the reviews.

I ordered my Mj12 7700i loaded with a 3.2 gig Pentium 4 processor with HT technology, 3 gig of RAM, and dual 80 gig processors in raid 0 format. (At the time, this was very impressive.) The computer ran great for about 8 months. When I hooked any type of audio device up to my laptop, I heard a lot of background noise. Alienware said I could send it back to them and they could fix it, but I decided to just clean it up by adjusting my mixer. After the first 8 months, I started having problems with my laptop cutting off after about 5 minutes. I worked with Alienware trying to reinstall different things and get it working.

It was eventually determined that I needed to send the computer back to Alienware and pay 500 dollars to have it fixed. After receiving it back 2 months later I tried to use the Laptop and it did not work, I was told the motherboard had to be replaced. To make a long story short, after sending the computer back and forth with Alienware 4 more times, I finally complained to the BBB and was contacted and told I could send the laptop to their VIP repairs at my own expense since I originally sent the laptop to them over a month ago. After pointing out that I have also sent it back 4 other times, I was told I could send it to them and they would repair it for free.

I sent the computer to them and got it back. It worked great! For 1 month, then the same thing happened. I opened the computer up and got a first hand look at their repairs, the original motherboard was still in there and wires had been taped to the motherboard with Electrical tape. So I now have a 3500 dollar paperweight, that is out of date and I got a total of 8 months of use out of. I would never recommend anyone buy a computer from this company, you will be better off buying a 300 dollar e-machine computer from Walmart.

Replies
1600 Doorstop
By -

KAPOLEI, HAWAII -- I purchased an Alienware Area-51 M5500 laptop in 08/07 for $1628. I have now been officially getting the run around from customer service. Here is my problem. About 4 months after I purchased the computer, it started to randomly shut down of its own accord. The battery level made no difference. Unfortunately, I was deployed at the time and had no real way to get in touch with the company, so I let it go until I returned from deployment. I sent an e-mail request for assistance. The response had me changing code in the BIOS which I was uncomfortable with doing.

Shortly after the request for help on this matter, the computer stopped working entirely. When turned on, all the power lights would come on but nothing would come up on the screen. Thinking that it might be a problem with the screen I attached the laptop to an external monitor.

The image that came up was of Windows trying to start (the image was also interspersed with vertical colored lines making it very difficult to see) then an error message saying something to the effect of "Windows has encountered a problem and has to shut down." I am unable to be any more specific on the message because that many of the characters had been replaced by white boxes and the screen was still covered with lines.

A local computer repair shop thinks the screen and motherboard have been fried from overheating. I was told by the technical support representative the computer was out of warranty and I would have to send it back to be repaired at my own expense. Normally, I would understand this and not have much of a problem with it. Sometimes things just happen.

After a little research, however, I discovered that since around the time I purchased my machine other people have been having the same problems; mostly caused by the laptop running too hot and damaging the motherboard or other elements. I feel that if this has been an ongoing issue that the company is aware of, a recall should have been issued to fix the problem, or at the very least the manufacturing should have been examined and altered.

Quite frankly, it boggles my mind that a mass produced Compaq laptop that I purchased almost ten years ago for half as much as I paid for the Alienware system, has never given me a single hardware issue, while the supposedly high-quality, high performance machine I purchased 16 months ago is now good for nothing more than a doorstop. According to customer service rep I spoke with, I should be perfectly content with that because I can hardly expect a custom built high-performance machine to last as long as a mass-produced factory model. Apparently, one tenth as long for double the price should be good enough for me.

Replies
M7700 and M9700 Problems/Complaints
By -

44136 -- Alienware has continued to screw me also. I purchased my first Alienware about a year and a half ago. Recently it died. The hard drives are corrupted and the computer will not even allow me to reformat the drives. I purchased two new drives to try an install from scratch and I have had no luck. Alienware offers no support for their claimed "top of the line computer and customer support".

Before this crash, I was satisfied so I purchased a second Alienware computer. I bought the M9700 computer with xp pro installed. Alienware guaranteed that a free copy of Windows Vista Upgrade would be sent following registration of the computer. When the computer was received, I registered it and called Alienware to send me out the Vista upgrade cd. I waited a month and had received nothing. I called Alienware back notifying them of this and they said that it was not in their system and that I would receive it within a month. I waited yet another month and nothing came.

I called one last time notifying them of this and they said yet again that it must me in transit. For the next few months, I got busy with work and this was the last thing on my list, but as work slowed I called Alienware again. This time they told me that they could do nothing for me as the software agreement was no longer active with Microsoft and that I was out of luck. I explained that the computer was purchased during the legitimate dates that this deal was offered and was one of the reasons I made the purchase of the computer at the time.

I continued to talk to a series of Indians that continued to restate the same thing over and over, thus providing no form of customer service for my laptop with a 1 year warranty. This hassle has been very disappointing in my eyes, as a supposed to be "top of the line" computer producer continued to screw me and waste my valuable time for yet a second time.

I gave them alternatives such as cancel the original vista serial/activation if one was ever sent out, in the case that they sent it to the wrong address and then send me a new one. This would guarantee that they would not be getting scammed for multiple copies. They did not want to hear any alternatives and continually said, “there is nothing we can or will do for you.”

Replies
Advertisement
Aurora ALX (New, P2 case)
By -

I have just received my Alienware Aurora ALX and all I can say is WOW. The fastest computer I've ever used in my life. I have read a lot of bad reviews, but that was after I ordered, so I got really nervous. Maybe Alienware is trying to get better reviews or something, but there is not one flaw on this computer. If you are reading this now after just ordering an Alienware pc, or if you are about to purchase one, beware of the order status on their web page. It's only updated every three or four days - my computer went from phase 5, to phase 8 instantly the next day. (Phase 5: Installing OS and necessary drivers, intro to 200 point testing, Phase 8: Shipping Prep)

The only thing that I did not like was very minor, but on Thursday I called and was told the computer was shipping the next day. Monday came so I called to make sure it shipped and apparently it hadn't, but it was being shipped the next day. I just really don't appreciate when I am lied to. Other than that the computer is flawless and just to let you know, I timed the startup for fun, and it took only 20 seconds for Vista to open, personally I think that's fast.

Conclusion: Alienware has been very helpful. For example, I ordered the AlienFx and it was $200, but the next day I looked at it and it dropped to $104. So I called Alienware and guess what? They credited $96 to my credit card. The system itself as I said many times is truly amazing. There is only one problem, well it's not really a problem but I thought I might add, it's fairly large. Other than that I am very happy with the service I received from Alienware, oh and customer support was always nice.

Replies
Buyer Beware
By -

TEXAS -- Purchased an Alienware Area51-m7700 along with the premium 3 year onsite warranty (about $3500 total) in March of 2005. After many delays, the 14 day turnaround turned into a month and I finally received at the end of April. Towards the end of summer, I started calling tech support about my screen occasionally fading in and out and flickering. After answering questions over the phone, I was told to download new drivers and it would fix the problem. I tried that, but the problem still happened randomly, I decided I just had to live with it.

This year it started getting worse, instead of happening occasionally, it started happening every time I used the computer. I decided to try tech support again. More questions over the phone, more of me trying to self diagnose the laptop and still no physical support from Alienware (even though I had the premium warranty) and I this time I was told that my video card was overheating. They sent out some thermal paste that I was to apply and that would fix the problem. Unfortunately, that did not work either. Now the computer has started shutting off on its own and is not recharging (this on top of the original issue) unless I wiggle the AC adaptor cord where it plugs into the laptop.

Another call to tech support, more of me trying to diagnose the problem over the phone with tech support and now I am told that the AC adaptor is bad, and that will fix all the issues I have been reporting. I am also now told that the AC adaptor is only covered for 1 year and it is now out of warranty! I tried explaining that this is the same issue that I had been reporting for a year, that it was not my fault that they had not diagnosed it correctly. I get a flat NO and if I want my laptop to work, I have to buy a new power supply.

All buyers need to BEWARE! I bought the premium warranty wanting protection, and they seem to be doing all they can not to honor the warranty. I have since bought two desktop gaming systems from Digital Storm and have had great luck with these. Too bad they do not make laptops as well! I will never buy another thing from Alienware or Dell if this is their level of customer service.

Replies
Top of Page | Next Page >

Alienware Rating:
Star Star Half star Empty star Empty star
2.3 out of 5, based on 3 ratings and
27 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Alienware
12400 Southwest 134th Court, Bay 8
Miami, FL 33186
1-800-254-3692 (ph)
www.alienware.com
Compare Computer Companies